
All of the pre-test data has been gathered. The literature has been reviewed. The question has been asked:
Does reader's theater help students oral reading fluency and motivation to read?
Now is the time for action!!
Action for my project comes in the form of organizing, rehearsing and performing reader's theater. This, I have learned in the first week, is A LOT of action.
The first script that I chose aligned with our social studies unit on the Transcontinental Railroad. I chose to reenact the "Last Spike" ceremony, in which the very last piece of the first railroad across the country is finished. This script contained many vocabulary words, and names that were difficult to pronounce. I chose several of these words to teach explicitly, which helped tremendously in student comprehension. My procedure was as follows:
- Preteach the context of the script.
- Define Reader's Theater to my class.
- Collectively come up with a set of "Reader's Theater" expectations for our class to follow during reader's theater time.
- Pass out scripts and parts.
- Students read lines to themselves 6 times, keeping track with tally marks.
- 1st and second read through in a circle.
- Next three practice read throughs blocking out movements and working on expression.
- Make costumes.
- Dress rehearsal.
- Perform for fellow fourth grade classes.
Throughout the week the class vibe hovered between excited and out of control. It was a fine line for me to walk. On one hand, I was so pleased to see how energetic all the students were about the performance. On the other hand, some students used this moving and acting activity to go a little crazy. I was very happy that I had established guidelines with my students and could keep referring to these guidelines.
My students got extremely creative with their costumes. They devised the most intricate contraptions from construction paper and tape to use as the ties, rails and spikes in the ceremony. I realized that I might have to modify the costume process when I looked over at the recycling bin overflowing with half used construction paper bits.
One of the most important parts of reader's theater, according to the research, is the performance. This gives the students a chance to "feel like a star." I felt very proud watching my construction-paper-clad students reading out all the big words like "nitroglycerin" to the audience. My aide did burst my bubble a little after the show, when she chuckled about the student playing Theodore Judah who exclaimed how happy she was that she would no longer have to "go around Captain Horn again" to get from Boston to San Francisco. Ah well, we'll keep plugging away at the comprehension...