A New Wondering

In the last few months I have noticed how much my students have enjoyed Reader's Theater. Even my more reluctant readers are engaged and seem to be enjoying their time reading. I also am enjoying the oral reading technique. Students are receptive to instruction, and willing to do repeated readings. I have been doing some reading on the use of reader's theater in the classroom to develop oral reading fluency. There is some suggestion that it is a strategy that also develops comprehension because the students is focussed less on decoding and more on the meaning. I will be incorporating reader's theater more often over the next few weeks as part of a balanced literacy program. My hope is to re-ignite the love of reading in students whose attitude toward reading has become more negative over the years because they don't see themselves as "good" readers. I'll let you know how it is coming along.