Dear Colleagues,
Thanks to all who responded. With my new reader's theater book out, Read!
Perform! Learn! 10 Reader's Theater Activities for Literacy Enhancement
(Upstart 2006), I'm beginning to do many workshops on Reader's Theater and
will be sharing your wonderful stories!
***
During Children's Book Week, on Thursday I host a day-long, school-wide RT.
Teachers are instructed to leave their TV's on all day as we broadcast
these RT's over our closed circuit TV.nonstop. It's hectic but I love it
and so do the students. I have scripts in a HUGE file folder that I leave
on the counter in the Media Center where teachers can browse and choose
weeks before. I also will write scripts if the teachers tell me which book
the class really loved AND with a couple weeks notice. Last year I had 3
males (Coach, Music teacher, and Principal) perform Aaron Shepard's
Christmas Truce and it got rave reviews!
***
I bought 4 copies of Paul Fleischman's Big Talk in hopes of doing a
Reader's Theatre with selected 5th or 6th graders. Haven't figured out the
logistics yet, but each time I've mentioned it, students have been
enthused. I think it will be a lot of fun.
***
I have done Readers' Theatre with students for several years now and I love
it! My first school was in a low-income area with a lot of at-risk
students. There I had 4th and 5th grade students audition for the group. I
deliberately did not ask about the children's reading levels ahead of time.
I selected those students who read with good volume and lots of expression.
It became quite a honor to be selected and did wonders for the students'
self-esteem. I know one year I marveled at how many boys tried out. We had
a great time. I have run into students years after who mention readers'
theatre as one of their special memories
In my current school I have three or four groups of 3rd and 4th graders for
RT. We have decided to use RT as an activity for the lower quartile
students (gotta love No Child Left Behind). So the students are
"pre-selected" . Each group comes to the library once a week to practice
for half an hour. They each have their own binder with their name on it and
cover that says they're members of the Harrison Readers' Theatre group.
They like that a lot. We always invite their family members to performances
and get a good turnout so it seems like everyone enjoys it. I had one girl
this year who speaks only Spanish at home. She is a good reader and very
proud to be included. Her family came to listen to her. One girl was so shy
and I didn't know that it was working that well for her. But her mother
told me all the positive things I had said to her so it was obvious she was
talking about it at home. Her father took her picture and they hung it up
at home.
My new principal was also very impressed that I was doing RT with the kids.
I got a grant from our local foundation to purchase scripts and books for
the whole school. We encouraged everyone to do RT. It was very successful.
***
One of our 6th grade language arts teachers does
Readers' Theatre and is always looking for an
audience. I have 1st and 2nd graders the periods she
has LA. The older kids appreciate the audience and the
little ones love the RT.
***
What interested me when I used RT with my 5th graders is that the "best"
students weren't the best at RT! Kids who probably couldn't memorize a
script had great fun reading, and added a lot more expression to their
reading. The high achievers seemed to focused on getting it
right. Limited experience, since I've only done this for two years, but it
held true in each of the fifth grade classes. I was glad to find an
activity that let the somewhat overlooked students shine!
***
I use RT all the time 1st to 6th grades for various reasons. I sponsored a
Drama Club for 2 years and that was a great success!! The kids loved it
and I found it to be a motivator for academics and classroom behavior. If
they didn't perform well in the classroom I wouldn't allow them to perform
for Drama Club. We used RT almost exclusively, but by the end they were
writing their own from fables and folktales.
I did a large 6 week collaboration with a 3rd grade teacher with the topic
Folklore. We studied folktale, fairy tale and fable. We found our
materials online through Marco Polo. The lessons included literature
evaluation and summary, studying vocabulary and discussing the "painting of
pictures" with figurative langage. We researched countries of origin for
folk and fairy tales. Each type was studied for 1-2 weeks with a
presentation at the end. Here's the cool growth for these kids: our first
presentations were just each group standing up sharing their posters to
describe the meaning of their story and show research. We video taped
them, and they were awful. When the students watched they quickly knew
what was wrong and eagerly wanted to "fix" if for the next lesson. The
second lesson was a better presentation again taped and critiqued. They
improved. Our goal had always been to present Reader's Theatre with the
last lessons - fables. These kids were great! We found the scripts online
and the students really understood by then about voice projection,
characterization and humor! It was wonderful. They really enjoyed
watching their last video performance.
I mentioned I use this with 1st grade, but I've done Kinder, too. When I
work with these groups the effort is "group." I pick a script like Little
Red Hen and the students perform as a chorus. There are small groups for
each part. Anyway, I love RT and find it to be very effective and that is
fits into the curriculum nicely.
***
I have only been a librarian for one year, but prior to that I was a
theatre teacher. So it was only natural for me to start a library
club which involved performances. Several fourth and fifth graders
(around 12-15 of each grade) would come to school early one day a
week and we would work on Reader's Theatre scripts in groups. I did
not work with them as extensively as I did my theatre students, I
simply encouraged them to work on becoming comfortable with their
parts and putting expression to the lines. The students ended up
performing for others in the school a total of 3 times and loved it.
At the end of the year, when there wasn't enough time to prepare for
another performance, they decided to just perform for each other in
the morning. They would choose books off the shelf and read and act
them out. The third graders are very excited to be going into fourth
grade this year because they get to join Library Club.
***
With a 5th grade class we did your reader's theater of The Recess
Queen. We used it in conjunction with our video conferencing technology
and performed for a 5th grade class at another elementary school in our
district. We then used the reader's theater to begin a discussion about
bullying between the 2 classes. The kids loved it! And wanted to do
more! I also used several reader's theaters as fun end of the year
activities and the kids can sit through several readings of them without
getting antsy. They want to read through them several times so that
everyone can get a part!
***
I don't know if this is what you are looking for or not but this was my 1st
year as a librarian after teaching kindergarten for 8 years.I am on a fixed
schedule with each class coming for 45 min each week. I was more than a
little nervous about having the "big kids" & some tested me constantly. I
did a fairy tales unit with all grades but emphasizing fractured tales with
the older kids. I found reader's theater scripts to go along with some of
the books. The 4th & 5th graders loved it. I actually had some of my hard
to occupy kids get mad because their parts didn't have enough words! I had
to highlight parts & just hand out scripts because they would literally
fight over parts. I am looking forward to doing more with these kids this
upcoming school year.
***
This spring I did a readers theatre of Casey at the Bat with most of my
third grade.
I read the book to them first, spending time with the language and the
imagery. The following library class I accepted volunteers to be
readers. I created small parts (a few lines) for the umpire, Casey, Flynn
and Blake, and larger parts for readers/fans (six in all, with about a
dozen lines each). I accepted more than one reader for each part and got
lots of response. I had two readers for every fan and at least one reader
for each of the other parts. The first class decided we should read with a
space in the middle of the readers for the nonreaders, called the
"crowd". Readers one through three faced readers four through six and the
other players filled in the sides. These players stood when it was their
turn to read. The readers remained seated during the reading.
When everyone was assigned a part, I handed out laminated file folders with
the entire poem reprinted according to the roles I had assigned. If you
were fan #1, all of your lines were brightly highlighted. I read the poem
through, reminding students to pay particular attention to their part, and
ask any questions about words now in the practice session. Then the kids
performed the poem. Most of them read with some expression and created
drama. Almost all of them loved it and begged to do it again. It was an
end-of-the-year activity, but the kids really liked it. Even the kids I
thought wouldn't want a speaking part volunteered for one. One reading
teacher happened to catch one class' performance, and when they were
finished they received a rousing applause. It was a success.
Toni Buzzeo, MA, MLIS <mailto:tonibuzzeo@tonibuzzeo.com>
Maine Library Media Specialist of the Year Emerita
Maine Association of School Libraries Board Member
Buxton, ME 04093
http://www.tonibuzzeo.com
Read! Perform! Learn! 10 Reader's Theater Projects for Literacy
Enhancement (Upstart 2006) JUST PUBLISHED!
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