What's new?

SEL stands for Social Emotional Learning. Theatre teachers know that Social Emotional Learning and its categories: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills and Responsible Decision Making, are innate in what we do.

The goal of this mini-course is to show you that you can take SEL in the way that your administration wants you to, using the language they want you to use, and apply it to lessons you already teach.

Instructor Christa Vogt will take you through the facets of SEL, and then take you step by step through an activity - to show you how you can apply SEL to each and every step.

The two big questions we’re going to answer in this course are: What is feedback? And, What is useful feedback? Now, if you asked a hundred people to answer these two questions, you’ll likely get a hundred different answers, but at its core, all the answers will focus on giving notes that will improve the work, which, in this case, is our student’s plays. And, as a teacher, that’s what your hope is, right? To help your students improve as writers, one work at a time.

We want our students to write, and to grow through their writing. If we want our students to get better, we need to get better. Understanding the definition of feedback, and understanding how to provide useful feedback is the key to all of us getting better.

Join Nick Pappas in this course designed to give you the tools to help your student writers find their voice.

The skills identified in Social Emotional Learning are the same skills theatre teachers spotlight in the warmups, games, and activities, as well as group work and theater-related assignments found in the drama curriculum every day.

This course will break down the various games and activities in the drama classroom to identify, incorporate, and intensify the Social Emotional Learning outcomes we want our students to achieve. By the end of this course, you will be able to identify the five components of Social Emotional Learning and see the places in the curriculum where they intersect with basic games and activities in the drama classroom.

A common unit to start the year has teachers and students setting classroom expectations, identifying procedures and at the same time establishing community through ensemble-building exercises. The two concepts go hand-in-hand if you want a smooth running classroom. This also makes it the perfect unit to introduce inclusivity. This section includes suggestions for discussions around respect with regard to classroom expectations, and ensemble building exercises with a focus on “Who am I?” and “Who are We?” This section also includes a document on creating an Anti-Slur Policy.

Improv sketches are often based on heteronormativity. From characters, to audience suggestions, to scenarios, it’s easy to slip away from anything inclusive. This section includes questions you can ask yourself and discussions you can have with students about current Improvisation guidelines; the use of character names and pronouns; being aware of using accents and affectations for a joke or punchline; occupations without gender and character/relationships.

The study of design is visual and the internet can be a valuable resource for examples. To that end, for an inclusive design unit, include LGBTQ+ individuals working in the different theatrical fields. In this section we will mainly focus on LGBTQ+ theatre professionals Set Design, Lighting Design, Sound Design, and Costume Design. There are lesson plans, activities, and resource documents that you can use to supplement your various design units.

This section focuses on some of the fundamental skills involved in acting, movement, voice, and character development, through the lens of LGBTQ+ students.

This section offers a variety of lesson plans, activities and resource documents to allow students to analyze, infer and synthesize within the context of LGBTQ+ inclusivity in the world of theatre.