How Theatre and Drama
Affect Literacy
Theatre and drama activities can help
improve:
•Reading skills
•Narrative competence
•Vocabulary
•Writing skills
Reading Skills
• Dramatic activities, such as readers’
theatre, provide repeated reading practice.
• Repeated reading practice improves
students’ confidence in, and enthusiasm
for reading.
Reading Skills Activity
Readers’ Theatre Scripts
• Readers’ theatre is a dramatic art form in which the
script is read (not memorized) as it is performed.
• This activity allows kids to bring the written word to
life.
• There are many, many sources for these types of scripts.
• Any storybook or student written piece can also be
performed as a readers’ theatre script.
Narrative Competence
• Dramatic activities provide a sense of story
structure, not only through writing, but
also by performing what the students
create.
• Dramatic activities can increase curiosity
about literature before independent reading
begins.
Narrative Activities
• To promote spontaneous, child-initiated and
child-directed Dramatic Story Reenactments
(DSR):
– Use repeated readings.
– Use predictable stories.
– Utilize intense response activities.
• Have older students come and perform DSR for
your class.
• Create a comfortable classroom library.
Vocabulary
Drama and theatre offer exciting ways to
introduce new vocabulary words.
The Number 1 Rule:
•
Create a “memorable event” when
introducing new vocabulary to your
students.
Vocabulary Activity
Here is an example of an activity that creates a
“memorable event.”
• Teacher:
OK, it’s time to do some work. Take your cat, rock
your desk, and start to write about the trees on the
ceiling.
• Class:
Huh? What? etc.
• Teacher continues this until all are paying attention.
• Teacher:
I’m sorry. I’m being incoherent. So, what do you
think incoherent means?
Writing Skills
• Dramatic activities allow kids to explore
the boundaries between reader/writer and
character/actor.
• Dramatic activities create sophisticated
text and image relationships, thus
assisting developing writers.
Writing Skills Activities
• View story from characters’ perspectives
– Put kids into roles
– Ask them questions, in character, about “themselves.”
– Allow them to develop new characters for the story, and expand
on these.
– Have kids write a response to a thought provoking question about
the text.
• Create tableaux (still images) of subject matter.
– After creating the images, have kids write from their tableau
character’s perspective, about their experience.
• Create original, student written scripts.
Helpful Websites
• www.teachingarts.org
A fabulous, in-depth resource website. This site provides a multitude of information
for all of the arts, focusing heavily on standards/assessment and professional
development. This link takes you to the listing of resources for theatre and literacy.
• www.sceaonline.com (Southeast Center for Education in the Arts)
Nearly anything and everything you would want to know about using drama in
education can be found on this site. It provides everything from research on the
subject to activity ideas. Everyone should check this site out!
• www.edreform.net
This site focuses on literacy and is a resource for teachers to find ideas on how to
integrate drama into their classrooms. The site provides links to various resources on
the web.
• http://www.lacnyc.org/publications/September98/house16.htm
This is the home of the Literacy Assistance Center. This site provides a listing of
books that can help teachers implement and guide dramatic activities in their
classrooms. It is the LAC's belief that theater, or theater activities in the classroom,
can facilitate a transformative process for students, whether they are in pursuit of
English skills, a better job or heightened awareness of the world in which they live.
Other Resources
• http://www.literacyconnections.com/ReadersTheater.html
This website has a wonderful list of helpful
books, focusing mainly on readers’ theatre
issues.
• Structuring Drama Work, by Jonothan Neelands and Tony Goode
A wonderful book of theatre games, ranging
from the very simple to the complex.
THANK YOU!
HAPPY DRAMATIZING!