Stage It! Readers’ Theater to Engage ELLs Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

Dr. Kate Mastruserio Reynolds William Brooks--brookswk@uwec.edu

Project Description

Objectives

Pre and Post Results

Resources

This project was designed to analyze the best practices of Readers’ Theater for an

ESL setting. We wished to see if Readers’ Theater could be used as a powerful

language teaching tool for English language learners, in allowing for the

integration and contextualization the four language skills (i.e., speaking, listening,

reading and writing) plus grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. Along with

addressing the non-verbal behavior and socio-cultural features of the texts, we also

sought to adapted the unit to fit students’ individual language learning needs while

teaching language arts standards, with literary concepts like foreshadowing,

character development, and plot.

TESOL • Reading

Students will be able to self-identify areas of a text that they understand and don’t understand.

• Writing Students will be able to use 9-14 new words from the context of the play in writing. Students will be able to write from the role of their characters.

• Speaking Students will be able to speak with correct intonation in context. Students will be able to read aloud from their parts with increased fluency and speed.

• Listening Students will be able to identify words with –s endings. Students will be able to keep track of their place in the play while others read.

English/Language Arts

Students will be able to make predictions about the direction of the text. Students will be able to use descriptive writing to convey more information. Students will be able to summarize the key parts of the play.

Acting

Students will be able to act while in a way that conveys an appropriate mood. Students will be able to position themselves in concordance with stage directions.

Sample Lesson Plan Students did a RAFT reading strategy activity based on the play.

Role: Officer Smith Audience: Mr. Fisher’s Family Format: Letter of condolence Topic: The Murder of Mr. Fisher

The text that the students worked from during this unit was adapted from Kevin

Klimowski’s dramatic adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Tell-Tale

Heart.” Each student had their own role in the play, including: Wade (the murderer),

Landlady, Officers (3), and Narrators (4). While students did do work concerning

the play as a whole, the majority of the work they did was focused around their

characters or parts.

Population Description The study took place in northern Wisconsin high school in an ESL block English/reading skills classroom. The students in the class were all Hmong with ELP levels ranging from 1.9-3. The students ages range from 15 to 18 and are in grades 10-12. Most of the students reported being from Thailand and having been in the United States for 5 to 8 years. Most of the students estimated that they had been learning English for 2-8 years and said that their speak either no English or very little English.

Students created a map of the play’s setting according to the stage directions given by the text. We often referred to the

maps throughout the reading and acting of the play.

Students also made this collaborative summary of the play by working in pairs to summarize the main events of the play. After they wrote their parts, we mixed them up and the students put them in the correct order.

Student Perception and Performance Students took a needs assessment comprised of four parts: 1) Recording of written passage from Well Said: Pronunciation for Clear Communication 2) Written response demographic information 3) Self-perception of English skills and habits 4) Self-perception of English language learning progress

Students completed pre-test on February 2, 2011 and the post-test on March 4, 2011. During that time, students also completed weekly surveys on their self-perception of their English language learning skills. 1)The students’ performance on the recorded portion of the pre- and post-tests showed a general improvement in fluency and speaking rate, as the length of the recordings decreased. There was also a noted increase in students’ ability to pronounce –s word endings correctly in context. Aside from that, several students also displayed an increased adeptness to appropriate intonation and word stress. 3) The students’ answers to the language skills and habits portion of the pre- and post-tests generally made a small improvement. Students self-perception on their ability to understand English input and their ability to produce comprehensible English output increased. Several students reported an increased use of English in and out of the school setting. 4) The students’ responses to the English language learning process portion of the pre- and post-tests showed several students who listed activities related to speaking as the “easiest” part of class.

Teacher Perception of Student Performance Throughout the course of the unit, I noticed several positive developments: 1) The classroom environment developed into a place with a lower affective filter, where students where willing and able to make mistakes in their speaking and learn from them more freely. The classroom became a place that was often filled with laughter and discussion.

2) Students slowly became better at monitoring their own reading and speaking. In the beginning phases of the play students were instructed to keep track of words and passages made sense or were confusing. Students also became better at asking questions or looking up answers more frequently.

3) Students were willing to work in groups and slowly began to help each other “workshop” their parts. While students worked through their regular in-class verbal performances of the play, they would often help each other with a word that was difficult to pronounce.

4) Students’ language skills in in writing and speaking, in particular, seemed to improve over the course of the unit. With teacher guidance, the students began to write and speak more descriptively. They were often creative with their responses, using words from the play in addition to their pre-existing vocabulary.

The text I used: • Poe, Edgar Allan. One Act: The Tell-Tale Heart. Ed. Kevin Klimowski. Logan, IA: Perfection Learning, 1995. Print. Other potential texts I would have used for this project: • Dean, Michael. A Ghost In Love and Other Plays. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999. Print. Oxford Bookworms.

• Henry, O. One Thousand Dollars and Other Plays. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000. Print. Oxford Bookworms. • Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing. Ed. Alistair McCallum. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. Print. Oxford Bookworms.

(For a complete list of reviewed texts and resources please see the binder.)