Getting Education's Act Together Through Drama

    CHATTANOOGA, TN, April 07, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Classroom management is a hot topic in education. The National Education Association (NEA) lists classroom management as one of five important tools for teachers across the U.S. And, it's becoming increasingly necessary in district-specific areas that present unique challenges to even the most veteran teachers.

Often placed in socially and economically disadvantaged schools, educators are forced to spend more time on classroom management than teaching—a dilemma one source calls a "spiral of failure." In some of the lowest performing elementary and middle schools in the U.S., however, teachers and their students are learning about behavioral literacy and classroom management in an unconventional way.

In his new book, Acting Right: Building a Cooperative, Collaborative, Creative Classroom Community Through Drama​, Sean Layne uses a step-by-step approach to foster a constructive understanding of behavior. As an actor-turned-educator, Layne integrates the rudiments of acting—concentration, cooperation, and collaboration—into a proven, effective classroom management strategy.

Traditional classroom management strategies are designed to suppress behaviors, which Layne presents as counter-intuitive to behavioral literacy. Instead, The Acting Right strategy, central to Layne's new book, allows for students to see behaviors in action ​so that they can learn to differentiate between what's productive and what's not within a variety of settings.

"The Acting Right approach shows how to create the calm, centeredness and balance that students need in order to be able to access the curriculum." —Winston Cox, principal, Noyes Elementary

Published by Foresight Digital Media & Publishing Group, Layne's book educates teachers and empowers students to take ownership and responsibility of their own behavior, all the while building necessary skills to establishing a sense of self-control, accountability, and team-building in the classroom.

Sean Layne is the founder of Focus 5, Inc.​, an arts education consulting company providing professional learning opportunities to schools, school districts, performing arts centers, arts organizations, and museums around the country. Layne has worked in the field of arts integration for 30 years. He is a national teaching artist for The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. He designs arts integration seminars for The Kennedy Center and is also a course leader and arts coach for their Changing Education Through the Arts program.

For more information about Acting Right: Building a Cooperative, Collaborative, Creative Classroom Community Through Drama​, please visit the Resources page at http://www.artsintegrationconsulting.com or contact the author via the website.

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