Staff Development Workshops
for Implementing a
Reader's Theater Program

Playbooks, Inc. now offers a valuable staff development opportunity for using Reader's Theater as a reading enrichment activity. The interactive workshop is designed for directors and coordinators who plan materials and curriculum, as well as the teachers/instructors who would be carrying out the Reader's Theater activities with students.

Why is Reader's Theater a great choice for building oral reading fluency and confidence? Reader’s Theater, which doesn’t require memorization, props, or a stage, is much easier to implement than typical theatrical plays and provides a balanced platform for all students to shine, rather than a spotlight for just a few.

In this interactive workshop, participants learn where to find reader's theater materials, how to adapt them (if necessary), and how to structure and assign roles with groups of students with varied reading abilities in order to to implement a successful and fun reader’s theater experience. Participants also get hands-on experience taking roles in specially-designed reader’s theater stories and bringing them to life in small groups themselves! This is a fun workshop that engages your staff as much as Reader's Theater engages students!

The workshop is typically structured as a 90-minutes session for 30-50 people. This is a great way to prepare to incorporate Reader's Theater into your After School program for the upcoming year!

Call for a quote and to schedule
your Staff Development-
Reader's Theater Workshop
1-800-375-2926 Ext. 705

(For customers placing multi-site orders,
this workshop can be structured as a
training session, and can be free
depending on location and other factors.)

Click to view the Staff Development
Interactive Workshop description and summary.

All About Reader's
Theater Exercise 13:
Combine Singing and
Reading for the Holidays

Last month's Reader's Theater Exercise focused on the benefits of using rhyme in Reader's Theater. This month's Reader's Theater activity coincides with the winter holidays, often a musical time of year, and focuses on using song in Reader's Theater!

Music and song have long been employed as tools for learning everything from the letters of the alphabet to the 50 states! The rhythm and melody of music helps students remember what comes next in the lyrics. The added associations of melody and rhythm help to consolidate the student's memories of the words or information they are learning.

Some studies show superior reading fluency gains when students read passages of song lyrics repeatedly (Patel and Laud, 2007). The students' CWPM (correct words read per minute) rates increased more when the passages were song lyrics than when the passages were prose.

In addition, the simple fact that children enjoy music and singing will multiply the productivity of the reading activity! Mini, the Super Watermelon is an example of a popular Playbook® story featuring several song sections for students to sing to well-known tunes.

This month's activity provides scenario suggestions and familiar musical melodies and asks students in groups to make up their own words for the tunes. The final result will be a short Reader's Theater scene with each character's dialogue forming the lyrics to a song. Groups may then perform their song scenes for the rest of the class. The stories can be silly and students will be glad for a chance to celebrate their creative sides!

Click here to get this month's activity
for helping your students improve their reading fluency with music and song.