ABSTRACT
Reading dramatic literature has long been a staple of the ELA curricula. Bringing play scripts into a social studies classroom or performing scenes from those dramatic texts in either ELA or social studies classrooms may not be business as usual in most curricula, but writing, speaking, and critical-thinking activities certainly are stressed in both academic areas. Writing and speaking activities facilitate a more seamless integration of active approaches to dramatic literature into the objectives and outcomes of established curricula. The activities presented in this chapter can be sequenced into preview, formative, and summative experiences. The selection of specific activities for previewing, exploration, reflection, and assessment is dictated by the nature of the play, the existing curriculum’s objectives, and the expectations for long-range student outcomes linked to specific local and national learning standards.
