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By SALLY BURR
Special to the Traveler

Pair the wish of a second-year teacher to help students become better readers with a mini grant and what do you get? A room full of fifth graders whose reading levels have skyrocketed and who have had fun in the process.

When Jefferson teacher Tamara Cassidy attended a reading conference last October and learned of a content-area Reader's Theatre kit, she recognized its potential to improve reading scores and turn kids on to reading. The only obstacle was the $325 price tag. Enter the Arkansas City Public Schools Enhancement Fund with an invitation to teachers to apply for a Great Ideas Grants and the rest is history.

Cassidy received a grant and ordered a set of Benchmark Education Company reader's theater scripts, which she put into use in February. Has the project expectations?

"Oh yes. It's had even more of an impact that I thought. The kids love it. It's user-friendly. The stories are good. We can stop (for instruction) and get right back into the story," Cassidy said. "I'm even using it in my twice-weekly, after-school group."

Reader's Theatre is a style of theater in which the actors do not memorize lines. Facial expressions and vocal intonations are most important since Reader's Theatre has no blocking from the waist down. The acting out of dialogue causes readers to work closely with their texts to project and interpret meaning into their reading, and consequently gain improvement in vocabulary, comprehension and retention. Reading in a small group provides reading role models which is also proven to improve reading skills.

Each set of Reader's Theatre scripts tells a story. There are a dozen different ones in the set Cassidy purchased; each scripted into a short play. They are leveled; each actor's lines are written to reflect a particular reading ability. The scripting is designed to improve reading skills and also integrate math, science and social studies. As cross-curriculum instruction is mandated, Cassidy is constantly on the lookout to find appropriate material to integrate into the various content areas.

A recent North Carolina study reflects the value of Reader's Theatre in teaching reading. In the study, every fourth grader in the project moved one full reading level in just 10 weeks. After a year, growth was three levels.

While the use of Reader's Theatre is new at Jefferson, Cassidy can already provide tangible proof of the project's success. She checks a notebook where a running record of each student's reading progress is kept. Entries reflect observations from time spent reading with each student individually at least once weekly. She logs observations carefully and can see their week-to-week movement.

"We also track progress in vocabulary and reading comprehension in the computer lab," she said. She highlighted a student who came into grade five at reading level 2.3 (second grade, third month) and who is now reading at 4.8 (fourth grade, eighth month).

Cassidy said there is no doubt in her mind that Reader's Theatre has been substantially responsible for this movement.

"All the kids love it," she said. No wonder, for advocates have described Reader's Theatre as a method where play and playing become synonymous.

Reader's Theatre is also a recommended method of improving reading fluency in Literacy First, a process adopted by USD 470, which uses leveled texts to help participants increase fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and improve spelling.

All 19 of Cassidy's pupils regularly divide themselves into small groups and they proceed to read aloud from the scripts assigned to them based on their current reading levels.

Last fall, reading levels varied within the group from early third grade to that of the final year of high school. It is a challenge, therefore, to teach 19 individuals with ranges so broad. That's where the leveled texts come into use. As the students read aloud, they are also "performing;" using a few hand gestures and facial expressions along with vocal intonations to convey the message of the story being told.

The set of scripts has also been used with fellow fifth-grade teacher, Maredith Watson, and the carryover doesn't stop there.

"The kids are really excited. On Friday they will go to the kindergarten room to read to the younger kids and next week we will be performing our Reader's Theatre for the first graders," she said. "I can see that our use of Reader's Theatre boosts speaking and listening skills and helps enhance confidence. It can transform a reluctant reader into a true book lover... I love working with kids and seeing them gain confidence."

Above: Austin Reed, left, son of Robert and Valerie Reed, practices reading his lines from his group's Reader's Theatre project. Awaiting their turns are Devon Coulson, son of Kelly and Shari Coulson; and Joey Lewallen, son of Mary Anne Lewallen.