By Chase Young
I once asked a second-grade boy if Reader’s Theater made him a better reader, and he responded, “No, because it’s fun.” He was a reluctant reader, but he loved the interaction during rehearsal and entertaining his peers during the performance. So, I suppose he was a reluctant silent reader but loved reading aloud with his friends and classmates. You could tell he enjoyed it more than any other activity because he was always smiling when he rehearsed and performed.
Regardless of what this second grader thought, Reader’s Theater was helping him become a better reader, which is also true for many other students. Research says that Reader’s Theater is an excellent way to improve reading fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, and confidence (Millin & Rinehart, 1999; Young et al., 2019). Improving these combined aspects of reading results in an increase in overall reading achievement. A recent meta-analysis found that Reader’s Theater has a large impact on students’ reading proficiency (Mastrothanasis et al., 2023). So, I encourage you to give it a try.
Reader’s Theater is essentially a group of students who dramatically read a text for an audience. All you need are some kids, a few scripts, and five to ten minutes per day.
Although there are many ways to implement Readers Theater in your classroom, I will share a method that worked well for my second graders and me. Feel free to adapt the following to meet the needs of your students and unique teaching style.
Selecting Scripts reading skills
I use a five-day format that helps students prepare for our weekly performances. Each day our rehearsals focus on different aspects of reading; we begin the week with decoding and end the week with fluent, expressive reading.
Before the week begins, I select three to six different scripts for the students to choose from. The number of scripts depends on your class size and the number of parts in each script. The scripts are usually based on popular novels, but I also include nonfiction, poetry, or speeches. In fact, I even use scripts from movies, such as A Christmas Story—the students really enjoy performing the “flagpole” scene.
While you can turn almost anything into a Reader’s Theater script, my website has over 200 free ready-to-download from www.thebestclass.org. Of course, once students become comfortable with Reader’s Theater, I encourage them to write their own scripts based on my read-alouds or books they’ve read. Teachers can also write scripts to match their students’ interests or topics in content areas. The key is to provide scripts that you think your students will love and enjoy performing.
Five-Day Format
Teaching Reading Skills
On Monday, I read the scripts to my students, and they form groups based on their choice of script. At that time, I ask students to read the entire script and think about the overall meaning of the text.
On Tuesday, the students choose their parts. It is a little chaotic in the beginning of the year, but remember, Rock, Paper, Scissors solves everything. So, when your wonderful little people begin to argue over parts, break those hands out and try your luck at a best out of three matches.
After the students select and highlight their parts, we focus on decoding and word recognition accuracy; I make sure that students know all the sounds and words and that they can pronounce them accurately and automatically.
On Wednesday, we focus on expression—often referred to as prosody. The students practice reading expressively by calibrating their voice inflection, tone, volume, pitch and pauses for dramatic effect.
Students need a deep understanding of the script to render expressiveness that matches the author’s intended meaning. I offer assistance and also encourage the students to coach each other with the goal of producing appropriate prosody.
On Thursday, we have a practice performance. It is a time for any last-minute tweaks or suggestions from the teacher or peers. When students need additional assistance with their parts, I meet with them one-on-one and choose from a variety of interventions such as echo reading, repeated reading, or choral reading. The goal is to ensure that every student sounds great during the performance.
Once the students and I feel they are ready, we look forward to the last day of the five-day format: performance day. By this time, the students have engaged in daily rehearsals, which is an artful and authentic synonym for repeated reading.
Substantial research exists that promotes the method of repeated readings, and Reader’s Theater research acknowledges the power of practice but also includes a purpose—we believe that if you are going to read a text repeatedly, there better be a good reason. That reason is the performance.
On Friday, we perform. But first, it is important to secure an audience. You can invite parents, other classes, administrators, and other school staff, or take your show on the road!
Tips for Successful Reader’s Theater
Teaching Reading Skills
Here are a few recommendations that I’ve curated from experience.
- Use challenging texts; they have plenty of support and time to rehearse.
- Use challenging texts for another reason; I do not want students to memorize the texts; I want them to read their parts.
- Select texts based on what your students will enjoy performing and will also engage the audience.
- Incorporate daily activities related to decoding, vocabulary development, and expressive reading. I, along with Faida Stokes and Tim Rasinski, wrote an article for The Reading Teacher in 2017 titled “Reader’s Theater Plus Comprehension and Word Study,” which has daily activities beyond rehearsal that you can access and review.
- Set a timer for rehearsals each day, allowing for at least two rehearsals.
- Tell students there are no props or costumes. You don’t want a student to show up dressed like a farmer or an astronaut on Friday.
- Find an audience. If you cannot, go to the front desk; someone is always there willing to attend.
- Print extra scripts because students often lose them.
Some Interesting Results
There are many studies that suggest Reader’s Theater is an effective reading activity, but I’d like to share the results of one in particular. A study we conducted (Young et al., 2019) showed that Reader’s Theater had a profound impact on boys. The three pretest measures—decoding, word knowledge, and comprehension—revealed a gap in favor of the girls. By the end of the study, that gap had closed. We were shocked at these unexpected results but also excited to share that we found something that might help boost reading achievement among boys. An analysis of the survey revealed that most boys liked Reader’s Theater because of the interaction and humor and because it was a novel activity.
Conclusion
Teaching Reading Skills
Readers Theater is a lot of fun (my students and I can attest to that). But more importantly, it can improve many aspects of their reading, including reading fluency. Fluent readers do not have to focus on decoding as much and, therefore, can redirect their attention to reading comprehension, which is the main goal of reading.
So, download some scripts, prepare your little thespians, and integrate the science and art of reading instruction into your classroom.
References
Mastrothanasis, K., Maria Kladaki, M., Aphrodite Andreou, A. (2023). A systematic review and meta-analysis of the Readers’ Theatre impact on the development of reading skills. International Journal of Educational Research Open, 4, 100243.
Millin, S. K., & Rinehart, S. D. (1999). Some of the benefits of readers theater participation for second‐grade title I students. Literacy Research and Instruction, 39(1), 71-88. Doi: 10.1080/19388079909558312
Young, C., Durham, P., Miller, M., Rasinski, T., & Lane, F. (2019). Improving reading comprehension with readers theater. Journal of Educational Research, 112(5), 615-626.
Young, C., Stokes, F., & Rasinski, T. (2017). Readers Theater plus comprehension and word study. Reading Teacher, 71(3), 351-355.
