Free Stuff

• Listed below you will find some free activities and projects.

• Just save them to your disk and use them with your students.

IMPORTANT NOTICE!

All materials are protected under the copyright laws of the United States.  Teachers may use these free materials in the classroom.  Any commercial use (including duplication for district wide or school wide distribution) requires written permission from Balance Publishing Company.  service@balancepublishing.com

The Active Classroom
(Project Education)

For decades educators have known that using hands-on activities is a more efficient teaching method than theoretical discussion.  A woodshop instructor attempting to teach students the skills involved in building a table without allowing the students to use of rulers, hammers, and saws is destined to fail. 

A woodshop instructor could teach required skills piecemeal--measuring  a board, sawing a board, driving a nail.  An effective teacher, however, knows that a project approach works best.  For one thing, building a table is an activity that culminates in a practical product--a table.  Secondly, all the smaller activities--measuring  a board, sawing a board, driving a nail--are obvious steps to reaching an easily understood goal.  The student can easily see that these specific skills are necessary parts of the whole activity--building a table.

Effective language skills teaching requires a no less hands-on approach than does woodshop.  A language arts project that culminates in a tangible product and involves listening, speaking, planning, visualizing, group interaction, reading, and writing is infinitely superior to a piecemeal skill development approach.  The key difference between these two approaches is that, with the project approach, the student can readily understand why individual skills are important.

Radio Drama Related Material

"The Perfect Touch" Read-Along Radio Drama kit. Completely FREE!

"The Perfect Touch" printed materials only.  Download these materials FREE (in .pdf format) right now.  Use them with your students in your classroom.  Just click on the link and download the files (Five in all). 

A Brief History of Radio Drama in America

Turning Passive Students into Active Learners  an article

Sorry Wrong Number: Using Radio Dramas in the GED Class  This article describes how one teacher used radio drama to help her students develop "active reading" skills.

A Night to Remember  A radio drama production unit using the classic 1955 documentary dealing with the Titanic tragedy by Walter Lord

A Radio Drama Project  This unit is appropriate for any class dealing with subject matter: literature, history, government, science, etc. The project may be done at any time during the year.

An Audio Play from the Comic Section  Appropriate for any level.  Could be adapted to elementary levels.

Writing and Producing a Radio Drama (5th grade through adult)