Drama and Theatre Arts Education

Latest Updates for Drama and Theatre Education

Updated Family and Community Guides for the Visual and Performing Arts

The recently updated standards in the visual and performing arts (dance, drama and theatre arts, music, and visual arts) have also updated the corresponding family and community guides. These guides are websites that are organized by grade level to summarize learning in these content areas.

2022 Revised Standards in Additional Formats

The revised Colorado Academic Standards for visual and performing arts have been updated to additional formats for teachers to use in their planning and organization for standards-based instruction. The alternative formats include comma-separated values (CSV), Microsoft Excel, Markdown/plain text, and a highly-accessible, simplified Microsoft Word format. These updated files can be found on Drama and Theatre Arts standards pages linked below.

Family and Community Guides

Colorado Academic Standards: Drama and Theatre Arts

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Academic Standards

Theatre arts are a universal force in the everyday life of people around the world. This force connects each new generation to those who have gone before. Students need theatre arts to make these connections and to express the otherwise inexpressible. Theatre, the imagined and enacted world of human beings, is one of the primary ways children learn about life – about actions and consequences, customs and beliefs, and others and themselves.

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Curriculum Support

Article IX, Section 16 of Colorado's constitution states, "Neither the general assembly nor the state board of education shall have power to prescribe textbooks to be used in the public schools." However, CDE can still serve as an advisor to help districts and schools adopt, adapt, develop, or use the materials of their choice.

District Sample Curriculum Project

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Instructional Support

Suggested text is something like: Instructional support is grounded in CDE's shared approach to Best, First Instruction as well as practices and strategies supported by professional organizations and scholars at the leading edge of Drama and Theatre education.

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Community

There are many opportunities to connect and grow as a professional educator with the larger Drama and Theatre education community, including mailing lists, professional organizations, and events.