The world is a stage, and so is your classroom! Hone the skills of the next generation of Tony® award winners with a set of exercises, reference pages, writing prompts, and excerpts from famous plays.

What is dialogue? What must it contain? Use this plan to discuss dialogue with your emerging writers. They write a dialogue in script form to dramatize a conversation. Dialogue examples are included. 

Third graders analyze the importance of characters in fiction writing and performances.  In this theatre lesson, 3rd graders identify the important characteristics of a fictional character and how to portray a character through many...

The 16 lessons in Teaching Musical Theatre: The Essential Handbook are designed to help actors enrolled in a theatre arts class develop the skills they need to be successful in musical theatre. Check out this sample lesson to see if you...

It's time to make a movie! Kids follow 15 steps to take their movie ideas from concept to script, following clear examples. The resource includes creative ways to guide learners into developing a few words and concepts into fully...

Lights, Camera, Action! Pupils read Little Women and create, act, and direct a melodrama that Jo March and her sisters would enjoy. The lesson plan comes complete with resources for the educator on melodrama as well as examples...

Students complete acting exercises as a part of a precise language activity to help them build vocabulary and improve their descriptive writing skills. In this theatre and writing lesson, students create and act out a sentence with two...

Figurative language is the focus in the book Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia. After reading Peggy Parish's book, class members dramatize idioms from the text, using dramatic strategies such as characterization, exaggeration, and...

Character analysis is a skill we use when we read literary works or want to write a good story. Learners will use drama to practice character analysis while focusing on the details that make characters act the way they do. They'll each...

A picture is worth a thousand words, but political art may be worth even more! After examining examples of political cartoons, murals, and other forms of public art, class members create their own pieces to reflect their ideals and...

Fourth graders analyze the use of transitions in text. In this transitions lesson plan, 4th graders determine how and why a transition is used at a specific time in a piece of writing. They show transitions by using movements before...

Young scholars write a composition comparing and contrasting two portraits. In this comparing and contrasting instructional activity, students will observe two portraits and compare them through their writing. They then will write a...

What a fun idea! The class discusses, and then writes free-verse poems using sensory detail. They get into small collaborative writing teams to compose their poems. Next, they pantomime the actions from the poem while their teammates...

"Tone means attitude." Or so says this resource that uses Jordan Pruitt's "One Love" to model for songwriters how to develop an attitude in their lyrics. Class members engage in a number of exercises designed to give them direct and...

Students collaborate to create a children's book. In this visual arts instructional activity, student study the components and procedures that go into making a children's book including the shape, size. layout, biographical information...

Students discuss a narrative work of art, then write stories describing the action and publish their stories and illustrations in books.

Third graders practice following and writing directions through the use of simple recipes. First they write directions for creating an ice cream sundae. Then they make the sundaes using the recipe written by their classmates.

High schoolers discuss racial stereotypes.  For this racial stereotypes lesson, students develop a character from information given to them on an index card.  High schoolers give their character a race different from their own...

Students engage in a variety of activities as they study illustrators, how illustrations enhance a studenT book, and the Caldecott Award. They write a report about their favorite illustrator.

Students explore diversity. In this religious studies lesson, students develop their knowledge and understanding of world religions as they use Internet and print sources to research Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and...

Students create comic strips in groups and explain to the class the Latin and Greek roots of their superhero names. In this Latin and Greek root lesson plan, students get into groups and come up with superhero characters to integrate...

Students create a contemporary presentation in which they internalize the information concerning Manet.

Students dramatize a postwar reunion between people who held opposing views during the U.S. Civil War.

Students explore letter formation through art. They analyze and discuss Jasper Johns letter paintings, and create the letter strokes using various colors and torn paper.