Hoetker describes drama as a method of better accommodating students whose learning styles are visual or kinesthetic, of teaching critical skills, and of producing aesthetic experiences with literature. The gradual construction and exploration of this world results in a better and more personal understanding of the central issues being studied. Improvisation takes many useful forms besides role playing. Other techniques useful in the classroom are readers' theater and choral readings and writing and producing radio programs, television screenplays, or documentaries. Students develop both an understanding of and appreciation for literary genres and for particular works of fiction by writing scripts from fiction or writing fiction descriptions from play scenes.
Dramatic activity is a useful way to begin a piece of literature or to generate ideas for writing.
Drama can encourage students to explore, clarify, and elaborate feelings, attitudes, and ideas. Because drama requires students to organize, synthesize, and articulate their ideas, it provides an excellent opportunity for reflection and evaluation at the conclusion of a unit of study. In using drama in the classroom, the teacher becomes a facilitator rather than an authority or the source of knowledge. As collaborator and guide, the teacher sets the topic and starts things in motion, but the students' choices determine the course the lesson will take. The teacher encourages students to take the major responsibility for giving meaning to the curricular concepts and to communicate them through action, gesture, and dialogue.