Children's Literature Resources: Readers Theatre

Readers Theatre is a stage presentation during which participants read from scripts, acting out the book's story using voice and facial expressions. It offers educators an innovative opportunity to acquaint young people with quality literature, test their

In this book, funny tales and rhymes are presented as readers theatre scripts, specifically written to motivate beginning readers. * Nearly two dozen reproducible readers theatre scripts for primary readers, based on wild and crazy adaptations of popular stories, tales, and legends * Scripts for kids to finish * Drawings and illustrations * An appendix of fairytales, folk tales, rhymes, and other stories * A list of titles students can use to create their own readers theatre scripts * Resources on readers theatre

Teachers and librarians are continually looking for an interesting, fun way to input content knowledge to build that background information which will help push up student expository reading scores. Nonfiction readers theatre is one way to accomplish this. Professor Fredericks offers 30 short nonfiction readers theatre plays for the young reader (grades 1-3) on topics ranging from earth and natural science to community helpers, holidays, and government. Test scores across the country show American students are far more able to read narrative than nonfiction text. Some research speculates this is due to a great lack in the background knowledge of many children. Librarians are beginning to realize that a unique fit for the school librarian is as a provider of background knowledge materials for teachers to use.