In my last blog, I shared tips on how to stage a Reader’s Theater performance. Here are some suggestions on how to enhance your production and involve your students in the work needed to create a “Broadway” play. Lighting/Music/Sound lights go off and then on again to show the beginning of the play and/or scene changes spotlights focused on the speaker bells or whistles for cueing scene changes background music that sets the mood of the script specific sounds that relate to the play TV Production Students can work with school facilities or use their own equipment. Personnel can include: a camera person to record the...
Read More Post a comment (0)Performances of a Reader’s Theater script need not involve props or costumes. However, there may be times when you and your students wish to stage a more elaborate production (for example, as the culminating event in a thematic unit of study), or as part of a multi-class assembly. Here are some ideas for getting everyone in the class “into the act,” not just those students who are reading the script. Scenery Scenery can be as simple as an old sheet or a large piece of fabric taped to a wall, or as complicated as you want to...
Read More Post a comment (0)During Reader's Theater rehearsals, students get down to work, reading and rereading their scripts. Of course, since they are rehearsing for a performance, it is not perceived as tedious -- it is fun! As the students prepare their parts, it is the time for the teacher to be the director and a critical observer! As the director, do not interrupt students during their rehearsal; rather, take notes and offer your comments afterward, preferably in private conferences with each student. This approach, which you can liken to a dress rehearsal, lets the students feel the flow of a performance without interruption. This video demonstrates...
Read More Post a comment (0)A choral-read is a group read-aloud. Students get to practice a range of expressiveness, pausing, pacing, and other aspects of fluency. A table read is the first time students sit down together to read their individual parts. Reading pedagogy refers to this initial practice session as the first repeated reading; I prefer the term "table read" as that is what professional theater people call it the first time actors sit down to read their parts. (And it sounds more fun, too!) Enjoy this brief clip that demonstrates choral-reading: Have you been following our Reader's Theater blog series? In case you missed it, here are the previous...
Read More Post a comment (1)In my last blog, I introduced Day One from a Five-Day Lesson Plan in Reader’s Theater. During this blog, I would like to focus on Day Two. As I mentioned previously, Day Two focuses on echo-reading. During echo-reading the teacher reads the script out loud, again, stopping after each time a character speaks. I call this an exchange: It can be a one-word response to a few-sentence monologue. The students repeat each exchange, hopefully mimicking (echoing) the dramatic expression, etc. Day Two in a Reader’s Theater lesson can also include opportunity to focus on other parts of the script. Pointing out any stage directions...
Read More Post a comment (1)As I have discussed previously, the “secret” to reader’s theater success as a reading strategy is that it gets students reading—and rereading—willingly. At Benchmark Education Company, we advocate for a five-day lesson plan with Reader’s Theater. Using one Reader's Theater script during the daily literacy block over the course of a week gives students multiple opportunities to read and reread the same material, with a specific purpose. These multiple reading opportunities can, and should, take different approaches, which helps keep the students engaged and focused, while effectively developing their reading fluency. For the next few entries, I will discuss five different reading...
Read More Post a comment (0)After reading this title you might be thinking: "punctuation" and "engaging" in the same sentence? Think about it: Punctuation, after all, is really just one way that readers and writers control the pace of a text. Periods, commas, semicolons, and especially those specialty punctuation marks ellipsis and em-dash all denote a specific amount of time in which the reader pauses. How these punctuation marks differ (and the pause-time that corresponds to each) is best understood through the rhythms and cadences of natural speech, i.e., dialogue. And what reading format is exclusively dialogue? Reader’s Theater! Allow me to demonstrate how you can use...
Read More Post a comment (9)Here is a typical scenario when it comes to using Reader’s Theater in the elementary school classroom: It’s Friday afternoon, your students are restless, and you are working with one particular reading group on a strategy they haven’t quite grasped. What to do with your other reading groups? Give them Reader’s Theater scripts and let them have fun while they practice reading, rereading, and building fluency skills. Win-win, right? Well, yes; but there are so many more ways to “keep winning” with Reader’s Theater throughout the week. Which is not to say it ISN’T a fine Friday afternoon activity; it’s just that...
Read More Post a comment (0)
