Tag Archives: reading fluency

My Dad was Elvis Presley!

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Imagine my surprise when Google’s AI bot told me that my dad was Elvis. I’d been using Google’s lens app to ask about images from my father’s Korean War photos. When I showed it a picture of my dad in uniform, Google confidently reported that he was Elvis. Elvis!

My dad had a pretty storied past, serving in both WW2 and Korea, and earning numerous medals for valor. He even had a decent singing voice. But he was decidedly NOT Elvis.

This is precisely why at ReadAloudPlays.com we don’t rely on AI for anything. Not research, not images, not text, not our website design, nada.  We regard the authenticity and originality of our reader’s theater plays as sacred.

In addition to identifying my dad as Elvis, AI told me that a bombed out street in Saigon was downtown Tacoma, Washington. It also identified a man of some importance appearing in three different images as three different people (a chief surgeon of a MASH unit, a brigadier general, and a well-know 4-star general).

While AI may be useful when it comes to finding a good deal on a “smart” TV, it has a long way to go when it comes to more complex matters. (After all, it’s learning from us. How smart that is that?)

All the plays available through ReadAloudPlays.com and our storefront at TpT are 100% human-made. I’ve been a professional children’s theater playwright for almost 30 years. Like any half-way decent writer, I toil over my keyboard looking for just the right word, the right plot twist, and the right bit of spice. Most of my plays first appeared in Scholastic classroom magazines such as Storyworks, Scope, and Junior Scholastic, which means they were scrutinized by professional editors and readerships over half a million.

I’m sure somebody could ask AI to create a script for them, but I’m confident the product would lack originality, creativity, and purpose. It would be flavorless. It would have too much exposition. It might even feature an Elvis look-alike walking down a bombed-out street in Tacoma.

For the absolute best reader’s theater, stick with ReadAloudPlays.com. Our plays are modestly priced, created with kids and teachers in mind, and 100% human-made. This is great time to grab some of our holiday plays such as A Christmas Carol, The Gift of the Magi, and others. They’re all available on our storefront at TeachersPayTeachers.

And to honor my dad (and mom, who also served!), here’s a free download of my Veterans’ Day play script. It originally appeared in my Scholastic book, Symbols of America.

Happy directing!

There’s Nothing Better than Reader’s Theater!

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Quick & Easy Plays for Back-to-School

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When I was a sophomore in high school, the theater department staged Once Upon a Mattress, the silly musical based on The Princess & the Pea story and made famous, really, by Carol Burnett. I’d never before seen a live musical—as it wasn’t part of our family culture—and probably wouldn’t have at all were it not for the fact that I was playing in the orchestra. But Mattress left an indelible impression on me. No, I didn’t suddenly get the itch to take up acting (that would have been socially uncool…this from a band geek!), but here I am having spent the last thirty years writing children’s theater, much of it for Scholastic, and I have to think Mattress must have had some bearing on it.

I haven’t seen Mattress since high school, so I don’t know how much influence it has had on my new adaption of Princess and the Pea. In my version we have the conniving queen and her overly-mothered son, the ubiquitously stiff butler, a saucy cook, and a princess who refuses to adhere to the snooty royal culture of her day. Instead of living “happily ever after,” she instead says, “Nothing personal Eddie, but I like to get to know a person before I commit to anything. I really don’t care if he’s a prince or not. He just needs to be a decent human.”

While most of my plays are aimed at the middle grades, I was specifically attempting to create a package of plays for 2nd and 3rd graders that included Pea and The Emperor’s New Clothes. They’re both kind of in the second grade canon. But in the process of crafting them, I started having so much fun inserting middle grade humor, I ended up with two versions: a snarky one aimed at 4th-6th graders, and a more traditional telling for the youngers. Compared to most of my plays, the version for older kids is on the easier end of the spectrum, so it’s pretty ideal as a back-to-school ice breaker, or as warm-up for more challenging dramas to come. 

 You’ll find The Princess & the Pea and The Emperor’s New Clothes on our TpT storefront, both individually and as a steeply discounted bundle. You’ll also find the 2nd and 3rd grade version—“Two Classic Folktales”—in one package.  We think you and your students will enjoy them.

Thank you Stephanie P., Claire’s Clever Classroom, Wendy W., Amanda W., Leslie W., Jo Ann M., The LessonSmith, Tiffany S., Jacey L., Lynnette C., Katherine R. ,and Camille J. for your recent positive reviews like this one from Jenny H.:  “I love having the reader’s theater option for classic short stories! The students seem to be more engaged when we can read together as a class. I also loved the touch of humor added! Such a great way to read out loud as a class.” Rating: 5/5 (extremely satisfied)

Happy directing!

You Deserve a Chill Conclusion!

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“I experienced all the emotions. I laughed. I cried. I got angry. It was wonderful!”

No, this wasn’t a teacher summarizing her school year. This was an adult viewer of our recent fifth grade performance of “The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage.” But over the course of a full school year, I have no doubt you’ve experienced all the emotions, and if you’re approaching the conclusion of your year, you deserve to experience some joy. One way is to chill out with some end-of-year reader’s theater.

Our plays are masterfully crafted to make your students laugh, cry, and get angry… okay, mostly just laugh.  And for you, the teacher, these plays are easy time fillers. Devote 45 minutes or so to a single reading, or better yet, read it three or four times over a week for an impromptu in-class performance. Up the stakes by splitting the class into two or three groups and assigning each a different play. All you have to do is print copies and divvy up parts, and voila! — that’s a week’s worth of enjoyable language arts time! Along with Sausage, here’s a few recommendations:

Goldi Locks Home Reno – Our heroine wants to renovate your home!

The Pied Piper Slightly Twisted – the Revenge of the Rats!

The Nose – Gogol’s absurd story about . . . a runaway nose?

How the Elephant Got Its Trunk – From the Jungle Books

Barbed Wire – A rootin’ tootin’ cowhand version of Maupassant’s classic, A Piece of String

Toad’s Wild Ride – Even better than the Disneyland ride!

Nature Talks Back – talking trees and “killer” insects

And many others, too!  Or, if you’re looking for something more poignant, consider our Juneteenth play, Freedom for the First Time, or Stolen Childhoods, our wonderful script about Lewis Hine’s effort to end child labor a century ago. Our Newsies play is also a great season-ender. Whichever route you take, know that our plays are authentic, human made literary works, they’re kid-tested, and despite costing just four bucks, they all include basic performance rights and a comprehension activity.

Thanks for all your hard work this school year. Finish it up in style! Happy directing!

MLK Day and Black History Month

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Now’s the time to start working on classroom activities commemorating Dr. King’s work. This compelling video featuring two inspiring plays from the ReadAloudPlays.com catalogue is a great place to start. The Palace Youth Theater put it together during the pandemic shut down. Share it with your students and then read or act out the plays. The first shows how Ruby Bridges broke the color barrier in New Orleans public schools. The second shows how MLK’s childhood inspired his civil rights leadership. You’ll find both plays, along with many other titles for Black History Month, on our TpT Storefront. Thanks, and happy directing!

Save $ with New Readers Theater Bundles!

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We’ve posted four new bundle collections, which offer big savings over single plays. Check them out on our TpT storefront!

Fairy Tales Slightly Twisted–Kids absolutely love performing these plays! Two unique versions of Goldilocks, a wonderful Brothers Grimm tale, and some hysterical Pied Piper action! Perfect for Back-to-School! All include the license to duplicate a full class set, school day performance rights, and comprehension activities. Click on the image to preview or purchase!

Weird Tales for Halloween — a collection of our most popular plays: Sleepy Hollow, The Monkey’s Paw, and a crazy version of Poe’s Tell Tale Heart. Buy now for Halloween!

The American Revolution Bundle — Five exciting reader’s theater scripts covering the American Revolution including The Secret Soldier, one of our most requested plays, and four others. Check our Eagles Over the Battlefield–a kid favorite for sure!

The Explorers Pack — Three reader’s theater scripts covering three eras. Divide the class into thirds and challenge each to present one of the three, then have all your students complete the standards-based compare and contrast activity. Teach history, reading fluency, and reading comprehension while getting your students excited about learning!

Happy directing!

Your Juneteenth Playlist

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My most poignant play—and it’s perfect for celebrating Juneteenth! Based on actual slave narratives, Freedom for the First Time is historically-accurate, kid-friendly, and comes embedded with comprehension questions and historic photos. It’s the narrative of ten-year old Tyree, a slave during the time of the Civil War. Like many slaves, Tyree believes whatever her masters say. But when Tyree’s brother, Sweet Walter, arrives with a band of Union soldiers to tell her the war is over, she and her family experience their day of Jubilee, the day they know freedom for the first time. Pair it with Days of Jubilee, Patricia and Frederick McKissack’s exceptional non-fiction book about slavery and the Civil War. Click here to see the fantastic things the kids at the Baker Montessori School in Houston did with the script! It’s available on TpT and Etsy, and like all my plays, it includes performance rights. Be sure to also check out Box Brown’s Freedom Crate and Richard Wright & the Library Card. Happy directing!

Greatness Isn’t Born

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I don’t usually do reviews, but I just finished an awesome book called The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle (2009, Bantam). Greatness isn’t born, argues the author. It’s grown. Think about that for a minute and then apply it to your classroom.

Greatness isn’t born. It’s grown.

There are no “naturally gifted” kids. Your students didn’t inherit their spelling/math/reading deficiencies from a parent. In fact, Coyle shows that IQ and physical attributes are largely irrelevant.

And he proves it using brain science.

Now, I’ve written about neuroscience before. Brain research by Lev Vygtsky and other experts is the basis for using reader’s theater to build fluency. The repetitive, “slow reading” nature of practicing a play builds the neural pathways that make mastery possible. Coyle, though, takes it further, citing more contemporary research. I’m stoked because Coyle’s work not only justifies using reader’s theater, it also affirms the effectiveness of my Super Sentences writing program, which relies on targeted, mistake-focused practice. And Perfect Paragraphs, which has to do with being imitative. And my Fact Car Rally program, too!

The book is chock full of concepts important to learning. It explains why special education kids are often mistakenly perceived as having short-term memory disabilities. It reveals what’s behind vacation “brain drain,” and how speed-focused oral reading fluency leads to mediocrity, and why stuff like Harry Potter and Twilight can ignite an entire generation of writers.

It also honors great teachers. What we do can’t be delivered by an online platform, nor scripted in a textbook!

So, I encourage you to grab a copy of The Talent Code off Ebay. (A copy used is less than $10 and you’ll be able to write notes in it!) Despite being all about neurons, synapsis and myelin, it’s an engaging read. (It’s kind of gone viral within my school setting.) Plus, it’ll have a huge impact on your teaching.

And while we’re on the subject, consider building some slow-reading, mistake-focused readers with some deep practice using my read aloud play scripts! For Women’s History Month you might want to try Girl. Fighter. Hero! about “the female Paul Revere,” or The Secret Solider, which tells the story of Deborah Samson, America’s first female soldier. You could also try my original play about Sacagawea, or my story from the Montgomery Bus Boycott about Claudette Colvin.   

Happy directing!   

How to Honor Veterans

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As a way to honor America’s veterans, I’m offering my play “War Stories” for free through Veteran’s Day. All you have to do is visit my TeachersPayTeachers site. The play originally appeared in my now out-of-print book, Read Aloud Plays: Symbols of America. It’s a somber reminder of the sacrifices made by our war heroes. The play comes with a set of comprehension activities and full reproduction rights, which means the original downloader can copy a full class set for use in his or her classroom every year. It’s an engaging way to reveal to your students the real meaning of the holiday. Be sure to also check out my other American history plays. Happy directing!

Another Great Zoomer’s Theater Script!

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The Necklace is a cautionary tale written in 1884 by French writer Guy de Maupassant. It tells about a young woman who, despite having a very comfortable life, is discontent. Her desire to appear wealthier than she actually is comes at a great cost. In the end she loses her comfort, beauty, and status. The play can be related to modern consumerism–how people today enslave themselves to debt while living beyond their means–but the story is mostly about honesty. It was originally published in Read Aloud Plays: Classic Short Stories (Scholastic 2010). What makes it unique is that it’s told from the perspective of an aloof, French-speaking cat (Maupassant) and his rodent sidekick (Flaubert). Scholastic also published other “aged-up” versions (meaning they had me re-write it without the Disney-treatment), but this version remains one my most well-liked plays, even among older students. It’s a great story to talk about irony, plot, and moral, and it’s a great way to promote student engagement and fluency while teaching to the Common Core standards. It includes parts for eight actors, and is best-suited for grades 4 through 8 as “Zoomer’s Theater,” radio drama/podcast, or short stage performance. It includes a comprehension quiz, embedded prompts, teacher notes, and answer keys. Like all my plays, the original purchaser is licensed to print a full class set every year for use in his or her classroom, and performance rights are included. You can preview and purchase it on my TpT storefront. Happy directing!