In this article, I outline and theorize about a series of three lessons on playwriting I conducted in a secondary English Literature classroom in Singapore using drama improvisation strategies that I name drama-based playwriting, or DBP. I advance the argument that this genre of creative writing is best taught through the medium of drama so as to…

This article introduces a pedagogical intervention that includes a set of creative activities designed to improve the oral and written production of students in the English classroom, especially those who have shown a lack of interest or attention. It was observed that participants initially seemed careless about studying the language. Eventually…

Research suggests that experts and beginners use qualitatively different writing processes when given the same text to write. Throughout their writing, experts tend to create a network of executive, structural, and content problems that they continually refine and coordinate as they bring the text to fruition. Novices, in contrast, tend to focus…

This article examines relationships among process, product, and playmaking in a southeastern playwriting and performance program for teen girls, Playmaking for Girls (PFG). The authors have chosen to focus on tensions between process and product. Such tensions are present in the challenges teachers experience when privileging student-centered…

Describes the class activities that lead to the making of a play and contains the script for a play entitled "The last of the Scotts," written and acted by students with the teacher serving as the producer. (RB)

Describes a classroom collaborative activity in which students are asked to write one-act plays based on three characters, two of whom know each other, and a third who affects the other two. Presents details of carrying out the assignment, and evaluates student response. (HB)

High-school English students learn to analyze short stories by being given a situation the actual author has used and writing scripts to develop the plot and situation. Only later are they assigned the story to read and discuss. In Nold's experience, they develop both imagination and heightened critical awareness. (PD)

After presenting a series of assumptions about the teaching of playwriting (for example, that students can be taught the craft, if not the art, of playwriting; students must be kept to a strict deadline if they are to develop into disciplined writers; and playwriting should never be discussed outside the context of production possibilities), this…

Gives an overview of how one English teacher uses students' inherent understanding of film by asking them to write movie scripts. Advocates the use of screenwriting in the classroom. Details numerous reasons for such methods, and describes eight specific suggested class activities employing script writing. (HB)

Describes a cross-county writing project involving a third-grade class and high school drama students. The third graders write character sketches and send them to the drama students, who write a play using the characters. The high school students then produce the play for the elementary students, complete with costumes, makeup, and scenery. (TJQ)