Repeated Oral Guided Readings
Reader's Theater is a reading literacy program that is flexible for changing circumstances and adaptive for all student abilities. It's a great way to prevent reading fluency loss and combat reading loss in general. The beauty of Reader's Theater is that it can be differentiated for all reading levels so that every student can be successful. In addition, the repetitive readings help with fluency retention. This practice is called "repeated, oral guided readings" and is the only proven way to build reading fluency. Ideally, a student will repeat the same character role in the same script 3-4 times for best results. The great thing about Reader's Theater scripts can be reused again and again. Once students have mastered one role, the teacher can adjust roles upwards and sideways to continue challenging the students.
Color-Coded, Multi-Leveled Character Roles of Playbooks Scripts
There are many different scripts available through Playbooks, each with multiple roles assigned to students of varying reading levels. This allows students who may be struggling readers to have a part they feel confident reading while also providing more fluent readers with opportunities to read aloud more challenging parts. Because the color-coding of parts is random, no one student knows what level their peers are reading at which promotes an inclusive environment where everyone is on equal footing.
Reader's Theater scripts are also available on multiple reading levels so that students reading below grade level can read a version of the script at their own reading level. This is helpful for students who may be struggling readers or English Language Learners (ELL) reading at a lower reading ability than their peers. It allows them to start with a more limited vocabulary, shorter text and fewer lines per role which helps build confidence in reading aloud in front of others while still providing an opportunity to practice comprehension orally rather than only through written means.
Tracking Reading Fluency Growth
A Reader's Theater program provides many benefits for students' reading fluency retention as well as offering ways for teachers to assess progress over time such as:
- Number of words per minute (WPM) reading
- Accuracy of reading
- Comprehension questions answered orally after reading the script
Reader's Theater is an adaptive learning solution that really fits every individual students' needs. There are various stages throughout the program where the reading levels are tested and subsequent reading role assignments are adjusted. Each character in a Reader's Theater script from Playbooks is color-coded and multi-leveled so that students of all reading abilities can participate equally in the reading enrichment program. Furthermore, the color assigned to each role is random so that students are not aware of what reading levels their peers may be at, enabling equal participation. With repeated readings, fluency will improve for all participants!
Combat Reading Loss with Reader's Theater
Reader's Theater is an adaptive reading enrichment program that is beneficial for students of all reading abilities. The program consists of various stages, during which the reading level of each student is tested and their corresponding reading role adjusted accordingly. This ensures that each individual student can participate in the reading enrichment program equally and benefit from it fully. Additionally, the color-coding and multi-leveling of the reading roles in each reader's theater script from Playbooks enables all students to participate equally and without disclosing their reading level to their peers. This promotes a sense of fairness and allows every student to reap the full benefits of the reading enrichment program. Consequently, reader's theater is an excellent adaptive learning solution for reading loss and reading literacy.
If you're looking for an adaptive learning solution to combat reading loss in your classroom, look no further than Reader's Theater!
