Fluency - Readers' Theater Example

The Bremen Town Musicians
A German Folktale
Characters: (8): Narrator 1, Narrator 2, Narrator 3, Narrator 4, Donkey, Dog, Cat, Rooster Narrator 1:    The Bremen Town Musicans, a German folktale.
Narrator 2:      Once upon a time a donkey worked long and hard for his
master.  As the years went by the donkey grew old and weak.
Narrator 2:      One day the donkey heard his master say that he was going to get rid of him.  When the donkey heard this he said...
Donkey:              I will run away to the town of Bremen. I have a strong voice. I will become a fine singer.
Narrator 4:          So the donkey left the farm and headed down the road to Bremen.
Narrator 1:      By and by the donkey met an old dog.
Donkey:          Good morning, Dog! How are you this fine day?
Dog:                 I am old and weak. My master wants to get rid of me. I don't know what to do.
Donkey:          Why not come with me to the town of Bremen? Together we can be fine musicians.
Narrator 2:      So the dog and the donkey headed down the road.
Narrator 3:      By and by they met a cat.
Dog:        Hello, Cat! How are you this fine day?
Cat:        I am old and weak. My master wants to get rid of me. I don't know what to do.
Donkey:          Why not come with us to the town of Bremen? Together we can be fine musicians.
Narrator 4:          So the cat, the dog, and the donkey headed down the road.
Narrator 1:      By and by they met a rooster.
Cat:             Hello, Rooster!  How are you this fine day?
Rooster:        I am old and weak. My master wants to get rid of me. I don't know what to do.
Donkey:          Why not come with us to the town of Bremen? Together we can be fine musicians.
Narrator 2:      So the rooster, the cat, the dog, and the donkey headed down the road.
Narrator 3:      The animals walked all day but they did not reach the town of Bremen.
Donkey:              Come, my friends. Let's rest under this big tree for the night.
Narrator 4:      The rooster flew up into the tree to get a look around. Suddenly he called out...
Rooster:         We are in luck my friends! I see a light. Perhaps there is a house for us to sleep in.
Narrator 1:      The animals followed the rooster to the light. There they found a little house. The donkey peeked in the window.
Narrator 2:      The donkey saw a band of robbers inside the little house. The robbers were so busy counting their money that they did not see the donkey.
Donkey:          My friends we must think of a way to frighten those robbers away.
Narrator 3:      It wasn't long before the animals had hatched a good plan.
Narrator 4:      The donkey stood on his hind legs. The dog climbed on the donkey's shoulders. The cat climbed onto the dog's back. The rooster perched on top of the cat. 
Narrator 1:      And then the animals call out... 
Donkey:          Hee haw!  Hee haw! 
Dog:             Woof!  Woof!  Woof! 
Cat:             Meow!  Meow!  Meow!
Rooster:         Cock-a-doodle-doo! 
Narrator 2:      The noise scared the robbers. The robbers dashed out of the little house and ran away.
Narrator 3:      The robbers did not take their gold. They did not take their food. They just ran away as fast as they could. 
Donkey:           What good luck, my friends!  Now we have a cozy house, tasty food, and all the gold we'll ever need. 
Narrator 4:      The animals never went to the town of Bremen. They lived happily ever after in the tiny house in the woods.
All:             The End.

Fluency

This weeks readings focused on the importance of fluency and how it is best measured and taught in the classroom. In Creating Fluent Readers, Rasinski suggests that a great way to develop fluency in the classroom is to allow the students to perform their read-aloud passages. These passages can be anything from monologues, dialogues, poetry to jokes and riddles. Teachers can do this by turning their classrooms into poetry cafés or having readers' theater festivals. This really stood out to me because I love the idea of making the process of fluency development exciting and fun for the students.

Students performing in a Readers' Theater!

NAEC/IRA position statement

Building off of my last post concerning the importance of appropriate exposure and practices of literacy for children, something else that stuck out to me was the importance of reading aloud to children. According to the reading, this is the "single most important activity for building these understandings and skills essential for reading success" (pg.3). I couldn't agree more with this statement. Reading aloud to children allows for them to engage and enjoy reading while gaining "emotional security" in regards to reading.

Storyline Online.net is a site that streams videos of childrens books being read aloud that children can watch. Each story is accompanied with activities and lesson plan ideas! Check it out!

Emergent Literacy Readings

This week’s readings focused on the importance of positive early exposure to print in childhood. Something that stuck out to me in one of the readings was the idea that there is no one teaching method or strategy that is the most effective for all children. The children that make up our classrooms today are very diverse and a successful teacher will use a variety of teaching strategies to reach each student in her classroom. Children are exposed to literacy before they even come to kindergarten. Building off of what they already know is a good way to get them excited about learning what they don't know. 

This is a great way of using what young students already know about and incorporating it in to learning in their classroom library!