Readers Theater All Year

Building Leaders and Creators

Discover
Readers Theater Made Easy

  • Motivate Students
  • Enjoy Community
  • Transform Lives

FREE SCRIPTS

over 50 scripts
"limited lunchbox" 

SCRIPT BUFFET

319 scripts
"all-you-can-eat"

CLICK HERE

xHELPFUL INFO

answers, ideas, techniques, tips, & tools for success

CLICK HERE

trustworthy scripts

Search
Pin It

"Studies Find Students Learn More By 'Acting Out' Text"--Review

publication date: Mar 13, 2012
 | 
author/source: Carol Montgomery

Readers Theater All Year Bug"A new series of studies suggests young students may comprehend more if they take a more active approach to reading," according to Education Week, a trusted source for K-12 education news for 20 years.  Here's a short review of this online article from July 12, 2011, by Sarah D. Sparks.  (Note:  This article is available only to the Education Week community or to others who pay for it.  I paid for the article to share it with you.)

According to Sparks, "A series of experiments by researchers at Arizona State University in Tempe and the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggests that students can understand and infer more by physically acting out text--either in real life or virtually--than by reading alone."  Readers Theater is one way to 'act out' text that they ignore.

Although Readers Theater doesn't use a lot of physical action, you can incorporate gestures and facial expressions easily.  Some teachers actually block the action, too.  No matter what you do, Readers Theater is NOT silent reading.

For your purposes, it appears that helping students make connections between the words on a page and real actions or concepts increases comprehension and memory.  Apparently a study in the journal Neuron discovered that "reading action words like 'kick' or 'lick' activated motor area of the brain associated with moving the foot or tongue."  Even
math concepts may improve when students act out the text of math problems.

Some researchers say that students therefore, "embody" what they read in order to understand it.  "Embodied, or grounded, cognition posits that meaning in language comes when words or phrases are mentally mapped onto memories of real experiences and perceptions."  Real experiences and perceptions.  Isn't Readers Theater a real experience?

So, those studies seem to suggest we should integrate learning into real life experiences.  We should try to plan activities that will cover information and topics in a cross-curricular manner allowing students to 'act out' important concepts.  This will engage not only kinesthetic learners, but all learners.

Basically, the students who acted out sentences (with real toys or pictures of toys on the computer) "had better comprehension than the control students and were also better able to make inferences about the text."

As a real life experience that can engage every learning style Readers Theater helps you reach your class goals for each of your students.  It helps make fun memories even in the subjects of history, health, and science.  Readers Theater allows students to "act out" the text in a safe, enjoyable way that will help them remember and comprehend, building leaders and creators along the way. 



Readers Theater All Year™ LLC builds leaders and creators for positive influence through an inexpensive, easy, flexible system.  Readers Theater All Year™ LLC curriculum services provides a caring community for using and creating Readers Theater scripts for families, classrooms, homeschools, camps, and drama clubs.

Praise from Teachers

...Keep doing what you are doing.  There are not enough quality scripts available for children and teens.  So many are inappropriate from a parent's perspective.  As a teacher I want to also build character and integrity while I teach a subject.  Why can't drama build up, inspire and be thought provoking?...Anyway, keep doing what you're doing...we need all the help we can get!
Jen H., Drama teacher

> ...I have been teaching for 35 years. RT has been part of my education journey for the majority of that time. Initially my experience with it was as a performance genre in the Drama Curriculum. Now I use it across the curriculum - a wonderful high motivation strategy in the language program - particularly reading - and so much more as you would know. I was drawn to your 'community' by the idea of leadership... I think what you're doing is wonderful..."
Graham B. Former primary teacher (now a Visual Art and Drama specialist)

Readers Theater All Year is the most comprehensive collection of Readers Theater scripts and resources I have found on the internet!...Thank you Carol for your leadership and vision and for making Readers Theater so accessible for teachers and parents.
Daniel Fiore, Elementary teacher/author What They Have Taught Me

I found the free readers theater online scripts, teaching tips, and curriculum teleseminars at Readers Theater All Year very inspirational to me. I used the Twelve Days of Christmas...Vacation script in my ESOL classes before Christmas break and my students all enjoyed it..
Lily T. Teacher (English for Speakers of Other Languages)

"> ..We did Squanto's Squash for the family on Thanksgiving and [my sons] participated and loved it. I am so excited about making this a major part of homeschooling. What a great way to learn!
Bethany P. Homeschooling Mom

> ...re: our script "The Earth Day Hen and Friends" I've used this! The kids love it. Thank you for sharing...It's just right for all levels in the class...Your free scripts are wonderful!...They learn so much from drama and reader's theatre...I see the shy ones gain confidence as they read. Fluency and prosody increases with reader's theatre...
Angela D., 3rd grade teacher

Let's Celebrate YOU!

 


Featured TpT Product (K-2)

***  Create fluent readers!

33 Fun Animal Riddle Partner Plays

* Over 300 annotated curriculum links for easy lesson plans  

33 Animal Riddles

 

Featured TpT Product (3-5)

***  Encourage wise choices!

9 Aesop's Fables with Flexi-Curric™* for easy lesson plans

Aesop's small thumbnail

Featured TpT Product (3-8)

***  Sprinkle giggles into your day!

Make lesson plans easy with annotated curriculum links and a graphic organizer on character qualities.

image

 

Featured TPT Product (3-6)

*** Build positive character qualities! (3–6)

See how easy it can be to teach respect!  Enjoy this character-building Readers Theater script with lively discussions. American and Australian versions.

Square Save the Zoo