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ORAL READING PROCEDURES: Following are ways to use Readers Theater in a classroom with Intermediate or Advanced readers. These are in-class procedures as mentioned in the NRP research findings (above) and do not involve preparing and rehearsing the script for public performance.
PROCEDURE ONE: ROUND ROBIN READINGS
Round Robin reading allows children to read all the different parts, experiment with voices, and, eventually, choose favorite roles! This method helps build reader confidence because it is non-threatening, non-competitive, and gives all readers a chance to read all roles.
EIGHT STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL ROUND ROBIN READING:
Step 1: Duplicate scripts for your readers. Each reader should have her/his own script.
Step 2: Ask your readers to silently read through the entire story.
Step 3: After all readers have read the story silently, gather readers into a large circle. Include yourself in the circle, if possible.
Step 4: Next, begin by asking the reader on your left to read the first reader's part in the script, the next person to read the second reader's pan, and so on. No individual reading parts are assigned at this point. Each reader reads in turn around the circle. Teacher can join in on the reading too.
Step 5: When the circle has completed the story, take time to discuss reader parts. What does each character look like? What kind of personalities do they have? How might they sound? How would each character stand or sit? What might each character wear?
Step 6: Discuss the importance of each narrator. Explore how the narrators introduce the story, fill in all the narrative details, set the proper mood for the story action, and help the character readers set and keep the right reading pace.
Step 7: Review meanings and pronunciations of any difficult words.
Step 8: Now, ask your readers to volunteer for specific reading parts. Ask each volunteer to under?line his or her lines, then read the script aloud again. Swap parts and scripts around the circle and read again. Continue until interest lags or time runs out.
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PROCEDURE TWO: INSTANT READINGS
INSTANT READINGS are perfect rainy day activities, or a great way to fill in a few minutes during or at the end of a day. A script may be read once or twice, put away, then reintroduced throughout the school year. By following the steps below, a teacher can immediately involve students in a meaningful reading activity.
EIGHT STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL INSTANT READING:
Step 1: Duplicate Classroom Scripts, as needed.
Step 2: Pass scripts to all class members, or ask students to share scripts in pairs.
Step 3: Ask students to read through the scripts silently. Younger children can listen as teacher reads the story aloud.
Step 4: Assign parts to various members of the class. Ask them to take a few minutes to underline their assigned lines in the script. Ask readers to write their character name or reader number on the front of the script.
Step 5: Now, assigned readers can read story aloud from their seats. Correct pronunciations, clarify meanings, and ask readers to make notes on their scripts, if needed. Try to keep the story moving, however.
Step 6: Next, ask same readers to assemble in front of class for the second reading.
Step 7: When this reading is completed, discuss (story, reading, or both), reassign parts, swap scripts, and read again.
Step 8: Continue until interest lags. Collect scripts. You might want to have a classroom reading of this type on a regular basis, once or twice a week.
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PROCEDURE THREE: COOPERATIVE READINGS
If you are planning to involve your entire class in cooperative reading groups, simply duplicate scripts with appropriate numbers of readers. (Many READERS THEATRE scripts feature 5-8 readers. Five scripts needing five readers will equally divide a class of 25, etc.).
SIX STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL COOPERATIVE READINGS:
Step 1: Assemble students into groups. Pass out scripts.
Step 2: Ask students to read through their scripts silently. Then assign
practice spaces to each group. Groups may now break away and go to their practice spaces.
Step 3: Using cooperative learning techniques, each group assigns parts and rehearses its script. Suggestions for improvements, additions or changes must come from the group. Teacher may move from group to group encouraging the readers. Check to see that scripts have been underlined, as previously mentioned.
Step 4: Ask readers to take scripts home so that some home rehearsal may be accomplished. Suggest reading script aloud with various family members.
Step 5: Allow groups to practice two or three times, or until they feel ready for an audience.
Step 6: Schedule the group presentations. You might feature one group presentation per day for a week, or hold a "Friday Festival" and present them all on the following Friday afternoon.
NOTE: You need not include all class members in a cooperative reading presentation. Selected groups may rehearse scripts for presentations at different times throughout the school year.
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PROCEDURE FOUR: REHEARSING THE INSTANT AND COOPERATIVE READINGS
THE EIGHT POINT PROCEDURE:
1. First, students read the script silently to get the main idea. Younger students can read it aloud with the teacher or listen to an older group of children performing the script. They might follow along with their fingers while they listen.
2. Then, assign the parts to individual students. Be sure that longer, more difficult parts do not go to the poorer or less confident readers for the first few readings of a script.
3. When using a script for the first time, have students find and underline the name of their part each time it appears in the left margin of the script. Then have the students write that character's name on the front of the script. As students change parts, they exchange scripts.
4. Students then rehearse their parts and ask each other or the teacher for help with unknown words.
5. Now read the script aloud. Remind students to say the line the way that the character would say it and to follow any voice directions included by the script writer. Also, remind them to follow along when others are reading so they will be ready to read when their turn arrives.
6. After the first reading, discuss the story as a group. Focus on how each character feels in this situation. Explore some different ways a reader might communicate feeling through voice.
7. Now have the students do a second oral reading, keeping the same parts.
8. Use of a particular script with a particular group of students can end at this point, but some groups will not be ready to stop. One option is to switch parts. This is a good tune for the less able readers to read a larger part. The swapping of parts may take place over several days. Stop each day's lesson before students become bored. Time limits will vary with age and script.
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PROCEDURE FIVE: CREATING READERS THEATER SCRIPTS IN THE CLASSROOM
SEVEN STEPS TO TURNING FOLK TALES INTO READABLE SCRIPTS:
• Divide your classroom readers into groups of four to six readers.
• Every group member should have a copy of a short double-spaced folk tale or short story.
• A different story should be assigned to each group.
Then ask the groups to:
1. Read through their story silently.
2. Next, select a group member to read the story aloud to the entire group.
3. As the tale is being read aloud, other members of the group will identify the roles in the story and assign a secretary to write this information down on a piece of paper.
4. Once roles have been identified, the secretary will read the information aloud as group members volunteer for roles that particularly interests them.
5. Go over the story together, making final decisions about who will read what, what to cut, which sections will be assigned to a narrator and how many narrators are needed.
6. On your own copy of the story, in pencil, cross out the cuts and underline the words you will be reading aloud.
7. Try out your script by reading together. Make needed changes as you read.
The above exercise may take 15 to 20 minutes. If you want your groups to work on a little Readers Theater staging and rehearse that staging, the exercise will take 30-45 minutes. At the end of this time, your groups will be ready to perform for each other.
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PHONICS INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACHES
Analogy Phonics: Teaching students unfamiliar words by analogy to known words (e.g., recognizing that the rime segment of an unfamiliar word is identical to that of a familiar word, and then blending the known rime with the new word onset, such as reading brick by recognizing that -ick is contained in the known word kick, or reading stump by analogy to jump).
Analytic Phonics: Teaching students to analyze letter-sound relations in previously learned words to avoid pronouncing sounds in isolation.
Embedded Phonics: Teaching students phonics skills by embedding phonics instruction in text reading, a more implicit approach that relies to some extent on incidental learning.
Phonics through Spelling: Teaching students to segment words into phonemes and to select letters for those phonemes (i.e., teaching students to spell words phonemically).
Synthetic Phonics: Teaching students explicitly to convert letters into sounds (phonemes) and then blend the sounds to form recognizable words.
