Explores the nature of writing done by an inner-city teen theater ensemble and shows one teenager's changing understanding of literacy. Describes how the teenagers in the ensemble came to see writing as a mediational means that could be used not only to make sense of their own lives but also to share that sense making with others. (SG)

Confronts the challenges of getting young actors to embrace the use of language. Presents a series of exercises designed to expose students to the potential power of the spoken word by using three different kinds of texts: advertising copy, children's storybooks, and the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. Discusses how the author engages his…

Summarizes the creation and results of the 1997 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Arts Assessment Report Card. Discusses the creation and the many improvements made to the NAEP Assessment, particularly the Arts Assessment. Discusses the impact of the assessment. (SC)

Describes the expansion process and design of the St. Alcuin Montessori School of Dallas (Texas) which preserved the Montessori educational philosophy while adding a civic scale to the enlarged campus and a new centrally located performing arts center. Interbuilding access walkways that conform to the surrounding landscape while adding protection…

There is a clear analogy between the improvisational actor and the teacher. Teaching in the college classroom has that same mix of premeditation and improvisation that effectively communicates with the audience. The theater metaphor is particularly useful for a teacher's development of presentational communication skills. A teacher's "performance"…

Joseph M. Shosh, an English teacher, has shown the way in which he made writing as a central part in a drama class to build critical literacy. He describes writing tasks like creating scenes from personal observations and using acting journals as well as writing projects that are necessarily involved with play production.

Educational drama has been embraced as a promising way to address sensitive and highly-charged issues among youth. An Israeli drama, "Backyard Games", about gang rape, based on an actual case in a kibbutz [a communal settlement] called Shomrat, is considered the definitive work on the subject in Israeli theatre. Written by Edna Mazya and…

This article explains how and why to involve teachers and students as playwrights "commissioned" to write, revise, read, rehearse, and perform Readers Theatre scripts that fulfill a dual purpose: inform (about curriculum topics) and entertain. Curriculum-Based Readers Theatre (CBRT) differs from traditional Readers Theatre in that its script…

Few universities or colleges offer courses in the Teaching Arts; even fewer offer formal degree programs in the field. What alternative models already exist for the training of Teaching Artists? And as educators build new models, what should be the core content, and with what scope and structure? This article explores these questions through a…

The current study investigated the influence of presentation modality (live, video, and slide show) on children's memory, suggestibility, recognition, and metamemorial monitoring processes. A total of 270 children in three age groups (5- and 6-year-olds, 7- and 8-year-olds, and 9- and 10-year-olds) watched a magic show and were questioned about it…

This paper analyses a community theatre project initiated in 1991 in Ratones, a community in Southern Brazil. It began as an extension project of the State University of Santa Catarina and became an independent project coordinated by former participants, still in collaboration with the university. Aiming to evaluate the benefits of this theatre…

This article is a narrative exposition of collaborative research performed at Bergamo in October 2001. As a performance of research, we hoped to extend the involvement of audience/participants and to problematize both method and articulation of lives lived (Knowles & Cole, 2001) by using art forms in (re)searching the nature and possibilities of…

This study illustrates the special value of theater for conducting civic education. It begins by identifying the features of good citizenship in the United States. Citizenship in America includes rights, interests, affections, duties, and virtues. We focus on one duty, civic respect, and the virtue most necessary to meet that duty--civic…

The performing arts can provide an avenue for creativity and healing to youth and adults in correctional settings. (Contains 1 endnote.)

This article presents a conversation with Agnes Wilcox, Executive Director of Prison Performing Arts in St. Louis, Missouri, about Prison Performing Arts. Although the average person might balk at the notion of interacting with prison inmates, finding it intimidating, worrisome, or self-sacrificial, for Wilcox, Prison Performing Arts is a…