Now in its second edition, Trevor Wright's hugely popular "How to be a Brilliant English Teacher" is packed with practical advice drawn from his extensive and successful experience as an English teacher, examiner and teacher trainer. This accessible and readable guide offers sound theoretical principles with exciting practical suggestions for the…

Describes a method for teaching and rehearsing collaboration, which involves the application of improvisation skills to conversation. Concludes that the goal of this method is to motivate students to recognize and suspend commonplace assumptions that privilege intuition and impulse. (PM)

Intended to help elementary school teachers find new and more varied ways of using drama--both for its own intrinsic value and as a school-wide teaching strategy--this publication examines the place of drama in the kindergarten through grade six curriculum. Following a rationale, the publication provides guidelines for planning a drama program and…

Offers a theoretical basis for undergraduate theatre studies that stresses the participation, democratization, and popularization that are necessary to sustain the arts in American society. Argues that the curriculum should be reoriented to emphasize theatre's functional value by building on students' already acquired and practiced aesthetic…

Recounts a high school teacher's experiences in simulating the Constitutional Convention of the United States. Includes part of the script used which the students designed. (JDH)

Accessible and hands-on yet grounded in research, this book addresses the "whats," "whys," and "how-tos" of integrating literacy instruction and the arts in grades K-8. Even teachers without any arts background will gain the skills they need to bring music, drama, visual arts, and dance into their classrooms. Provided are a wealth of specific…

Reviews the goals of drama/theater education set forth by the National Theatre Education Project. Provides an overview of the knowledge and skills teachers need to teach theater and drama in elementary and secondary schools. (MM)

Investigating the nature and value of dance drama as an expressive idiom for elementary school children, this paper discusses foundational concerns about the nature of dance drama, aesthetic content, learnings in dance drama, and the organization of these learnings. Noting that the ideas of dance drama presented have largely emerged from a content…

Questions how Western theatre's gender bias is extended and perpetuated by higher education institutions. Examines pedagogical alternatives to teaching beginning acting classes other than with monologue books. Suggests that by focusing on character rather than story, the culture of monologue books does not encourage students to look for aesthetic…

Discusses the establishment of World Post Day and the objectives of its observance. Provides guidelines for upper elementary and lower secondary teachers to encourage observance of World Post Day across all disciplines. Includes language exercises in Maltese, English, French, and Italian as well as objectives for home economics, history, music,…

The question of why only English teachers and their students study Herman Melville's novel, "Billy Budd," is raised in this paper. The book offers insights and fundamental social questions for students in secondary school social studies. Suggestions are offered as to how social studies teachers (with their perspectives, concerns, and…

Discusses use of Spanish-language "telenovelas," serialized television programs broadcast daily and containing stories that are resolved in two to six months, as instructional material for Spanish second-language teaching. The telenovela contains authentic, comprehensible language and lends itself to an ongoing, long-term classroom activity.…

This curriculum guide for secondary-level gifted students presents curriculum alternatives which are interdisciplinary and which emphasize a comprehensive study of major content areas through the humanities. The curriculum demands from the student complex learning, critical thinking, in-depth inquiry, creativity, and active participation. The…

Describes a play written for performance by high school students entitled, "Screams of Tyranny, Cries of Hope," that is explicitly for use in encouraging multicultural acceptance. The play features performative, role playing and interpretation workshops that include both students and educators. Explains the use of performance and its…

New methods are proposed for teachers to increase the cultural knowledge of their students. Rather than emphasizing food, festivals, and famous faces from other lands, there should be an attempt to use culture in the classroom as content in the regular instruction of speaking, listening, writing, mathematics, reading, and science. Teaching…