Courses: Public Speaking, Storytelling, Performance Ethnography, Oral Interpretation, Language and Communication. Objectives: The aims of this class exercise are: (1) To engage in a collaborative creative process of developing a story/topic from a simple idea to deepening the relationship with the audience through vivid and evocative language; (2)…

Describes the use of Bertolt Brecht's theories regarding literature and performance. Details the selected use of Reader's Theatre techniques in analyzing and staging literature in the secondary classroom environment. (JMF)

This lesson plan contains poetry-related activities that aim to help students read and interpret English poetry, and write their own poems. The activities are introduced in each of the following parts: talking about poetry, understanding poetic devices, interpreting poems, using poetry for language acquisition, writing original poems, performing…

The primary pedagogical principle of Reader's Theatre is that it "dramatizes" literature to provide both a visual and an oral stimulus for students who may be unaccustomed to using their imagination to experience literary works like novels, poems, essays, or short stories. Promoting a suggestive, "theatrical mind" approach to…

Describes a project involving the presentation of "Le petit prince" as an exercise in dramatics by children in a French-Italian bilingual education class. Two steps in the process are discussed: (1) the study of the text, and (2) the activities involved in getting the play ready for performance. (AMH)

Describes a project in England in which a class of 9- to 11-year olds enthusiastically and successfully explored the play "Hamlet" by writing about, discussing, performing, and visually interpreting the actual text. The teacher suggests that, with a little creativity, Shakespeare is very accessible to children. (SM)

Describes two classroom activities that were developed to promote a whole language approach to listening, speaking, reading, and writing. One involved fifth grade students who wrote legends that other students paid to read and evaluate, and the other involved an eighth grade English class who gave free poetry readings in a coffee house setting.…

The relationship of syntactic sensitivities to fluency and understanding are usually neglected when discussing reading fluency. The article describes oral reading and interpretation activities in one seventh grade class undertaken to improve comprehension and fluency. It also discusses evaluation methods, such as portfolios and recordings as…

At the University of South Dakota, as part of a campus-wide celebration of diversity focused on northeastern Asia (China, Japan, Korea), undergraduate and graduate Children's Literature classes participated by locating relevant literature and presenting them dramatically. Students were divided into six small cooperative groups. Each group chose a…