Mack’s play adaptation based on W.W. Jacobs’ classic short story, The Monkey’s Paw, appears in the April 23rd issue of Scholastic’s Scope magazine. Jacobs’ story works is based on the premise, “Be careful what you wish for.” When a family acquires a magical monkey’s paw from mystical India, they take their first wish lightly, leading to disastrous results. To get it, become a Scope subscriber by clicking here. It comes with a wide variety of support material including comprehension exercises and a quiz. Scope is aimed at the middle school level. The Monkey’s Paw is one of dozens of classics Mack has adapted for Scholastic. His book, Read-Aloud Plays: Classic Shorts Stories includes works by Gogol, Poe, Kipling, and others, including Rikki Tikki Tavi, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and The Gift of the Magi. It’s available at Scholastic.com, Amazon.com, and numerous other book sellers.
Author Archives: macklewis
Stolen Childhoods
Mack’s play about photographer Lewis Hine and his efforts to establish child labor laws during the 1920s and 30s made a re-appearance in the iconic Junior Scholastic magazine. The compelling play tells the story of a trio of siblings and their stolen childhood at the hands of industrialization. It originally appeared in Scholastic’s Scope magazine. To get an archived digital copy of the play, consider becoming a Junior Scholastic subscriber by clicking here.
For more information on the pioneering work of Lewis Hine and the history of child labor in the U.S., visit The History Place and the Lewis Hine Project. Hine’s photos of emaciated and abused child laborers rallied pubic support for regulation that remains in effect today. 
Hine became famous for lugging his simple box camera into cotton mills and coal mines where he took photos of children as young as five or six doing the work traditionally given to adults. Children often worked twelve hours a day or longer in dangerous conditions. Because factories could hire children for a fraction of what they could hire adults, unemployment among men skyrocketed. Naturally, Hine was labled an instigator and was frequently thrown out of many of the factories he visited.
Podcast Previews
Several of Mack’s plays can now be heard via podcast. Fifth grade students have lent their voice talents to each of the following plays: Freedom for the First Time, which looks at the reaction of slaves to the Civil War and emancipation; How Jackie Saved the World, which shows the significance of Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the color barrier; and Black Boy, about the young adulthood of Richard Wright. These podcasts are ideal for previewing plays prior to purchasing, as examples for your students, or as alternatives to traditional read-alouds. Other available titles include Box Brown’s Freedom Crate, which is about the slave who mailed himself to the North in a box, I Have a Dream, which portrays Martin Luther King’s childhood, and The Girl Who Got Arrested, which tells Claudette Colvin’s heart-wrenching story from the Montgomery Bus Boycott. There is no cost to download (though the usual copyright rules remain in effect).
Checkbook Project Featured in Podcast
The Checkbook Project, Mack’s FREE classroom economy program, has gotten the attention of a critically-acclaimed financial literacy site. Talking Fin Lit, a podcast program sponsored by McGraw-Hill, recently carried an interview in which The Checkbook Project was discussed at length. Host Mark Gura interview Mack in December for the podcast currently being aired. To hear the interview, click here. To download The Checkbook Project, click on the link at the top of the page.
In Honor of MLK
February is African-American History Month! Now you can liven up your Civil Rights unit with this powerful classroom play about the Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-ins of 1960 for FREE. That’s right, in honor of Dr. King and all the other warriors who sacrificed on behalf of Civil Rights, we’re offering this poignant re-enactment for FREE throughout February. We’re convinced you and your students will love it so much that you’ll be back to Mack’s TpT site to check out all the rest of his professionally-published Civil Rights and Black History plays. Based on the actual event, this seven page, twenty minute classroom play script is suitable for reader’s theater or stage performance and can be adapted to include music from the Civil Rights Movement. From seven to fourteen parts, use it with students in grades 4 through 8 to improve fluency, build comprehension, and engage learners. Originally published in the January 2003 issue of Scholastic’s Storyworks magazine, its dramatic conclusion has made it one of the most frequently republished in the Civil Rights series. Just click on the cover and it’s yours!
Freedom for the First Time
Freedom for the First Time depicts the Day of Jubilee, the moment slaves were emancipated at the conclusion of the Civil War. It’s one of Mack’s most poignant plays and an ideal candidate for inclusion in your African-American History Month activities. It’s suitable for kids as young as grade 3 and as mature as grade 8. Perform it as simple reader’s theater, record and post a podcast (see below), or consider adding traditional slave spirituals and create a full-blown stage production. Also be sure to check out Mack’s free guide to using drama in the classroom, which provides brain research on how play scripts build fluency. To preview and/or purchase Freedom for the First Time, visit Mack’s storefront at TeachersPayTeachers. For just three bucks, you’ll receive the rights to copy a class set of scripts each year for use in the original purchaser’s classroom.
Podcasts for Black History Month
Consider producing one of Mack’s African-American history plays as podcasts for Black History Month. Mrs. Merenda’s class in Maine produced two podcasts in 2011. You can listen to their performances of Box Brown’s Freedom Crate and Mack’s play from MLK’s childhood entitled I Have a Dream simply by clicking on the title. Both plays originally appeared in Scholastic’s Storyworks magazine. If you like more information about how to create a podcast with your students, take a look at this Youtube video. All of Mack’s plays are written with both the classroom and the stage in mind, so they make excellent podcasts. Visit Mack’s storefront at TeachersPayTeachers for a wide variety of reader’s theater selections.
Jackie Robinson Play Revised
Jackie Robinson’s impact on Civil Rights has been largely under-appreciated. As the first man to break the “color barrier” of professional sports, Robinson opened the door for millions of American youth to look beyond skin color and instead focus on character and accomplishment. Robinson’s ordeal should never be forgotten, and this classroom play helps kids understand and appreciate just what Jackie went through to save America. How Jackie Saved the World was originally published in the October 2004 issue of Scholastic’s Storyworks magazine. It’s been newly revised with historical photos and embedded comprehension questions just in time for February’s African-American History Month and Major League Baseball’s Spring Training. Kids say this is one of their favorites to enact, so don’t miss out. Download a free preview at TeachersPayTeachers by clicking here.
Pigtails & Protests
Just in time for Martin Luther King Day and African-American History Month comes Pigtails and Protests, a new Civil Rights play by Mack Lewis. The play, which tells the story of Dr. King’s “Youngest Freedom Fighters” appears in the January 2012 issue of Scholastic’s Storyworks magazine. Despite dangerous conditions, eight-year-old Sheyann Webb and 9-year-old Rachel West joined the Voting Rights protests in Selma, Alabama. The campaign culminated in the famous “Bloody Sunday” event in which state troopers on horseback used tear gas and billy clubs to suppress an otherwise peaceful crowd of marchers. It’s considered a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement. The play includes historical images. To check it out you’ll need to visit the Storyworks website, where you can get a FREE trial subscription to the best classroom magazine on the planet.
Now Available at TeachersPayTeachers
Mack’s Civil Rights play, The Girl Who Got Arrested, is now available on TeachersPayTeachers. The play, which was originally published in Scholastic’s Storyworks magazine, is based on real events from the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Over the years Rosa Parks has received the lion’s share of attention for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, but before Rosa came a teenager named Claudette Colvin. Claudette, acting spontaneously and in response to what she’d been learning in school about the Constitution, refused to give up her seat and was jailed. She was initially lauded a hero, but when the Justice System unceremoniously convicted her, the Black community and history itself turned against her. Her story has been recounted in Phillip Hoose’s award-winning book, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, which was one of several resources Mack used in creating this play. This is a gritty, hard-hitting classroom play that brings a new perspective to instruction about the Montgomery Campaign. Check it out at TpT!