The Drama Game File

The previous version of our curriculum program was The Drama Game File. The three products included in The Drama Game File kit are all discontinued and are no longer available. Instead, the all-new versions are now available as part of the Drama Works! Teaching System. See below for details on what changed and what’s new.

3 Products (Digital and Print)

• The Drama Game File 2^nd Edition CD-ROM (complete digital curriculum on CD-ROM)

• The Companion Notebook (printed lesson plans, visual aids, handouts, and indexes)

• The Character Cards Box Set (bigger, brighter, and stronger version of the flash cards from the CD-ROM)

This interactive curriculum program for arts and literacy in grades PreK-12 details the why and how of using theatre games to accomplish a variety of educational objectives. Hundreds of point-and-click links lead the teacher through more than 500 pages of material including detailed teaching strategies and 210 printable pages of lesson plans, print-and-cut Character Cards, posters, theatre vocabulary, and more. The 101 games include a mix of classic material with dozens of new activities, 250 variations, and 500 integration ideas in other school subjects. Planning a lesson or unit is made simple with 92 sample classes and extensive cross-indexing by 22 drama skills, 20 theatre arts categories, 11 school subjects, 8 multiple intelligences, and all grade levels.

Based on state and national arts standards, extensive research, and classroom practice, the program incorporates arts assessment, learning styles, literacy development strategies, and a complete classroom management system to maximize student safety, creativity, and learning. No previous drama experience is required.

• 101 games (+250 variations) that print as one-page lesson plans
• Connections to state and national theatre arts standards
• 6 sets of printable Character Cards for creativity and literacy
• 500 fun and effective integration ideas for all school subjects
• Cross-indexing: find all the games for 22 drama skills, 4 art forms, 10 school subjects, 8 multiple intelligences, and all grade levels
• Detailed teaching strategies and classroom management ideas
• Extensive theatre glossary with printable vocabulary cards
• Printable posters and references for visual aids and handouts
• 92 sample classes organizing the games into 50-minute lessons
• Dynamic photos of every game in action with students of all ages

Inspire creative expression, literacy skills, and vocabulary development for your students with these 644 engaging and durable cards. The 7 color-coded categories include occupations, emotions, personalities, mannerisms, what (activities), where (locations), and theatre/literary terms with definitions. These standards-based cards provide instant starting ideas and details for improvisation, storytelling, art projects, creative writing, and parts of speech (nouns, verbs, and adjectives). Acting and guessing words and ideas from the cards also expand students' English vocabulary.

The portable box comes with 7 tabs for easy organization and 50 activity ideas for arts education (theatre, dance, visual arts, and music) and literacy development (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). The 3x5 size with large print is readable from across the room, but small enough to comfortably hold in hand.

The Character Cards come from The Drama Game File 2nd 
Edition CD-ROM. The box set includes bigger, brighter, and stronger cards than printing from the CD. Use as a stand-alone product or with The Drama Game File.

Changes from The Drama Game File to Drama Works! Teaching System

In 2014 we completely redesigned The Drama Game File to become the Drama Works! Teaching System. We responded to extensive user feedback from surveys and interviews. We incorporated new technology, changing the delivery format from CD-ROM to subscription-based website. We chose this new model for several reasons: 1) it would allow us to better serve teachers in the modern digital classroom with internet access more reliable and projection methods more prevalent; 2) we could provide easy access to the entire curriculum from any internet-capable device (phone, tablet, laptop, computer, Mac or PC) without needing a physical CD or disk drive; 3) we could continue to evolve the curriculum with annual updates based on user feedback, and provide ongoing support to a growing online community of users.

Drama Works! Teaching System retains and improves upon content and features of The Drama Game File that users most appreciated. It also contains a wealth of entirely new material. We rewrote all the content and lesson plans, more than doubling the scope and depth of the program. The drama skills list was revised to reflect current research, state and national standards in arts and literacy, and 21^st Century skills. We created two all-new lesson plan designs while staying committed to the practical one-page format. All the revisions were made to reflect 4 core areas of focus: 1) creative drama as a teaching tool, 2) theatre arts education, 3) drama and literacy for English Language Arts (ELA), and 4) arts integration across the curriculum.

• Alignment to the National Core Arts Standards
• Alignment to the K-12 Texas theatre standards (TEKS) for textbook adoption (details)
• Alignment to the Common Core ELA standards
• More challenging material for high school and advanced level students
• More frequent distinctions between beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels
• New theatre games and lesson plans
• More activities and projects in addition to drama games
• New categories for Creativity Cards (things, creatures, animals, objectives)
• Expanded glossary of terms and Vocabulary Cards as a new box set product
• More posters and visual aids for digital projection in the modern classroom
• Best practices and pedagogy for Arts Integration
• New lessons and ideas integrating the arts (dance, theatre, music, visual arts, media arts)
• Connections and integration ideas for Media Arts – the newly designated fifth art form
• Music playlists for mood and lessons integrating drama, music, and dance
• More strategies and activities for teaching math
• More drama games for icebreakers and group builders
• More content and lesson plans for teaching theatre history
• More content and lesson plans for technical theatre
• More content and lesson plans for theatre production
• Assessment concepts, strategies, and instructions for creating performance rubrics
• Expanded classroom management system
• Clarifying teacher talk: what to say and how to say it
• More citations of research, learning theories, and pedagogy for college students
• Additional models of learning styles such as visual-auditory-kinesthetic (VAK)
• Adding two new types to the unique personalities
• Clarifying educational philosophy, values, and priorities