Communicate meaning and increase comprehension with resources that encourage creativity and improvisation.

• Inspire creativity in students by watching this Meet-the-Author Movie featuring authors Avi, Sharon Creech, Walter Dean Myers, and Sarah Weeks as they perform their books and share insights about developing and performing stories.

• Listen to Julie Andrews Edwards discuss the production process from book to stage in this Meet-the-Author Movie with her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton.

• Draw on video lessons like those for Romeo & Juliet to deepen discussion and enhance dramatic interpretation.

• Provide a foundation for improvisational drama with young actors using the Fairy Tales / Folklore Collection and filtering for book readings.

Prepare for a performance with resources to support selection, analysis, and interpretation during the production process.

• Model the adaptation of stories to script by pairing the complete video reading of A Bad Case of Stripes narrated by Sean Astin with the reader's theater script.

• Contextualize role playing, character Q&A, and scene study using the audiobook excerpt of A Raisin in the Sun.

• Utilize Story Maps to help students hone their literary analysis skills, which guide dramatic interpretation when staging a production.

• Consider the decisions behind artistic design with this author interview with Man One and discuss how those ideas translate to production elements such as costumes and sets.

Analyze, interpret, evaluate and respond to resources that highlight artistic work.

• Reflect on a performance by using a Cultural Representation Reflection to compare personal experiences with what was portrayed on stage.

• Analyze a script with the Text Complexity Rubric, which brings literary elements like organization, vocabulary, and cultural experiences to the forefront.

• Use the character traits and dialogue graphic organizer found in this lesson plan for Gary Soto’s Novio Boy: A Play as a foundation for actor preparation.

• Dive deeper into understanding storytelling and culture in the unit lesson plan for Pushing Up the Sky by Joseph Bruchac.

Unify concepts, deepen understanding, and gain historical insight with resources that make literary connections.

• Learn the significance of the past in children’s nonfiction in this video interview with author Marc Aronson.

• Discover the person behind the story with this audiobook excerpt for Who Was Anne Frank? by Ann Abramson and Nancy Harrison.

• Understand how different voices enrich historical perspectives with this Meet-the-Author Recording for We Are Not Free by Traci Chee.

• Connect history and narrative with the discussion guide for Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson and Frank Morrison.