Carmine Tabone has teamed up with Milton Polsky and Dorothy Nap Schindel to write a book about the important role drama plays in elementary education.  The three authors became friends over 30 years ago through their involvement as conference coordinators for the American Alliance for Theatre Education.

Drama Activities for K-6 Students: Creating Classroom Spirit (Rowman & Littlefield Education, August 2006) provides teachers with exciting ways to guide young students to improvise plays based on poems, stories, and pictures with peace-related themes.  The authors believe "that a peacefully creative classroom promotes the spirit of teamwork that requires a high degree of cooperation, caring, and communication of feelings."  The book contains stories from all around the world and numerous verbal, pantomime, story theatre, and other theatrical forms for dramatizing the poems and stories.  All three authors have worked with young people in all aspects of drama.

For more information about this book or how to order, please click here to visit the publisher's website.  

This handbook contains over 40 lesson plans integrating drama into the social studies and language arts curriculum and can be used in both elementary and middle school classrooms.

Results from using this handbook have been significant.

90% of the 550 students who received these lessons for 2 years passed their standardized language arts test scores in grade 5 and 17% scored advanced proficient.  71% of 550 students in a control group that did not receive the lessons passed the same test and only 2% scored advanced proficient.

Lesson plans include:

• Storymaking and Writing with Puppets

• Working Stories

• Colonial America

• Ancient Egypt

• Ancient Greece

• Ancient Rome

To purchase our handbook for only $35, please contact Carlos at 201-432-1912.