The Power of Readers' Theater
Boosting Fluency
Scripts provide a great opportunity for repeated reading. Students will choose a script that interests them. Then, they will choose a part to read or play. Students will practice reading the script repeatedly in preparation for a performance. During this repeated reading, students are gaining reading confidence, boosting their reading stamina, and improving their words per minute rate.
Improving Comprehension
Readers' theater provides a great opportunity to improve comprehension skills. Students can retell or summarize, make connections to the text, infer about characters and their relationships and changes, ask questions and seek clarity, make predictions, and much more. Have students write their own reading response or even quiz questions after performing their script.
Motivation
Students love to perform and show what they know. This can be an engaging and motivating instructional tool to use with all students. Make sure to set up expectations in the beginning for what a final outcome will look like, such as a performance for the class, another class, or group. Students will know that they are working toward a common goal. Plus, this is a break from the norm that is FUN!
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