I knew from the beginning when I figured out that I wanted to try and increase these students’ fluency that Readers Theatre was a must. As some of the research that I have read said, repeat reading the best way to increase fluency, but you have to give that repeated reading purpose (Rasinski, 2006). If there were no purpose to it then why would they put any effort in to it all? I mean, the same could be said for anything with any one. If I felt that teaching had no purpose, I wouldn’t do it! But, it is clear that it does have a purpose and an impact so I am happy to be able to do it! Anyhow, I started with a fairly straightforward and short readers theatre script called “Shoes to Choose”. It was short and seemed fun so I thought I would give it a try with them to see how they liked it and where we should go from there.
This is the first page of the first reader's theatre script that we practiced. I found the script here: http://www.aaronshep.com/rt/RTE22.html
So, I put the script in front of them and told them that they needed to split up the roles appropriately, and in an efficient manner. They had 2 minutes to figure out who was who and it worked out great. I then asked them to just quickly go through the script and read, in their head, their own lines. This helped them to get familiar with the words before they actually had to read the script out loud. I then had them practice this script for about 15 minutes of our 40-minute class. This was plenty of time for this script; they got through it probably more than 10 times. As they were going through the script, I would occasionally stop them to give some feedback, and model certain lines. By the end of the class, the script was, dare I say, almost perfect! I was hearing expression from those kids like nobodies business! There was attitude, rhythm, expression and excitement!
I have used reader's theatre as a strategy before and I know that it is a good one, but I just wanted to make sure that it would work for this group before I started to try and find a script for them to practice for a few minutes of each class that we had together. So, once I saw that this group of students really enjoyed reader's theatre I went on a search for a fun and engaging script, one that wasn't too short but also wasn't too long, something that they wouldn't get bored of easily if they were going to be reading it every class. Eventually, I came across a script titled "The Frog Prince Continued".
I have used reader's theatre as a strategy before and I know that it is a good one, but I just wanted to make sure that it would work for this group before I started to try and find a script for them to practice for a few minutes of each class that we had together. So, once I saw that this group of students really enjoyed reader's theatre I went on a search for a fun and engaging script, one that wasn't too short but also wasn't too long, something that they wouldn't get bored of easily if they were going to be reading it every class. Eventually, I came across a script titled "The Frog Prince Continued".
This is the first page of the reader's theatre script I decided to use throughout the month to practice and eventually perform. The script can be found here: http://www.timelessteacherstuff.com/readerstheater/FrogPrince.html
It is a really cute script that is full of fairy tail references, so it has something for the students to connect to. I would definitely recommend this script for students who are a bit older, like grade 3 and up. I'm not too sure that the younger ones would be able to grasp it quite as well!
Overall Report
Do I think that this strategy was successful for my group of students and their needs?
Absolutely. I think that reader’s theatre is repeat reading at its finest. As I continue on this journey it has become obvious to me that repeated reading increases fluency, (which is obvious from all of the research done, but I am just now actually seeing it) and reader’s theatre is just a fun and interactive way to do so. It is great to see the students so engaged while also seeing them improve so drastically so quickly!
Research based strategies used:
Repeated reading, modeling, formative feedback
Would I use it again?
Without a doubt. I think that reader’s theatre is one of those timeless strategies, no matter what reading level your students or at, or what their interests. I think that this is a strategy that can be incorporated into any classroom, for a number of different subjects and needs.