The musical Hamilton has taken Broadway by storm. American History has come to life and energized millions. A new take on old events can bring breath and life into any content, allowing us to "write [our] way out" of material previously viewed as "boring." How do teachers tap into this in the classroom? What about in fields other than history? Bring theatrical devices into your classroom while still teaching the content that you must. How? Use Creative Drama as a Medium for Learning. As a process-oriented approach, creative drama uses improvisation games to improve risk-taking, break down fears of public speaking, and open doors to experiencing content in all fields. Learn to "ham it up!" Utilize fun theatrical techniques within simple frameworks/devices, and emphasize content-specific material that you want your students to internalize. Learn different structures that can be used for timeframes you need -- 30 second breaks, 5 minute games, 15 minute activities, one class, a week- or unit-long project.
Reading strategies are thinking strategies and are used across all curricular areas. How do we teach thinking to any student? By making it fun! Adopting an attitude of play, we begin with pre-reading strategies and move through the reading process (before, during, after) to teach students meta-cognition. If they can adopt the ability to think about their own thinking they can realize the need to adjust their reading speed, ask more questions, look up an unfamiliar word, or keep an on-going list of symbolism that they recognize is recurring in a text.
