This paper follows the author's trajectory as he collaboratively experimented with ethnodrama (theatre scripts generated from interviews, media artifacts, and written media) and devised theatre performance (theatre collaboratively created with a group), culminating in the analysis of a performance with high school students combining elements of…

By crafting a dramatic script about struggling high school readers that I then shared with real students in my Reading classes, I applied Arts-based education research (ABER) methods. Through the writing, presentation, collection, and reflection on student feedback, as well as during the script rewriting process, I was allowed to engage in a…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA; 2004) requires that special education teachers include transition in student individualized education plans (IEPs) in preparation for adulthood. The law also requires that, at a minimum, educators invite students with disabilities to attend their IEP meetings starting no later than…

This article explores how the Disney Company scripts what it is to be a tween through the "High School Musical" trilogy. While children's perspective is of pivotal concern within childhood studies, it has traditionally left out the material aspects and rather focused too narrowly on the subject and the social. I found that the trilogy…

Having students read news articles or novels, watch television snippets, engage in class discussions, essay-writing, emailing, and drafting letters are excellent ways to broach any number of society's systemic and oppressive social maladies. Engaging in these activities in the English language arts classroom can serve as a catalyst to encourage…

Teaching artists know that many of the children they teach are being deprived of essential human experiences. Poverty, violence, and ineffective education have left them with little hope of emotional or material success, and a student's connection to an artist can change his or her life in little and big ways. Paula Davidoff and Carolyn Hunt are…

Social justice is a complex theory and practice that includes the equitable redistribution of resources and the recognition of culture. This is a report about the Tubman Theater Project, a culturally relevant drama program in which African American middle and high school students confronted racism and classism, as well as their unexamined…

Writing a screenplay was an assignment that was part of Storytelling Through Film, a program sponsored by the Austin Film Festival, a professional film organization. In six weeks, students in creative writing and English classes first learned about the genre of screenwriting and then wrote original screenplays. The curriculum was a collaborative…

"Playesque" (in the manner of a play), Volume 1 features original plays for performances in high school, junior college, and other amateur venues. The plays are reproducible and royalty free for educational and nonprofit performance. They are easily duplicated and performed, and provide complete directions for costuming and staging. Each…

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) has emerged as one of the most effective empirically based strategies for instructing individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Four ABA-based strategies that have been found effective are video modeling, visual strategies, social script fading, and task analysis. Individuals with ASD often struggle with…

Creative drama, as a language art, has been a part of the elementary school curriculum for a number of years. Community organizations also have long been concerned with offering children rewarding experiences in creative dramatics, and many have pioneered in the establishment of children's theaters. Because of the relatively small percentage of…