Readers Theater
The article, “Nurturing Emergent Readers Through Readers Theater”, by Kelli Jo Kerry Moran, was pretty intriguing to me. I think it sounds like a great idea in which to get children of all ages involved. I think it would be a little more difficult, however, with younger children, esp. if they can’t read. Obviously, you would have to modify some of the lines or just have them say a couple of things that are easy to remember. I wonder if any of the teachers in the class have done this before and how did it go? Readers Theater sounds like something to not only help students develop their literacy skills, but also get them more comfortable with speaking in front of others. Though some kids are more shy than others, I would think for the most part that most kids would jump at the chance to do something like this. I know I would have loved it as a kid! Like it says in the article, children want to perform well in front of others so they will be more motivated to practice their performance. It would take a lot of patient on the part of the teacher and the students, but like it says, it is important to be persistent. Overall, it sounds like a great way to help literacy skills evolve, and I would love to see it in action one day!
Does a Kangaroo have a Mother too? or Brown Bear Brown Bear is a great one to act out because it is so repetitive and the kids typically have the books memorized in no time, even if they are not officially reading yet. It does take ALOT of patience:) Pretending to be a Kangaroo or other animal tends to get the kiddos pretty wound up:)
Yeah, I agree that at the younger ages this might be tough. However, Abby (the little girl I am doing my kidwatching project with) told me that her preschool classroom often acts out stories. She used the example of Three Billy Goats Gruff. I think this type of book would be easy to act out with the younger years as it’s repetitive and they probably begin to memorize the lines. As I wrote about in my post, I think this would be really useful in helping them internalize the story and get more out of it than simply reading and rereading with the teacher- as many teachers pointed out their students often get bored doing!
Hey Kristin! I also noticed that starting readers theater in a young classroom might be difficult, but another idea I had was to implement theater time into centers or during “free time” in a classroom. That way, it wouldn’t take so much effort for the whole class but all the kids could get a chance to participate.
did you watch the video julie posted on blackboard? you could tell the children had read and reread the story many, many times… an absolute must for reader’s theater with young students. i completely agree that it would be hard to implement a traditional reader’s theater in preschool or K but reader’s theater can be easily modified for all learners and varied reading levels.
When I have done Reader’s Theater with 5 year olds, they really loved it. They enjoy performing for other kids in class and the other kids liked being the audience. Some of them are reserved and I usually give them the option to do a part “with” me or they have a part that they can do with another child. The children also like brainstorming ideas for simple costumes and props. Whenever one group of children have acted out a story, the other children always want to know when it will be their turn.
Another way I have seen Reader’s Theater done is that the teacher is the reader while the children act out the story as she reads.