Readers Theatre Outline

Ellis Elementary
Alyssa, Kenya, Larissa, Reanna, Emily
4:15-5:00

Objective: To help students with their confidence in oral reading fluency by teaching them
projection, diction, and tone using theatre techniques.

March 14 - Introduction!
A) Introduce ourselves and establish an attention getter.
B) Explain what Readers Theatre is
- Readers Theater is readers reading a script adapted from storybooks. Readers theatre
uses your voice to tell the story! The audience uses their imagination to picture what the
story looks like. It requires no sets, costumes, props, or memorized lines
C) USU students do example Readers Theatre Piece
- Grandpa For Sale
D) Break students out into their necessary grades
Kindergarten-ASC faculty-8*
First grade- ASC faculty-22
Second grade 1- Kenya-11
Second Grade 2- ASC faculty-12
Third Grade- Larissa-22
Fourth Grade- Reanna-19
Fifth Grade 1- Emily-14
Fifth Grade 2- Alyssa-14
D) Introduce Readers Theatre Piece to Grade
Kindergarten- I like myself*
First Grade- The little old lady who wasnt afraid of anything
Second Grade 1- The Wizard, The Fairy, And the Magic Chicken
Second Grade 2- Too Much Noise
Third Grade- And the Dish Ran away with the Spoon
Fourth Grade- The Boy Who Wanted the Willies
Fifth Grade 1- A Bad Case of Stripes
Fifth Grade 2- The Legend of Lightning Larry
E) Sit down in a circle with your group of students and learn their names using a simple get to
know you theatre game. Pass out name tags.
- Name and Action game; Have the students say their name with an action (Ex. My name
is Alyssa *thumbs up*) one at a time and the rest of the students repeat their name with
the action. (Your name is Alyssa *thumbs up*)
F) Hand out the scripts to each student and explain that this will be the story that they will
perform for their parents
- Read the play together round robin style.
- When Finished, talk about what the story is about and who the different characters are
 - While the students are reading, if appropriate, make note of which students will play what
parts. It is your job to figure this and highlight at least their name in the script. (Or you can
have them do it, that can be your judgement call)
G) Ask the students reflective questions like: What did you learn today?
F) Tell the students what they will be doing the next day to get them excited!

March 16- Getting familiar with readers theatre

Find grade and have them sit in a circle. Pass out name tags.
Do a group warm up. (This should only take 5-7 min)
- Pass the sound; have the students stand in a circle and explain that you are going to
pass them a sound (IE Whoosh, plop, yippee!) and that they need to pass that sound
onto someone else by pointing at them and making eye contact. Have another student
come up with a sound to pass around. Add in another layer on a sound to pass so that
two sounds are being passed at the same time. See how long this can go on for. Remind
the students that they have to stay focused in order to succeed.
Group leaders discuss these following terms:
- Story; What is a story? An account of something. It can be a made-up story or a
real-story. Explain to the students that they will be telling a story using their voices.
And that they will learn some tips to help them tell a story.
- Projection- The strength of speaking. Or how clearly and loudly you are speaking.
Give an example of bad projection. Give an example of good projection. We need
to project our voices so that everyone in the audience can hear the story!
- Diction- How you say something. Explain that diction is another tool for the
audience to understand the story. Explain that diction is when you pronounce
each consonant and vowel with clarity. Do some vocal exercises. *See attached
sheet for ideas*
- Tone and pitch- Tone and pitch help the audience understand the meaning of what
you are saying. It can be high like this or low like this. Give examples on how
different sentences can have different meanings when said in a different tone.
(Ex. Please get me a glass of milk ; What does an old man sound like when he
says this? What does a baby sound like? Someone who is scared, Someone
who is angry Etc. Invite a couple of students to show the whole group)

D) If needed, take time for the students to stand up in place and get their wiggles out.
Shake your right arm, shake your left arm, shake your right leg, shake your left leg, shake your
booty, shake your head, shake your whole body

E) Hand out highlighted scripts and read through Readers Theatre Script with students
-After you have read it start blocking it how you want. You will need to decide the blocking
before on your own time if you want it to be anything more than them standing in a straight line
(Which I recommend because standing in a straight line reciting lines is boring for them and the
audience) saying their lines. Have fun with this! Have a discussion with the students about
whether or not they want to make simple props or costumes. Help them make character
choices. If you have decided on what props or costumes you want, let Alyssa or Kathy know
afterwards so we can prepare the supplies for you.
F) Have the students take their script home and practice their lines with their parents.
They dont need to worry about bringing it back because we will have a copy for home and a
copy for the school. We also have extra of each copy just in case something happens.

- Reflect on what you learned and go over what will happen next time. If there is
extra time do a cool down game like telephone.

March 21- Practice, Practice, Practice!

A) Hand out name tags and do a warm up game.

- Do some of the vocal exercises from the sheet
B) Recall what you learned last time and go over the game plan for this time!
C) Continue to block and work your readers theatre.
- Help them with their characterization especially with their voice. (IE Billy is a
cowboy, what do cowboys talk like? Who wants to show everyone what a cowboy
sounds like?) Tie all of this back to the lesson about projection, diction, and tone.
D) Start to incorporate any ideas you came up with in your last brainstorming section.
Finalize what you need in regards to props or costumes and make sure to tell Alyssa or
Kathy what supplies you need so we can have them prepared for you by the next day.
E) If there is time, cool down with fortune cookie
- Stand in a circle and press your palms together like a monk. Create the saying inside a
fortune cookie by going around the circle and each student saying one word at a time
until the end of the sentence. Then finish by bowing and saying yes yes yes yes Then
another student starts the fortune cookie and you start over.
F) Reflect on what you learned and let them know what the plans are for the next day.

March 22- More Practice! (If needed)

A) Start with a short warm-up game.

- Changing Character: have the students walk around and as they are walking yell out
different characters they should walk around as. (IE a king, an old lady, a dog, etc.)
B) Create any props or costumes needed. (If you dont have any props or costumes and
dont need to rehearse your play anymore, let Kathy or Alyssa know before today so we can plan
something else for the kids to do)
C) Run through the play with props, costumes, and blocking and work out any kinks you run
into.
D) Collect all the props and costumes. (You are in charge of these until the performance)
E) Reflect on what you learned and let them know what the plans are for the next day.

March 23-Final Practice and performance

 A) For your warm-up activity practice introducing the play, the author, and the students with
their respective characters. You will do this at the beginning of your performance.
Practice coming on and off stage.
B) For the rest of this day we will have the grades perform for each other.
- 3rd grade and Kindergarten
- 2nd grade(1) and 4th grade
- 2nd grade(2) and 5th grade (1)
- 1st grade and 5th grade (2)
C) If there is time after doing all this, have the students fill out a what did you learn? sheet.

Performance @ 5:30 for Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade

March 24th- Performance @ 5:30 for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade

Things to keep in mind:

- You have a lot of students to work with. We will have help from the ASC as far as student
management goes. Try to keep them all engaged at all times to prevent any disruptions
from happened. If the activity doesnt seem to be working, be willing to be flexible and try
something else. I will attach a page full of activities you can pull from.
- If you want to put any photos/videos or anything you have to give your students a photo
release form on the first day you meet with them so you can have their parent sign it.
- I would consider at the end the March 23rd practice, to hand out paper and pencil and
have them write what they learned from the experience so you can put that in your
portfolio.
- You are the creative director of your readers theatre. Make it fun! Research online
different things other teachers have done to make things interesting. I am relying on you
to do your own research. Youtube readers theatre to get some ideas on how you want to
direct yours. You can make it as simple or as complex as you want. As a note, I would
recommend the props and costumes be very simple. (Like, made out of construction
paper and string) You can make headbands for each character or make paper plate
faces etc.
- Ellis Elementary is about a 5 min drive away from campus. If anyone needs a ride there I
can pick you up at 4. We want to be prompt so we can start right at 4:15.
- Be patient with students who struggle reading out loud. The whole purpose of this is to
increase confidence in reading out loud. Tell them not to worry about small mistakes. Be
encouraging and strive to create a positive safe space where they can practice saying
their lines without any inhibitions.
- Because you are the creative director you can disregard my general lesson plan and
come up with your own (To show off in your portfolio of course). This was just a general
overview to give you a good idea of what your job is. If you have any cooler ideas, by all
means, go crazy! You dont have to do the set warm up and cool down games--those are
 just suggestions. Make sure you will have enough time/resources and run it by Kathy
Sherman or me.
- I have attached your readers theatre piece below. The parts in each story match how
many students there are give or take a few. When you get the script, play around with
how you will divvy up the lines if there are extra. Consider having some of the smaller
parts say lines at the same time to keep them (and their parents) engaged throughout the
whole performance. (especially younger students or students who are shy and dont want
to read by themselves) I will give you the hard copies of your script on Monday when we
meet.
- You guys are awesome.

Resources for Theatre games:

http://www.bbbpress.com/dramagames/
https://www.dramanotebook.com/drama-games/
https://dramateachersnetwork.wordpress.com/warm-up-games/

Resources for Readers Theatre:

http://www.scholastic.com/librarians/programs/whatisrt.htm
http://www.aaronshep.com/rt/
http://www.teachingheart.net/readerstheater.htm

Contacts:
Kathy Sherman- Kathy.sherman@loganschools.org
Alyssa Landroche- Alyssalandroche@gmail.com

*General note for Kindergarten: If the students are having a hard time reading the script, work
with them and have some of them say their lines at the same time. I know that their script
doesnt really have a story or characters in it, so making little props and costumes with them will
be a good way to keep them engaged and interested. You can also add lots of movement and
sound effects to their piece*