Rising Water

Get dramatic in the classroom with original drama-based coursebook.

Ajax has a hard time fitting into a world of school and books. He wants to do the right thing, but his inability to sit still and pay attention keeps getting him in trouble. After a trip downtown for a job interview turns into a battle against the forces of nature, Ajax has an opportunity to discover who he really is and what he has to contribute to society.

Rising Water is part of the Integrated Skills Through Drama series that teaches speaking and communication skills through the performance of a one-act play. This flexible curriculum is perfect for a class project, elective course, or drama club.

As students prepare to perform the play, they study intonation and pronunciation skills such as using word emphasis for meaning and showing emotion, as well as questioning intonation. They learn about body language and gesture as ways to communicate. They analyze the script as a work of literature and also mine it for language and rhetorical strategies to respond to criticism, offer to help, express distress or relief and more. And they learn to apply those strategies to their performance and to real-life situations. A variety of performance options are featured, including Reader's Theater.

Background readings on risk-taking by teenagers and the way communities come together in times of natural disaster fill out the curriculum. And a number of creative writing projects to rewrite the script, adapt the play, or even write a sequel allow you to extend the learning further.