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  • 1.  Must-have Books/Curriculum resources?

    Posted 05-20-2014 08:20
    Hello all! I have been charged with designing three new middle school speech and drama classes in a hurry. For the past ten years I have enjoyed doing it all from scratch... Lesson plans, worksheets, rubrics, the works... But now, although I have the enthusiasm, I just don't have the time! What are your favorite resources? I have some money left in my budget for materials and am happy to mix and match. The courses are for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, half year, block scheduling. I prefer project-based teaching (but what theatre teacher doesn't?), and they need to include some public speaking lessons as well. So hit me... What are your go-tos? Thanks for your input! ------------------------------------------- Theresa Weiler Beverly Hills MI -------------------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Must-have Books/Curriculum resources?

    Posted 05-21-2014 10:53
    Good morning! 

    Perfection Learning puts out a really great textbook call "Basic Drama Projects."  Although it is a high school text, I use it with my middle school students often.  They will even send you a Teacher's Edition for free.   They also have a speech textbook that is similar to their Theatre text.

    Hope this helps!

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    John-Austin Wyatt
    Director of Theatre Arts
    Black Water Middle School
    Myrtle Beach SC
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  • 3.  RE: Must-have Books/Curriculum resources?

    Posted 05-21-2014 13:40
    Glencoe Publishing Exploring Theatre is a pretty good text for Middle School theatre.  Lots of project suggestions in it as well.

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    Kelly Thomas
    Mesquite TX
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  • 4.  RE: Must-have Books/Curriculum resources?

    Posted 05-21-2014 22:36
    I just finished my student teaching with a very helpful, wonderful Communications/Theater Arts teacher here in Michigan. In his class we used two books one is titled
    Raising the Curtain: Activities for the Theater Arts Classroom
    • Spiral-bound
    • Publisher: Perfection Learning Corporation (2006)
    • ISBN-10: 0789164337
    • ISBN-13: 978-0789164339

    The other was a book called 
    Basic Drama Projects Teacher Edition
    • Hardcover: 640 pages
    • Publisher: Perfection Learning Corporation; 8th edition (2004)
    • Language: English
    • ISBN-10: 0789161761
    • ISBN-13: 978-0789161765
     
    I found both of them very useful and full of information. Each book also has a lot of activities and several projects. The Basic Drama Projects also has a resource binder that has a lot of reproducible sheets with already laid out rubrics for both teacher and peer evaluations. I found them easy to use and fun to work with. I would gladly use either of these two books again.
    Hope this was helpful.
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    Jennifer Speer
    Taylor MI
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