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Students will read, analyze and discuss Act 4 of The Crucible. They will then visualize and dramatize the ideas of Act 4.

Students will apply what they have learned through a creative project.

This ebook contains a set of multi-part task sheets, designed to be used as Emergency Lesson Plans for middle school students. The task sheets in this resource are designed to follow a scaffolding approach to topics through multiple parts. Students may analyze a monologue in Part 1, and then write their own in Part 2. They may read about set design using lines, draw a room using lines to visualize an atmosphere, and then create the world of the play that fits the set. They may respond to a quote and then use that quote as the starting point for a theatrical expression. Task Sheets come with additional handouts and worksheets to make it as straightforward as possible for substitutes to give information to students and for students to complete their tasks.

You need Emergency Lesson Plans. The unexpected comes up all the time. This Emergency Lesson Plan Collection (30 lessons) will address all of your concerns and take into account all of your sub’s questions. Every Emergency Lesson Plan includes substitute instructions, handouts, and assessment suggestions.

In this lesson, students will be introduced to the commedia dell’arte form and start their exploration of stock characters.

When we think of Commedia dell’arte, we often think “mask.” But before we get to mask, it’s important to establish the foundation. Knowing the technical elements of playing comedy are essential before adding on the layers of mask, archetypal characters, and Lazzi. This lesson plan looks at one of the cornerstone tools for playing comedy: status. Status is at the heart of Commedia dell’arte. Students will explore high and low status through the game called Status Walks.

Students begin their exploration of commedia dell’arte with some facts about the era and participate in some exercises that realize the concepts of the era.

In this first lesson at the start of a new year, students learn daily classroom routines, participate in a name game, and complete a successful journal entry reflecting on circle discussion. They will begin to interact with the Weekly Ensemble Rubric through the journal element.

Students discuss and apply technical aspects of moving on stage: sightlines and staying open. They then apply these aspects in a short scene.

Students identify the stage directions and actor needs to know onstage and the necessary shorthand notation for each. They then apply their knowledge in an exercise and exit slip.

In this lesson, students will review what they have learned over the past year in drama class, reflect on their successes and challenges, and create an 8 song soundtrack that demonstrates this self-reflection. Students will answer reflection questions, explain their song choices and end by creating an album cover and a title for their soundtrack.

In this highly structured exercise, students work in groups and use clearly defined goals to create the dialogue of a scene. Each member of the group has an assigned task and contributes to the final creation.

In this student driven activity, students will work together to put up a short one act play from audition to production within a one week time limit. The purpose of the activity is to show students, quickly, how important it is to work together, to collaborate, and to negotiate as a group. This is also a good activity to apply responsibility. The students themselves are responsible for all aspects of this activity - you should only take on an advisory role. Give feedback when asked but don’t act as a director or make decisions for your students. The point is not a “perfect” production but to give students an activity where they must work together in order to succeed. The process is more important than the product.

Students will explore the question “What is theatre?” and start a conversation about the difference between theatre and film. Students will also participate in a warm-up ensemble-building activity that requires students to work together and an exercise that demonstrates what it means to have a “dramatic moment.”

After a warm up, student learn about onstage action. They will reflect on the question of how having something “to do” onstage can help overcome stage fright.

In this lesson, students will learn in action about three theatre roles: the playwright, the director, and the actor. They will take a story and present it using those three roles.

Improvisation is a great tool for storytelling and getting important concepts across to all students including struggling readers and writers. In this lesson, you’ll use the improv game “Scene Redux” to help strengthen the students’ understanding of main idea and detail as it relates to storytelling.

Students will work through a process to create a commedia character.

Students will take everything they’ve learned and put together a commedia troupe, create a commedia character complete with lazzi, and present a scene based on one of the three main commedia themes.

What tools do students need to properly prepare a scene? What exercises? This multi-class lesson plan models and practices those tools and exercises with the full class before they have to take on a scene for assessment.