Using Readers Theater to Engage a Distracted Reader

There are many benefits to using readers theater . Reader’s theater is a strategy where students read aloud and perform using scripts adapted from grade-level fictional text. Recently, I used a reader’s theater version of the The Three Little Pigs to engage a student who has difficulty staying focused with most academic activities, especially reading. I found the script on the Have Fun Teaching.com website .

While reader’s theater is a fun way to help students develop fluency, you can tie in other reading goals, as well. I used the script to work on reading comprehension, specifically cause and effect and some thinking beyond the text. My student has decent decoding skills but really struggles with comprehension. We talked about how the first two “little pigs” were destined to fail and my student made the connection that straw and sticks were not as strong as bricks. The script came with some printable mask templates and my student chose to make and wear the wolf mask. He really got into character and was able to think about how the wolf was feeling during the beginning, middle, and end of the story.