Former High School, now College teacher here...
I've never seen an actual text. I like using the
book "Technical theater for non-technical people" as a guide combined with my own fabulous lectures.
For Light design I do a long detailed project. We use art and I as students, "If this was a picture of a set, what sort of lighting instruments would you have to use and where would you have to place them in order to get it to look like this?" I start with very simple pictures with a single light source and work my way up to massive scenic panorama shots where the light is inconsistent. I also love throwing in some religious paintings where light is coming out of the baby Jesus. Again... if this was a set where would the lights be. Students turn in their designs and we discuss a few at random as a class. It's the way I was taught and I think it really works.
I've talked about it before but I really believe in a mentorship program in high school tech. Once you have a core group of students who know their stuff you find a way to officially annoint them (more on that below). Then match them up with new students to be their lacky. Assign your best students and your new students to work together. Let the intermediate ones work on their own. Put people into teams. Give teams projects. Your future SM should be both a light and sound op for a couple of shows... to learn how to
call a show and to learn how to treat crew. It's a powerful way to develop the program that really worked.
As for buy in and "anointing my chosen ones". I put my own padlocks on all the gear. When a student earned my trust and became a real leader, I gave them a set of keys. Now they still needed me to let them into the theater or the booth... I'm not crazy. But once they were in they could work like a professional with access to everything. It was a powerful motivator. I heard students saying, "I want to earn my own set of keys". Once came to me and asked, "I've been coming to class for two years why don't I have a set of keys?" My response, "They aren't a right they are an earned privelage... let me tell you what you need to do to earn them." It also was a powerful tool for creating a feeling of ownership and responsibility in my students. My had carpenter made sure every tool was used safely, correctly, and locked up back in the cabinet where it belonged when the day was done... because those were HIS tools. Worked for me.
