Center for History Education
The Federal Theatre Project: Analyzing Conflict Among Relief, Art, and Politics in 1930s America
In the effort to soothe the suffering of the Great Depression, New Deal programs funded a variety of approaches - including a theater project that proved controversial! Using documents such as oral histories, as well as photographs of...
ReadMagazine
Nineteen Eight-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a perfect text for an age of fake news and alternative facts. And what better way to introduce a new generation of readers to George Orwell's dystopian classic than with a reader's theatre version of the tale. The...
Curated OER
Reading the Play
Do figures of speech enhance a play or story? In small groups, learners locate and describe figures of speech they find while reading a reader's theater play. After making predictions, they describe how the figures of speech make the...
Curated OER
The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Class
Students read the reader's theater play, 'The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash.' They practice reading for fluency and present the story through acting and oral reading. Some students read the script and others act it out. They switch...
Curated OER
It's My Turn to Read
Students explore reading fluency and reading with expression. They discuss four books and complete four different activities for each of the books discussed. Students read each book and act the story out using puppets, perform a reader's...
Curated OER
Learning About Fiction Genres in the Elementary School Library
Teaching about fiction genres can be challenging. The lesson here, designed for library media specialists, offers a fun way to do it. In the lesson, learners visit the library and learn about the different types of fiction through book...
Curated OER
A Lesson To Accompany "The First Bank of the United States: A Chapter in the History of Central Banking"
Here is an interesting topic. Learners examine the economics that led to the founding of the First Bank of America. They participate in a reader's theater experience depicting the debate between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson...
Penguin Books
An Educator's Guide to Al Capone Does My Shirts
It's hard to imagine that life on Alcatraz could be dull. A series of intriguing lessons take readers through the novel Al Capone Does my Shirts. Pre-reading questions introduce the text and a range of suggestions, from comic strips to...
Curated OER
Shakespeare Limericks 2
These fun limericks all point to a Shakespeare play. You fill in the blank with the title of the play each limerick points to. A creative way to get your readers thinking!
Curated OER
Reader's Theater, Rehearsal
Students rehearse a play. In this Reader's Theater instructional activity, students practice reading a play, Master Man: A Tall Tale of Nigeria by Aaron Shepard. Students discuss fluency, intonation, and volume when presenting.
Curated OER
Reader's Theater
Students perform a reader's theater. In this analyzing text lesson students perform Master Man: A Tall Tale of Nigeria, a play by Aaron Shepard. The students are assessed on their performance.
Curated OER
Famous Person: Yushiko Uchida
Third, fourth, and fifth graders read the book The Bracelet by Yushiko Uchida and examine the events of Uchida's life. They participate in a guided discussion of Japanese culture, perform a reader's theater, listen to a guest speaker,...
Curated OER
Analyzing Atmosphere: Macbeth Murder Scene and Dagger Speech
Shakespeare's Macbeth (Act II, Scenes I and II) lacks explicit details of the murder of King Duncan, yet the author creates an atmosphere that allows us to visualize the event. Readers interpret the "Dagger Speech" by writing stage...
Curated OER
I Feel the Need to Read!: Growing Independence and Fluency
This series of activities lets the class observe and demonstrate a variety of strategies for decoding and reading fluently with expression. They listen to the teacher read passages from If You Give a Pig a Pancake with and without...
EngageNY
Reflecting on Douglass’s Narrative
The conclusion of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass comes to life in a reader's theater. The class discusses the use of quotation marks in the text and then divides parts among the groups. After the performances, groups...
Teaching Tolerance
Understanding the Prison Label
Break the chain. An engaging instructional activity examines why it is so hard to break free of the prison system in the US. Academics participate in a reader's theater, read primary sources, and discuss their thoughts. The instructional...
Curated OER
The Faithful Friend
Students work in co-op groups to create a Reader's Theater production of the story. Students create a flow map that sequences the major events in the story. Students research the island of Martinique and create a travel brochure...
Starfall
Cookies
In this language arts activity, learners participate in a reader's theater about cookies and five subtraction problems and examine words in a word bank that fit into word shape grids. Students then trace a sentence using those words.
Curated OER
Folktale Improvisation
Sixth graders present reader's theatre by improvising folktales from different countries. In groups, they produce an improvisation of a folktale story from an assigned reading of a folktale.
Curated OER
"War of the Worlds": A Broadcast Re-Creation
Why did Orson Welles' 1938 Broadcast of a adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds cause such a panic? To answer this question, class members listen to the original broadcast and research the panic that resulted. They then engage...
Curated OER
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet quiz
Review The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet with this quick quiz. Operating as an overview of the play, use this quiz to prepare readers for a test perhaps. The questions cover various elements from character foils to the plot sequence.
Curated OER
Who Says What in Shakespeare?
Use quotes from characters in a multitude of Shakespeare plays to identify the speaker. Some of the questions have hints about the play they come from. Ten multiple-choice questions challenge the Shakesperean reader.
Curated OER
Water Cycle Voice Thread
Students understand the water cycle through a role playing activity. In this water cycle instructional activity, students become familiar with the water cycle through a play about the water cycle. Students illustrate their parts and...
Curated OER
"Giggle Poetry" Theater
Students read and perform "Giggle Poetry Theater." In small groups, they read the poems, collect props, rehearse, and present their poem to their classmates.
Other popular searches
- Christmas Readers Theater
- Reader's Theater Scripts
- Water Cycle Reader's Theater
- Thanksgiving Readers Theater
- Reader's Theater Esl
- Reader's Theater Halloween
- Readers Theater Science
- Reader's Theater Fable
- Readers Theater Rubric
- Constitution Readers Theater
- Patriotic Readers Theater
- Readers Theater Scripts