Chants, Poems and Reader's Theater
Building Fluency in the Upper Grades (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 2: Consolidation / FluencyStage 3: Literacy for Growth
Ages:
7-12
Grade Range:
3rd 4th 5th 6thFood Groups:
Primary: Reading Fluency & Expression
Transcript
We know how important fluency is in helping students become better readers, and a really good thing to know about fluency is it's super fun to teach. There are lots of different things that I do to help the students rehearse and reread and perform different things like poems and stories and narratives and plays, it gets them reading, it gets them energized, and here are few of things that I do. One of them is to project different kinds of poems on the screen, divide the class in different ways and have them speak in groups, or individually, just to get them excited about reading. And they'll be yelling from one side and yelling from the other side, but while they're doing it, they're practicing their reading skills. So, here they read the first line in unison, then half the class is reading one side, half the class is reading the other and on and on we go, this is a humorous poem, so by the end everybody's laughing. You don't have to just use poems to get everybody to get enthusiastic about reading. Here's a nice text, if you do want to look at more resources for building poems and chants into your program, this is a Reader's Theater book, you can find them, there are lots of them. Another thing that I like to do is to find really great short stories and I ask the children to look at the text, find some really great roles, and I pick texts that have a lot of dialogue. It also has narration so a couple of the kids are usually ending up being Narrator 1 and Narrator 2. They work out how they're going to divide up the text, so in order to do that they have to read the story really carefully, and then they practice and they rehearse their performance of this as a Reader's Theater. So they're not memorizing anything, they're just reading and rereading and getting that automaticity and there's an enthusiasm in their group and they can't wait to perform it for you. I also use plays, and throughout the year we'll do some scripted plays, and the students read from this. I photocopy one for every child so that they can write all over it. If they're going to say something exuberantly, they're going to write it on their own copy. And it sort of makes it their own, and they know how they're going to intonate different lines. And they don't mind rehearsing; they have so much fun reading this they don't even know they're practicing their fluency skills.
Related References
Walker, L. (1990). Readers Theater in the Elementary Classroom. Vancouver: Take Part Productions, Ltd.
Activity Objective
The goal of Chants, Poems and Reader's Theater: Building Fluency in the Upper Grades (Virtual Tour) is to help students improve their reading fluency and to promote speed, accuracy and proper expression in reading by implementing a variety of engaging activities.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- Adapting short stories into scripts is most successful when using mixed-ability groups.
- The focus of reader's theater should be fluency and expression. Adding actions, gestures, props and costumes after the first read through can be a fun and motivating way to enhance performances.
- Encourage students to read from the text. Knowing that memorization of the text is not necessary will help students gain confidence in reading aloud, especially for less confident readers.
- Reader's theater promotes cooperation. Discuss what cooperation looks like and sounds like with your students so they are aware of the expectations.
- Integrating drama into your literacy program fosters a motivation for learning and provides an opportunity for all students to participate.
Other Recipes by this Teacher
Dealing with First Day Jitters: Promoting Motivation for Literacy (Virtual Tour)
3rd - 6th
Literature Circles: Fostering Critical Thinking and Oral Communication (Virtual Tour)
4th - 6th
Author's Perspective: Comprehending Point of View (Virtual Tour)
5th - 6th
Taking on a New Voice: Developing a Purpose in Writing (Virtual Tour)
6th
New Words Game: Expanding Vocabulary (Virtual Tour)
3rd - 6th
