1. Slide 1
Welcome participants to a four hour product inservice session on Reader’s Theater. This session will help them understand how to effectively use the Benchmark Education Company Reader’s Theater materials in their classrooms.
Take a moment to introduce yourself taking time to make a connection to fluency and Reader’s Theater in your own teaching career.
Say: Benchmark Education Company is a K-8 supplemental publisher of high quality resources whose byline is Building Literacy for Life for students and teachers alike.

2. Session Agenda Define Fluency Analyze Elements of Prosody
Review Recommendations for Fluency Instruction and Instructional Approaches
Examine Reader’s Theater
Discuss Implementation of Reader’s Theater
Participate in Reader’s Theater
Read the slide sharing the objectives of the session.

3. The Five Areas of Beginning Reading Instruction
Phonemic Awareness
Phonics
Vocabulary
Fluency
Comprehension
Activity- Think-Pair-Share five essential elements of reading instruction. Debrief as a group recording their answers on chart paper.
Five Essential Elements of Reading Instruction:
Phonemic awareness – is the individual sounds in spoken words. It is auditory.
Phonics – uses those sounds, or phonemes, in individual words and combines them with letters or graphemes to form the written words that are used in reading and writing
Vocabulary – can be oral: words used in speaking or listening or can be written: words used in reading and writing
Fluency – reading accurately, quickly, and with expression
Comprehension – the “heart” of reading, making meaning from text

4. What is Fluency?

5. NAEP defines fluency as:
the grouping or phrasing of words as revealed through the intonation, stress, and pauses exhibited by readers
adherence to author’s syntax
expressiveness of oral reading— interjecting a sense of emotion, anticipation, or characterization.
Our professional definition.

6. NAEP's Oral Reading Fluency Scale1
Level
Reads primarily word-by-word. Occasional two- or three-word phrases may occur, but these are infrequent and/or they do not preserve meaningful syntax.
  Reads primarily in two-word phrases with some three- or four-word groupings. Some word-by-word reading may be present. Word groupings may seem awkward and unrelated to the larger context of the sentence or passage.  2
Level
Walk through the scale pointing out the important descriptors for each level.. .

7. Reads primarily in three- or four-word phrase groups
Reads primarily in three- or four-word phrase groups. Some smaller groupings may be present. However, the majority of phrasing seems appropriate and preserves the syntax of the author. Little or no expressive interpretation is present.
Reads primarily in larger, meaningful phrase groups. Although some regressions, repetitions, and deviations from text may be present, these do not appear to detract from the overall structure of the story. Preservation of the author's syntax is consistent. Some or most of the story is read with expressive interpretation.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Listening to Children Read Aloud, 15. Washington, DC: 1995.
Level 3
Level 4
Say: It is important that we strive for a level 4 throughout the modeling and support we provide for our students. This scale could also be used as a self-reflection tool as you read to and with your students. Are you modeling at a level 2 or 4 reader? Consider the impact this can have on your students, especially those with limited literacy experiences at home.
Now consider how fluently your students read. This Oral Reading Fluency Scale also appears in your handout. Where would you place these readers on the scale and why?
When using assessment tools it is important to remember that a variety of tools can help you learn more about how students implement a given instructional task and develop as readers

8. How would you describe the readers in your class according to the NAEP Scale? What are your current instructional strategies for teaching fluency at each level of the NAEP Scale?
Have participants think about the first question and then share with a neighbor.
Have participants think about the second question and then share with a neighbor.
Debrief and share responses whole group.

9. “ ” What Is a Fluent Reader?
Fluent readers are able to read quickly, effortlessly, and efficiently, with good, meaningful expression. Fluent readers expend very little energy in decoding words. This means the maximum amount of energy can be directed to the task of making sense of the text.
(Rasinski, 2003) ”
Say: Timothy Rasinski reminds us that fluent readers…
After all, the goal of all reading instruction is providing students multiple strategies to self monitor, adjust, extend and support deeper understandings and comprehension of texts. Through the use of a variety of instructional settings and support, teachers can play a vital link to the fluency and literacy development of students.
Include the following statement in your discussion: Rate is critical, but fluency is not just rate. Rate is related to volume because slower readers read less than their faster reading peers. These slower readers have problems self-monitoring. Self-monitoring problems combined with a lack of fluency causes these readers to have a problem with comprehension. Therefore, we must teach fluency to help with comprehension.

10. Fluent Readers: read in phrases read with expression
monitor their comprehension
read accurately
demonstrate automaticity
practice reading
attend to punctuation and word choice
Put up slide and walk through each point. Stress that fluency is just not rate but is needed for comprehension.

11. Fluency Instruction Recommendations from Put Reading First
Oral reading fluency is the ability to read with accuracy, and with an appropriate rate, expression (pitch/intonation, stress/emphasis, tempo/rate, rhythmic language patterns), and phrasing.
Put up slide and show the book Put Reading First. Mention that the following recommendations came from this book.
Walk through slides stressing that fluency is not just rate but includes expression, phrasing, and comprehension.

12. Fluency is important because it provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension.
Repeated and monitored oral reading improves reading fluency and overall reading achievement.
3 minutes
Talking Points:
We are reminded that fluency is …. (recap main points).

13. Fluency Instruction Recommendations
Model good oral reading, using fluent phrasing
-Reading Aloud
-Shared Reading
Provide oral support for reading
-Choral-Reading
-Paired Reading
-Echo-Reading
-Recorded Materials
Offer many practice opportunities
-Repeated Readings
-Timed Oral Reading Passages
-Reader’s Theater
Put up slide and say:
The challenge for many teachers is knowing how to effectively teach fluency skills in a way that is advocated by current research. The guidelines for fluency instruction from Put Reading First recommend the following instructional practices:
Reading aloud/Shared reading – students model their reading practices after strong examples. During read aloud and shared reading, students hear examples of fluent reading.
Choral-reading, paired reading, echo-reading, and recorded materials give the students opportunities to practice fluent reading with the support of the teacher (choral- and echo-reading), peers (paired reading), and recordings.
Repeated readings, timed oral reading passages, and Readers Theater give students time to practice fluent reading by reading passages many time.
Modeling of Instructional Approaches (35 minutes)
Say: Now, let’s take a look at these three pieces and what this might actually look like in the classroom. First, let’s examine Read Alouds and discuss prosody.

14. Prosody
“The visible features of punctuation and layout show that small changes can signal big differences in the interrelationships between words…”
Clay, M. Change Over Time in Children’s Literacy Development
Read slide.

15. Elements of Prosody Pitch (rise and fall of the voice)
Stress (loudness or emphasis)
Expressiveness, or dramatic interpretation
Smoothness, or lack of hesitations and repetitions
Intonation or voice inflections
Put slide up and say: Students that struggle with word-by-word reading and have difficulty reading sentences in phrases have little cognitive effort left to think about the ideas, emotions, and images found in the text. Working to develop fluent reading is important for fostering more thoughtful literacy performances
Prosody is the rhythm and tone of speech. Intonation is the patterns of pitch that contribute to the meanings of spoken phrases and sentences

16. “The principal,” said the teacher, “is the best in the district.”
Say: Turn to the person next to you and read the two sentences on the slide paying close attention to the punctuation. Discuss how the punctuation changed the meaning of the sentence.
Clay, M. Change Over Time in Children’s Literacy Development

17. Instructional Talk for the Use of Prosody
Element of Prosody
Instructional Talk
Pitch (rise and fall of the voice)
-intonation, voice inflection
Ask students to pay attention to punctuation when reading. Remind them that when interpreting punctuation (. , ! ?), the sound of the voice may increase in volume, rise, drop/fall, or remain the same. “Did you listen to the sound of your voice as you read that sentence? What did your voice do at the end?”
Stress (loudness or emphasis)
There are certain words that students need to emphasize or stress, meaning they can say the word/phrase: loudly, softly, or slowly depending upon context and purpose. “How can you change the sound of your voice or the speed of the reading to show the importance of that word or phrase?”
Say: Another way we can support fluency instruction is through poetry, using choral-reading. We are now going to practice modeling a poem that has been turned into a dialogue. When using poetry you can divide the poem into speaking parts; assigning each student or group of students a part. Today we will practice this technique. with the poem: (Trainer will need to choose a poem that is appropriate and either put it on a chart, or a transparency for everyone to see). Poems for two voices work very well here as you can assign one part to a side of the room. Practice as a group on the whole poem and then have each side read their part.
. Debrief the activity by asking:
What did you observe?
What supports will you as a teacher need to provide?
What are the instructional benefits of doing a poem in dialogue?
Read slides

18. Instructional Talk for the Use of Prosody
Element of Prosody
Instructional Talk
Expressiveness or dramatic interpretation
Students need to know that certain words or parts of text should be expressed in a particular manner. “Read the sentence in a way that shows/reveals a sense of feeling (anticipation, tension, character development, or mood).”
Smoothness, or lack of hesitations and repetitions
Explain to students that when they read, the reading should be at a natural, smooth rate. The reading should flow as naturally as their speech during conversations. “Read that sentence with the same speed as you would when you talk. Go back and reread. Listen to how smooth your reading is now!”
Read and discuss where needed. Refer to activity as needed.

19. Tips for Choral-Reading
Keep the passage relatively short.
Keep it simple—choose material that is on grade level.
Select a story or poem that allows students to make the words come alive. Use passages with interesting sounds, contrasts that can be interpreted by volume and intonation, dialogue, or changes in mood.

20. Principles of Instruction for Developing Fluency
Lessons should be comprehension-oriented. Students and teachers must always remember that reading is about creating meaning.
Allow students to spend much of their time reading “comfort” books that are easy for them. An easy book is one that the student can read with approximately 90 percent comprehension and 95 to 100 percent oral accuracy. :
Additional recommendations from Stahl and Kuhn support providing students access to texts they can read and reread through multiple exposures and situations.
Walk through instructional recommendations on the slides highlighting comprehension and the reading of “comfort” books. Stress that students are reading the correct “comfort” book when their comprehension is approximately 90% and oral accuracy is 95 to 100 percent. On slide __ highlight the instructional recommendations: rereading, partner reading, oral reading at home.

21. Have students reread texts, with support, until they master them fluently.
Have students read with partners to increase the time spent reading aloud.
Have students increase the time spent reading at home to further develop fluency.
Source: Stahl, S.A. and Kuhn, M.R. “Making It Sound Like Language.”
Continue….

22. Supporting Fluency and Phrasing
Have students read a wide variety of easy books with many high-frequency words and with long sentences that sound like normal language.
Use prompts that promote fluency.
Have students think about the meaning of the story.
Put up slide and say: As adults, we automatically talk in phased units emphasizing words and phrases. Children do not automatically read with phrasing and intonation. They have not learned how to make their reading sound like meaningful units of dialogue and narration. Let’s look at some suggestions from Lucy Calkins on ways to support this.
Walk through slide briefly discussing each point. When talking about prompts say: The prompt “read it like you talk” – what does this mean? We must be more explicit and show children what that means. It means to read the punctuation, use expression, and look at the sentence type. Is it a statement, a question, a command, or an exclamation? Putting all this together is “reading like you talk.” This explicit instruction must include modeling so students can hear you (the teacher) “read it like you talk.”

23. Model phrasing when students get stuck.
Help students take in more of a sentence with their eyes by having them avoid pointing and the use of bookmarks.
Give students many opportunities to hear language read aloud smoothly.
Source: Calkins, L.M. The Art of Teaching Reading. Heinemann.
Continue…

24. Fluency Instructional Approaches
Choral-Reading: Where groups of children read the same text aloud.
Line-a-Child: Each child reads individually one or two lines of a text, from a rhyme or a poem, and the whole group reads the final lines together.
Paired Reading: Pairs read a text together.
Echo-Reading: The teacher reads one sentence or phrase at a time, and the student echoes back the same sentence or phrase following the words with a finger so that you can be assured that he is reading.
Buddy Reading: Pairs of students get together and decide how they will read the text together. They may choose to read chorally, one page at a time, echo-read, etc.
Source: Timothy V. Rasinski. The Fluent Reader: Oral Reading Strategies for Building Word Recognition, Fluency, and Comprehension. Scholastic.
Put up slide and say: Tim Rasinski in his book The Fluent Reader (hold up book if you have a copy) suggests instructional activities to support fluency. These include highlight each instructional strategy briefly defining each.

25. Fluency Instructional Approaches
Repeated Reading: Done silently or orally, oral repeated readings provide additional sensory reinforcement for the reader allowing them to focus on the intonational elements of reading that are essential to phrasing.
Cooperative Repeated Reading: Have one student read her passage to her partner three times. Ask the partner to listen and provide assistance where necessary. The partner should also give feedback on the response sheet. Have students reverse roles.
Listening Centers: Students listen to books on tape and simultaneously read with the tape.
Repeated Readings of High-Frequency Words: Read high-frequency words in phrases.
Readers Theater: Students perform scripts by reading assigned parts.
Dialogue: Turn a poem or a story into speaking parts.
Source: Timothy V. Rasinski. The Fluent Reader: Oral Reading Strategies for Building Word Recognition, Fluency, and Comprehension. Scholastic.

26. Fluency Norms Grade Level Fall Winter Spring 1 - 60 2 53 78 94 3 79 93
114 4 99
112
118 5
105
128 6
115
132
145 7
147
158
167 8
156
171
Say: Now that we have examined the definition of fluency, studied the NAEP scale, and explored instructional approaches, what other information do we need to know? Well, we need to be aware of the Fluency Norms at each grade level.
Reference the chart on the slide.
This chart gives concrete numbers for the expected words per minute goals for students in Grades 1–5. Each instructional approach we discussed can contribute to students reaching the expected levels at their given grade.

27. Dr. Tim Rasinski’s Three-Year Study Findings
A fourth grade teacher added the following fluency components to her core reading program:
Reader’s Theater
Timed Oral Reads
Oral Partner Reading
The results:
Average reading level was 2.93; at the end of one year, 93% of students were on or above the 5th grade reading level
Source: “A Focus on Fluency: How One Teacher Incorporated Fluency with Her Reading Curriculum.” The Reading Teacher. October, 2004.
Trainers note: In order to fully understand the scope of this study you will need to read the article titled “A Focus on fluency: How one teacher incorporated fluency with her reading curriculum” The Reading Teacher October, A copy of this article has been included at the end of this manual. Reference this article in your discussion. Also, reference Tim Rasinski as an expert on fluency.
Put slide up and say: A fourth grade teacher in North Carolina added Readers Theater, timed oral reading, and oral partner reading as fluency components. She used these fluency components along with her core reading programs. At the beginning of the year her students’ reading level was 2.93; at the end of the year 93% of her at risk students were reading on or above fifth grade. This was accomplished with just the addition of the 3 fluency components.

28. Reader’s Theater Components and Organization

29. How Is Reader’s Theater Packaged?
Sets of scripts are divided into two main level ranges: F–M (9–28) and N–X (30–60).
Within each set are two types of scripts.
Scripts for use with small groups that span two to three reading levels and provide parts for 5 to 7 students.
Scripts for use with larger groups span eight reading levels and provide parts for up to 12 students.
Say: What sets Benchmark Education Company’s Reader’s Theater scripts apart from others is the precise leveling of every reader’s theater scripts’ character roles. Multileveled scripts allow you to properly place students in heterogeneous reading groups. Scripts are designed foremost to build reading fluency and expression. They are grouped by two general reading levels: early and fluent (typical reading levels achieved in grades 1-2) and intermediate (typical reading levels achieved in grades 3-6). The range of levels within the scripts allows for flexible grouping, which facilitates peer modeling as weaker and stronger readers work together to produce a Reader’s Theater.
Slide 13 How is it Packaged?
Two sets of scripts comprise the Reader’s Theater Program (one for Levels F-M and one for Levels N-U). Within each set are two types of scripts. Scripts for use with small groups of students span two to three reading levels and provide parts for five to seven students. Scripts for use with larger groups span eight reading levels and provide parts for up to 12 students.

30. Teacher’s Guides Teacher’s Guides provide explicit strategies for
maximizing the
Reader’s Theater
experience with
your students.
Teaching for fluency with RT
Teaching vocabulary and word study with RT
Teaching comprehension with RT
Teaching character education with RT
Support for ELLs and Striving Readers
Assessing Fluency through oral reading
Slide 14 RT Teacher’s Guide
Teacher’s Guides provide explicit strategies for maximizing the Reader’s Theater experience with your students.
Teaching for fluency with RT
Teaching vocabulary and word study with RT
Teaching comprehension with RT
Teaching character education with RT
Support for ELL and Striving Readers
Assessing Fluency through oral reading
This section should fall under RT Teacher’s Guide – The following information includes pertinent skills covered within the Teacher’s Guide:
Fluency Skills (new information)
The teacher’s guide for each script offers a mini-lesson to help students build reading fluency through oral reading practice. A variety of fluency skills are addressed based on text reading levels and the specific opportunities embedded within particular scripts. Fluency skills and the scripts the skills are found in are noted in the following table.
Reading Using Prosody (new material)
The more experience students have with print, the better they become at interpreting it. Benchmark Education Company’s Reader’s Theater scripts are designed to assist students with prosodic reading. As students are instructed on specific fluency skills, they learn how to use their voices and interpret the words, and punctuation marks, to make the character’s lines come to life! Through instruction, modeling, repeated readings and independent practice, students learn how to read using prosody: the natural rhythm of oral reading. The following list identifies the elements of prosody explicitly taught in the teacher’s guides.
Read with appropriate pacing (slowly, quickly)
Students grasp the concept of reading with appropriate pitch through a discussion of how characters speak with different pacing. Reading speed (quickly or slowly) indicates pacing. Students also need to know that punctuation marks give readers clues on how to control the pacing. Dashes, sometimes called hyphens, tell a reader to pause very briefly before and after when saying the phrase offset by the dashes. A series of three dots (…) called an ellipsis tells a reader to slow down and pause before continuing to read. Ellipsis may also signal the reader to pause because a character is thinking.
Read with appropriate pitch (rise and fall of the voice)
Students comprehend that changing pitch means raising or lowering one’s voice. Readers know that when reading with good expression their voice rises and falls; this is called changing pitch. They also note how punctuation marks assist readers to decide the pitch they should use to read character lines. Typically, voices rise at the beginning of a sentence and fall at the end of a sentence. In sentences that end with a question mark, one’s voice rises slightly at the end.
Read with appropriate stress or emphasis
Students come to understand how using appropriate stress helps readers understand how characters feel. The appearance of punctuation marks in written texts signifies to readers how important it is read lines with emphasis. The exclamation mark indicates that a line should be read with emphasis.
Read with appropriate pauses
Students are taught how specific punctuation marks give their own rhythm to reading. The comma (,) tells a reader to pause, very briefly, before continuing. A semi-colon (;) tells a reader to pause a bit more than a comma, but not as much as a period.
Read with appropriate expression
Students learn to recognize, and orally express, that how a character says his lines can authentically communicate a lot about the character’s mood or how he is feeling.
Read with dramatic expression
Students learn to interpret and read character lines the way the characters would actually verbally convey them. Specific elements readers use to assist in the delivery of a dramatic expression of character lines: body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice.
Read smoothly and with minimal breaks
Students are shown (through modeling) and are instructed on how when they read, the reading should always be at a natural, smooth rate. The reading should contain minimal breaks with minimal breaks (miscues). When breaks in the speech flow occur, they are short lived and miscues are frequently and correctly resolved at the point of error.
Read with phrases
Students take note of how important it is for readers to read a character’s lines using correct phrasing. They learn how necessary it is to pay special attention to punctuation marks, never ignoring these signals. With teacher assistance, readers learns how to break the character lines into meaningful phrases.
[sidebar]
Assisting Students to Pay Attention to Punctuation
Authors place punctuation in specific places for a variety of reasons. Readers who can correctly interpret punctuation show they understand the author’s intended meaning. Each teacher’s guide provides instruction on how to use punctuation in the scripts to direct readers’ fluency and expression.
Periods (.) tell a reader to stop, that an idea is completed.
Question marks (?) tell a reader that a question is being asked so that their voice reflects an interrogative tone.
Exclamation points (!) tell a reader to use emphasis, speak loudly and with forcefulness.
Dashes ( -- ) indicate a brief pause, as when adding a thought; they are also used in lines of dialogue at the end of a clause to show that one character is interrupting another.
Ellipses (. . . ) tell a reader to slow down the pace of dialogue. They may also be used to show that a character is thinking.
Quotation marks (“ “) may indicate a change of tone, e.g. sarcasm.
Commas, semi-colons and colons give their own rhythm to spoken dialogue. Both the comma and the semi-colon indicate a pause in the reading. A comma (,) tells a reader to pause, very briefly, before continuing. A semi-colon (;) tells a reader to pause a bit more than a comma, but not as much as a period.
Italics tell a reader to put emphasis on a word or phrase. (end of new material)

31. Fluency Skills Covered During the Five-Day Model and Found in the Teacher’s Guide
Read with appropriate pacing
Read with appropriate pitch
Read with appropriate pauses
Slide 16 Fluency Skills Covered Within the Five Day Model and In the TG
Reading with prosody
Read with appropriate pacing
Read with appropriate pitch
Read with appropriate pauses

32. Fluency Skills Covered During the Five-Day Model and Found in the Teacher’s Guide
Read with dramatic expression
Read smoothly
Read with phrases and with minimal breaks
Pay attention to punctuation
Slide 17 Fluency Skills Covered Within the Five Day Model and In the TG
Read with dramatic expression
Read smoothly
Read with phrases and with minimal breaks
Pay attention to punctuation

33. Reader’s Theater
This is a good place to distribute copies of Under the Sea with Jacques Cousteau and have participants to read all or half of the play for a sense of how RT works.
Once the participants have worked through the script, say: Fluent reading occurs when a reader is reading with appropriate pauses for breaks between language units and is using appropriate pitch and stress to convey and receive the author’s intended message.
Section 6
Targeted Skills and Strategies/ Teacher Support Materials (20 min.)
Say: Reader’s Theater provides fluency practice for students. It can be used in a small group setting or for individual and independent practice. The program provides practice so students will:
improve automaticity (word recognition, speed, and accuracy)
practice reading effortlessly and with expression
increase comprehension
develop independent reading skills for standardized test success
Say: Now, we will actually get the chance to look through a set of Reader’s Theater scripts. While you are looking through the materials take some time to answer search for the answers to the questions on the overhead. You’ll have about 5 minutes to look and then we will come back together to debrief your findings.
Allow participants an opportunity to explore the materials and look for certain key elements.
Slide 20 Reader’s Theater Script, Under the Sea with Jacques Cousteau

34. Lesson Guide Components
Objectives
Summary
Background Information
Characters and Levels
Before-, During-, and After-Reading Strategies for Vocabulary, Fluency, and Comprehension
Section 7
Daily Instructional Plan – Lesson at a Glance (20 min.)
Note to trainer: Based on the state and the materials purchased choose either:
Section A: Adoption Implementation Guide for State or District
Section B: School or District Purchase – use catalog or pull-out brochure
Section A: (Adoption Implementation Guide for State or District)
Use the Lesson-at-a-Glance from the Adoption Implementation Guide. Have teachers follow along with a lesson guide as you point out the key elements.
Section B: (Catalog or Pullout Brochure)
Use the individual lesson guides on the tables. Have teachers follow along with the lesson guide as you point out the key elements.
Slide 22
Lesson Guide Components
Objectives
Summary
Background Information
Characters and Levels
Before/During/After reading strategies for vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension
ELL Support
Assessment, Staging, and Performance Suggestions
Literacy Extensions
Character Education Connections
Instructional Video
Show the Product Implementation section for Reader’s Theater. At the end of the presentation, briefly discuss the benefits for students and teachers. Used Slide 24 to guide the discussion.
Benefits for Teachers and Students
Say: Now that you have seen Benchmark Education Company’s Reader’s Theater in action, take a few minutes at your tables to discuss the benefits of Reader’s Theater for your students. Think about the definition of Reader’s Theater and the key points we discussed. In a few minutes, we’ll share our thoughts.

35. Lesson Guide Components
ELL Support
Assessment, Staging, and Performance Suggestions
Literacy Extensions
Character Education Connections
Section 7
Daily Instructional Plan – Lesson at a Glance (20 min.)
Note to trainer: Based on the state and the materials purchased choose either:
Section A: Adoption Implementation Guide for State or District
Section B: School or District Purchase – use catalog or pull-out brochure
Section A: (Adoption Implementation Guide for State or District)
Use the Lesson-at-a-Glance from the Adoption Implementation Guide. Have teachers follow along with a lesson guide as you point out the key elements.
Section B: (Catalog or Pullout Brochure)
Use the individual lesson guides on the tables. Have teachers follow along with the lesson guide as you point out the key elements.
Slide 20
Lesson Guide Components
Objectives
Summary
Background Information
Characters and Levels
Before/During/After reading strategies for vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension
ELL Support
Assessment, Staging, and Performance Suggestions
Literacy Extensions
Character Education Connections
Instructional Video
Show the Product Implementation section for Reader’s Theater. At the end of the presentation, briefly discuss the benefits for students and teachers. Used Slide 21 to guide the discussion.
Benefits for Teachers and Students
Say: Now that you have seen Benchmark Education Company’s Reader’s Theater in action, take a few minutes at your tables to discuss the benefits of Reader’s Theater for your students. Think about the definition of Reader’s Theater and the key points we discussed. In a few minutes, we’ll share our thoughts.

36. Benefits for Students Benefits for Teachers
can integrate fluency practice into content-area instruction as well as in the literacy block.
have facts at their fingertips to help them build background and link prior knowledge easily.
are able to make language structures, vocabulary, and concepts accessible to all students.
can extend content-area themes or build on literacy lessons.
store the scripts in the classroom or a central checkout area.
select the scripts you need based on content area, standard, or level.
Students:
at different reading levels can work together.
are motivated to practice and get their role right
develop fluency and expression by practicing text at an appropriate reading level.
develop oral language skills, comprehension, and academic vocabulary.
Slide 24
Benefits for Students
Students:
at different reading levels can work together.
are motivated to practice and get their role right
develop fluency and expression by practicing text at an appropriate reading level.
develop oral language skills, comprehension, and academic vocabulary.
Benefits for Teachers
Teachers:
can integrate fluency practice into content-area instruction as well as in the literacy block.
have facts at your fingertips help you build background and link prior knowledge easily.
are able to make language structures, vocabulary, and concepts accessible to all students.
can extend content-area themes or build on literacy lessons.
store the scripts in the classroom or a central checkout area.
select the scripts you need based on content area, standard, or level.
Say: As you can see, Reader’s Theater is going to be a great addition to your instructional framework. The scripts provide a rich avenue to content connections and vocabulary development while working fluency skills. Your students will love the content and find the process fun and rewarding. Now, let’s take a look at what you need to do in your classroom to get ready to start tomorrow!
Section 8
Getting Started Checklist (15 min.)

37. Questions?

38. Benchmark Education Toll-Free: 1-877-236-2465
If you need additional face-to-face or online training and support, call
Benchmark Education Toll-Free:
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