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.

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...

Here are two great lessons that work together and are inspired by the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods. Young writers and actors will retell the story of "The Frog Prince" through games, improvisational script writing, and...

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. 

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...

High schoolers examine the New York Times review of the film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and explore the elements of scriptwriting. They read the article about the film adaptation screenplay and examine a...

Students critique the transition of "Holes" from a novel to screenplay and consider how the details in a book are brought to life in a movie. They then choose a scene in a book and transform it into an original script after brainstorming...

Drama is ever-present in our daily lives and eloquently depicted on stage. Middle schoolers practice writing scenes based on different prompts and frameworks, and then perform those creative scenes for their classmates. The...

Pupils identify and analyze conflicts in plots. In this conflict activity students recall stories, novels and movies they've read or seen and discuss the conflicts contained therein.  They then complete some written exercises to...

Get creative as you teach a instructional activity on positive peer and social interactions. Discuss good social interactions through a scenario, brainstorm a positive response to the scenario, then creat a comic book superhero that...

Introduce young thespians to all aspects of the theater. A syllabus for a one-semester drama course provides lessons that take learners from the history of drama to the many facets of play production.

Enhance your foreign language students' skills to describe a house. After reading a description of rooms in a house in their target language, they work to answer corresponding questions correctly. Additionally, they view a PowerPoint...

Here is a fabulous lesson that should have your class very excited! They utilize the GRAPES formula in order to produce a commercial like ones we see on TV. Working in pairs, they must come up with a script, take video, provide music,...

Learners investigate the prejudice and racism that has existed in the U.S. for centuries by attending a field trip.  In this equality lesson, students visit the Tolerance Museum and discuss the history of the U.S.  Learners...

Action! Delve into character development in the play Fences by August Wilson, setting the stage for learners to analyze character nuances. Thespians choose a scene from the script, responding with a written account of the...

Fourth graders research famous Americans from the Westward Movement and complete an interview. In this Westward Movement lesson, 4th graders work in pairs to research someone who was important during this time period. They prepare and...

Students edit written work about a fashion show.  In this fashion show lesson, students write a presentation piece and works in groups of 4,6, or 8 to edit what they have written.  Students rehearse by pair sharing and give...

Students participate in activities to introduce them to drama. They mimic facial expressions, pretend objects are something else, and play "Chinese Whispers". They create puppets and theater boxes, masks and costumes, and write scripts...

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...

High schoolers write original plays based on supernatural explanations of existence. In this cultural creation myths lesson, students listen to five different stories about supernatural creation. High schoolers record similarities and...

Pupils read a Japanese Noh play and discuss its structure and traditional characters. They choose a short myth and write a Noh play based on it.

This scripted lesson suggests using the journalist’s five W’s (who, what, when, where, why) to teach readers how to summarize a story and to how to distinguish between significant and supporting details. A template and rubric are...

Students analyze and critique theater events by evaluating and constructing meanings from improvised and scripted scenes and from theater, film, television, and electronic media productions.

Foreign language learners decipher the meanings of classified ads in the target language. They investigate a large collage created by the teacher of foreign language advertisements and discuss the content with classmates.  Then...