History Role Playing

We have a very cool day in our 6th grade history class! We learned about how the Europeans defeated the Aztecs to gain control of their land AND their gold. And we didn’t learn it by reading out of the textbook. We learned it by role playing. 🙂

When I was reading over the lesson in the textbook this past weekend I thought it was rather boring. To say the least. Plus there was all of this other information that I deemed to be irrelevant. (I love being able to make those decisions!)

Soooooo…… I just typed up my own little “mini” reader’s theater. I’m talking “mini”. Like less than a page.

There were 3 parts. Moctezuma (Aztech chief), Cortes (Spanish explorer), and narrator

We worked in groups reading through the script twice. Then I took volunteers who wanted to perform it in front of the class. Let’s just say that some of them took my advice on how to change their voice/accent and really put on a show! 🙂

Did we meet our daily outcome (objective)? You betcha!! Did we have fun doing it? You betcha!

Will I do this again? You betcha!

Here’s a copy of the “mini” reader’s theater. Remember folks-I made it simple!

Europeans Acquiring Land in Americareaderstheater

Do you do things like this in your classroom?

Read and Write 180-Day 85

Friday, December 16, 2011

Christmas Party Day. Need I say more??? After PE, we did our 4 performances of our readers theater. I did not get to video them, but I took some pictures.

We had a few parents and sisters show up to watch our performances. What a great way to practice fluency!!!

We watched a movie until lunch, then had our Christmas party which included one of my all time favorite foods-Thin crust meat lovers’ pizza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YUM! After we finished eating and cleaning up we went outside to play where my co-worker proceeded to THROW UP!!! Poor Mr. Brady!!! I ran and got him a sprite and moved to the OTHER end of the bench AS FAR AWAY from him as possible. 🙂

He said, “I feel much better!”

I said, “I’m sure you do!”

THAT was our Friday!

Ace Spelling Readers Theater

We started a new readers theater script today for this week-a spelling adventure. Here’s the link to the script:

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/reading/ReadersTheater/ReadersTheater002.shtml

It is not too long, and it is cute. It’s amazing how fluent the kids are by Friday after reading the script for 3 days in a row; I read aloud to them on Monday as they follow along so that I can model for them how it should be read.

I know that comprehension is a BIG BIG BIG thing in the 6th grade-and I’m not talking about retelling either-I’m talking about DEEP comprehension!!! BUT-one thing that I have noticed this 1st year in 6th grade is that my students ARE NOT fluent readers at all!!! So I started doing readers theater with them about 4-5 weeks ago-THEY LOVE IT!!! Next year I plan on beginning it right at the beginning of the year-then maybe I can really see a difference in their oral reading!

Cute readers theater script

I found a really, really, really cute readers theater script posted on one of my yahoo group sites. I’m not sure if you will be able to open the link so if you can’t-then you can join the yahoo group-real writing teachers. Go to the files section and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/ENTNTf0amxwHIwl96fmdPuagjY3xX3brDk0yMQuRH9TUx2eQ_lQgPAaGGI-j5nUgLlEGimXufoWjHG6ZRI8aOrqXrwl_yuO_W4yujQp5Mw/Wolf.htm

More readers theater scripts

I have found more links for some readers theater scripts.

http://www.evsd.org/curriculum/tech/k5tech/teacher/5readerstheatre.htm

http://www.teachingheart.net/readerstheater.htm

http://www.pcboe.net/les/elderweb/readerstheater.htm

http://www.readinglady.com/index.php?module=documents&JAS_DocumentManager_op=viewDocument&JAS_Document_id=9&MMN_position=34:34

Readers Theater Script

This week we are reading “The Rough Face Girl” by Rafe Martin for our readers theater. Today I read it to them while they read along, and then we chose parts. They were surprised that the older sister in this story is so mean to her younger sister-they said it was sad.

I think they now understand that a main character doesn’t always have the most speaking parts-that tends to be the narrator sometimes! 🙂

I have to say that readers theater is one activity that my 6th graders crave!!! They love doing them!! Now if I could just get that excitement to carry over to english!!!! 🙂

Here is a link to the script for “Rough Face Girl”:

http://sherlocks.okaloosaschools.wikispaces.net/file/view/Rough+Face+Girl.doc

This script can also be called “The Hidden One” and it is based on a book by Rafe Martin.

Pandora’s Box Reader’s Theater

We are about to start on our 3rd reader’s theater-yippee!!!! The kids have loved doing the other two. This one is going to be “Pandora’s Box”. Today I read them a brief story about the gods and goddesses to give them some background knowledge about greek mythology. Then we read a story about Pandora (1 of the many versions). Tomorrow we will begin our practice reading of the script. We did the other 2 readers theaters in 1 week. I think we will begin this one tomorrow and perform it next Friday. There are only 8 parts so I will stretch out the narrator parts so that all 18 in each class will have a part-that way each class will have just 1 performance. With our previous scripts I had divided each class into 3 groups so I had to watch 6 performances! 🙂

Here is the link to the script that we will be using for “Pandora’s Box”. http://www.storycart.com/freescripts/prometheus.pdf

Now I just need to work on some type of assessment for this! 🙂

MLK Readers Theater

This link will take you to a free printable script of Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech. I am adding this to my lesson plans for next year during Black History month. 🙂

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3697

Readers Theater “The True….

Image via Wikipedia

Our script for this week is “The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs”. I had already read the book to them earlier this year. This script is soooo cute (especially the wolf’s part). I truly HAVE to listen in on the groups while they are practicing to encourage them to read with expression. 🙂 Some do it naturally-some can do it and just don’t-and some need lots of practice. Of course, the beauty of readers theater is the REREADING!!! Here is a scholastic article that explains the benefits of readers theater and some research to go along with it- http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/instructor/readerstheater.htm

1st full day of no testing

YEA!!! Today was the 1st full day of no testing!!! I read 2 more chapters of Walk Two Moons to the kids and we did our predictions in our reading notebooks. We hope to finish the book by next Friday since our collages are due then.

We performed our readers theater on Flying Solo-they did an excellent job!! 🙂 Of course, I forgot my ipod so I didn’t get to video them performing. I will try to remember to bring it to school on Monday. I did take a few pictures of them practicing in their groups.