Theatre in the Secondary School Classroom

Book excerpt: If you’re a preservice teacher planning to teach the theatre arts, an in-service secondary teacher considering a foray into teaching theatre, or a theatre professional considering the classroom, there’s a lot to learn. But you don’t have to know everything to teach well from the start, you just need Theatre in the Secondary School Classroom. Theatre in the Secondary School Classroom is the trusty guide that every new theatre teacher will be grateful to have as a ready reference. It’s not an encyclopedia on secondary theatre, but a collection of musts that every beginning instructor needs to know. Theoretical, practical, and friendly, Theatre in the Secondary School Classroom introduces key instructional methods and successful strategies, and works through the problems of practice that face all instructors, regardless of their experience. With discussions of finding appropriate spaces (both personal and physical), assessing students’ learning, encouraging involvement, and more, you’ll find the crucial information you need to hit the ground running. Patterson, McKenna-Crook, and Ellington provide numerous illustrations, model letters to parents, work samples, rubrics, checklists, and example test questions to show you precisely how the nitty-gritty of theatre education plays out. In addition each chapter contains suggested extension activities for students, Internet links to valuable resources and research materials, and experience-won hints on topics of specific interest to the new theatre teacher.