Book Review: Build Reading Fluency: Practice and Performance with Reader's Theater and More by Dr. Tim Rasinski and Dr. Chase Young
One of the most effective ways to improve students’ reading ability is through repeated readings of the same text. But who would want to re-read a passage over and over again? Enter Reader’s Theater.
In Build Reading Fluency, Drs. Tim Rasinski and Chase Young explain why Reader’s Theater is an excellent way to build your students’ reading fluency. Their innovative approach, a weekly Reader’s Theater routine, provides an authentic way for students to do multiple reads of a text. Students practice a script in order to prepare for an end-of-the-week performance.
Here are some highlights of the approach:
- The approach requires 5-10 minutes of class time each day (with a bit more time reserved for the end-of-week performance).
- On Monday, students in small groups, choose a short Reader’s Theater play (just a few pages), where each group member can have a part.
- The students spend Tuesday-Thursday practicing that script for five minutes each morning. During this time, the teacher visits the groups, giving them feedback on their reading.
- On Friday, students perform their short scripts for the rest of the class.
- The strategy has a monumental impact on student fluency, reading confidence, and student motivation!
Some takeaways:
- This weekly Reader’s Theater approach has a major impact on male readers, who enjoy performing for their peers and the humor that is often a part of the scripts. If you have struggling boy readers, this is the strategy for you!
- This works best for elementary or early middle school classes, where it can be a part of a class’s daily routine.
- Dr. Young has a whole arsenal of free scripts available on his website here: http://www.thebestclass.org/rtscripts.html
- The book does touch on the idea that Reader’s Theater is also effective for the reading comprehension of secondary students with some research done in my own classroom!
- Although this approach differs from the way our Reader’s Theater materials work in the classroom, it’s an excellent idea for early to mid-grades!
What I’ve mentioned here is just the tip of the iceberg, and I highly recommend checking out Build Reading Fluency. The authors give more details about adapting course materials for scripts, giving students daily feedback, and analyzing their fluency using research-based criteria. If you are interested, ask your school to buy a copy of the book that can be shared among multiple teachers. It's a great resource!
For a more in-depth analysis of multiple strategies, also check out Drs. Rasinski and Young’s other collaboration (along with Dr. David Paige) Artfully Teaching the Science of Reading. Although they present many research-based strategies, they stress time and time again that it is the artful application of those strategies that makes them effective. Teachers are the ultimate artist, and students are our canvas!
Disclaimer: This review contains affiliate links to Amazon.com.