Literature at Play

Literature at Play meets the NYC DOE Theatre

Blueprint Benchmarks and English Language

Arts Standards.   

Here is how it works:

Over the course of 4 to 20 weekly visits, teaching artists lead

K-8th grade classes through acting, playwriting and

songwriting workshops, resulting in each class’ adaptation of a

children’s book. Residencies that run 6 sessions or more

culminate in a Sharing Day in which students present their

original plays or musicals for a partnering class.

* Residencies can occur during the school day or as an

afterschool program.

* Residencies can include a Making Books Sing production

* Including a performance  option extends and deepens the

students’ learning experience.

ACADEMIC GOALS:
  

* Reinforce students’ language and literacy skills through

theatre and songwriting

* Expand students’ writing abilities with an emphasis on

strengthening literary elements, dialogue, expressive or

descriptive language

* Foster comfort and competence with speaking and

listening for our large population of English language

learners

*Increase reading comprehension skills, such as

sequencing, making predictions and text-to-self

connections

ARTISTIC GOALS:

* To write a play with a clear beginning, middle and end

* To understand the elements of a well-written play (i.e.

inciting incident, conflict, resolution, action, high stakes,

low stakes)

* To understand characters’ motivations and express

dialogue with appropriate emotion

* To speak/sing in front of a group, demonstrated through

greater risk-taking, projection and articulation

Target Audience:

K-8th grades

Especially English Language Learners and students with special needs

Literature At Play is available to schools and

community centers in New York City and the

tri-state area.

To learn more about our programs contact

education@makingbookssing.org

or call (212) 573-8791 x14