CONTACT:  Dianna Cleveland
111 Corporate Drive, Ste 240
Ladera Ranch, CA 92694
(800) 375-2926 Ext. 701
Email: dcleveland@playbooks.com

 

Playbooks Reader’s Theater - An Approved Workshop Presenter at 2008 Florida After School Alliance Conference

Ladera Ranch, CA (September 22, 2008) - Playbooks, Inc. will be leading a Reader’s Theater Workshop at the 2008 Florida After School Alliance Conference to be held September 25-27. The conference focuses on teaching “hands on” skills that can be immediately applied in after school programs and are effective for a wide range of students. Playbooks’ interactive workshop will last two hours and will teach the power and benefits of using Reader’s Theater with multi-aged groups of students. Conference attendees will participate in a Reader’s Theater story and game the same way that students do, letting them see for themselves how Reader’s Theater is so much fun while also meeting literacy requirements!

Reader’s Theater stories are written in the format of a play, with each character’s dialogue designed to be read aloud by a different reader. When students bring a story to life by reading with expression in a group, they are highly engaged in an activity that both satisfies content standards and boosts fluency. Playbooks’ unique form of Reader’s Theater includes character roles in the same story written at different reading levels so students of varying fluency levels can practice reading together. Each character’s dialogue is shown in a different colored text so students can easily see when they will need to read next. No memorization, props, costumes or stage are required, but expressive voices and gestures can be a lot of fun! Reader’s Theater is continually increasing in popularity for after school programs because it is fun, effective, and easy to implement.

The workshop will also include an interactive demonstration of Playbooks' hilarious stage-acting game which features Reader's Theater and makes dramatic reading even more fun! In Take Center Stage™ students earn points for answering questions and acting out scenes from a Reader’s Theater story. The questions are cross-curricular, specific to the story’s plot, or draw on character development themes found in the story. Take the Spotlight™ cards give students the opportunity to “over-act” and ham it up with their peers. Students are prompted to perform scenes from the story using entertaining emotions and character types. For example, one card directs two players to recite lines from the Playbook® story as if they were a “bashful monster” and a “shivering cold wicked witch!” Students are having so much fun that they don’t even realize they’re improving their reading and speaking skills! The game is ideal for out of school programs since students usually want to do something exciting after a day of normal school work. The game is available for over 10 different Playbook® stories, and further information and pricing can be found at www.takecenterstage.com.

Playbooks, Inc., headquartered in Ladera Ranch, CA, is a leading Reader’s Theater specialty children’s book publisher supplying the education and consumer markets. Playbooks, Inc. owns the patent for story character dialogue printed in multiple colors and written at multiple reading levels. Information about Playbooks, Inc. and Reader’s Theater titles can be found at www.playbooks.com or by calling 1-800-375-2926.