Searching for America, Volume One, The New World

Have you ever wanted to teach a thorough survey of American Literature, but could not find the time? Searching for America takes some of America’s greatest works of fiction and non-fiction and adapts them into Reader’s Theater script-stories. Now classic texts such as The Scarlet Letter can be experienced in a whole new way! Reader’s Theater script-stories allow students to break away from silent reading and participate in a group “acting out” experience that brings literature to life. By making literature an exciting, group-learning event, this script-story strategy motivates reluctant learners,  helps struggling readers become a part of the story, and encourages all students to dig deeper into the texts. American Literature has never been this exciting and engaging! The script-stories included in this series are designed for students grades 6-12. Each script-story is prefaced by a 2-page teacher guide providing a synopsis of the adapted text, relevant background information and commentary, anticipatory questions for pre-script discussion, essential questions to help analyze the "big ideas" behind each text, recall questions to check reading comprehension, and instructions for teaching commonly-tested terms and literary devices using each script.

This volume of 11 script-stories includes Native American myths like “The Flying Canoe” and “Gluscabi,” non-fiction selections from early American Literature such as “The Explorers of the New World,” “Mayflower: The Voyage of the Pilgrims,” “The Journey of Olaudah Equiano,” “Captured by Indians: The Narrative of Mary Rowlandson,” and fictional works like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Courtship of Miles Standish” and a four-part adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. In addition an interactive classroom strategy game gives students a chance to build their own New World colony while competing against their fellow classmates.

Zachary Hamby is an author, illustrator, and experienced educator. He has spoken at many conferences including the NCTE National Convention on the benefits of using Reader's Theater script-stories in the secondary classroom. He is also the author of the Reaching Olympus series, which teaches world mythology. He also operates two websites, mythologyteacher.com and creativeenglishteacher.com . He currently teaches high school in the Ozarks where he lives with his wife and children.