The Goodrich Way: Fluency Practice the Fun Way!

Fluency Practice the Fun Way!

Rereading a passage several times to Increase fluency is something I have always felt to be an important part of my reading curriculum. Students will read a passage with a partner, reread the passage a few times at home , and then read it again to their partner to see if they have increased speed and accuracy. Usually, the students enjoy seeing their progress and have improved more than just their fluency rate by reading these interesting articles weekly. However, to mix things up, I decided to try Reader’s Theater this week to help boost fluency and reading comprehension.

What is Reader’s Theater?

Reader’s Theater is a literacy performance activity that helps increase fluency and reading comprehension. Students practice a short script by reading it aloud several times and adding expression and intonation to their reading.

Students do not need to memorize their lines since they use the scripts in the actual performance. However, after reading their lines over and over with their group prior to the presentation, most students are able to use an expressive voice to convey meaning and emotion. Using a minimum amount of props, the actors need to rely on expression, limited movement, and strong emotions to help the audience understand the message of the story.

Since we are beginning a unit on Fairy Tales in Language Arts, this seemed like the perfect avenue to become familiar with the many common fairy tales the students will have the opportunity to adapt later in the unit. Groups performed Henny Penny, the Ugly Duckling, Princess and the Pea, and Three Little Pigs for the second graders.

The performances were a huge success. The only drawback… the students are already asking when is the next time we are going to perform the next Reader’s Theater! I have created a class full of eager actors, actresses, and prop designers in one short week!