Summer Reader's Theatre Club
Looking for a FUN summer reading opportunity to keep your students reading all summer long? Try hosting a Reader's Theater group with your school or community. Invite students from kindergarten through twelfth grade to join in on the fun!
Getting Started
Invite students to come for a summer morning or evening each month (or every other week) to participate in a reader's theater club.
1. Provide students with several choices of scripts to choose from. Do a short book talk or advertisement for each script. Then have students vote on their favorite option. (You can have several groups going off of different scripts or everyone using the same script).
2. Give students time to practice (reread) with their groups. Encourage students to use body movements, facial expressions, and tone instead of props.
3. Showtime! Have students perform for their peers, parents, and the community.
4. Challenge students to write a few comprehension questions to ask the audience after their performance. (Have these questions ready BEFORE performance day).
5. Change out the scripts each week or biweekly. Also, do not be afraid to change it up and use poems or songs.
6. Another FUN option is to have Summer Drama Writing Club. Have students write their own scripts and cast peers to perform in their plays. They are playwrights in the making!
Benefits
This is a great opportunity to combat that summer reading loss that we see every fall. Dr. Chase Young piloted reader's theater in his second grade class room and his findings were astonishing. Dr. Chase found that leading 10 weeks of reader's theater for 10-15 minutes per day gave his students 1.3 years of fluency and comprehension gains!
For FREE scripts, visit our favorite RT website.