This article shares key steps in how to negotiate writing Readers Theatre scripts with English learners or any small group of students. The author aims to help promote language and literacy development and encourage critical thinking and engagement through the powerful modality of Readers Theatre.

In this article the authors integrate literacy with classroom-based technologies to create a student produced movie. The authors explain the steps to classroom movie production that deepens students' comprehension, engages students' in purposeful writing, and utilizes new technologies. (Contains 6 figures.)

Fluency is a critical skill of adept readers. As listening to read alouds and performing Readers Theatre scripts are two prevalent strategies that can increase students' fluency skills, this article provides suggestions in using these strategies with digital texts through free, online resources. Digital texts can be accessed using a desktop,…

Two successful and two struggling beginning readers were studied with the goal of understanding how beginning readers of varying ability levels make sense of instruction in learning to read. Through interviews, classroom observations, and the collection of artifacts from home and school, the author explored meanings constructed by the students…

The authors suggest using scripting as a strategy to mentor and enhance author's voice in writing. Through gradual release, students use authentic literature as a model for writing with voice. The authors also propose possible extensions for independent practice, integration across content areas, and tips for evaluation.

This article describes how Readers Theatre was implemented as an engaging means for reading fluency instruction in a second-grade classroom. A weekly Readers Theatre format was utilized over the course of a school year. The format was added to the existing literacy program. Data collected during the school year revealed significant gains in…

Despite over 25 years of research supporting the instruction of comprehension strategies, it seems that such instruction is not readily found in many classrooms or basal readers, resulting in students that struggle with analyzing and comprehending text. This is particularly true in the primary grades. Originally designed with seventh grade…

This article explores the impact of integrating literacy and social studies instruction through Readers Theatre and shadow puppetry. During an inquiry-based social studies unit on national symbols, second graders created shadow-puppet performances. During the literacy block students worked in small groups to research a topic, develop a script,…

This article explains how and why to involve teachers and students as playwrights "commissioned" to write, revise, read, rehearse, and perform Readers Theatre scripts that fulfill a dual purpose: inform (about curriculum topics) and entertain. Curriculum-Based Readers Theatre (CBRT) differs from traditional Readers Theatre in that its script…

Explains a reading and writing assignment called "Writing a Movie" in which students view a short film segment and write a script in which they describe the scene. Notes that this assignment uses films to develop fluency and helps students understand the reading and writing connections. Concludes that students learn to summarize a scene from film,…