I'm so impressed to see so many posts about instruction over the summer. I have had a bit of a turbulent summer (something I will surely blog about in the next couple months) and am struggling to think about instruction right now. Especially because right now, I should be on a boat! A BIG BOAT! Far, far away. Thinking about nothing.
Nothing.
Oh, the blessings of time.
Anyway, in order to help me think about nothing, Krista from the Second Grade Superkids has generously volunteered to guest post for me today. You won't be disappointed. This is a valuable instructional post. You're gonna love it.
Rockin’ Readers Theatre!
Hey all! I’m Krista from “The Second Grade
Superkids”, and I am so excited to be posting for Chrissy while she is off
enjoying her vacay!
Do you all use Readers Theatre in your classrooms? If not,
you should! Readers Theatre is a wonderful way for students to build their
fluency and expression while reading. Not to mention, it gives them the
opportunity practice presenting something that they have worked on in front of
an audience.
In my classroom, my students do two large Readers Theatre
presentations each school year (combined of course with smaller ones that I
like to disperse throughout my guided reading time with them). Our first
presentation is around the time right before winter break. I tend to do the
same plays each year for these – “The Mitten” by Jan Brett and “The Gingerbread
Boy” by Paul Galdone, and then depending on how many students I have that year,
I may add in another winter themed play. The second big presentation we have is
at the end of the school year. For this one, I generally snag copies of Readers
Theatre texts from our book room that are on my students’ current levels. You
can find multiple resources online and wonderful reference books filled with
plays as well if you do not have these available to you. As I teach in a dual language
classroom, my students usually participate in plays in Spanish and in English
and this gives them the opportunity to continue to build their literacy skills
in the second language. Not to mention, Readers Theatre is a wonderful means of
fostering comprehension and vocabulary skills for our language learners as
well!
Once we have practiced our plays, created our masks, and
props etc. I invite a few other classrooms in our building to come be our
audience. The kids love performing for their friends, and it is a great
opportunity as well for other students to see how much fun reading can be! Once
the students finish their presentations, we always ask our student audience
members for constructive feedback. I ask them to share with my readers what
they believe they did well and what they could possibly improve upon to make it
even better the next time. I am telling you- it never ceases to amaze me how
spot on and observant the students are.
For our final presentation, all of the students’ parents are
invited to attend. Once finished, I ask the parents to stay and spend time
reading with their students. This is always one of my favorite activities of
the year as there is just a flood of productive, reading activity taking place
in my classroom, and it is just the most beautiful sight! The students LOVE it,
and it gives the parents the opportunity to not only see what their child is
doing in the classroom, but also to be a part of their education!
Some great resources I have found for Readers Theatre in the
classroom include:
1. 25 Just-Right Plays for Emergent Readers by
Scholastic (this comes in Spanish too!)
2. Fabulously Funny Idiom Plays by Scholastic (great
for ELLs)
3. Non-Fiction Readers Theatre for Beginning Readers by
Anthony Fredericks (great content based passages for grades 1-3)
4. Readers Theater by Evan-Moor Educational
Publishers (these come specifically for each grade level)
5. Readers Theater for Building Fluency by Scholastic
(this is a great teacher reference text)
What texts do you use for Readers Theatre in your classroom?
What types of presentations do you do? I would love to hear about it!
