Children do not soon forget Daniel Boone, if they have donned a coonskin cap and tracked animals while studying westward expansion, or Thomas Jefferson, if they have worn a white wig and written parts of the The Declaration of Independence with a quill. And blindness becomes a reality after a day spent blindfolded and writing in Braille. To live it is to remember it.

After a child has read a particular work, his ability to recreate that work through drama fosters several skills. First, it tests his memory of what was read with all its details. Second, it tests his ability to communicate effectively what he read to another person. And, third, it tests his understanding of the meaning of what he read as he adds inflections, emphasis, gestures, and dramatic actions to enact the story. Dramatizing not only allows the child to visualize what he has just read, but it reinforces the meaning and understanding of it as well.