Nurturing Emergent Readers Through Readers Theater

Abstract

Readers theater is a familiar literacy strategy for children who can read independently; however, it can also be used with younger children who have not yet developed independent reading skills. The purpose of this article is to adapt the concept of readers theater for use with emergent readers. It focuses first on defining readers theater and its many benefits, particularly in the areas of literacy development. Finally, it includes suggestions for successfully implementing a readers theater program with young children. Three-year-old Joey and his classmates love pigs and consider The Three Little Pigs folktale to be the height of suspense, action and drama. These children naturally extend the tale into their play by building houses where giggling ‘‘pigs’’ hide from a big bad wolf that can never quite blow the house down. Like children’s play, imagination drives drama. The world of the theater is a world of suspending our disbelief and pretending that we are in a place and time removed from reality. Imagination is also one of the hallmarks of childhood and it is this skill that drives the fantasies of young children like Joey. Drama holds both power and potential in early childhood programs because of its ability to harness a child’s well-honed imagination and use it to enhance learning. The children’s sociodramatic play with The Three Little Pigs required them to use problem solving and motor skills in building block houses, develop understandings of story structure in reenacting parts of the tale and provided opportunities to enter, retell and recreate the tale’s drama. Joey’s teacher further extended the children’s involvement with The Three Little Pigs through a modified version of readers theater. Readers theater is a type of drama that holds particular potential with young children because of its strong connections to literacy development and the ease with which it can be implemented. However, readers theater is underused with young children, in part because of the mistaken belief that only readers can participate. This article defines readers theater, focusing on how it can be used with emergent readers. It describes some of readers theater’s characteristics and the benefits that make it appropriate for the early childhood classroom and concludes with specific suggestions for implementation.