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From Issue #13, Fall
2006
Readers
Theatre in education
Reader's
Theater: A Reason to Read Aloud
by Cara Bafile
Reprinted with permission
From: Education World®
Copyright © 2003 Education World
http://www.education-world.com
The Reader's Theater strategy blends
students' desire to perform with their need for oral reading practice.
RT offers an entertaining and engaging means of improving fluency and
enhancing comprehension. Included: RT tips from the experts!
Characteristics of Reader's Theater
Master teacher Susan Finney shares these characteristics of "Reader's
Theater" activities:
* Students do not memorize their
parts; they always read from their scripts.
* A stage is unnecessary, student simply stand or sit in a semicircle.
* Scripts ideally are introduced in small groups.
* The script is treated like a new story, in that instructional support
may be needed for new vocabulary and understanding of characters.
* For struggling readers who are building fluency, scripts are manageable
-- at the students' independent reading level and/or at their instructional
reading level.
* Opportunities for practice are provided.
"I love the active involvement part of this approach," Susan
Finney told Education World. "It's hard to be a passive observer
when you have a script in your hands!"
Finney, a retired educator and author
who gives seminars about improving the art of teaching reading, is not
alone in singing the praises of a strategy that combines reading practice
and performing -- Reader's Theater!
"The first Reader's Theater
scripts I saw were shared with me by a veteran first-grade teacher --
a classic case of learning from the teacher next door," Finney
explained. "She would send small groups of her beginning readers
around the school to perform in different classrooms. It was a brilliant
idea. The children never knew that they were being tricked into rereading
-- a key factor in developing fluency."
In Reader's Theater, students "perform"
by reading scripts created from grade-level books or stories -- generally
without benefit of costumes and props. The goal is to enhance reading
skill and confidence through practice with a purpose. Reader's Theater
gives students a real reason to read aloud.
"A great deal of fluency research
reiterates the need for repeated reading," reported Finney. "Without
fluency, there is little comprehension; the value of Reader's Theater
is increased tenfold when used as a strategy for increasing understanding
of what is being read."
Reader's Theater motivates reluctant
readers and provides fluent readers with the opportunity to explore
genre and characterization.
"Some of our students are hams
-- they just don't know it until they get up in front of the group,"
Finney observed. "In Reader's Theater, there is no risk, because
there's no memorization required. There's enough opportunity for practice,
so struggling readers are not put on the spot."
Finney offered a few more thoughts
for teachers new to the Reader's Theater format:
Choose only scripts that are fun
to do with lots of good dialogue. Boring scripts are no better than
boring stories.
Start slowly and spend the time necessary so students feel comfortable
in the performance mode.
Model each character's part and match roles to readers.
Combine parts if there are too many, and cut out scenes and characters
that aren't important.
Scripts are not sacrosanct. Change them if they work better another
way.
Work with small groups, not with the whole class, whenever possible.
Take 5!
Producing a Reader's Theater script? Peggy Sharp suggests five "script
notes."
1. Begin with very easy scripts.
It is important at the start that readers do not have to think about
how to read the words.
2. Select scripts that involve many readers. I prefer the ones that
give more readers fewer words.
3. Short scripts are best in the beginning. Students need to learn to
listen to the Reader's Theater script just as much as they need to learn
to read the script.
4. Provide each reader with a separate script, highlighting his or her
part with yellow (or another appropriate color). I like to put the scripts
in folders for a more "professional" look.
5. Give the readers the opportunity to read the script to themselves
silently, and to read their parts to themselves aloud.
THE "GOOD" SCRIPT
Not reliant on the trappings of some dramatic exercises, Reader's Theater
is built upon fine texts used well. In her own classroom, Finney found
that Reader's Theater was most successful when her students were "crazy
about the script." She hunts for texts that have fun characters,
clear plots, and comfortable language.
"I look for scripts that have
lots of natural dialog," says Dr. Peggy Sharp, a former classroom
teacher and library media specialist. "I also look for scripts
in which each speaker does not have too many lines at once. Reader's
Theater is more effective when one person is not reading too many lines
while the others wait."
Sharp is a consultant who shares
the best of new children's books and strategies for using them in the
classroom. "Reader's Theater is a wonderful technique for helping
readers learn to read aloud with expression," she explains. "I
especially like to perform Reader's Theater without props so the readers
learn that the expression in their voices needs to provide much of the
drama of the story."
PRESTO! BETTER READING LIKE MAGIC
"If you're searching for a way to get your children reading aloud
with comprehension, expression, fluency, and joy, Reader's Theater is
a miracle," echoes Judy Freeman, another children's literature
consultant. "Hand out a Xeroxed play script, assign a part to each
child, and have them simply read the script aloud and act it out. That's
it. And then magic happens."
Freeman's "magic" occurs
when the students get to be on stage -- even if that stage is the floor
of the classroom or library. Shy kids blossom, and students develop
a strong sense of community.
"LIVING" THEATER
"Reader's Theater allows children
the luxury of lingering over a story; acting it out many times so they
come to understand all its nuances," Freeman explained. "Too
often, children read a story and only understand it at its most superficial
literal level. With Reader's Theater, they're not just reading a story;
they're living it."
Freeman's "Five Essential Ingredients"
When choosing a book or chapter to write as a play, Judy Freeman looks
for five features:
* Peppy dialogue
* A little action
* Laugh-out-loud parts
* Lively narration
* Enough roles for all
If the script is adapted from a children's book, Freeman suggests the
teacher read it aloud first, so students can enjoy it and listen to
expression and phrasing. Then scripts can be distributed, and students
can practice their parts -- sounding out difficult words and getting
a sense of their lines.
"Always perform a Reader's Theater script at least twice,"
she advises. "The first time, the children will be struggling with
words and their meanings, and with making sense of the play. It'll be
rough, but who cares? The second time, they'll be able to focus on enjoying
the performance and their parts in it. You can, if you wish, carry it
further, adding props, costumes, and scenery; memorizing lines; or even
putting on the play for other groups. You don't have to, though. It's
the process that's important here, not a finished product."
Canadian television producer/educational
publisher Lois Walker, who creates Reader's Theater, choral reading,
and puppet play scripts through her company Scripts for Schools, believes
that a good script can transcend reading levels. She explained, "A
sensitive teacher who knows the capabilities and reading levels of his
or her students will be careful to assign the proper reading parts to
the proper readers so everyone can have fun and succeed."
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Aaron Shepard's RT Page
This site from author Aaron Shepard explains Reader's Theater and includes
free scripts and practice sheets.
The Power of Reader's Theater
Read more about the Reader's Theater technique in Jennifer Prescott's
article from Scholastic.
Playbooks
Playbooks provides books designed in Reader's Theater format with color-coded
text for various roles.
Favorite Scripts
To introduce the concept of Reader's Theater to her seminar audiences,
Susan Finney uses a story called The Earthquake God by Aaron Shepard,
which she turned into a Reader's Theater script. Other experts also
told Education World about their favorite texts for Reader's Theater
activities.
"Some of my very favorite plays
that I've adapted come from picture books," said Judy Freeman.
"They include Matt Novak's Mouse TV, Susan Meddaugh's Martha Walks
the Dog, Doreen Cronin's Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, Margie Palatini's
The Web Files, and Shelley Moore Thomas's Get Well, Good Knight. All
are endlessly fun to act out, simple without being simplistic, and with
lots of bustle and humor."
Peggy Sharp finds Arnold Lobel's
Frog and Toad stories among the best for Reader's Theater. "Those
stories are easy to read, short, full of wonderful natural dialog, and
address issues that still resonate with kids," she explained.
For primary readers, Lois Walker
recommends her tales Go Home Goldie and The Creaky Door, and for intermediate
readers Misery's Tree or Joe and the Button Factory. "Our best
selling teen script is based on the life of Alexander Graham Bell,"
she added. More information is available at Scripts for Schools.
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