Drama/Theatre Arts Curriculum

     In drama, students will learn about acting, designing, playwriting, and directing.  Drama class is designed to teach students to collaborate, think critically, and find multiple ways to solve problems.  Students will learn how to improve their focus, self confidence and social skills.  


Overall Instructional Goals:
     1. Develop awareness of communication choices and how they affect those around us.         
     2. Develop safe conflict resolution skills by exploring multiple points of view in drama settings.
     3. Increase confidence in public speaking.
     4. Analyze and reflect on human behavior in others and ourselves.
     5. Develop interpersonal and intra-personal intelligence.
     6. Develop skills in collaboration and the inquiry process.
     7. Analyze literature and create emotional connections with characters and their transformations.
     8. Integrate student's knowledge and understanding of drama with the study of other academic subjects.
     9. Develop an understanding of why people and characters feel and act the way they do.
     10. Develop an understanding of other cultures and practices and how we all fit together.

PreK-2nd Grade

• Develop focus and concentration through participation in drama activities.
• Engage in dramatic play to create and review stories.
• Use movement and pantomime to express emotions, characters and stories.
• Identify the primary tools of the actor.
• Solve problems through creative dramatics.
• Develop physical control and storytelling through tableau.
• Portray characters vocally and non-vocally.
• Participate in collaborative decision making about artistic choices.
• Develop spatial awareness and physical control of themselves.
• Use their own words to create and retell stories.
• Develop gesture and vocal expression.
• Work in pairs to create, rehearse and perform brief stories.
• Reflect on their own work  and the work of classmates.
• Recognize plot sequence in performance and be able to act out simple dramas in linear and non-linear forms.

3rd - 5th Grade

• Create pantomimes out of concrete sense memory and abstract concepts.
• Develop appropriate onstage and offstage behavior.
• Write shorts plays on topics relevant to their lives.
• Express multiple characters through use of body and voice.
• Reflect on their own work and effectively give and receive constructive criticism.
• Develop vocal expression and literacy through storytelling.
• Collaborate with other students to create theatrical works.
• Explore social and ethical issues discovered in dramatic material.
• Use improvisation to creatively solve problems.
• Define the roles of the jobs in Theatre.
• Enhance literacy by writing plays in groups, pairs, and individually.
• Use world literature to create dramas.
• Explore different versions of a story through the lens of other cultures and time periods.

Dia de los Muertos and Make Up Design Unit.

6th - 8th Grade

• Discover varying styles of theatre to develop performance, design, and construction skills.
• Develop their body and vocal range through performance of scripted and improvised drama.
• Design and create simple sets for classroom dramas.
• Compare and contrast  similar themes from different plays.
• Begin taking on the role of director to collaborate in dramas written by students and playwrights.
• Use props and costumes to define characters, cultures and time periods.
• Analyze live theatre using theatre vocabulary.
• Develop effective auditioning skills.
• Write original and adapted scenes and short plays.
• Explore peaceful conflict resolution skills through creative dramatics, role-playing and improvisation.
• Use personal experiences to create dramatic performances and compare/contrast those experiences with other cultures and time periods.
• Take on the responsibilities of the different jobs in the Theatre.