Young people have the potential to be creative and skilled storytellers, actors, and writers. They also can become profoundly insightful about the way diversity affects themselves and others, as well as actively challenge bias. "Act It Out" encourages these potentials in students. Augmenting the writing program that many teachers already use, it…

The first, theoretical section of this investigation of the dramatic process examines the function of imagination and spontaneity. This section notes that the imaginative process occurs in the preconscious and need not be limited by the external world or by memory and suggests that spontaneity, like imagination, is an intuitive response dependent…

The 15 units in this curriculum guide for dramatic arts in the high school are intended to provide learning experiences to facilitate the student's personal development. Eight of the units deal with various aspects of acting, criticism, and history (e.g., building a character, presenting a one-act play, the history of the drama and the theater,…

Adaptable to all age levels and to various areas of the language arts curriculum, the activities suggested in this book are examples of the types of experiences that teachers have found interesting and exciting for children and that call for involvement on the part of the children. The activities have been used successfully by teachers in…

Explores how students take what they understand through reading and talking about literature and express their ideas in art, drama, music, or math. Argues that one way learners push their understandings and create more complex meanings is through such transmediation. Offers examples of responding to literature through multiple sign systems. (SR)

The "back to basics" movement has mistakenly pushed drama to the periphery of the school program. Direct communication of verifiable facts, once again so valued, actually militates against the personal creation of meaning. Always subjective, meaning develops through individuals' active encounters with events or situations--never through…

Based on the idea that drama infuses the classroom with activity, imagination, language, and powerful learning experiences, this journal offers commentary and suggestions on classroom drama practices at the elementary level. The first section argues that drama motivates self-active learning and promotes language development, learning across the…

Children's literature provides an excellent source of material for teaching interpersonal communication between parent and child, siblings, and peer group members. (JH)

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 15 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) creative dramatics and theatre arts among socially and emotionally handicapped inner-city adolescents; (2) The Toone Marionette Theater of Brussels; (3)…

In order to compile an inventory of secondary school cocurricular dramatics programs in the Jefferson County, Kentucky, public schools, eleven principals, eighteen teachers, and eighty students were randomly selected from thirteen high schools, five junior high schools, and five middle schools. Respondents completed questionnaires concerning the…

This thesis argues that dramatic education is a subject matter whose content is four interrelated disciplines: theater, language arts, humanistic education, and social-psychology. It is also a process of learning crucial artistic, linguistic, humanistic, and scientific issues through the basic dramatic method of dramatization. The history of…

These curriculum guides are designed to introduce drama to students at the fifth and sixth grade level. The teacher's guide for each of the two grade levels presents 41 lessons. Each lesson includes a description of objectives and various exercises, including movement warm-ups, concentration warm-ups, descriptions of the character type to be…

The curriculum outlined in this document was designed for the creative teacher to use in a learning environment which encourages pupils to experiment, to explore, to develop a positive self-image, and to express ideas freely and without fear of losing dignity. This document defines 19 drama skills and describes drama activities, with suggested…

Discusses the effect of culture on creative drama. Provides an overview of the following features of creative drama in cultures previously examined: identification, mediation, transformation, empathy, metaphor and symbol, structures and dynamics, roles, communication, and audience. Summarizes emergent issues and relates them to the nature and…

A list of plays having American premiers in 1973. (CH)