Plot Boosters

Plot Boosters Use this list of plot boosters to develop original stories for your drama work! These ideas can support the plot by moving the story along, giving the reader/viewer new information, showing character changes, foreshadowing, providing irony, creating cause and effect, and supporting the message and/or theme of the story. 

Transforming Three Objects – Into Story (Lesson)

Transforming Three Objects – Into Story (Lesson) Transformation is one of the key building blocks of storytelling. In this lesson, students in grades 6-8 can hone their transformation skills by utilizing support tools to tell a dynamic story. By transforming two and then three objects at a time, students can practice visualization, imitation, imagination, and … Read more

Open Scenes Lesson

Open Scenes Lesson Challenge students to read between the lines and play distinctive characters in these open-ended scenes. With dialogue that purposefully leaves details up to the imagination, this lesson can be used with students to work on collaboration, imitation, transformation, and planning and practicing skills. You may also integrate Language Arts by challenging students … Read more

How the World Was Formed on Turtle’s Back Lesson

How the World Was Formed on Turtle’s Back Lesson “How the World Was Formed on Turtle’s Back” is an Onondaga creation story that features a team of vibrant animal characters who work together to save a young woman’s life and create the world as we know it. This lesson provides numerous opportunities for students to … Read more

Elevator Lesson

Elevator Lesson How do actors create realistic characters? How do we create believable, specific dramas? In this lesson, students in grades 6-8 can practice imitation, character transformation and collaboration by developing distinct and detailed characters and character relationships within a small group. The twist? Their scenes must take place in an elevator! The flexibility and … Read more

Bound No’th Blues Lesson

Bound No’th Blues Lesson Bound No’th Blues Assessment Checklist The beauty and clarity of Langston Hughes’ words makes his work ideal for introducing students to the joys of studying poetry. By adapting Hughes’ poem Bound No’th Blues into a drama, students can practice collaboration, imitation, and concentration skills. You may also choose to integrate Language … Read more

Liars Club Lesson

Liars Club Lesson How do actors bring truth to every performance they do, even if it’s outside their own experience? In this lesson, students in grades 6-8 will have the chance to practice telling each other true stories that happened in their lives, and then telling each other’s stories to the class as if they … Read more

I Was Courageous Lesson

I Was Courageous Lesson Our “I Was Courageous” lesson is the perfect way to celebrate different kinds of courage among your students, whether it be personal, physical, emotional, or intellectual courage. In this lesson, students can practice collaboration, planning, and using physicality to create a character as they act out their classmates’ true stories of … Read more

Inferencing and Questioning in “The Daydreamer” Lesson

Inferencing and Questioning in “The Daydreamer” Lesson Inferencing and Questioning in “The Daydreamer” Rubric Want a way to get students to make inferences and ask questions about a text while addressing bullying issues? This lesson for fourth through eighth graders is the first in a series that makes up a longer unit based on McEwan’s … Read more

Building Vocabulary Through Drama Lesson

Building Vocabulary Through Drama Lesson Building Vocabulary Through Drama Rubric This lesson gets participants of all ages loving words and thinking of them as colorful ways to communicate their ideas. So put those worksheets and spelling tests down for time to have students build a relationship with words in a new way! Participants work in … Read more