The Drama Book: Lesson Plans, Activities, and Scripts for English-Language Learners

by Alice Savage, Walton Burns (Editor), Ken Wilson (Foreword)

Everything you need to get dramatic in the classroom This easy-to-use, comprehensive teacher-resource book has lesson plans and practical activities that integrate theater into language learning. Plus ten original scripts so you can put the activities into action immediately! Drama and play scripts can be used to teach pronunciation, pragmatics, and other communication skills, as well as provide grammar and vocabulary practice! Conveniently organized into two parts, Part 1 includes pragmatics mini-lessons, community builders, drama games, and pronunciation activities. There are also lesson plans for producing a play (either fully-staged or as Reader's Theater), as well as guidelines and activities for writing plays to use with (or without students,) and suggestions for integrating academic content. You’ll even find rubrics and evaluation schemes for giving notes and feedback. Part 2 includes 10 original monologues and scripts of varying lengths that can be photocopied and used in the classroom. Specifically designed to feature everyday language and high frequency social interactions, these scenes and sketches follow engaging plot arcs in which characters face obstacles and strive to achieve objectives. With a foreword by Ken Wilson, this book is a must-have for anyone interested in using the performing arts to help students become more confident and fluent speakers. "…practical teaching advice (and amazing lesson plans) to help students and teachers succeed with drama….”—Middleweb.com"

204 pages, Paperback

Published April 22, 2019

Reviews

[Judith]

A must read for drama lovers and teachers alike. For all those people who love drama and want to teach the subject, this book is a must read. My family love drama and we are familiar with the LAMDA exam system up to and including Grade 8, also GCSE and A-level Drama. I found the lesson plans and ideas for practice absolutely superb. Including for example practicing different emotional expressions, is an incredibly good idea which increases our ability to increase our emotional intelligence, helps us gauge other people's moods and feelings as well as an invaluable asset to making monosyllabic word-shy teenagers aware that emotions, other than grunting and being offended, are part of us. I also liked the pronunciation exercises and the group interactions. Encouraging to analyze a monologue or a play not only increases our understanding of the author's intentions but also helps the student to learn to be critical and analytical. Role playing and improvisation are also fun activities but as many of the above ideas are better with a class than with one-to-one tuition, though not impossible. I whole-heartedly recommend this book to all drama lovers.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.