Hooray for Reading Day: Readers Theater

“Somewhere along the way I came to understand that reading skills are simply thinking skills applied to a reading situation. Is the problem that kids with reading difficulties really can't analyze, can't evaluate, can't classify? That they lack those thinking skills? Or can they not do those things in a reading situation? To find out, I began listening to students with reading difficulties talk, recording what they said to learn what type of thinking their talk revealed. As I listened, I saw what the skill-activity sheets weren't showing me: these students certainly can analyze, synthesize, and evaluate. They can compare and contrast and classify, and they can summarize an event, pulling out the main ideas. They can do the thinking. They just didn't yet know how to connect their thinking skills to a reading situation. They needed a strategy, a scaffold, that would provide the framework for the thinking they needed to do to read with certain skills.”

                          -Kylene Beers and Reading Strategies


This is a great quote and set of ideas from Kylene Beers who is one of the top thinkers, writers, and teachers in the field of reading instruction. Her experience as a reading teacher started as a literature teacher for secondary students, but she realized that her kids had not yet made the transition from “Learning to Read” to “Reading to Learn.” That is – they were still decoding, not fluent, and, therefore, not great at comprehension.

Reading is a tool we use to get at the knowledge we seek, which means it is kind-of odd that Reading is now a subject in upper grades rather than just in lower grades. Sadly, unless kids start school with a foundation for reading (and I mean in Kindergarten), then there is a good chance that “reading” will be something they need to study and work on well into adolescence.

Which brings me to a great kids book. Hooray for Reading Day by Margery Cuyler and illustrated by Arthur Howard follows Jessica the Worrier through a day at school and small-group reading time in Mr. Martin’s class. As the kids take turns reading from “Hot Pot” Jessica does nothing but worry about her turn and her fear of messing up in front of everyone – which she does.

Sure enough, Mr. Martin assigns everyone a part during “Reading Theater” day. This worries Jessica even more but she practices with her dog at home and on the day of the big presentation in front of parents and everyone – she does a great job.

I like Hooray for Reading Day primarily because Jessica’s teacher, Mr. Martin, uses a great reading strategy that parents can use at home with kids during the summer, over holiday breaks, or as a weekend activity. Readers Theater helps kids to build fluency. Fluency is vital to reading comprehension. Fluent readers understand pace and intonation and most importantly – they understand (comprehend) what they are reading.

As Kylene Beers put it, “…students certainly can analyze, synthesize, and evaluate. They can compare and contrast and classify, and they can summarize an event, pulling out the main ideas. They can do the thinking.”

As I mentioned in a previous post – kids like to do things over and over again. Readers Theater asks students to read the same thing many times to build fluency. Practice makes better and getting better leads to excellence.

Readers Theater Resources:
Aaron Shep
Literacy Connections
Readers Theater Book Resource List
More on Kylene Beers