Volume 12

Drama as Embodied Learning: Moving from Theory into Action

Rosalind M. Flynn

THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA

Embodied Cognition—the term for the concept that understandings are shaped by the physical experiences of the body—has received a lot of recent attention in the education world. The arts, especially Drama, are among the strongest ways to engage secondary school students in classroom activities that get them up, moving, and showing what they know with body, voice, and imagination. Teachers who lack confidence in how to do Drama—and who have concerns about the amount of time involved and fears of unproductive classroom chaos—frequently decline to mobilize this arts-based method in their work with young people. Such is often the case despite repeated evidence that dramatizing offers opportunities to embrace and engage the embodied mind (Varelas et al. 2022, p. 497).

Drama is a powerful teaching and learning tool, especially when it is merged with the achievement of objectives in other school subjects, but if teachers are reluctant to use it, this art form stands little chance of being able to empower pedagogy and increase student engagement. Following a discussion of the theoretical precepts of embodied cognition, its educational antecedents, and its relationship to the classroom uses of drama, this article provides educators with directions for an effective, time-efficient classroom drama activity and tips for successful implementation.

EMBODIED COGNITION—A NEW WAY TO SAY WHAT’S BEEN AROUND FOR DECADES?

It is hard to find a contemporary teacher who is unfamiliar with Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, which he debuted and explained in Frames of Mind in 1983. His descriptions of bodily-kinesthetic intelligence strongly align with ideas about embodied cognition: the close link between the use of the body and the deployment of other cognitive powers (Gardner, 1983, p. 208). Gardner emphasizes that what we do with our bodies is not less privileged or special than those problem-solving routines carried out chiefly through language or logic (Gardner, 1983, pp. 208-209).

Years before Gardner made the scene, Edgar Swift James called embodied cognition simply “learning by doing,” as evidenced by the title that he gave his 1914 book—Learning By Doing. “Why should children be expected to understand the importance of knowledge when the need for it has not yet arisen?” he complains. “One of the problems of the teacher is to produce situations in which this need will be a recurring factor, and the conditions that meet this educational requirement are those in which the children are the planners and the workers. In short, they are situations of action” (James, 1914, p. 32). E.P. Torrance in 1965 echoed this same belief, which was also a precept of Progressive Education: “We learn best by doing and by having a vital interest in what we are doing” (Torrance, 1965, p. 676).

Other terms include active learning—student activity and engagement in the learning process (Prince, 2004, p. 223), multimodalities, and multiliteracies. Multimodal perspectives on literacy, writes Jewitt in 2008, assume that meanings are made in many ways and language is but one of them; image, gesture, gaze, body posture, sound, writing, music, and speech also contribute to meaning-making (Jewitt, 2008, p. 246). There have been and likely will be many more terms for essentially the same set of ideas, but at present, it’s embodied cognition.

EMBODIED COGNITION

Embodied cognition or “embodied learning” suggests that actions, emotions, sensations, and environment influence what is learned (Macrine and Fugate, 2022, p. 3). The body’s interactions with the environment contribute to cognition; mental processes are not solely computational processes because the brain is not a computer (Shapiro and Spaulding 2021). Human embodiment plays a crucial role in understanding and reasoning (Johnson, 1989, p. 321). “The brain is not disconnected from the rest of the body and solely responsible for cognition, but an organ occupied with processing perceptions experienced in the body,” writes Branscombe (2019, p. 3). The term “embodied learning,” she continues, “comprises two strands—showing understanding through the body and strengthening cognition as a result of using the body in learning” (Branscombe, 2019, p. 5).

FAILURE TO CAST THE BODY IN A ROLE IN LEARNING

Schools overwhelmingly still value instruction that separates the mind from the body, promoting rote memorization, mindless drills, and skills in preparation for standardized testing (Macrine and Fugate, 2022, p. 15). Katz (2013) argues that the freedom to participate in embodied experiences is critical to facilitate engaged, effective learning and make the body a purposeful part of our educative processes. “We need schools that honor our simultaneous need for physical, emotional, and intellectual engagement" (Katz, 2013, p. 9).

Again and again, the call for making the body integral to pedagogical practices is sounded. The body should “be utilized as a powerful vehicle through which educators can reach students and embed content” (Blatt-Gross, 2015, p. 138). The case for embracing the body as an active and meaningful part of the learning process (Blatt-Gross, 2015, p. 138) is solid and there are many learning activities that achieve this goal, but only one is the star of this article!

ENTER CLASSROOM DRAMA

It’s not drama as a subject—reading and studying plays, for example—it’s drama as an activity that engages students in thinking, collaborating, speaking, and moving to explore an aspect of the class’s curriculum. It’s drama that exists for the benefit of the student participants and observers, not a rehearsed presentation meant for an audience. It’s drama that merges purposes with curriculum objectives, not irrelevant games.

The NCTE Position Statement on Drama-Based Literacies (2020) identifies the tools of drama as gesture, movement, proximity, gaze, levels of body heights and positions, sound, intensity, and inflection. This statement affirms the legitimacy of drama in literacy classrooms: “Given its multimodal nature, drama-based literacies engage all students’ bodies and emotions in composing, reading, and interrogating texts.” Citing research that shows that “learners’ emotions and bodies (particularly in movement) are primary vehicles for meaning making in literacy classrooms,” NCTE provides firm support by stating that “teachers should provide learners with opportunities to dramatize meanings in conjunction with literature and other texts.”

Informational texts and topics studied in science, social studies, math, and other disciplines also provide material for use in dramatic meaning-making. Braund (2015) encourages science educators to vary book and board work and employ strategies like drama to involve more collaborative learning and leverage its “potential for explaining concepts or understanding the scientific basis of different positions and views” (Braund, 2015, p. 112). In social studies, drama not only motivates students but also helps them learn content by introducing, reinforcing, and extending major concepts (Miller et al., 1989). “Through drama, students increase their engagement with social studies and often exceed teachers' dramatic and assessment expectations. Students' enthusiasm can spark interest in their collaborating peers so that the members of the group become more involved” (Morris, 2002, p. 44). There is even a place for drama in math class, according to Coleman and Lind (2020). “Drama provided a potentially braver space for tackling mathematics, as students experimented with equipment and concepts as a means of processing rather than demonstrating knowledge. Students asked genuine mathematics questions and invited contributions from students and teachers” (Coleman and Lind, 2020, p. 96).

In her book Teaching Through Embodied Learning: Dramatizing Key Concepts from Informational Texts, Branscombe (2019) elaborates on the significant benefits of drama for learning that were also the focus of her 2015 article, “Showing, not Telling: Tableau as an Embodied Text.” She wrote the book “to further the cause of embodied teaching practices that make learning more varied, interesting, and memorable” (Branscombe, 2019, p. xii). Drama, she believes, provides embodied evidence of understanding and has the potential to both represent and record deep knowledge (Branscombe, 2019, p. 6).

A multitude of practitioners and authors agree. As far back as 1903, American educator Anna Buckbee argued that school needed to be “a place of activity instead of a place where the children sit still and receive passively what is given to them” (Buckbee, 1903, p. 110). The following three authors say, essentially, what hundreds of others have said in their own ways: “In drama, people use themselves as media, in a reality located between subjectivity and objectivity, improvising to find meaning. They become media for learning…. [Drama] is an embodied, tacit way of learning and knowing such as people use in their daily lives” (Henry, 2000, p. 57 and p. 59).”  Improvisational drama in middle school English classes builds confidence, community, and competence. “It affords students the opportunity to work with others, creates interactions with the text in different and active ways, and promotes participation, regardless of ability levels” (Maples, 2007, p. 276). Researchers who used drama with elementary and middle school students found that it could expediate understanding of abstract phenomena (Varelas et al. 2022, 518) and lead to opportunities for collective meaning making as student-performers collaborated on various movements and modes to represent ideas (Varelas et al., 2022, p. 512).

DRAMA REMAINS BACKSTAGE

With all this excellent evidence and chronicles of classroom victories, why then is Drama so rarely a part of a teacher’s repertoire? In my work presenting arts integration professional development for teachers, I repeatedly heard versions of these four concerns, abbreviated here: Too little training, too off-topic, too much time, and too likely to cause trouble.

Too Little Training

Even though in 1973, Koziol wrote that many teachers of English seemed to realize drama as a powerful activity, he found relatively few who used dramatization regularly in their classrooms. “One possibility is, of course, that teachers have had little opportunity to explore dramatization in detail, either as part of their pre-service training programs, or as part of their in-service programs and workshops” (Koziol, 1973, p. 1167). Lack of experience and training appears frequently as a reason why many classroom teachers feel insecure in teaching the arts, especially when they are asked to include them in their basic curriculum (National Endowment for the Arts, 1988, p. 101). “The arts overall have little priority in our university teacher-training systems. Drama is often near the bottom of that limited attention” (Furman, 2000, p. 177). Catterall (2002) notes that while teachers may voice support for drama as a learning method, many do not use it because they do not know what to do, how to do it effectively, or even where to begin.

Too Off-Topic

Catterall continues explaining that Drama is missing in action because “teachers may be much less inclined in middle and high school to involve drama in their academic teaching repertoires because of their concentrations on academic specialties regarded as having little to do with play (Catterall, 2002, p. 61). “Dramatic activities tend to be placed at the ‘edge’ of the official curriculum; they seem to be time-consuming and unnecessary” (Sun, 2003, p. 2).

Too Much Time

Buckbee (1903) voiced what continues to be a concern of teachers over 100 years later: “The objection is sometimes made to dramatic work in school that it takes too much time. It does take time, but it is time well spent” (Buckbee, 1903, p. 111). Others neglect drama, writes Hagaa in 1951, because they envision hours spend in the preparation of materials, hours which they cannot afford in a crowded schedule (Hagaa, 1951, p. 77).

Too Likely to Cause Trouble

Then—perhaps the biggest fear—is unproductive chaos in the classroom. “Dramatic activities are so playful that teachers might be afraid that children will not take learning seriously” (Sun, 2003, p. 2) Students who are up, moving, talking, gesturing, and possibly even laughing might become classroom management problems or they might respond negatively. “Although teachers may be turned on to dramatization, and try to use it constructively in their classrooms, many have initial experiences as a leader of the activity which failed to provide that teacher with the anticipated activity, energy, and enthusiasm from students. The resulting disappointment all too often leads to skepticism…. When inexperienced leaders fail to achieve recognizable success in their initial efforts, I think there is a definite tendency to disregard that activity in the future or to use it sparingly” (Koziol, 1973, p. 1167).

STAGE DIRECTIONS

One solution to helping teachers leverage the benefits of embodied cognition via classroom drama is to provide detailed instructions for an activity that has strong curriculum connections, classroom management guidelines, and does not take a lot of time. Educational drama books and articles are full of activities that fit that bill, but for this article, the chosen strategy is Vocabulary Improvisations. Improvisations—unscripted scenes—that incorporate select vocabulary words help students internalize and communicate the words’ meanings with their minds and bodies. “Embodied cognition proposes that meaning comes from grounding symbols in sensorimotor simulations. Thus, learning vocabulary requires linking the word with relevant sensorimotor experiences” (Gómez and Glenberg, 2022, p. 89). If you need additional convincing, try this: Pause in your reading of this article and see if you can state a good definition of the word “smug.” [Pause] Now, strike a silent pose that shows your understanding of the word with your face and body. Add a sound as well if you like. Some of you may have been able to provide a dictionary-worthy definition, but I bet the meaning of “smug” was stored in every reader’s mind and body.

A Drama Warm-up

Use a similar activity to have your students provide embodied evidence of their understandings of words. Explain that you will read some short sentences aloud. Their goal is to communicate the meaning of the boldfaced word in the sentence with their bodies—faces, arms, and hands. You may do this warm-up with students seated or standing. Read the following with minimal vocal expression; add vocal expression if students need a bit of a hint.

“That is outrageous.”

“I feel so inept at this.”

“The invitation made me ecstatic.”

“He looks suspicious.”

“You seem a bit jittery.”

“That score made me feel defeated.”

“I’m skeptical about that story.”

If time allows, you can let students add a sound that also communicates the word’s meaning (a sigh for the word “defeated,” for example). You can also allow the students to repeat each sentence with expression, gestures, movements, and sounds. And, of course, you can create your own sentences with vocabulary words that suit your students and subject.

(Science) “I suspect there’s bias in your argument.”

(Social Studies) “It’s like I’m experiencing a famine.”

(Math) “Please cut it on the diagonal.”

VOCABULARY IMPROVISATIONS

Here is a compact set of directions for one way that teachers can use drama in vocabulary instruction, followed by a more detailed explanation of the process and some examples of student participation.

Vocabulary Improvisations

1. Create vocabulary word cards.

2. Explain the dramatic process:

3. Groups of 2 or 3 students will:

a. Pick 2 vocabulary word cards.

b. Discuss the words and their meanings.

c. Take 5 minutes to plan a short, improvised scene.

i. Decide on the characters and context of the scene.

ii. Decide who will speak which words.

d. Post word cards on the board.

e. Present a one-minute scene.

4. Reflect on the effectiveness of the scene with audience and actors.

EXPLANATION OF THE DIRECTIONS

Create vocabulary word cards—one word per notecard/half sheet of paper, printed so that it can be read from a distance (approximately 2 inches tall). On the opposite side of each card, provide the word’s definition or require students to look up and write out or draw a visual representation of the definition.

Figure 1: Here is an example of a vocabulary card

Explain the dramatic process to the student actors:

You will work in groups of two or three people. Each group picks two vocabulary word cards at random, meets to discuss the words and their meanings, and then decides on the characters and context of a scene that will incorporate your two words. Remember that some kind of conflict within a scene generally makes it more interesting to watch. Think about a problem that the two words suggest and then plan how your characters might work to solve the problem. Whether or not the characters succeed is what keeps audiences watching dramas. 

If your students need it, share the list below with them:

Characters in conflict may:

• argue for or against something

• ask for help/need information

• need to make a decision

• devise a plan

• give advice

• persuade

• convince

• protest

• scold

• accuse

Each vocabulary word must be spoken at least twice within the dialogue of a scene, so be sure to decide who will speak which words. (Note: Any form of the word, i.e., smirk, smirking, smirked…) Every member of the group must play a role in the improvised scene, but not every actor needs to have a speaking role. You may incorporate non-speakers who play roles like waiters, bus drivers, bystanders, customers, students, etc.

You will have five minutes to plan and then present a one-minute scene that has a beginning, middle, and end. There is no need (or time) to write a script. You will improvise the dialogue. Remember in your planning to consider how to use your face and body as well as your voice to communicate the meaning of a vocabulary word. When it’s your group’s turn to present, post your vocabulary words on the board so that the audience knows to listen for them.

The visual element of the posted words focuses the observing students on the words and their spellings. They see the words that they are listening for. The posted words also serve as a visual cue for the student actors as they present their improvisation. 

Example Vocabulary Improvisations

The following examples are from transcripts of portions of the dialogue in Vocabulary Improvisations work with 7th graders:

Vocabulary Words: SMIRK, PROPOSITION

Improvised Dialogue Using the Vocabulary Words:

1: Where were you, son?

2: Oh…nowhere…

1: Don’t give me that weird smirk.

2: Okay, I have a proposition. I'll get you whatever you want from Target to not tell mom.

1: I don't like that proposition.

2: I’ll give you another proposition.

1:   Stop smirking at me like that!

____________________

Vocabulary Words: PARASITE, DECOMPOSER

Improvised Dialogue Using the Vocabulary Words:

1: Professor, I firmly believe that this worm is clearly a parasite.

2: I disagree. The worm is a decomposer.

1:  I know a decomposer when I see one. This particular worm is not chewing on anything that’s already dead.

2: Are you saying that my office plant is alive?!

1: That’s the good news. The bad news is that it has a parasite!

2: Oh no! Then my plant might be dead soon!

____________________

Vocabulary Words: BISECT, CIRCUMFERENCE

Improvised Dialogue Using the Vocabulary Words:

1: Let’s dig the circle for the garden right here.

2: What’s the circumference measurement our customers want?

1: They said a circumference of 16 feet. Let’s measure it out.

2: Easy. Then we plant a half circle of daisies.

1: And a half circle of daffodils.

2: Right. We bisect the circle and then plant.

1: Dig. Bisect. Plant. Done!

____________________

Vocabulary Words: VASSAL, PILGRIMAGE

Improvised Dialogue Using the Vocabulary Words:

1: Sir, I beg of you! I want to go on the pilgrimage with my friends

2: The pilgrimage! No! You will be gone too long!

1: Please sir, it means a lot to me and my religion.

2: You are my vassal and that means you have to stay and work on my land.

1: Doesn’t a vassal get any free choices?

2: No! Not as long as I am your lord!

____________________

Vocabulary Words: ASSUMPTION, RECIPIENT

Improvised Dialogue Using the Vocabulary Words:

1:    Guess who is the recipient of the $10,000 prize?

2:    You?

1:    Yeah.

2:    Well, my assumption is that you're going to share the money with me.

1:    Well, your assumption is wrong.

2:    Oh! I wish I was the recipient!

____________________

Model the Planning and Presenting. Choose a willing student or two to model the process with you. To reinforce the written and oral directions for this activity, let the other students observe the planning discussion followed by the short, improvised scene. For example, I modeled how a student and I could plan to use the words “captivate” and “presumptuous.” We decided that she would be a waiter and I would be a singer in a restaurant. She would introduce me and my captivating voice, but I would fail to be good. I would insist that I was captivating and presume that the audience loved me. She would call me presumptuous and I would storm out of the restaurant and she would apologize to the audience. We then posted our words and improvised the scene that we planned.

Reflect on the effectiveness of the scene after each presentation. With the students—both the actors and the audience—reflect on the scene and the incorporation of vocabulary words. First, ask the audience to compliment the strong aspects of the improvisation: What worked? What effective choices did the student actors make? How did the scene increase your understanding of the vocabulary words? How did the student actors use their bodies (faces, arms, hands, gestures) to help communicate the meanings of the words? Since actor improvement is not the goal of this activity, it’s best to ask observers for only their positive comments. Then ask the student actors to critique their own work: What went well? What would you change if you were to present the scene again? (If you have the time, it's great to send the same groups of student actors back to rehearse and enhance the same improvised scene.) 

Some Classroom Management Suggestions

• Before you begin the scene presentations, remind the audience that they are welcome to laugh appropriately if they enjoy what they see and hear, but they are not to make comments.

• Cue student actors to begin their scene with a simple word like “Action” and ask one member of the group to indicate that the scene is done by saying, “Scene.”

• Videoing the scenes may increase students’ willingness to participate productively. Allowing students to be videographers is another way to involve reluctant or resistant students.

• If some students are particularly resistant to participate as actors, it is fine to allow them to be cooperative audience members because they will still benefit from observing the dramatic work of others.

• See Figure 2: Improvisation Guidelines for helpful requirements of classroom dramatic behavior.

Figure 2: A chart of improvisation guidelines, created by Rosalind M. Flynn

EPILOGUE

Without specific, time-efficient, worthwhile drama activity instructions, the use of drama as an embodied cognition strategy in classrooms will rarely be realized. If this article inspires teachers to leverage the power of drama, one positive effect would be increased classroom dramatic experiences for students. Anecdotally, I can report that this dramatic approach has the potential to motivate students to think more deeply and creatively, to participate actively in communicating words and their meanings, and to enjoy the challenge of the drama task. If embodied learning matters and drama works to foster it, research that answers questions like the following would strengthen the case for the use of the arts to support learning across disciplines: When students are provided with a dramatic purpose for using and speaking vocabulary words, do they remember the meanings of the words and use them correctly in the future? When teachers experience success in leading one type of drama activity, does that give them confidence to try other uses of drama? Does repeated participation in drama activities increase the quality of students’ dramatic abilities and their willingness to show embodied evidence of their understandings? The stage is set for future acts.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Flynn, R.M. (2025). Drama as embodied learning: Moving from theory to action. ArtsPraxis, 12 (1), pp. 43-61. 

REFERENCES

Blatt-Gross, C. (2015). Moving ideas: Multimodality and embodied [Review of Moving Ideas: Multimodality and Embodied]. Journal of Language and Literacy Education, 11 (1), pp. 137–140. University of Georgia, Dept of Language and Literacy Education.

Branscombe, M. (2015). Showing, not telling: Tableau as an embodied text. The Reading Teacher, 69 (3), pp. 321–329.

Branscombe, M. (2019). Teaching through embodied learning: Dramatizing key concepts from informational texts (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429462986

Braund, M. (2015). Drama and learning science: an empty space? British Educational Research Journal, 41 (1), pp. 102–121. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3130

Buckbee, A. (1903). Use of dramatization in teaching history. New York Teachers' Monographs, 5, pp. 106-117.

Catterall, J. (2002). “Research on drama and theater in education.” Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development, edited by R.J. Deasy. Washington, DC: Arts Education Partnership.

Coleman, C., & Lind, T. (2020). Calculating for creativity: Maths joins the circus. Waikato Journal of Education, 25 (1), pp. 85–99. https://doi.org/10.15663/wje.v25i0.717

Furman, L. (2000). In support of drama in early childhood education, again. Early Childhood Education Journal, 27 (3), pp. 173–178. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02694231

Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. Basic Books.

Gómez, L.E. & Glenberg, A.M. (2022). Embodied classroom activities for vocabulary acquisition. In S.L. Macrine & J.M.B. Fugate (Eds.) Movement Matters: How Embodied Cognition Informs Teaching and Learning. MIT Press.

Hagaa, A. (1951). Creative dramatics in the recreation program. Recreation, 45 (1), pp. 77-80.

Henry, M. (2000) Drama’s ways of learning. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 5 (1), pp. 45-62, DOI: 10.1080/135697800114195

James, E.S. (1914). Learning by doing. Bobbs Merrill.

Jewitt, C. (2008). Multimodality and literacy in school classrooms. Review of Research in Education, 32 (1), pp. 241–267. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X07310586

Johnson, M. (1989). Embodied knowledge. Curriculum Inquiry, 19 (4), pp. 361–377. https://doi.org/10.2307/1179358

Katz, M. L. (Ed.). (2013). Moving ideas: Multimodality and embodied learning in communities and schools. NY: Peter Lang.

Koziol, S. M. (1973). Dramatization and educational objectives. The English Journal, 62 (8), pp. 1167–1170. https://doi.org/10.2307/813317

Macrine, S. L., & Fugate, J. M. B. (2022). Movement matters: How embodied cognition informs teaching and learning (S. L. Macrine & J. M. B. Fugate, Eds.). The MIT Press.

Maples, J. (2007). English Class at the improv: Using improvisation to teach middle school students confidence, community, and content. The Clearing House, 80 (6), pp. 273–277. https://doi.org/10.3200/TCHS.80.6.273-277  

Miller, E., Vanderhoof, B., Patterson, H. J., & Clegg, L. B. (1989). Integrating drama into the social studies class. The Clearing House, 63 (1), pp. 26–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/00098655.1989.9955715

Morris, R. V. (2001). Drama and authentic assessment in a social studies classroom. Social Studies (Philadelphia, PA: 1934), 92 (1), pp. 41–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/00377990109603974

National Endowment for the Arts. (1988). Toward civilization: a report on arts education. Washington, D.C.: The Endowment.

NCTE Position Statements. (2020). Drama-based literacies.

Prince, M. (2004). Does active learning work? A review of the research. Journal of Engineering Education, 93 (3), pp. 223–231. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2004.tb00809.x

Shapiro, L. and Spaulding, S. (2021). Embodied cognition. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Sun, P.-Y. (2003). Using drama and theatre to promote literacy development some basic classroom applications. ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading English and Communication.

Swift, E. J. (1914). Learning by doing. The Bobbs-Merrill Company.

Torrance, E. P. (1965). Scientific views of creativity and factors affecting its growth. Daedalus, 94 (3), pp. 663–681.

Varelas, M., Kotler, R. T., Natividad, H. D., Phillips, N., Tsachor, R. P., Woodard, R., Gutierrez, M., Melchor, M. A., & Rosario, M. (2021). “Science theatre makes you good at science”: Affordances of embodied performances in urban elementary science classrooms. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 59 (4), pp. 493–528. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21735

SEE ALSO

Rosalind M. Flynn - Active Theatre History

Rosalind M. Flynn, PhD., is the head of the Master of Arts in Theatre Education (MATE) degree program at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. She is also a Teaching Artist for The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts who conducts arts integration workshops nationwide and online. Her articles on educational drama have been published in Language Arts, Dramatics, Youth Theatre Journal, Teaching Theatre, English Journal, Teaching Artist Journal, Literacy Learning: The Middle Years, ArtsPraxis, and The Reading Teacher. Dr. Flynn is also the author of three books on the educational uses of drama—A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension (co-author Lenore Blank Kelner), Dramatizing the Content with Curriculum-Based Readers Theatre, and Tableau Classroom Drama Activities.

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