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Language Arts/Drama by Karla Falk

Reader’s Theatre or Choral Reading (20 min/day)

This activity involves a process about 3-5 days rehearsal and one performance.  It’s best to perform for another class (but you can also just take part of the class for rehearsal and then perform for the rest of the class).  It is a fairly involved activity.  You can ask Karla for help if this is unclear.

Reader’s Theatre works best when you use only 5-7 students.  If you double up on parts, you can expand this to about 10 or 12.  When the groups are small, you can have each group lead themselves instead of you leading them.  When kids are younger (grades 2-3) it might be better for you to lead them, but don’t think that they aren’t able if they’re younger.  The students might surprise you.  If they are older (grades 4-7) they can lead themselves.

During performance, students can read their scripts—put them in folders if you think it looks better.

A couple of techniques used in Reader’s Theatre are “topping” where one person starts a line, another person joins in, a third person joins in.  Another is “overlap” where the first word of a character’s line is spoken at the same time as the last word of the speech that preceded it.  This technique helps pick up the pace.  A third is “pause” which must be preplanned & marked in the script.  This provides a spot for the audience to respond (maybe after a joke or something.  In drama a pause is also used to show a character’s realization/discovery/etc.  It’s called “beat” in this context).

Objectives of Readers’ Theatre:

1)      develop expression in reading: facial, vocal, timing, clarity, enunciation

2)      learn to interpret literature using natural phrase units, vocal tone, fluency and rate of speech

3)      develop accuracy in reading punctuation and pronunciation

Here’s a poem I used with Grade 2’s. As you get higher up in grades, you need to do more complex material.  Students can adapt a chapter or portion of a chapter of a book they’re reading into a script, or they can take a simple picture book and turn it into a script.  The possibilities are endless!  Have a script ready for each grade level if you like, or use whatever the class is currently doing as your jumping off point.

“Sun, Sun” by Robert Heidbreder

Process, Day 1:

1)      Read the poem/piece to them a few times and check for comprehension (e.g. “What is this about”).

2)      Explain the concept of readers’ theatre: we will read this poem/piece in a performance for the whole class.  We will read it in a theatrical way, standing in special positions and using our voices to explain what the poem/piece is about. 

3)      Have the students read the poem with you.  You can prepare chart paper with the poem/piece on it or prepare handouts for students to read.  (Better yet, have the students prepare the handout).

4)      Ask the students to read their part aloud, teaching them how to enunciate and read at a slow enough tempo that their words are understood.

Process, Day 2

1)      Re-read poem/piece as a group

2)      Discuss proper performance etiquette (standing with hands at sides, stand still, no leaning on furniture, express emotion of piece on face, read slowly, clearly, and at an appropriate volume [no yelling but no whispering either], etc.)

3)      Emphasize steady beat/pacing and louds and softs.

4)      Assign parts to various groups/individuals.  These will be the people who do these parts during performance (students can decide this or you can decide it for them).

Process, Day 3

1)      Review parts and positions (you can have kids standing in different areas of the performance space, at different levels (standing on chairs or stools), facing each other or not, etc.  This is one of the drama aspects.

2)      Review enunciation, dynamic and tempo.

3)      Teach group how to begin and end in a performance setting.

Process, Day 4

1)      Review all parts, ensuring that students are using proper performance etiquette, following all stylistic aspects that have been added to the script, and that they are beginning and ending properly.

2)      Decide if they are ready to perform.  Talk to them about what to do in performance if they mess up, what to do with their nervous energy (put in into how they use their voice and facial expressions).

3)      If they’re ready to perform—do it that day!  If they’re not, then wait until next day.  Do a brief run through and then perform.