Acting It Out : Using Drama in the Classroom to Improve Student Engagement, Reading, and Critical Thinking

In Acting It Out, you’ll discover how to use drama in your ELA and social studies classrooms to boost student participation and foster critical thinking. With years of experience supervising arts integration programs in Chicago Public Schools, authors Juliet Hart, Mark Onuscheck, and Mary T. Christel offer practical advice for teachers in middle and high schools. Inside, you’ll find…

• Group activities to improve concentration, harness focus, and engage students of all abilities and learning styles in teamwork
• Close reading exercises that encourage students to think critically and build personal relationships with the text
• Strategies for integrating active approaches to dramatic literature, such as improvisation and scene work
• Ideas for using dramatic literature as a springboard for studying history and interdisciplinary studies
• Annotated reading lists that highlight each play’s content and recommended uses in ELA or social studies

Throughout the book, you’ll also find handy tools such as reflection questions, handouts, and rubrics. By implementing the strategies in this book and allowing students to step into different roles from a text, you’ll improve reading comprehension and energize your classroom!