Research Support on Theatre
Brock, J. (2011, May 1). Integrating Theater Arts into the Classroom: The New Responsibilities of the Elementary School
Teacher. Online Submission.
In Brock’s article, she identifies the benefits integration of theatre arts in the classroom has for student, including increased moral in all subjects and higher engagement. In addition, the article provides examples of how to integrate arts into your daily schedules and lesson plans. The study focuses on the increase of engagement from students who have theatre arts integrated into their curriculum.
Mason, C. Y., & Steedly, K. S. (2006). Lessons and Rubrics for Arts Integration. TEACHING Exceptional Children Plus, 3(1).
Mason and Steedly’s article is based on a study done on seven different teachers’ integration of art within their classroom. The teachers all used the same rubrics, including student self assessments, to measure the impact of the integration of art.
Fredericks, A. D. (2011). Building Literacy Bridges with Readers Theatre. School Library Monthly, 27(4), 42-44.
Frederick’s article emphasizes the importance of reader’s theatre and the benefit it can have on students’ fluency, comprehension, and general reading skills. The “dynamic duo”, a classroom teacher and reading specialist, is encouraged to facilitate a meaningful reader’s theatre activity. The article also lists multiple benefits, long term and short term, for the students who participate in an active and engaging reader’s theatre experience.
Vasinda, S., & McLeod, J. (2011). Extending Readers Theatre: A Powerful and Purposeful Match With Podcasting. Reading Teacher, 64(7), 486-497. doi:10.1598/RT.64.7.2
Vasidina and McLeod are focused on on Readers Theatre’s use with podcasting during literacy stations. The students would participate in reading from their scripts in a small group in front of a computer for their final presentations. This practice can be more time sufficient as well as practice skills of reading comprehension and fluency.
BROUUILLETTE, L. (2011). Building the Oral Language Skills of K-2 English Language Learners through Theater Arts. , (4), 19-29.
Brouuillette’s article discusses the benefit of using integration of arts, specifically theatre to help English learners develop in grades K through second. The literacy with theatre arts engages students with rich verbal interactions with multiple children at once, as well as feedback and vocabulary growth.
Zambo, D. (2011). Young Girls Discovering Their Voice with Literacy and Readers Theater. Young Children, 66(2), 28-35.
Zambos article focuses of the effect reader’s theatre has on self esteem in females, as they make connections to the characters. The article also contains resources for teachers when they are looking for pre-made scripts to take minimal preoperational time.
Worthy, J., & Prater, K. (2002). “I thought about it all night”: Readers Theatre for reading fluency and motivation. , (3), 294-297.
Worthy and Prater’s article on the essence of reader’s theatre discusses the benefits for students in the long run, including fluency, comprehension, and the analysis of texts. The article also touches on the importance of choosing the correct text for student performance, preparations for the performance, and unexpected benefits.
Peck, S. M., & Virkler, A. J. (2006). Reading in the Shadows: Extending Literacy Skills through Shadow-Puppet Theater. Reading Teacher, 59(8), 786-795.
Peck and Virkler’s article on shadow puppet theatre emphasized the literacy integration of art through a make shift reader’s theatre experience. The article presents an inquiry based social studies unit, engaging the students in writing their own scripts on the content. The article focuses on the importance of working in cooperative learning groups through literacy with reader’s theatre to make their final product of puppetry, for a shadow theatre.
