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.
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...
3 comments:
I'm curious to know what you collected for your pre-assessment data because I am having a hard deciding what to use or not to use or if I need to collect more before I get more deeply into my teaching. So my question is for my personal gain =), but I would really appreciate your ideas.
My pre-assessment data was as follows:
1. DIBELS test of oral reading fluency (I did two tests- one at the begining of the year and one 6 weeks into the year- to see if my 6 week reader's theater program would improve DIBELS more than a regular 6 week.)
2. Reading Attitude Survey- This is a 20 question survey about how students feel about reading. There was a 4 point Likert scale.
3. I selected 3 focus students and have been keeping observation notes and doing informal interviews with these students to qualitatively document the process.
I wasn't sure how much/how little either, but I presented my plan to my advisor, and she said it was a good balance between collecting enough data to answer the question, and too much so that you are swimming in it.
Hope this helps :)
I am new to DIBELS, we use it at my new school. One of my challenges has been reading fluency. I am curious a to whether your focus students have challenges in reading fluency. Why did you choose them? Are you looking at reading fluency? This question is for myself because my principal asked me how I was going to test and assess reading fluency. I am really stuck with how to answer her question. I was just wondering if it was something that you were looking at. I would love to hear your ideas!
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