Teaching Literature

american literature

british literature

multicultural/women's/world literature

lesson plans/course syllabi

drama/speech

shakespeare

young adult literature

literary genres/mythology

nonfiction

poetry

critical lenses

story response/writing

assessment

censorship

professional development

media/technology

 

How to use this site

CHAPTERS

1

Goals for teaching literature: What does it mean to teach literature?

2

Understanding students’ individual differences: Who are our kids?

3

Planning and Organizing Literature Instruction: How Do I Decide What to Teach?

4

Using Drama to Foster Interpretation: How Can I Help Students Read Better?

5

Leading Classroom Discussions of Literature: How Do I Get Them to Talk about Literature?

6

Writing about literature: How do I get them to write about literature?

7

Using narratives in the classroom: What’s the use of story?

8

Teaching text and task-specific strategies: How does the shape of a text change the shape of my teaching?

9

Teaching the Classics: Do I Have To Teach the Canon, And If So, How Do I Do It?

10

Multiple Perspectives to Engage Students with Literature: What are Different Ways of Seeing?

11

Teaching Media Literacy: What else is a text and how do I teach it?

12

Assessing and Evaluating Students’ Learning: How do I know what they’ve learned?

13

Text Selection, Censorship, Creating an Ethical Classroom Environment. and Teacher Professionalism: How do I Stay in Control, Out of Trouble, and Continue to Develop as A Teacher?

home

Tennessee Williams
Christopher Marlowe
Anna Deveare Smith
Arthur Miller
August Wilson

Drama/Speech

Living Playbook
hundreds of drama activities, improvs, warm-ups, and just plain fun stuff

Shakespeare: lots of links

Exploring prejudice through drama

Creative drama activities

Resources listed by play/author

Virtual Drama Studio

Drama in education site

teaching drama: lots of resources
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Webquest: August Wilson’s Fences

resources for teaching drama

 

General resources on drama

unexpectedproductions.org/new/playbook/playbook.html
creativedrama.com/
webenglishteacher.com/drama.html
thevirtualdramastudio.co.uk/vds2.htm
sk.sympatico.ca/erachi/
members.iinet.net.au/~kimbo2/lessons/index.htm
newark.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/theatre.html

Reader’s theater scripts

 

Drama Units and Lesson Plans

Units developed by teachers in Tasmania [based on Jeff Wilhelm’s ideas in Chapter 4]

Kennedy Center Arts Edge: [43 drama units]

Mr. Donn [drama lesson plans]

Creative Drama Resource Site

Using Creative Dramatics

Drama-Education [lots of links]

Improv theme page

Improv games

Jonathan Neelands: Approaching Drama

Drama curriculum [grades 8 - 10]

Theater Lesson Plan Exchange

Edsitement: Drama lesson plans

Drama lesson plans

Theater Games

Improvisation Activities

Concept Charades

Job Interview role play

Circle of Characters role play

Using drama texts in the classroom

Acting/Drama [last part of site]

Drama lesson plans

Drama units

Drama Education.com

Improve Encyclopedia

Exploring Prejudice in Young Adult Literature through Drama and Role Play

Drama 30: An introductory drama course

Edward Cohen: Drama For Those Who Do Not Like Or Understand Drama

Puppet Shows: Animal Farm

Barbies, Baseball, and Shakespeare: Beginning drama unit

Unit: The Crucible

Witchcraft unit: The Crucible

 

Plays/Playwriting/Play production

Reader's theater scripts

Youth Plays

Playwrites on the Web

Contemporary American Drama: Scripts and Performances

Virtual Theater

Monsters and Myths: Scripts

Acting Without Agony: tips for young actors

 

Teaching Shakespeare 

Folger Library [lesson plans]

Teaching Romeo and Juliet

Webquest: Will the Real Mr. Shakespeare Please Stand Up

Shakespeare Classroom

Shakespeare

Shakespeare on the Internet

Shakespeare Plays: Lesson Plans

Cyber Shakespeare

Electric Shakespeare

Shakespeare Magazine Teaching Resources

Chill with Will

Shakespeare Through Performance: Folger Recipe Book

BardQuest

Shakespeare's World: Then and Now

TeachersFirst Shakespeare Page

Webspeare

Penguin Teacher's Guides

Hamlet Homepage

Short Course on Shakespeare's Hamlet

SCORE Cyberguides: Hamlet [Bell High School]

SCORE Cyberguides: The Tempest

SCORE Cyberguides: Julius Caesar

SCORE Cyberguides: Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

Signet Classics Reading Guide: Macbeth

Macbeth High School Unit Plan

Home of the Macbeth and Hamlet Pages

King Lear Homepage

TeachersFirst Shakespeare

Works of the Bard

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Museum of Costume

Musicals 101: introduction to the musical

Readers' Theater: free scripts

Theater History

Creative Drama & Theater Education Resource Site

Sample chapters: Wendy Lement, Bethany Dunakin, And Justice for Some : Exploring American Justice Through Drama and Theatre, Heinemann

Sample chapter: Diane Timmerman, Spare Scenes : 60 Skeletal Scenes for Acting and Directing, Heinemann

Internet Resources for Conducting Readers Theatre, Lila Carrick, Readingonline

Theater in Education

Know Drama

Children's Theater Resource Page

National Council for Drama

Applied and Interactive Theatre Guide

WWW Virtual Library: Drama and Theater: lots of links

The Drama Teacher's Resource Room

ENACT: Interactive drama and conflict resolution

Plays and Songs: free plays

Drama Education

Method Acting

Creative Drama and Theatre Education

The New Improv Page

Learn Improv

National Standards for Theatre Education

Theatre Lesson Plan Exchange

Theatre Education

Improv Encyclopedia

Improvland: lots of links

Plays Magazine

USA Plays for Kids

The Drama in Education Site

Theater Lesson Plan Exchange

Theatre Group

Paul Reuben: American Drama

Stage Managing

Make-up techniques

Playwrights Projects

RealistaTheatre

Kennedy Center: Arts Edge: Theater/drama lessons, grades 9 – 12

Kennedy Center: Arts Edge: Theater/drama lessons, grades 5 – 8

Kennedy Center: Cue sheets for hundreds of plays

Learn Improv: lots of improvisational drama activities

ReadWriteThink lesson: Biography Study: Using Role-Play to Explore Authors' Lives

ReadWriteThink lesson: Character, Conflict, and Plot in Dramatic Tragedy

ReadWriteThink lesson: Exploring the Role of Perspective in Narrative: To Kill a Mockingbird

ReadWriteThink lesson: The Peace Journey: Using Process Drama in the Classroom

ReadWriteThink lesson: Become a Character: Adjectives, Character Traits, and Perspective

ReadWriteThink lesson: Characters for Hire: Studying Characters in Drama

ReadWriteThink lesson: Analyzing theme and symbolism in drama

ReadWriteThink lesson: using before/during/after reading strategies

ReadWriteThink lesson: using prediction strategies

Lesson: Using drama to teach Of Mice and Men

Lesson: Using drama to teach The Canterbury Tales

Lesson: Colonial Broadsides: A Student-Created Play

Unit: The Crucible

 
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