Lights Up! A Guide to Using Theater in the Classroom

Lisanne Shaffer

level: Introductory

45 minutes

Afrofuturism, Educator Resource

Message from the creator Begin lesson

Lesson Tool Kit

MATERIALS NEEDED

A device to watch videos

Copies of quotes from Octavia Butler text

Whiteboard and markers

Projector or screen for displaying text or images

Small props (optional)

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

How can a facilitator or teacher effectively use theater activities in the classroom?

OBJECTIVES

Facilitator will be introduced to ways to incorporate theater in the classroom.

Facilitator will learn theater warm-ups.

Facilitator will learn how to use tableaux to dive deeper into the meaning of text.

SOCIO-EMOTIONAL LEARNING

Students who need kinesthetic outlets in learning can benefit from integrating theater into the classroom.

This lesson will give educators a crash course in how to use simple theater activities in the classroom. This guide focuses on using “tableaux” to dive deeper into text.

While we have built each lesson and workshop sequentially, feel free to tailor your exploration of them to suit your needs. You may choose to follow a lesson as provided from beginning to end or select sections of various lessons and combine them for a different approach.