STRUGGLING READERS AND READERS THEATRE

Struggling Readers and Readers Theatre

Cathleen Nelson
Franciscan University of Steubenville

Introduction

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Teachers of reading have begun to adapt Readers Theatre as a new
instructional strategy in their classroom to assist struggling readers. The
Readers Theatre strategy combines repetitive readings, reading aloud, and
performing. As the student is assigned a role, they are required to read his or
her parts over and over again. Struggling readers may have problems with
fluency, comprehension, and motivation to read. Through this research
project I will answer the question: does the strategy of Readers Theatre
positively impact struggling readers fluency, comprehension, and lack of
motivation? I want to look closely at this reading strategy and discover the
ways it benefits struggling readers.
Purpose
My main goal in the research project is to collect data that shows
Readers Theatre has a positive impact on struggling readers fluency,
comprehension, and motivation to read. I want to look at interviews of
teachers who have implemented the strategy in his or her classroom through
online research. I also want to interview teachers from a variety of different
backgrounds that I know about his or her personal experiences with Readers
Theatre.
I think that my research will show a positive correlation between
increased reading fluency, comprehension, motivation and the strategy of
Readers Theatre. I predict that my research will show that Readers Theatre
is a tool that can be used to reach the struggling readers and motivate them
to want to read. I also think the research I will conduct will provide me with

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examples of how to implement this strategy effectively in my future
classroom, especially through the use of personal interviews of local
teachers.
Review of Literature
Teachers of reading have begun to adapt Readers Theatre as a new
instructional strategy to help increase students fluency. In this article,
Beisley, Caldwell, Nichols, Ripley, and Sargent (2013) look at the
effectiveness of Readers Theatre in a third-grade classroom in the South
conducted by the teacher. The study looked closely at 19 students from lowincome families that mainly consisted of struggling readers, especially in the
area of fluency. The research was done by an intervention research method
that took place over six weeks. After administering a pretest, the teacher
implemented Readers Theatre in her reading instruction to see if it would
impact the development of fluency and reading comprehension among the
students. The teacher then administered a posttest to see if there were any
changes between the two tests. The results of the six-week study concluded
that Readers Theatre not only increases a students fluency and reading
comprehension, but it increases word recognition, speed, students
motivation, and encourages deeper questioning and insight. The study
showed that the repeated reading of scripts chorally, in pairs, and
individually makes the students familiar with the text, gets them comfortable
with reading it aloud to the class, and acquaints them enough with the
structure of the text that they are then able to move on from mastering oral

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reading fluency to the next step of reading which is comprehending and
analyzing what has been read.
One of the things I loved about this study was that the teacher gave
the instruction used in the classroom for one week, which was then repeated
for a total of six weeks. I liked that the activities were given because of how
easy it would be to include it in my own lessons of a future teacher of
reading. It also gave me an example of how to implement Readers Theatre
in my future classroom. I did not like how the study only included one
classroom of such a small range of students. The study could be more
accurate if other populations of students were tested, such as Englishlanguage learners, students that come from middle-class families, or
students with learning disabilities from different places in the country. This
article supports my research on the effectiveness of Readers Theatre in the
classroom, particularly in the areas of fluency and reading comprehension.
With the goal in mind to improve readers fluency and overall reading
achievement, Rasinski and Youngs (2009) article seeks to find the effect of
Readers Theatre as an appropriate method of reading instruction. 29
second-grade students were examined at for the length of a school year in
this classroom action research study. These students ranged from having
early kindergarten to third grade reading achievement. Nine of the students
were English-language learners. After implementing Readers Theatre into
the reading instruction alongside another literacy program, the measures of
student reading proficiency increased from the fall to the spring. Word

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recognition accuracy increased .3%, automaticity increased 64.9%, prosody
increased .8%, and overall reading achievement including comprehension
had increased 11.8%. The author adds that qualitatively, the research says
that the students had an increase in motivation and positivity towards
reading. Young (2009) explains his observational findings when he writes that
a student said, Readers Theatre rules (p. 11) and parents give feedback
that Readers Theatre motivated their child to read every night.
The study not only took quantitative data into consideration, but it also
took qualitative data into consideration to determine that Readers Theatre
has a positive impact on students reading achievement. The data consisted
of test scores that were conducted in the fall and in the spring. In addition to
the test scores, Youngs classroom observations and parent feedback were
also collected as a form of data. I think the two types of data enhanced the
study. I also liked how the study looked at English-language learners reading
achievement. Readers Theatre was implemented with another literacy
program that could have made an impact on the findings of reading
achievement. It makes it unclear as to what exactly improved reading
achievement. A way to improve this study would be to isolate the
implementation of Readers Theatre and the literacy program in order to see
the effects more clearly. The qualitative findings in this study help me to see
that Readers Theatre has a positive impact on the students because of the
observations that were made and the feedback that Young got from the
parents.

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An instructional model study was done to see the effectiveness of
Readers Theatre on oral reading fluency. Martinez, Roser, and Strecker's
(1998) article looks at two second-grade classrooms that implement Readers
Theatre every day for 10 weeks into their Language Arts lesson plans. One
class that participated in the study had hispanic children of low
socioeconomic status, where the other varied in ethnicity and socioeconomic
status. Both of the classess reading levels varied. After the pretests and
posttests, research found that Readers Theatre improved almost all of the
students reading achievement. Only four of all the students who participated
did not gain improvement in oral reading fluency. The research also found
that Readers Theatre had an immense impact on students ability to
understand the characters and their feelings.
The study compared the scores of two different classrooms that varied
in ethnicity and socioeconomic background. I think that makes the authors
findings more accurate and brings in more data to be evaluated. Although
the study looked at two different classrooms, I think the study could have
included more students. Additional classrooms that included students with
learning disabilities or English-language learners would be a good asset to
this study because the research would look at a wider population. The
findings support my hypothesis that Readers Theatre has a positive impact
on a readers fluency and comprehension. Ms. Carter explains how, I see
two reasons why Readers Theatre helped my students so much. The first is
comprehension that results from having too become the characters and

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understand their feelings, and the second is the repetition and practice
(Martinez, Roser, and Strecker, 1998, p. 104).
Methodology
For my own research, I sent out emails with survey questions to five
teachers that I know. In total, five teachers received an email. Two teachers
taught first grade. One teacher taught third grade. One teacher taught
middle school. One teacher taught high school. I chose these participants
because I wanted a variety of opinions. The teachers instruct different grade
levels, from first grade to twelfth grade.
A common theme throughout the literature I reviewed was the
improvement of fluency and reading comprehension. Therefore, there were a
few questions about data collected about the improvement of student
fluency and reading comprehension. In addition, there were questions
regarding the use of Readers Theatre in a lesson, observations that were
made of student reactions, and the teachers opinion.
Findings
Out of the few teachers that replied, each of them were from different
areas with different amounts of experience. Below is a graph that
summarizes their answers to the survey.
Teacher 1

Teaching
Position

Teachers aid
for math and
reading

Teacher 2

Religion
teacher

Teacher 3

Elementary
teacher

Teacher 4

Elementary
teacher

Teacher 5

High school
teacher

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Grades they 1st grade
teach

Middle school 3rd grade

1st grade

8th-12th
grade

Experience
with
Readers
Theatre

1 year

2 years

1 year

2 years

Use of
Readers
Theatre in
lesson

All students
Acted out
were required Scripture
to
read/partner
read their
lines to me
and practice
with parents
at home

Students were Students acted

paired into
out as a whole
groups and
class
performed

Students were
paired into
groups and
performed

Student
reactions

Students
enjoyed their
Reader's
Theatre. The
students
expressed
their interest
in this
instructional
strategy

The students
enjoyed the
props, were
quick to work,
and were
quiet during
the
presentations

Students were
fully engaged,
looked
forward to
working on
performances,
and all
participated

Students
participated
and appeared
more
confident
when reading
their parts

Students were
quiet during
presentations
and asked to
work on their
parts

Struggling
readers
fluency

Struggling
students were
thankful for
being paired
with other
readers. This
strategy
helped
reluctant
readers feel
more
comfortable.

Improved

Improved

Improved

Improved

Struggling
reader's
reading
comprehensi
on

Did not
display
significant
improvement

Did not test

this aspect.

Improved

Improved

Did not
display
significant
improvement

1 year

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Do you
believe this is
an effective
reading
instructional
strategy and
why?

Yes, I think
that Reader's
Theatre is
effective
because it
helps students
gain
confidence in
their abilities.
It also helps
students
combat
learned
helplessness

Yes, because
it helps put a
story into a
living context.
Details have
to be clarified
and careful
attention to
detail is
necessary in
order for the
"play" to
make sense

Yes, I think
the repetitive
readings were
the most
beneficial for
my struggling
readers
because it
gave them a
chance to
practice

Yes, Readers
Theatre gives
students
confidence in
reading their
parts because
they can
practice and it
motivates
them to want
to read

Yes, it gave
my students
who struggle
with reading
opportunities
to practice
reading and
my students
were
incredibly
engaged

Despite having only five questionnaires to work with, the similarities

and differences between the five teachers should be noted. All five teachers
agree that Readers Theatre is an effective reading instructional strategy. It
should be noted that all five teachers said that student fluency improved
when Readers Theatre was implemented. It should also be noted that all five
teachers said student reactions were all positive and students were more
motivated to read. All but two teachers said that reading comprehension did
not improve and one of those teachers said it was not even tested.
In regards to implementing the Readers Theatre instructional strategy
into a lesson, all five teachers implemented it differently. Teacher 1
implemented Readers Theatre by using paired reading, Teacher 2 used
Readers Theatre to act out scenes in Scripture, Teacher 3 and Teacher 5 had
students act out in groups, and Teacher 4 had the whole class act out
together.
Recommendations

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This search for the implementation of Readers Theatre in reading instruction was more
difficult than I presumed. Despite much of the literature I reviewed, it was difficult to find
journal articles of fluency and reading comprehension being tested based on the use of Readers
Theatre. I think this is because Readers Theatre is a fairly new strategy that has not been
implemented regularly.
In my own research, I should have asked more teachers to respond to my questionnaire.
This would have provided a wider population for my data collection, making my research more
extensive and more accurate. I could also provide pretests and posttests for the teachers that I
interview to determine if fluency and reading comprehension improve after implementing
Readers Theatre over a course of time.
References
Bagley, A. (2014). The effects of readers theater instruction on oral reading fluency of second
grade students. MD Soar, 1-24. https://mdsoar.org/bitstream/handle/11603/2336/
MEd_Bagley_actionres_Sp2014.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Beisley, R., Caldwell, S., Mraz, M., Nichols, W., Ripley, W., & Sargent, S. (2013). Improving

oral reading fluency through readers theatre. Reading Horizons, 52(2), 163-180. http://
scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3073&context=reading_horizons
Biggs, M., Homan, S., & Rasinski, T. (2009). Teaching reading fluency to struggling readers method, materials, and evidence. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 25(2-3), 1-23. http://
accelerating-literacy-learning.edu.au/files/52d258db98d66.pdf
Chard, D. J., & Tyler, B. J. (2000). Focus on inclusion: using readers theatre to foster fluency in

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struggling readers: a twist on the repeated reading strategy. Reading & Writing Quarterly,
16(2), 163-168. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David_Chard/publication/
247498759_Using_Readers_Theatre_to_foster_fluency_in_struggling_readers_
A_twist_on_the_repeated_reading_strategy/links/5411841c0cf2b4da1bec539d.pdf
Martinez, M., Roser, N. L., & Strecker, S. (1998). I never thought I could be a star: A readers
theatre ticket to fluency. The Reading Teacher, 52(4), 326-334. http://www-tc.pbs.org/
teacherline/courses/rdla150/docs/c1s3_11ineverthought.pdf
Rasinski, T., & Young, C. (2009). Implementing readers theatre as an approach to classroom
fluency instruction. The Reading Teacher, 63(1), 4-13. http://edml177.pbworks.com/w/
file/fetch/46848694/Readers'%20theater%20and%20fluency.pdf

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Appendix A
Readers Theatre Questionnaire
Directions: Please answer the questions below to the best of your ability. Thank you!
1. Where and what do you teach?
2. Have you had experience using Readers Theatre in the classroom as an instructional
strategy?
3. How did you use this in a lesson?
4. Did the students enjoy Readers Theatre? If so, how did you know?
5. Did students who struggle with reading enjoy Readers Theatre?
6. Did students who struggle with reading improve in their fluency and/or reading
comprehension?
7. Do you believe Readers Theatre is an effective reading instructional strategy? Why?

Thank you so much for your time! Please contact me at cnelson002@student.franciscan.edu if

you have any further feedback or comments.

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