By Lester Laminack

As I write this, I am beginning my forty-seventh year as an educator. I’ve been a classroom teacher, a reading teacher, a university professor, and continue now as a full-time writer and consultant working with schools throughout the US and abroad. In my career I have been witness to big shifts in how we approach the teaching of reading several times. Each time it happens there are comments about a pendulum swinging from one side to the other, from point A to point B. 

It can’t be a pendulum, though. If it were a pendulum, we are simply moving from what we used to do (A) to what we’re doing (B), which is what we used to do (B) before we did what we used to do (A). If this is the case, we’ve just been moving back and forth between the same two things, which would make all of us rather silly. There would be no evolution of thinking. There would be no change in our practice. It would just be moving between A and B, constantly bickering about which is better. Therefore, I reject the notion of a pendulum.

I prefer to think of it more like a Ferris wheel. Pause a moment and picture a Ferris wheel someplace in an amusement park; it’s a giant wheel, a circle. Think about the profile of this wheel laid out like the face of a clock. There are major positions 12, 3, 6, 9, with all the smaller hash marks representing each minute between. And each one of those is a seat on the Ferris wheel which is slowly moving in a constant clockwise motion. There is always one seat in the 12 o’clock position for a while. One seat will be in the three o’clock position for a while, and another in the six o’clock position, and another in the nine o’clock position.

Using this analogy, I would argue that the seat in the twelve o’clock position is the new “it” thing getting all the public attention. It’s the current “new best way” to do something. The seat in the three o’clock position is the former “best way” of doing something and is gradually falling out of favor. The seat in the six o’clock position, which once was in the twelve o’clock position is now rejected. And, in the nine o’clock position, there is something that is being researched, retooled, tweaked, reorganized and is slowly on the rise. If you’ve been around long enough, you’ve watched that Ferris wheel make full turns, which seem to take about ten years per rotation.

As a profession we understand that how we teach, what we teach, what we think about should be, like any other professional practice, ever evolving, ever-changing as we continue to question and research and refine. 

The Ferris wheel turns and the seat at twelve o’clock will rotate to three o’clock, on to six, then to nine, and eventually back around to the twelve o’clock position. But when it returns to twelve, it will not be the same as when it was previously in the twelve o’clock position. It will have been reexamined, researched, revised, revisited. It will have had time to examine what was argued against it, what was put forth as it flaws. During the movement it will fine tune, refine, repackage, reposition. 

I am drawn to the idea of the Ferris wheel because that circle is always evolving. Every single seat is attached to a common axle by a spoke. If this analogy works for you, ask fifteen different people what the axle represents. I suspect you’ll get a variety of answers. From my perspective (and I’m creating the analogy) the axle is students. Every seat is connected to that axle. I believe that no matter which seat you choose on that Ferris wheel, the occupants hold the fervent belief that what they are advocating is the best thing for kids. Each seat will pull a body of research, a set of practices, a set of materials to the forefront and say, “If you just do this, it will be best for kids.” 

Perhaps, if we stand back, if we move out to the edge of the fairgrounds and look at the Ferris wheel, we will see it as a unified thing rather than a collection of isolated seats. Each seat contributes to the whole and every seat is an integral part connected to one common axle.

Those of us who teach know there is no silver bullet, no one correct and magic thing that works for every single child. I place my faith in the professional knowledge of teachers to begin with the axle, the child/children before them, and consider which seat of knowledge to pull from. I trust the professional practices of teachers to weigh the needs of the student against their knowledge base and make an informed and professional decision about how to proceed. I trust professional teachers to monitor the progress and adjust those decisions as needed. 

Rather than arguing over which seat holds the “right” set of practices, let’s work together to provide teachers with the most robust knowledge base possible and trust them to teach.

For more in-depth discussion and sample lessons, see Critical Comprehension: Lessons for Guiding Students to Deeper Meaning Katie Kelly, Lester Laminack, and Vivian Vasquez (2023) Corwin.

By Evan Robb

Are you searching for a quick-fix solution to improve reading scores? If so, I must disappoint you because I have nothing to offer. Improving reading scores, or any test scores for that matter, doesn’t involve silver bullets or magic tricks. Unfortunately, it’s common for school stakeholders to jump to conclusions about a school’s quality, teachers’ effectiveness, or even the superintendent’s leadership based solely on test scores from a single day. Let’s shift our focus towards practical strategies that can genuinely enhance reading skills and subsequently improve scores.

Let’s start by acknowledging a straightforward yet crucial principle: practice leads to improvement. However, practicing with purpose using research-backed strategies significantly enhances the likelihood of improvement. For students to excel in reading, they must engage in purposeful reading activities.

Here are some valuable tips and cautions to steer a successful reading program:

Rule #1: Read Aloud Sessions

Allocate five to ten minutes daily for read-aloud sessions, depending on class duration. This provides an opportunity to model reading, ask thought-provoking questions, and implement taught strategies effectively.

Reminder: Simply reading a favorite book throughout a class period, no matter how engaging the delivery, won’t necessarily enhance students’ reading skills.

Rule #2: Instructional Reading

Deliver purposeful reading instruction focused on applying strategies and skills to texts to improve students’ reading proficiency. State standards and extensive research can guide the selecting of specific strategies and skills necessary for better reading. It’s crucial to assess students’ lexile levels and tailor genre-focused instructional reading units accordingly to meet individual needs.

Reminder: Avoid a one-size-fits-all approach; instructional reading should cater to each student’s unique instructional needs. If the teacher reads aloud during this segment, students miss the opportunity to practice reading independently. Activities like popcorn reading serve as time fillers and don’t contribute to overall reading improvement.

Rule #3: Independent Reading

Encourage and promote independent reading throughout the school environment. This can include budgeting for books, organizing school-wide campaigns, and celebrating independent reading achievements. Foster a culture where students always carry an independent reading book related to topics they enjoy, thus boosting their motivation to read. Assign thirty minutes of independent reading as the primary homework task, and designate two days per week for in-school independent reading sessions, recognizing the value of classroom reading time.

Reminder: Focus on motivating students to read rather than solely holding them accountable or implementing punitive measures for lack of reading. Explore creative ways, such as monthly book talks, contracts, or logging completed books, to incentivize reading.

I urge a commitment to genuine reading experiences rather than mere reading programs focused on passages and questions or texts beyond students’ reading levels. Embrace research-based reading instruction to witness tangible improvements in students’ reading abilities. Encourage students to read at least three self-selected books monthly alongside instructional texts throughout the year, enhancing test scores.

As professionals, let’s reclaim proven methods backed by research. Ditch ineffective practices and prioritize reading quality literature. Reading educators should strive to master reading instruction, assessment, strategies, and necessary skills to nurture better readers. Let go of strategies that don’t yield results, avoiding being swayed by flashy programs prioritizing profit over education.

For more valuable insights on this topic, I recommend reading “Read Talk Write” by Laura!

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.

By Timothy Rasinski and Lois Letchford

In a previous posting on the Robb Review (9.12.2020),  I (Tim) described how much poetry has to offer for the teaching of reading.  It is an engaging, joyous reading, and it offers opportunities to develop essential reading competencies in students.   However, one of the most significant attributes of poetry is its ability to improve the reading outcomes of children identified as dyslexic or learning disabled and, indeed all children who struggle to become proficient readers.  

The brevity of most poetry for children as well as the rhythmical, melodic, and rhyming patterns in poetry (and songs) allow even the most struggling of readers to achieve success.    Research tells us that human beings have what appears to be an innate ability to detect patterns in our environment.   Seeing patterns allows us to better negotiate our worlds.    The patterns in poetry allow children to negotiate their language worlds.   All of us know young children who have learned to recite the words to a familiar rhyme or song.  While memorizing the lines of poetry and songs is not reading per se, giving children visual access to the written words in those poems and songs can be a beginning step to reading.    

Several years ago, I met an amazing woman named Lois Letchford.  She had just written a book entitled Reversed which described the journey that she and her dyslexic son Nicholas who went from “learning disabled” to a skilled reader, and highly successful adult. Writing and using poetry was one major transformative component of our literacy story.   

Lois’ Story:

In 1994, my son Nicholas went into first grade. He failed. Throughout this year, he bit his fingernails, wet his pants, and stared into space. At the end of the year, standardized testing sealed expectations revealing he could read ten words, displayed no strengths, and had a “low IQ.”  

I had the opportunity to homeschool Nicholas for six short months, hoping for a turn-around. Armed with a book series labeled, “Success for All,” I too, failed. Stress levels skyrocketed, and progress remained at zero. 

It was my mother-in-law who came to my rescue, offering simple yet profound advice: “Lois, put away what isn’t working and make learning fun.” Her words compelled me to reevaluate my approach to this daunting challenge. But where should I begin? Where did Nicholas excel? Her advice encouraged me to rethink and redesign my approach. But what could I do?  What could Nicholas do? 

I recalled Nicholas and I previously working with spelling patterns. He could do that. He recognized the patterns and learned all those words. How could I use this strength? 

I thought about rhyming words and how to use them. Could I write a short poem to help Nicholas? When desperation reigns, one can only try to find solutions. 

I wrote one simple poem and read it to Nicholas. We read it together and found the rhyming words. That first poem titled A Mug of a Bug, was a huge success. He relaxed and recalled it. He was engaged, we talked about the meaning, found the rhyming words, and recited the poem.  

One poem led to the next and the next. Each poem added to his knowledge, enjoyment, and purpose for reading and writing. My first poems focused on words with short vowel sounds. Poems then include our travel experiences. One poem was about visits to the thousand-year-old church of St. Nicholas. The memory I treasure is one of Nicholas running ahead of his Grandma to visit it, shouting, “Nana, Nana! They named this church after me!” Connections were growing.

Nicholas’s reading growth appeared slow, each poem seemingly added just a drop into the ocean of required literacy knowledge. Yet, in a poem using the “oo”  words as in ‘cook, look, and book,’ I wrote about the last of the great explorers, Captain James Cook. My poem: 

Captain Cook had a notion there was a gap in the map in the great big ocean.

He took a look, without the help of any book, hoping to find a quiet little nook. 

Captain Cook had a notion there was a gap in the map in the great big ocean,

He took a long look, and filled a whole book which caused the whole world to look! 

Poetry is simple. Ideas embedded in poetry were extraordinary. The exploration of this poem tapped into Nicholas’ curiosity, resulting in his asking questions I could not answer.

“Who came before Captain Cook?”  was his first question.  

“Oh,” I replied, “that’s easy. That was Christopher Columbus.”

“And who came before Columbus?” He shot back.

And I was stunned. It was not a question I had ever considered. His question turned me into a curiosity-driven researcher determined to find answers to his questions. 

Though Nicholas’s knowledge of letters and sounds had grown slowly, his intellectual curiosity was boundless. 

Why was poetry such a powerful tool for Nicholas’s learning? 

Prof Sansislas Deheane’s book How We Learn has a chapter on the four pillars of learning. These pillars are Attention, Active Engagement, Error Feedback, and finally, Consolidation. 

Every day, I had Nicholas’s attention. He was actively engaged in listening, reading, and responding to details of all poems. Poetry was building his knowledge base, providing a purpose for using those challenging letters and sounds and building an understanding of patterns in language. Finally, the consolidation through repetition by reading, writing, and reciting these poems aided growth. 

It took almost 25 years to appreciate the impact of this foundational knowledge. In 2018, Nicholas defied the odds and completed his PhD in Applied Mathematics from Oxford University. 

As for me, my book Reversed: A Memoir tells the longer literacy journey from failure to academic success.