| Author: | Thabiti Brown, Susan Barrett and Lynne Johnson | | Description: | Workshop on using theatre to teach literacy
| | Participants: | High-school or middle-school humanities or English teachers and their students
| | Schedule: | One-day institute planning multi-week expeditions | | Goals: | Learn how to jump start reading and writing by teaching A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and selections from Shakespeare; learn how to make high-level texts accessible to all students | | Products: | Plan for literacy through theatre expedition | | Assessment: | Sample assessment instruments
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From its first year in 2001-2002, Codman Academy Charter Public School has worked closely with the Huntington Theatre Education Department, using theatre to help students approach grade-level literacy through study and performance of theatrical works. The documents provided here were used in a 2006 one-day institute for teachers summarizing the curriculum and methods CACPS and the Huntington educators have developed over the years.
Two different but related sets of curriculum activities are presented in the workshop:
- studying Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun
- preparing students to compete in the English Shakespeare Union's national contest
The workshop materials focus on activities based on A Raisin in the Sun. For more recent and extensive materials preparing students for the Shakespeare contest, see the Shakespeare Competition expedition elsewhere on this site.
For the story of the relationship between CACPS and the Huntington Theatre, see Overview of the Collaboration. In 2009, the collaboration was awarded the prestigious Commonwealth Award for Creative Learning by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
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