"Act It out": Dramatizing Stories to Enhance Student Writing and Diversity Awareness (Promising Practices‪)‬

Young people have the potential to be creative and skilled storytellers, actors, and writers. They also can become profoundly insightful about the way diversity affects themselves and others, as well as actively challenge bias. "Act It Out" encourages these potentials in students. Augmenting the writing program that many teachers already use, it enables students to write about, act out and learn from experiences of discrimination in their lives. By collectively acting out and discussing their "bias stories," students improve their writing by generating more detail to use in revising their work. At the same time, they expand their understanding of discrimination and responses to it. This article describes the genesis of "Act It Out," the steps in the process through the voices of teacher Karen Cathers and her third grade students, and approaches to raising awareness about diversity and anti-bias actions, useful for elementary and secondary students alike.