Curated OER
Storytelling Model
Students examine how to model story telling for their classes. They investigate how to learn, rehearse and share stories.
Curated OER
Theatre Lesson Plan: Finding Your Way
Second graders identify story elements in familiar stories from their lives. For this story elements lesson, 2nd graders act out familiar activities by following directions. Students read a story and discuss the story elements....
National First Ladies' Library
Language Arts: The Rise of the Operetta
Students develop an appreciation for the musical theater form, the operetta. In addition, they present parodies of songs from The Mikado. Working in small groups and accessing provided Websites, they compose their parodies. Once...
Curated OER
Sing a Song of Indiana
After hearing John Mellencamp's song "Small Town," 4th graders are introduced to a brief biography/history of John Mellencamp. They will perform the entire song at the annual 4th grade program at the school.
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Sophocles' Antigone: Ancient Greek Theatre, Live from Antiquity
Students analyze Antigone and its universal issues as well as explore ancient Greece. In this Antigone and Ancient Greece lesson, students read and complete activities for Sophocles' Antigone. Students reconstruct the experience of a...
Ford's Theatre
How Perspective Shapes Understanding of History
The Boston Massacre may be an iconic event in American history, but perhaps the British soldiers had another point of view. Using primary sources, including reports from Boston newspapers and secondary sources from the British...
Curated OER
Water Water Water - Costume Designing
Students create costumes using recycled materials determined beforehand by the teacher in this High School Drama/Art lesson on costume designing. The example lesson is based around the title of "Water, Water, Water" but can be adapted...
National First Ladies' Library
Movies for a Nickel! The Nickelodeon
Students identify and participate in this activity to identify and learn about the early history of the film industry, and consider the impact of movies on society ever since. Then they use the websites listed to study various aspects of...
National First Ladies' Library
The Play's the Thing...or Two
Students explore melodram as a form of theatre. They write about lucid and factual news accounts and about sensationalism. Students gain experience in relating one time period with another and with doing historical research.
Curated OER
Our Side of the Story: African Americans Share Their Experiences of Slavery
Seventh graders listen to a variety of folktales sharing experiences of slavery. As a class, they compare and contrast reading a story and telling a story. They participate in a role play activity to discover the journey of a slave and...
Curated OER
A Step Back in Time
Fifth graders study the Civil War, discuss the life and policy decisions of Abraham Lincoln and the concepts/issues that developed to create North vs. South. This lesson plan is meant to be used before visiting Ford's Theatre.
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Theatre Lesson Plan, Performing a Story
Second graders read the story, The Bundle of Sticks, and discuss the story elements within the story; setting, plot, conflict resolution. In this readers theater lesson, 2nd graders reenact the story in small...
Curated OER
Folktale Improvisation
Sixth graders present reader's theatre by improvising folktales from different countries. In groups, they produce an improvisation of a folktale story from an assigned reading of a folktale.
Curated OER
Circle Sculpture
Students discover the Theatre of the Oppressed. In this diversity lesson, students practice confronting injustice as they participate in "circle sculpture" to role play performance models that deal with social justice issues. Students...
Curated OER
Cultural Creation Myths
Students analyze various cultural creation myths, write essays on three different societal stories, and create a play based upon one of those stories in this cross-curricular Theatre project for High School students. Cooperative...
Curated OER
Staff Kids
Students participate in a group game to help them identify notes on both staves by using words.
Curated OER
Movement
Young scholars experiment and explore a variety of instruments and movements. They play rhythms on instruments, spell words using their bodies, act out the movements of a song, role-play machine parts as a group, pantomime an activity,...
Curated OER
M.C. Bard: Hip-Hop and Shakespeare
What is poetry? Does hip-hop qualify as poetry? Do Shakespeare's monologues qualify as poetry? Class members grapple with these questions as they examine the poetic elements and themes presented in different texts. Groups of four study...
Curated OER
I Am Special and You Are Special Too #5
The student create a drawing of themselves through the use of multicultural people color crayons. They explain to a teacher what makes them special. Students investigate family types, skin color, eye color, hair color, and favorites.
Curated OER
Shakespeare's Words
Students explore monologues of Shakespeare and the structure of the Globe Theatre. They participate in a Shakespeare phrase guessing game, examine a diagram of the Globe Theatre, and read and discuss monologues from Shakespeare.
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A Study of "Twilight Crane" by Kinoshita Junji
Students read and analyze the Japanese play, "Twilight Crane," by Kinoshita Junji. They read a handout on Japanese theatre, conduct Internet research, answer discussion questions, and compare/contrast versions of the story.
Curated OER
Developing Characterizations by Creating Stereotypes
Students examine past and present cultures through theater. They interpret how theater reflects society. Students engage in the process that constitutes creation and performance in the theater. Students explore the forces that shape...
Curated OER
Paws in Jobland: Lesson Plan 2 - Role Play
Students discuss and role play various careers in order to become familiar with the curriculum of the book "Paws in Jobland". For this introductory lesson, students pretend they do a certain job, and answer written questions about what...
Curated OER
I Am Special and You Are Special Too
Learners discover how everyone is special in his or her own way. In this character traits lesson, students demonstrate how they are special by drawing a picture or writing. Learners listen orally to the book We Are All Alike...We Are All...