Resource Topics

Teaching Writing - Genre - Drama

Learning From Laramie: Urban High School Students Read, Research, and Reenact The Laramie Project

May 2008
Marsha Pincus
When Marsha Pincus, a teacher with the Philadelphia Writing Project, had her students read The Laramie Project, and then research circumstances surrounding the play's real life events and perform its scenes, they were engaged—and changed—by its themes of homosexuality, homophobia, and murder. More ›

Developing Citizen-Teachers Through Performance Arts in the Summer Institute

National Writing Project at Work, 2006
Nancy Mellin McCracken, Anthony Manna
The authors describe their integration of the arts, particularly process drama, into the summer institute as a vehicle for providing equity, supporting educational reform, and promoting the concept of the citizen-teacher. More ›

Book Review: Literary Ideas and Scripts for Young Playwrights, by Lisa Kaniut Cobb

The Quarterly, 2004
Nancy McCorkle
Nancy McCorkle reviews this book for teachers of third through eighth grade, which shows how to use familiar poetry, fairy tales, and historical events as the basis for students to write and perform their own plays. More ›

English Language Learners, Classroom Drama

The Quarterly, 2004
Dana Loy
Through a drama and playwriting project, Dana Loy discovers a strategy to engage her Spanish-speaking eighth-graders that both taps into and strengthens their academic skills. More ›

Collaborating to Write Dialogue

The Quarterly, Summer 2002
Janis Cramer
Writing dialogue cooperatively, Cramer's students learn to develop characters, consider word choice, and interweave dialogue and description, while simultaneously strengthening their cooperative and independent writing skills. More ›

National Writing Project

resources