Teacher Guides
00 - New Drama Teacher Toolkit
The New Drama Teacher toolkit has links and resources to help you with your first year in the drama classroom.
01 - Setting Up Your Classroom
These resources will help you set up your classroom for the first time.
02 - Curriculum
Links to DTA curriculum for a beginning drama teacher.
03 - Classroom Management
Resources to develop your classroom management skills.
04 - Classroom Procedures
Resources to help you establish drama classroom procedures.
Attachments
- Preventing Pandemonium Part 1 Course: Lesson 4 'Set Up Classroom Procedures'
- Mission Possible Course: Lesson 1 'The Importance of a Mission'
- Organized Chaos Course: Lesson 4 'Rules and Boundaries in the Theatre Classroom'
- Engaging Students to Work Together
- Engaging the Non-Theatre Student
- Example of Student and Parent Contract
05 - Choosing Plays
Resources to help you choose plays for classroom study and performance.
06 - Classroom Materials
Posters for your classroom, and scenes for classroom study.
07 - Assessment Tools
Resources specifically for assessment in the drama classroom.
08 - PD Courses
Video on how to put our fires in your classroom, using the DTA course modules.
A Guide to the Elizabethan Age
A comprehensive guide to the Elizabethan Age, including historical details, the Elizabethan Theatre, and Staging the Elizabethan Play.
Create Your Own Choice Board: Drama Activities
Sometimes you need to have prepared activities so students can work independently. The goal is to have students apply knowledge in an effective way when the natural flow of instruction is disrupted.
One such activity is a choice board. A choice board offers students a variety of activities on a topic or multiple topics. Students will choose a set number of activities to complete and submit. With this resource you can create your own, use all the provided tasks on a single topic, or print off the ready-to-go sample choice boards.
Create Your Own Drama Curriculum
When there isn’t a textbook to follow or a specific set of units, how do you create a curriculum? Tips and tricks from experts in the field.
Directing the Absurd Play
How do you direct something with no plot, nonsense dialogue and uninformative characters? How do you approach the Absurd play? How do you help students approach the Absurd play? This guide comes complete with exercises to help with Theatre of the Absurd plays.
Elizabethan Theatre
This guide to Elizabethan Theatre includes details on the Life of a Playright in Elizabethan times, including biographies of Elizabethan playwrights (including Shakespeare). It includes exercises and activities for 4 of Shakespeare's plays.
New Teacher Primer
If you’ve never done a first week in the drama classroom, how do you know what to expect? What to say? What to do? Let the New Teacher Primer be your guide.
We’ve divided this toolkit into high school and middle school sections. There’s definitely a specific way to approach each level. However, there will also be some overlap between the two, so don’t be afraid to read it all and adapt for your situation.
Resource Link Guide
Looking for information and searching online is too overwhelming? See if our Resource Guide has what you need.
Sample Rehearsal Schedule with Exercises
This is a sample six rehearsal schedule for a full length play. Use this as a model and modify according to your and your students' needs.
Why so Emotional? A Guide for Highly Charged Scenes
A guide for teachers to help with their student actors; to find the right balance within an emotional performance, including exercises that can be explored to counteract overemotional acting.
Writing Lesson Plans Toolkit
In this toolkit, you will learn the structure and terminology of a standard lesson plan and how that lesson plan can be adapted in the theatre classroom. You will learn how to identify and utilize Bloom’s Taxonomy in the creation of your lesson plans and explore the National Standards for Theatre with an eye toward including specific state standards in your completed plans.
We are an approved continuing education provider in the following states, and provide PD certificates to be used in districts around the world. Click here for more details.
