February 4, 2015 at 3:26 p.m.
Making reading fun in Kindergarten
Making reading fun in Kindergarten
By By JoEllen Lieck, Julie Votis, Katie Andrastek and Shawn Belanger-
Reader's theater is a component of effective fluency instruction. It is an integrated approach for involving students in reading, listening, and speaking activities. It also fulfills almost 50 objectives within the Common Core State Standards.
The teachers model and teach fluent reading by reading aloud to their students with expression. A teacher can engage their students in repeated reading by choosing to read the same phrase or passage using echo reading and then choral reading. NonÂfluent readers will not be as intimated while reading in a group and as a result one will build confidence in themselves.
Each week, the students are each given a script and a role in the performance. Throughout the week the students are given opportunities to practice their lines, and at the end of the week they have the opportunity to perform the story in front of an audience. The students read from a script and the audience pictures the action from hearing the script being read aloud.
Reader's theater provides a student with the opportunity to feel free to take a risk and build self-esteem.
Kira Loomis, mother of a kindergarten student participating in reader's theater, said, "I wanted to thank you for giving Calvin the chance to be narrator. It really built his confidence! It's just what he needed. Between that and the holiday program, he is not as afraid to speak in groups now."
Reader's Theater increases a student's engagement and motivation for reading, because they know there is a purpose for this reading. It also can help students gain confidence in themselves as readers and provides opportunities for cooperative learning as the students work together to learn and tell the story. Students take pride and ownership in the process.
After the students were finished the class received a compliment from their audience. A grandfather asked, "How old are these students?" His granddaughter told him some of us are five and some are six. He replied, "Simply amazing!"
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