Recording Readers Theatre: Developing Comprehension and Fluency With Audio Texts

Overview

Featured Resources

From Theory to Practice

 

OVERVIEW

With so many different kinds of texts available to students—from traditional books to podcasts and videos—it is important for teachers to explore various ways of developing students' comprehension skills. This lesson adapts Guided Comprehension as a model to scaffold students' listening comprehension. Students investigate audio texts of mystery stories and evaluate them in terms of both literary and audio qualities. Finally, students create Readers Theatre scripts, which they use to record their own podcasts using vocal qualities and sound effects to add meaning to the text.

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FEATURED RESOURCES

Mystery Cube: This interactive tool helps students identify mystery elements, practice using vocabulary from this genre, and sort and summarize information.

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FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

McLaughlin, M., & Allen, M.B. (2009). Guided comprehension in grades 3-8 . Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Guided comprehension instruction suggests that teachers should scaffold comprehension in various ways including teacher-directed instruction in both whole-class and small-group settings and teacher-facilitated whole-group reflection and goal setting.

 

Flynn, R.M. (2007). Dramatizing the content with curriculum-based Readers Theatre, grades 6–12. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

• When evaluating students' performance in Readers Theatre, you can use the following vocal criteria: voice projection, vocal expression, articulation, and rate of speech.
  
  
• Readers Theatre becomes more interesting when students use sound effects. Have them practice sound effects prior to using in a script.
  

 

 

Johnson, D. (2003). Audiobooks: Ear-resistible! Reading Online, 6(8). Available: http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/elec_index.asp?HREF=/electronic/webwatch/audiobooks

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