Informative Essay
Readers' Theater is a literacy strategy that I have heard of and seen rarely in classrooms. This reading activity is something that I would like to implement in my future classroom. I feel that Readers' Theater is extremely beneficial to not only experienced readers, but also emergent readers as well as English language learners. Readers' Theater has a wide range of ways to be implemented in the classroom and the research that I have found proves that the strategy can be helpful across the curriculum.
Some of the articles that I found during my research on Readers' Theater discussed the strategy's effectiveness with reading fluency. Fluency is an extremely important aspect of reading. Chase Young, a second grade teacher in McKinney, TX, defines fluency as the ability read a text using a combination of prosody, accuracy, and automaticity. Prosody is the reader's ability to render a text with appropriate expression and phrasing to reflect the content of the text. Automaticity is the reader's ability to read the words correctly and effortlessly. His article goes further to say that fluent reading should sound like natural speech. The National Reading Panel describes fluency as the reader's ability to read orally with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. Readers' Theater combines a performance with text, which maximizes the potential for developing fluency.
During my research, I also found that Readers' Theater is not only used during language arts. The strategy has also been used across the curriculum through multicultural literature as well as the other content areas. Science is an area that Readers' Theater can play a huge part in. The text found in science is largely nonfiction and I wondered how teachers could take a nonfiction text and turn it into a script. An example given in one of the articles is using animal books and creating dialogue for the animal characters in the book while also providing dialogue for a narrator. Another article discusses the importance of understanding the vocabulary in science texts to be able to pull the meaning from the text. Using Readers' Theater, students are able to uncover the meanings of the science vocabulary and elaborate on confusing concepts.
Readers' Theater is a proven strategy that can improve students' comprehension across the curriculum, build reading fluency, and provide a means of making practicing reading fun. This literacy strategy allows students that are reluctant to read to be the "star of the show" or to use skills they would not be able to use during other reading activities. Chase Young integrated Readers' Theater into his reading curriculum and discovered that the use of Readers' Theater proved to increase his students' fluency. I feel this strategy can be an encouraging and enjoyable experience for students and it will give them the desire to keep reading.
Sources:
Clementi, L. B. (2010). Readers’ theater: A motivating method to improve reading fluency. Phi Delta Kappan, 91(5), 85-88.
Kinniburgh, Leah and Shaw Jr., Edward. (2007). Building Fluency in Elementary Science through Readers’ Theatre. Science Activities. 44(1) p.p. 16-22.
Martinez, Miriam and Roser, Nancy L. and Strecker, Susan. (2002). “I Never Thought I Could Be a Star: A Readers Theatre ticket to fluency. 97-104.
Moran, Kelli Jo Kerry. (2006). Nurturing Emergent Readers through Readers Theater. Early Childhood Education Journal. 33(5) p.p. 317-323.
Weisenburger, Stephanie. (2009). Using Readers’ Theater with Multicultural Literature. p.p. 55-57.
Young, Chase and Rasinski, Timothy. (2009). Implementing Readers Theatre as an Approach to Classroom Fluency Instruction. The Reading Teacher. 63(1) p.p. 4-12.
Some of the articles that I found during my research on Readers' Theater discussed the strategy's effectiveness with reading fluency. Fluency is an extremely important aspect of reading. Chase Young, a second grade teacher in McKinney, TX, defines fluency as the ability read a text using a combination of prosody, accuracy, and automaticity. Prosody is the reader's ability to render a text with appropriate expression and phrasing to reflect the content of the text. Automaticity is the reader's ability to read the words correctly and effortlessly. His article goes further to say that fluent reading should sound like natural speech. The National Reading Panel describes fluency as the reader's ability to read orally with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. Readers' Theater combines a performance with text, which maximizes the potential for developing fluency.
During my research, I also found that Readers' Theater is not only used during language arts. The strategy has also been used across the curriculum through multicultural literature as well as the other content areas. Science is an area that Readers' Theater can play a huge part in. The text found in science is largely nonfiction and I wondered how teachers could take a nonfiction text and turn it into a script. An example given in one of the articles is using animal books and creating dialogue for the animal characters in the book while also providing dialogue for a narrator. Another article discusses the importance of understanding the vocabulary in science texts to be able to pull the meaning from the text. Using Readers' Theater, students are able to uncover the meanings of the science vocabulary and elaborate on confusing concepts.
Readers' Theater is a proven strategy that can improve students' comprehension across the curriculum, build reading fluency, and provide a means of making practicing reading fun. This literacy strategy allows students that are reluctant to read to be the "star of the show" or to use skills they would not be able to use during other reading activities. Chase Young integrated Readers' Theater into his reading curriculum and discovered that the use of Readers' Theater proved to increase his students' fluency. I feel this strategy can be an encouraging and enjoyable experience for students and it will give them the desire to keep reading.
Sources:
Clementi, L. B. (2010). Readers’ theater: A motivating method to improve reading fluency. Phi Delta Kappan, 91(5), 85-88.
Kinniburgh, Leah and Shaw Jr., Edward. (2007). Building Fluency in Elementary Science through Readers’ Theatre. Science Activities. 44(1) p.p. 16-22.
Martinez, Miriam and Roser, Nancy L. and Strecker, Susan. (2002). “I Never Thought I Could Be a Star: A Readers Theatre ticket to fluency. 97-104.
Moran, Kelli Jo Kerry. (2006). Nurturing Emergent Readers through Readers Theater. Early Childhood Education Journal. 33(5) p.p. 317-323.
Weisenburger, Stephanie. (2009). Using Readers’ Theater with Multicultural Literature. p.p. 55-57.
Young, Chase and Rasinski, Timothy. (2009). Implementing Readers Theatre as an Approach to Classroom Fluency Instruction. The Reading Teacher. 63(1) p.p. 4-12.