READER’S THEATRE
CONNECTING CONTENT
AND LITERACY
THE MARRIAGE OF
ENGAGEMENT AND
PERFORMANCE
AGENDA
1. The Literacy Research Base for Reader’s Theatre.
2. Improving Student Fluency Skills Utilizing Choral Reader’s
Theatre and Voice!
3. Utilizing Language Repetition to Improve Student Fluency;
4. Integrating Content Concepts, Phonics and Vocabulary in
Reader’s Theatre Scripts
5. Utilizing Authentic Literacy: technology to Motivate Students
in Performing Reader’s Theatre.
6. Tying Literacy to Content Area Subjects Using Reader’s
Theatre.
7. Fluency Lesson Model by Rasinski
8. Deep Reading, Wide Reading and Read Alouds
9. Integrating Original Source Material and Poetry
10.Differentiation Aspects
11.Professional and Teacher Created Scripts
12.Teach research-proven reading comprehension strategies
using gradual release of responsibility approaches.
THE FIVE
IDENTIFIED
AREAS AND
RESEARCH!
TAKE THE QUIZ
WHICH IS AN IDENTIFIED AREA
BY THE NATIONAL READING
PANEL?
sustained choral silent reading;
simultaneous oral and silent
reading,
repeated reading without
comprehending,
reading nonsense words with at
least 89% comprehension,
fluency,
NCLB SPOTLIGHT
NCLB EXAMPLES OF
ST
FLUENT READING BY 1
GRADERS!
GET KIDS TO READ
FAMILIAR TEXT:
REAL FIRST GRADE
SAYINGS!
A miss is as good as a ...................
You can't teach an old dog new .........
Don't bite the hand that ...................
Don't put off till tomorrow what .....
It's always darkest before...................
THE REAL DEAL!
A miss is as good as a ................... Mr.
You can't teach an old dog new .........
math.
Don't bite the hand that ...................
looks dirty.
Don't put off till tomorrow what ..... you
put on to go to bed.
It's always darkest before...................
Daylight Saving Time
READER’S THEATE AND
LITERACY IMPLEMENTATION GUIDANCE FOR
THE ELA
Common Core State Standards
Involve content area teachers in teaching the disciplinary
literacy Standards.
The CCSS guidelines on text complexity encourage
teachers to engage students in reading at least some
texts they are likely to struggle with in terms of fluency
and reading comprehension.
Teachers must provide significantly greater and more
skillful instructional scaffolding—employing rereading,
explanation, encouragement, and other supports within
lessons.
“So what’s all this about
the National Reading Panel
Report and Fluency?”
THE NATIONAL READING PANEL
REPORT
Competent reading requires skills that
extend beyond the single-word level to
contextual reading, and this skill can best
be acquired by practicing reading in which
the words are in a meaningful context.
DOES FLUENCY AFFECT
COMPREHENSION?
It appears that oral reading practice and
feedback or guidance is most likely to
influence measures that assess word
knowledge, reading speed, and oral
accuracy. Nevertheless, the impact of
these procedures on comprehension (and
on total reading scores) is not
inconsiderable, and in several
comparisons it was actually quite high.
FLUENCY INSTRUCTION FOR
WHICH GRADES?
“A growing number of studies are
demonstrating that fluency is a
major concern for students in
grades 4 and 5, in middle school,
and in high school.” (Rasinski 2012).
WHAT ELSE DOES RASINSKI SAY?
Through repeated readings of a particular text, students
increase their fluency and comprehension of the
passage practiced. What is more important, however, is
that the repeated readings also lead to gains in fluency,
comprehension, and overall reading on other passages
not previously encountered. In other words, student
practice on certain passages generalizes to improved
performance across all reading. Repeated or practiced
reading is best accomplished through performance
activities. When students are asked to perform for
others, they have a natural inclination and desire to
practice the passage to the point where they can read it
accurately, with appropriate rate, and especially with
meaningful expression and phrasing.
DO YOU NEED SPECIAL
TRAINING?
There is clear and substantial research
evidence that shows that such procedures
work under a wide variety of conditions
and with minimal special training or
materials.
EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS STUDY
BY PEARSON AND TAYLOR
SCAFFOLDING
Oral reading can be the scaffolding tool
from modeling to independence.
Techniques:
Choral Reading
Paired Reading
Echo Reading
You can divide up “speeches” among
groups or students.
You can set up different groups to read
different parts of a role.
Feel free to adapt part of a book for
Reader’s Theatre.
Write the script to develop what you want
to stress: character, content, vocabulary,
sight vocabulary, etc.
Pre-teach harder words or terms.
Keep it simple. Your first scripts should be
easy to manage and learn.
WRITING THE SCRIPTS
Make the scripts easy to read. Use a large
readable font.
Too many words creates too much confusion.
Finish a part on the same page. Don’t have
carry-over of a part to the next page.
STAGING THE SCRIPTS
Do a read aloud first. Let them follow along.
Groups should be talking to each other.
Narrators can address the audience.
Make the scripts available and easy to read for
students.
Gesturing and miming are encouraged.
Uniform dress for groups can be used.
Small props can be used.
Sound effects are great!
Rehearse! Rehearse! Rehearse! (lines and mimes)
Be a facilitator!
LET’S SEE SOME SAMPLES
• Professionally Written Scripts
• Teacher Created Scripts