Drama Resources

Second Grade Drama Objectives  Drama Objectives Alignment to National Standards These objectives cover essential learning in the art form for seven- to eight-year-old students.   This first PDF download above contains objectives used in our Second Grade Curriculum (also listed below) in a handy printout for reference​.  We have ...
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Recommended Lesson Sequence for Second Grade Purchase Lesson Sequence Outline only
Purchase or download individual lessons below The lessons suggested for our Second Grade Curriculum are put in a recommended delivery order below, but you may revise, rearrange, and adapt as you see fit. This ...
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Third Grade Drama Objectives  Drama Objectives Alignment to National Standards These objectives cover essential learning in the art form for eight- to nine-year-old students.   This first PDF download above (appears below for members) contains objectives used in our Third Grade Curriculum in a handy printout for reference​ ...
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Recommended Lesson Sequence for Third Grade  The lessons suggested for our Third Grade Curriculum are put in a recommended delivery order below, but you may revise, rearrange, and adapt as you see fit.  This year-long planning guide maps a year of drama teaching based on the lessons ...
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Fourth Grade Drama Objectives  Drama Objectives Alignment to National Standards These objectives cover essential learning in the art form for nine- to ten-year-old students.   This first PDF download above (appears below for subscribers) contains objectives used in our Fourth Grade Curriculum in a handy printout for reference​.  We ...
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Recommended Lesson Sequence for Fourth Grade  The lessons suggested for our Fourth Grade Curriculum are put in a recommended delivery order below, but you may revise, rearrange, and adapt as you see fit.  This year-long planning guide maps a year of drama teaching based on the lessons ...
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Recommended Lesson Sequence for Fifth Grade  The lessons suggested for our Fifth Grade Curriculum are put in a recommended delivery order below, but you may revise, rearrange, and adapt as you see fit.  This year-long planning guide maps a year of drama teaching based on the lessons ...
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A teacher recently posed a question to me regarding assessing student participation in class.“What is the best way to get students to speak up in class and how should that be evaluated?”A fellow colleague recommended that he should score students on the number of times ...
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School is starting soon, or for some of you, it has already begun.  Don’t forget to plan drama into your weekly routine - plan to go back to school using drama.  This article provides some ideas to help you kick off the year.  Also, don’t ...
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Building personal character through drama is easy with many of its interactive processes: planning, rehearsing, devising, evaluating, and critiquing others. During the acting process, actors must interpret, analyze, discuss, and imitate the character traits of the roles they play in a given story. Additionally, other ...
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Character Education and Building Self EsteemDrama and self esteem are natural partners. All of the fine arts, including drama/theater, give people insight into themselves. Participants in the arts gain insight about their potential and function in the greater world. Drama/theater specifically uses tools (body, mind, ...
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Tips for Casting Roles in a Classroom For drama to be successful, the leader must create a classroom environment that is safe (physically, emotionally, and intellectually) for the students.  Using anonymous casting techniques is one way to protect emotional safety.  One never knows which participant ...
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One of the top six questions I frequently get asked is about classroom management. "How do I manage all of that movement, shyness, talking, and laughter?" Management has to be considered from initial lesson planning through implementation.  Silliness, movement, shyness, talking out of turn, and ...
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Let’s continue the conversation about Classroom Management in Drama.  Teachers have posed many questions to us concerning management techniques.  I will answer this and then request other ideas from this community.  The questions are stated exactly as they have been presented to me.  I will do my ...
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Let’s get the conversation started about classroom management in drama.  Teachers have posed many questions to us concerning management techniques including this one about group work with young students.  I will answer this and then request other ideas from this newsletter community and on our ...
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Let’s continue the conversation about Classroom Management in Drama.  Teachers have posed many questions to us concerning management techniques.  I will answer this and then request other ideas from this newsletter community and on our blog.  The questions are stated exactly as they have been ...
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For my next article in the continuing conversation on Classroom Management in Drama, I will address respectful feedback in the classroom. Teachers have posed many questions to us concerning management techniques. I will answer this and then request other ideas from this community. The questions ...
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This is my next article in this conversation about Classroom Management in Drama.  Teachers have posed many questions to us concerning management techniques.  I will answer this and then request other ideas from this community.  The questions are stated exactly as they have been presented to me.  ...
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Download this FREE poster for Collaboration Tips. Join today to visit exclusive member-only pages on OneStopDramaShop.com where you will find a classroom-tested curriculum with clear, simple implementation strategies. These also include ideas for creating your own lessons, support materials for classroom management, assessments, student engagement, ...
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Character Education and Conflict ResolutionThe essence of drama is conflict and tension. It is the conflict in drama that propels the story to its resolution. Because drama is a heightened and controlled expression of life, relationships, and emotions, it can be a safe place for ...
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Lesson Creation GuideOnce you have become comfortable with our lessons, you may want to begin planning your own drama lessons or, better still, integrated lessons that connect drama to other content areas. Download this document for tools to guide your lesson planning process. It contains ...
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Difference between Drama and TheaterOne of the top six questions asked by teachers learning to integrate drama is:"Do I have to do a play?" The short answer is NO, and here is the longer explanation why:Drama is about the process of experiencing the art form ...
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Read for tips coaching in drama: a FREE downloadIn all the lessons offered on OneStopDramaShop.com, as in any teaching situation, the degree and quality of teacher intervention are of terrific importance. In drama, the leader uses side coaching as a means of intervention to give ...
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Drama Glossary with comprehensive definitions This PDF contains comprehensive definitions for drama terms found on this site.  You can find other, simpler definitions in student language in vocabulary lists with each of the Curriculum Guides ...
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Drama Objectives Overview There are three categories of drama objectives in the Erickson Drama/Learning Program.  A combination of these objectives is necessary to achieve quality work from students.  The categories are Self Management, Collaborative, and Discipline-based Art Objectives.  The objectives shown here align with the National Standards (found in ...
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Drama Self-Reflection Quiz To assess the level and performance of participants, use this 10-question form to determine their abilities and comfort with drama skills.  This can be after introductory lessons or used to determine their capabilities ...
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I remember that when I first began teaching drama, I struggled to find exciting two-person stories to adapt for dramatic use with my teens. Although teachers may be tempted to use large-group activities with early drama students, I have found that partner work can be ...
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First Grade Drama Objectives  Drama Objectives Alignment to National Standards These objectives cover essential learning in the art form for five- to seven-year-old students.   This first PDF download above contains objectives used in our First Grade Curriculum (appears below for members) in a handy printout for reference​ ...
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Recommended Lesson Sequence for First Grade Purchase Lesson Sequence Outline only
Purchase or download individual lessons below This year-long planning guide maps a year of drama teaching. We put these lessons in a recommended delivery order below, but you may revise, rearrange, and adapt as ...
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Five Word Focus: a FREE resourceThere are three primary tools in drama: mind, body,and voice. These tools are used almost exclusively, particularly when getting started in the art form. Related to the three tools are five beginning skills in drama: concentration, imagination, transformation, imitation, and ...
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Download this free poster for Five Useful Words for Drama. Join today to visit exclusive member-only pages on OneStopDramaShop.com where you will find a classroom-tested curriculum with clear, simple implementation strategies. These also include ideas for creating your own lessons, support materials for classroom management, ...
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In the documents below, we provide our translation of the grade-appropriate theater standards to specific and easy-to-understand drama objectives.  These were transcribed and adapted from the National Standards for the Arts (also known as the National Core Arts Standards) and condensed into this easy to ...
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Criticism is a process for gathering information to analyze, classify, interpret, evaluate or judge a work of art to better understand or improve it. Skills involved with critique (analysis, interpretation, evaluation) rank high on Bloom’s taxonomy. As such, developing these skills can deepen students’ thinking ...
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Kindergarten Drama Objectives  Drama Objectives Alignment to National Standards  These objectives cover essential learning in the art form for five- to seven-year-old students.   This first PDF download above contains objectives used in our Kindergarten Curriculum (appears below for members) in a handy printout for reference​.  We have aligned the objectives ...
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Recommended Lesson Sequence for Kindergarten Purchase Lesson Sequence Outline only
Purchase or download individual lessons below This year-long planning guide maps a year of drama teaching. We put these lessons in a recommended delivery order below, but you may revise, rearrange, and adapt as you ...
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Level I: Foundations For Drama In this stage, participants focus on developing skills needed to participate in drama.  The leader builds a base and a place where drama can happen safely for all participants at the individual development level of each group.  At this level, these ...
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Level II:  Drama as ArtTo have art you must have form. Form in drama is beginning, middle and end (character, setting, language, conflict, exposition, rising action, inciting incident, crisis, catastrophe, falling action, climax, and denouement). Within the form, there is dramatic action driving the conflict ...
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Level III:  Life Drama DescriptionLevel III is characterized by the fact that there is no formal planning before the drama.  Participants are usually unaware of the conflict to come.  There might be preparation in character development, mood, setting (the “where”), and/or space.  The leader's job ...
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Level IV:  Point of View Drama These lessons and units use a combination of Levels I, II, and III and a variety of improvisational strategies to allow students/participants to experience a theme, idea, concept, or philosophy from different perspectives. Level IV drama combines the first ...
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What should I teach in Drama to make the learning more impactful? As teachers we want to teach everything right away but the best practice is to introduce a skill or concept, demonstrate how it is used in practice, then turn it over to the ...
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A Management Approach to Redirect Misbehaving Actions in Drama.Young children need a way to recognize incorrect behavior choices while also feeling in control in the classroom.  So much misbehavior arrives from young people

• - Feeling out of control
• - Needing attention from peers
• - Fear of physical, emotional, ...
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Narration MethodsStudents can use several strategies to add narration to their dramas. Narration is a technique whereby one or more performers speak directly to the audience to tell a story, give information or comment on the action of the scene or the motivations of characters ...
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Organizing Philosophy of this Drama/Learning Program by Karen EricksonDrama is an organized exploration into self-awareness and self-expression using movement, rhythm, verbalization, and role-playing. It creates an environment that allows the participant to safely explore his/her own feelings, behavior, and ideas. Students learn to create new ...
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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 ...
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Recommended Lesson Sequence for Pre-Kindergarten This year-long planning guide maps a year of drama teaching for Pre-Kindergarten students. This is adjusted and shortened from the longer schedule for older students in Kindergarten. We put these lessons in a recommended delivery order below, but you ...
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Classroom Management Tips for DramaOne of the most effective ways to prevent management problems and instances of misbehavior is by creating a safe drama environment. In my experience, it takes a lifetime of learning and struggle to find the best approach to drama classroom management. Once ...
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Announcing Onestopdramashop.com’s Inaugural Online Conference We are thrilled to announce that our first ever SPICE It Up! Conference is happening this summer from August 12-13, 2022. We wanted to create a space for our teachers to deepen their knowledge of Arts Integration and expand their ...
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I picked up these storytelling tips over the years working both as a classroom teacher and working with children in drama education. I'm sharing them with you because I think stories are one of the best ways to reach people. -Karen Selecting a Story

1. Choose a ...
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Tips for Teacher "in Role" Working “in role” means that the leader takes an active part in the story and guides the drama from inside.  An “active role” is defined as establishing one or more characters.  This does not usually include being a narrator, but in ...
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Teacher's Role in the Learning Level: a FREE resourceThe teacher's role changes from one learning level to another. This is important to understand for the students to benefit fully from the curriculum. Download this PDF to learn more. A special thanks to our subscribers - ...
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Techniques for Viewing Classroom Dramas Often, at the end of drama sessions, there will not be enough time to see the work of every student or group.  It is also important that general group reflection on the days’ objective(s) not be eliminated or abbreviated due to ...
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As you begin using drama in your classroom or organization, here are a few ideas to keep in mind:

1. Build a community (ensemble) in your classroom. Steer the emphasis away from competition.
2. Drama is about doing your best with others not about being the best.
3. Drama practices should ...
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Tips for Playing & Viewing Drama Work in the Kindergarten Class This PDF document contains some ideas for viewing or sharing student work specifically tailored to the younger grades including Pre-K and Kindergarten.  They are a subset of the techniques we recommend for the older ...
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Download this FREE poster to learn about Types of Conflict in Drama. Join today to visit exclusive member-only pages on OneStopDramaShop.com where you will find a classroom-tested curriculum with clear, simple implementation strategies. These also include ideas for creating your own lessons, support materials for ...
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Vocal Work – Building Vocal Confidence – Sound to Dialogue   Beginning with movement, imitation, and pantomime is an excellent choice for young actors or beginning actors of any age.  Sooner or later, however, you need to introduce the human voice.  Improvising believable dialogue is ...
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