Using Reader's Theater to Build Fluency

Many of my early readers read word by word, with little expression. I need to provide experiences for them to read more fluently and with proper phrasing and intonation. This will not only make their reading sound better, it will make the content more comprehensible. 

Read-alouds and shared readings allow teachers to model how fluent reading sounds and shapes the understanding of the text. 

Rereading stories helps students practice reading books on their independent reading level to improve their fluency and comprehension. 

During guided reading groups teachers can build fluency and support children’s expressive reading through choral reading, reading along with books on tape and reader’s theater.

I love developing my students’ fluency skills using all of these strategies, but my favorite way to work on fluency and reading expression is reader’s theater. I first fell in love with reader’s theater when I read Sharon Taberski’s book Comprehension From the Ground Up and had the opportunity to meet her.  Since there were not many Reader’s Theaters for Kindergarten she encouraged me to write my own.

Reader’s theater helps readers develop fluency, build detailed retells and improves phrasing and expression when reading. Reading, speaking and listening are combined to make reading an engaging experience for my students. My students LOVE performing reader’s theaters and look forward to Theater Thursday when we break out the microphone for our weekly performance. Check out Comprehension From the Ground Up and consider adding reader's theater to your reading workshop.

  Are You My Mother? from Jonelle Bell on Vimeo.

Check out more about Reader's Theater on my blog,  A Place Called Kindergarten.

http://www.aplacecalledkindergarten.com

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Fairy Tale Fun

Greetings Royal Reading Fans!

It's Jennifer from Stories and Songs in Second here to share some ideas about how to use a few different versions of one of my favorite stories to shake up your fairy tale unit this year!  I just love using folk and fairy tales as mentor texts for teaching a variety of literacy skills like character
point-of-view, vocabulary, story structure, compare/contrast and story sequence.

FAIRY TALE FUN

Graphics by Pixabay, Paula Kim Studio, A Little Peace of Africa & KG Fonts

Last year, I discovered the "twisted tale" picture book series written by Nancy Loewen and illustrated by Tatevik Avakyan that offers young readers a new, modern, and humorous perspective of "the other side of the story!"

FRACTURED FAIRY TALES

The focus of my post today is Believe Me, Goldilocks Rocks!--The Story of The Three Bears as Told by Baby Bear, and how it contrasts to two other favorite versions of this classic tale.  The story is told from Baby Bear's point-of-view and casts a more positive light on the actions of Goldilocks than the traditional tale.  The tone of the story is set when Baby Bear introduces himself as "Sam," and insists on not being called small, wee, or tiny. He also confesses that he just hates porridge, and would rather that Mama Bear serve breakfast burritos. He goes on to insist that Goldilocks is one of his best buddies, and certainly not the unwelcome house intruder everyone thinks she is.  He explains that she entered his house on a dare from Little Red Riding Hood--hereby referred to as "Little Miss Hoodie"--and was just going to stay long enough to snap a few cell phone pictures as proof and then be on her way.  Hilarious hijinks and lots of jumping on different-size beds ensue, with Sam and Goldie eventually exchanging phone numbers as she escapes through the forest.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE SAME STORY

After sharing this "fractured" version of the Goldilocks fairy tale, I read Jan Brett's beautifully illustrated and traditionally-told Goldilocks and the Three Bears aloud to my students.  Together we compare and contrast the characters, events, problems, and solution.  We practice retelling the story using story stick puppets and use the fun poem I wrote as a reader's theater and/or choral reading activity to help my students practice reading with fluency and expression.

RETELL THE STORY WITH STICK PUPPETS

BUILD FLUENCY WITH PLAYS AND POEMS

The last picture book I introduce to my class is Alma Flor Ada's Yours Truly, Goldilocks, which is a collection of correspondences between Goldilocks and some of her best friends who live in the Hidden Forest.  It begins with an invitation from Pig One, Pig Two, and Pig Three who would like her to attend their upcoming house warming party.  Little Red Riding Hood, Baby Bear, and Peter Rabbit have all RSVP'd as well, unaware that Wolfy Lupus an his cousin, Fer O'Cious, are planning to arrive at the party unannounced!  Thank goodness Mama Bear comes to the rescue of the invited guests just in time!   This book is a great way to introduce or review proper friendly letter format to your young writers, and you can use the blank templates included in this FREEBIE I created to help them respond to the story.

ENJOY ANOTHER FAIRY TALE FREEBIE!

I hope that your students enjoy this non-traditional, and engaging exploration of Goldilocks stories! Fairy tales are rich in language and such a great way to expand student vocabulary.  Click {HERE} to see this literacy pack that features literacy enrichment activities for the three stories featured in this post.

EXPLORE MORE OF THE WOODS WITH GOLDILOCKS

Be sure to check out my Pinterest board for more ideas on how to incorporate this fun and fascinating genre into your language arts lessons as well!

Follow Jennifer Boney-Reynolds's board Fairy Tale Units & Ideas on Pinterest.

I would also love for you to follow me over on my blog, STORIES AND SONGS IN SECOND!  

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May all of your reading and writing lessons always have happy endings!

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Building Fluency for Struggling Readers with Reader's Theater

Hi everyone! It's Bex here from Reading and Writing Redhead!  I am here to share some information about how you can support your struggling readers and help them improve their fluency with Reader's Theater.

I mentioned Reader's Theater in a blog post last year called No More Robot Reading. Check it out here. Are you wondering -what is Reader's Theater?  In Reader's Theater, students do not memorize lines. They use scripts and practice using vocal expression to get the audience (or imagined audience) understanding the story rather then by using visuals like props and costumes. There are so many Reader's Theater resources out there, and many are free! I will share some with you at the end of this post.

Reader's Theater is a  great vehicle to get students to improve their  intonation, pausing, and inflection and to read with expression. I love using this with my RTI Tier 1 reading groups and there is such a wide variety of reading levels available in reader's theater scripts that I can use it with all readers-from struggling readers to those who need a challenge.

I found some great advice over at  Reading Rockets for using it. Some of Susan Finney's advice includes: Starting out with fun scripts (limit boring dialogue), you can model each character's part and match the character to which student would be best to read it (OR my thought is, after your students are comfortable with the concept of Reader's Theater, challenge your students by assigning them a part that they may not have gravitated to), and provide teacher support for vocabulary and understanding characters.

You can do so much with reader's theater - as the title of this post states,  it is terrific for practicing fluency, but you can do a TON with vocabulary and comprehension too!

Here are some resources for Reader's Theater.

Aaron Shepard has some amazing resources on his blog!
      Aaron's Tips for Using Reader's Theater
      Aaron's Free Reader's Theater Scripts
Timeless Teacher Tips' Links to Reader's Theater Scripts - an old site but useful: scroll down for links  to scripts
Giggle Poetry's Poetry Themed Reader Theater Scripts
Joanne Griffin's Reader's Theater Scripts
PBS Kids'  Scripts
A post from an elementary teacher with her tips on using Reader's Theater
Using Reader's Theater Scripts for Homework
Ideas from a New York Times Post if you would like to adapt prose yourself for RT

   

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