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Drama and Theatre Arts Sample Curriculum

Initial Samples Released January 31, 2013

Hello drama and theatre arts educators,

I am proud to present the k-12 drama and theatre arts curriculum samples created by Colorado educators, practitioners and teachers. Working with our lead facilitator, Jay Seller, PhD from Adams 12 Five Star District, this past fall, over 30 drama and theatre arts educators came together to translate the Drama and Theatre Arts Colorado Academic Standards (CAS) into curriculum. As resources for districts’ voluntary-use, these curriculum samples offer possible options for sequencing the concepts, skills, and content of the CAS across a course or year.

The template upon which all of the samples are based derived from research and was designed and refined by Colorado educators to highlight what students should understand, know and be able to do at the end of a given unit or plan of study (detailed description of the curriculum template components). There are some unique aspects to the drama and theatre arts samples at particular grade levels, which are documented in the bullet points below.

Together, these samples are intended to support districts’ transition to the CAS and the development of standards-based instructional practices. Please feel free to share your thoughts regarding these support resources.

Karol Gates
Arts Content Specialist

Questions?: E-mail the Arts Content Specialist

Update February 15, 2013.  In the original posting of the Drama and Theatre Arts samples, the completion of the sentence stem for the knowledge statements was somewhat confusing. To clarify this section, we have streamlined the knowledge statement to make the samples more accessible and user-friendly.

To learn more about the Drama and Theatre Arts curriculum samples watch this presentation:

Drama and Theatre Sample Curriculum Unique Attributes from eNetColorado on Vimeo.

High School Drama and Theatre Arts Samples
  • Part One: Scripted Works, Character Development, Technical Theatre
    (Word or PDF)
  • Part Two: Ensemble Building, Sketch Comedy, Acting Styles, Theatre History
    (Word or PDF)
  • Film/Media Arts
    (Word or PDF)

Unique components in high school drama and theatre arts:

  • The process graphic, on the course at a glance page, provides a visual depiction of the cyclical process-based nature of the drama and theatre arts standards.
  • Due to the variance of drama and theatre arts program offerings state wide, unit length and sequence have often been left up to individual practitioners to adjust for varied scheduling needs.
  • The overviews are highly versatile and can be customized to meet a wide variety of drama and theatre arts program needs.
  • These samples are designed to meet a variety of programming options within the state.
  • The samples merge the fundamental and extended standards. Each sample is comprehensive and can be used as a stand-alone unit, or instructors can reorganize the samples from any of the sets to “mix and match” units at their discretion.

Kindergarten - 8th Grade Drama and Theatre Arts Samples

Unique components in kindergarten - 8th grade drama and theatre arts:

  • The process graphic, on the course at a glance page, provides a visual depiction of the cyclical process-based nature of the drama and theatre arts standards.
  • Due to the variance of drama and theatre arts program offerings state wide, unit length and sequence have often been left up to individual practitioners to adjust for varied scheduling needs.
  • The overviews are highly versatile and can be customized to meet a wide variety of drama and theatre arts program needs.

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