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Let’s Write a Readers Theatre Script: The Power of Negotiation Claudia Christensen Haag

Negotiating writing Readers Theatre scripts with students helps promote language and literacy development while building critical thinking and engagement.

Alonzo (all student names are pseudonyms) turns slowly toward the audience. Wiping imaginary sweat from his brow, he lets out a deep sigh. “Oh brother,” he exclaims in his newly acquired English, “this could take 10 years!” With a sheepish grin on his face, he turns his back to the au- dience, picks up his prop—a ruler with a hand- drawn cardboard ax attached—and begins to chop down the class- created f loor- to- ceiling kapok tree. As he feigns sleepiness, he slowly drops the ax and lies down beneath the tree. Our ESL class performance of our student- created script for The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry (1990) is under way.

The idea of using drama (e.g., story enactments, choral reading, Readers Theatre) with students is not new. Historically, drama has been used by many ed- ucators to expand both language and literacy devel- opment (Edmiston, 2014; Martinez, Roser, & Strecker, 1999; Wolf, 1994). Drama has been highlighted for its ability to help with fluency development (Griffith & Rasinski, 2004; Young & Nageldinger, 2014). However, drama is so much more. Through dialogue around drama, the give- and- take that happens while creat- ing and enacting a dramatic piece changes students and teachers as they get to experience the world from a different point of view (Edmiston, 2014).

Many educators report that they are not using drama in the classroom because of time issues. Although I respect my colleagues’ position, I chal- lenge their thinking and propose that we revisit the attributes of drama to not only foster engagement in language and literacy development but also pro- mote the use of drama in any discipline to bring the current curricula to life.

Drama provides many benefits. One of its most underappreciated features lies in issues of equity and participation. All students, not just the highly verbal ones, get to show what they know. Drama can

also be an effective tool for teachers working with English learners as it gives students opportunities to use words as well as actions, gestures, and props to relay meaning. “For English learners, the benefits are magnified because drama provides alternate ways of showing and knowing the world” (Haag & Compton, 2015, p. 137). In this article, I take one slice of drama, Readers Theatre, and couple it with teacher/student negotiations in an ESL classroom to create an actual script with students from a piece of literature. I use examples from my pull- out ESL classroom, where I worked with four to six students at a time, but this same practice could be taken into the regular class- room during a teacher’s small- group time.

As those who already use Readers Theatre in the classroom know, there is an abundance of commer- cially prepared scripts for teachers in a variety of genres. Although these ready- made scripts provide practice with fluency, they lack the vital component of scriptwriting in the classroom, where teacher and students negotiate and help create the text. What might this script negotiation look like? The next sections take a look at the process.

Step 1: Choosing Picture Books for Creating Scripts An important scaffold into writing a Readers Theatre script with your students involves selecting that “just right” text. See Figure 1 for a list of books that beg to be dramatized. First, it is important to consid- er your curricular needs. Both fiction and nonfiction texts work well for this endeavor. However, using

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Claudia Christensen Haag is an associate professor in the Department of Reading at Texas Woman’s University, Denton, USA; email [email protected].

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picture books that have strong visual features and text that can easily be adapted into dialogue helps support the composing process. For example, if your content area includes understanding and celebrat- ing different cultural fables, an excellent text would be A Chinese Zoo: Fables and Proverbs by Demi (1987). Because fable is a universal genre, it lends itself to strong cultural engagement and has a built- in sche- ma that many students have already experienced. A fable also works well for a first scriptwriting process as it tends to be short and has a complete setting and story line. Additionally, fables often have an abstract moral that lends itself to critical discussions, which give students the opportunity to question and prob- lem solve as they discuss meaning.

Step 2: Reading Aloud to Immerse and Choose Texts In this step, teachers should do a first read- aloud to let students enjoy the language and genre and be immersed in the texts. These interactive read-

aloud experiences help in building story grammar and structure and unpacking new vocabulary. In my work with A Chinese Zoo, I read and reread several of the fables over a two- or three- day period for 10–15 minutes per day to immerse us in the cultural nuanc- es and structure of a fable and to have critical con- versations to take us into deeper meaning about the morals shared. These discussions focused not only on the meaning behind the morals but also what the morals might look like in our own lives.

Once we enjoyed and discussed the text, we could start the negotiation process of deciding on which fable to use for creating our scripts. With my blend- ed third- and fourth- grade group, we ended up with two different fables being selected for consideration: “The Dragon King” and “The Blind Mice and the Elephant.” My students began to share quick reasons why their fable should be used. Martha chose “The Blind Mice and the Elephant” because she thought it would be interesting to write lines about how each of the mice described the elephant from their differ- ent points of view. Jerry thought it would be funny

Figure 1 A Sampling of Books That Beg to Be Written Into Scripts

Fables/folklore A Chinese Zoo: Fables and Proverbs by Demi

Fables by Arnold Lobel

Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young

Multicultural variants of folklore: Cinderella tales: Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story From China by Ai- Ling Louie, The Rough-Face Girl by Rafe Martin, Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale by John Steptoe, The Korean Cinderella by Shirley Climo

Fiction Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman

Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson

Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto or Chato’s Kitchen by Gary Soto Informational texts

Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh

Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney

What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page

Whose Tracks Are These? A Clue Book of Familiar Forest Animals by James Nail Websites/ drama resources

Story Drama: Creating Stories Through Role Playing, Improvising, and Reading Aloud by David Booth

Author Online! Aaron Shepard’s Home Page: http://www.aaronshepard.com (scripts and tips on using Readers Theatre)

“Science Books+Readers Theater”: http://www.melissa-stewart.com/pdf/ReadersTheater.pdf (informational science book suggestions for Readers Theatre)

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to have the elephant talk back to each of the mice as they ran across him. Asael campaigned for “The Dragon King” and thought we could write the script to show the king being bossy, and Carla added that she wanted to have the artist poke fun at the queen’s beauty before agreeing to paint her picture. After a short debate, “The Dragon King” won the vote.

Step 3: Writing Scripts and Negotiating the Story Writing a script based on a high- quality picture book is not as challenging as one might think. However, it is a balancing act between teacher and students and will look different depending on students’ ages and developmental levels. With my first- grade group, we first reread the selected fable and developed a class story map to keep track of our players—the key char- acters, settings, and events (see Figure 2).

After completing the story map, during the next few days, we took time to reread the author’s ver- sion of the fable, stopping after each event to begin the shared writing of our script on chart paper. The story map, posted nearby, allowed my students to cross- check to ensure we were capturing all key events. It was interesting to see how quickly the stu- dents took to changing third- person to first- person pronouns as we created each character’s lines. Writing this first script took a week of 15–20- minute meetings to create, but the impact was evident. Each time we added a new line, we first reread the previous lines together chorally. The ability of Readers Theatre to enhance engagement, fluency, and comprehension through the built- in repeated reading practices (Young, Stokes, & Rasinski, 2017) was apparent throughout our scriptwriting process. By the time the script was completed (see Figure 3), not only were all students confident in their read- ing of the lines, but they had added intonation and phrasing to make their characters come to life. They had also become a community of learners who val- ued one another’s contributions.

My older third- and fourth- grade group had more freedom in the writing process. Instead of my writing the script as the group verbally nego- tiated lines, they chose a group scribe and com- posed their own scripts on chart paper laid across our guided reading table. Their ownership was clear; however, it often led to some disputes over a character’s lines. For example, when trying to capture a scene in “The Dragon King,” Asael and

Carla discussed how we might build more humor into our script through an argument between the king and the artist. Instead of having the king ask the artist to paint his wife’s picture and the artist agreeing, as our original fable had told it, Carla fol- lowed through with her plan to have the artist first question the queen’s beauty.

We had just been covering how authors often use figurative language to get a point across, and a new favorite phrase was the need to wear “rose- colored glasses” to make things appear better than they are. Carla suggested that the artist ask the king if his wife was truly beautiful or if the artist needed to wear rose- colored glasses when painting her picture (see Figure 4). This negotiated story line was quickly included in the script. Asael came back with the idea that this comment would be seen by the king as an attack on his queen, and he would need to put the artist in his place. Thus, the entire group had a five- minute conversation about how to capture an argument. In the midst of stretching our negotiating skills, I realized the need to step back in my facilitation of the discussion and let the group figure it out. As Figure 4 shows, Carla used her line about the need for rose- colored glasses, and the ar- gument scene, complete with Asael’s suggestion of “Am not”/”Am too,” won the day. A lesson I learned was to not give up too soon, as the power lies in the negotiations and the working together to make a script come to life.

Although both age groups decided to use the same fable for their scriptwriting, the final scripts were very different. This illustrates the ability of a quality text to work on many different levels. The first- grade script followed a very literal interpre- tation of the original story, whereas the older stu- dents’ script involved much more adaptation, hu- mor, and figurative language (see Figures 3 and 4).

Step 4: Practice Once our scripts were completed, they were typed up, and we discussed who would play each part. For the first- grade group, I typed the scripts and ran off copies for the group to practice. For the older group, the students took turns typing their handwritten ver- sion, adding their own script nuances for character actions (e.g., typing “ZZZZ” for a character sleeping).

I observed as students began to talk about how they wanted to enact the script, and they often nat- urally blended Readers Theatre with drama by add- ing actions, gestures, and props to convey meaning.

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Figure 2 Story Map of “The Dragon King”

Note. The color figure can be viewed in the online version of this article at http://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com.

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One negotiated prop entailed helping unpack the meaning of the moral “No great thing is created suddenly.” Donnie, one of my first graders, came up with the idea of having several crumpled, half- drawn sketches placed around the artist’s desk. As a group, we discussed how the artist might point to the floor and all of his practice sketches, then end with a swing of the arm and a snap of his fingers to show how he could now paint the picture “fast.” As he practiced his line, along with his props and gestures, I had a front- row seat to see the impact of these negotiated transactions not only on a stu- dent’s confidence and engagement but also on lan- guage and literacy competence. Donnie, who had been labeled “at risk” following formal reading as- sessments, came skipping into my room during our week of practice to announce, “Guess what, Mrs. Haag, I’m a reader!” When I asked what made him say this, he pointed to our script and said with a big

grin, “Because I can read this!” (Williams & Haag, 2009, p. 169).

Step 5: Presentation and Reflection We decided to video record the final presentations so we could watch them. By this time, many of the students had memorized their parts because they wanted to enact the story line. I was invited to be their narrator. The students went beyond a purist stance to Readers Theatre, exhibiting their own cre- ative license to use props and memorize their lines, and this promoted ownership of the process.

In a video- recorded interview, I asked students what their favorite part of this process was. Asael simply said, “It’s the practice.” He enjoyed playing with the language of the script, often ad- libbing new lines (to the surprise of his fellow actors), but he re- minded me that it was the process, not the product,

Figure 3 First- Grade Readers Theatre Script of “The Dragon King”

The Dragon King A Chinese Fable

Adapted by 1st Grade ESL Class Narrator: Once upon a time, there was a dragon king who had a beautiful queen. He called a dragon artist. King: I want Artist: Yes your majesty. I will draw a beautiful picture. Narrator: The queen said Queen: I am so excited!! I will tell the whole castle about my picture. (Runs off) Narrator: And she ran off to tell the whole kingdom. Months went by. In the meantime the king was getting tired of waiting for the artist to paint the picture. King: Narrator: The King went up the hill and he knocked on the door. King: (knocking Artist: (draws picture quickly) Here is your picture your majesty. King: If you could draw that fast why did you keep me waiting so long? Artist: (shows other pictures) See all these pictures? I had to practice and practice so that

Narrator: The King went back and showed the picture to the queen. King: Do you like your picture, my queen? Queen:

THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS NO GREAT THING IS CREATED SUDDENLY!!!

Note. Students adapted this script from Demi (1987).

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Figure 4 Third- and Fourth- Grade Readers Theatre Script of “The Dragon King”

THE DRAGON KING AND THE ARTIST A CHINESE FABLE

ADAPTED BY 3rd-4th Grade ESL Class

Narrator: Once upon a time in a faraway kingdom in China, there lived a dragon king and Queen. King: HONEY, I think you are so beautiful. Queen: Oh! Thank you, darling! King: I KNOW!! We need a picture of you on our Great Wall of China!! Queen: Oh: DO you really think so? King: Y Queen: ted that I am going to tell all my friends around the kingdom. King: COURT ARTIST I NEED YOU!! Artist: (Enters room and bows) Do you need ME your majesty? King: I because it is going to be hung on our great wall of china. Artist: SHOULD I WEAR MY ROSE COLORED GLASSES WHEN I PAINT HER PICTURE?(holds up glasses) King: You are paid to paint, not make jokes or insult people. Artist: Hey wait a minute, now you are insulting me!! King: Am not Artist: Am too King: Am not Artist: Am too!!! Queen: Honey, is everything alright? King: Oh yes of course my dear! Our wonderful court artist has just agreed to paint your picture. Artist: (cups hand to audience) Beauty really IS in the eyes of the beholder!! (slips glasses on). Dear Queen, do you have a picture of yourself that I might borrow? Queen: Oh it just happens that I have a few right here(shares several shots in a photo holder) (hand on hip, smiling)? Artist: (holding out hands) oh, no, no, no the pictures are just fine!!! I think I must be leaving now!!! (Exits quickly) Narrator: So the dragon artist went to his studio high in the sky to try and paint a rosy picture of the queen.

SCENE II Narrator: As you can see, the Dragon King waited patiently, that was only for the rest of the

fingernails. (King drumming fingers on chair) by the fourth month, his toe tapping had formed a giant crack through the castle floor. By the end of the year, well you can just imagine what happened. With all his anger, passion and fury, the

studio. King: (knocks loudly) COURT ARTIS ORRRRR BEFORE I BREAK IT DOWN!! Artist: ZZZZZ (laying down and snoring) HOLD YOUR HORSES! ZZZZZ King: Artist: I-I- -RIGHT THERE!! (gets up and opens door) HELLO YOUR MAJESTY! WHAT DO YOU NEED? King: Artist: (sits at artist table and rapidly paints a pic and hands it to the king your majesty! King: Artist: Oops, I forgot to use my rose colored glasses. (Does another picture rapidly while wearing glasses). King: (puzzled expression, scratching side of his head) if you could paint such a wonderful picture in a flash, then why DID YOU KEEP ME WAITING A WHOLE YEAR? (yelling) Artist: Come with me your majesty (points to all pictures scattered on the floor) I had to

The moral of our fable is: No Great Thing Is Created Suddenly!

Note. Students adapted this script from Demi (1987).

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that made the biggest impact on his engagement and learning.

Concluding Thoughts (So What?) These steps for writing a Readers Theatre script are meant to be lived through and adapted (for a suggest- ed timeline and schedule, see Figure 5). This process sounds time- consuming, but once I found some bal- ance in our schedule and learned to bring in more student voice and choice to the negotiations, I found it to be time effectively spent.

The power of drama lies not only in developing students’ reading and writing abilities but also in promoting a wider lens of our human experiences, as it places us in different contexts and lets us use “thought, feeling and language beyond those usu- ally generated in typical classroom interactions” (Edmiston, Enciso, & King, 1987, p. 219). If teachers give students opportunities to engage in Readers Theatre and scriptwriting through negotiation, I be- lieve they will see the power in this often- neglected modality and will bring both drama and scriptwrit- ing into their classrooms.

R E F E R E N C E S Edmiston, B. (2014). Transforming teaching and learning with active

and dramatic approaches. New York, NY: Routledge.

Edmiston, B., Enciso, P., & King, M.L. (1987). Empowering readers and writers through drama. Language Arts, 62(2), 219–228.

Griffith, L.W., & Rasinski, T.V. (2004). A focus on fluency: How one teacher incorporated fluency with her reading curriculum. The Reading Teacher, 58(2), 126–137. https://doi. org/10.1598/RT.58.2.1

Haag, C., & Compton, M. (2015). Tangled in Charlotte’s web: Lessons learned from English learners. In F. Boyd & C. Brock (Eds.), Social diversity within multiliteracies: Complexity in teaching and learning (pp. 127–143). New York, NY: Routledge.

Martinez, M., Roser, N., & Strecker, S. (1999). “I never thought I could be a star”: A Readers Theatre ticket to fluency. The Reading Teacher, 52(4), 326–334.

Williams, J., & Haag, C. (2009). Engaging English learners through effective classroom practices. In C. Rodriguez- Eagle (Ed.), Achieving literacy success with English language learners (pp. 159–174). Worthington, OH: Reading Recovery Council of North America.

Wolf, S.A. (1994). Learning to act/acting to learn: Children as actors, critics, and characters in classroom theatre. Research in the Teaching of English, 28(1), 7–44.

Young, C., & Nageldinger, J. (2014). Considering the context and texts for fluency: Performance, Readers Theatre, and poetry. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 7(1), 47–56.

Young, C., Stokes, F., & Rasinski, T. (2017). Readers Theatre plus comprehension and word study. The Reading Teacher, 71(3), 351–355. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1629

L I T E R AT U R E C I T E D Cherry, L. (1990). The great kapok tree: A tale of the Amazon rain

forest. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Demi. (1987). A Chinese zoo: Fables and proverbs. New York, NY:

Harcourt.

Figure 5 Suggested Timeline and Schedule for Negotiating Scripts

Timeline Weekly (10–20 minutes daily for a 3–5- day period, depending on the text) Week 1: Reading to immerse and choose texts

■  During this first week, share a variety of quality texts that fit your curricular goals. ■  Use an interactive read-aloud format followed by discussions for deeper comprehension

and vocabulary development before selecting a text for scriptwriting. Let students discuss text selection for scriptwriting and vote.

Week 2: Writing the script

■   Create a quick story map or outline and begin to outline the character and narrator parts. With primary groups, you may use a shared writing format; older groups may wish to select a scribe or take turns writing.

■  During the next few days, facilitate discussions and the writing process. After each added line, chorally reread the entire script for repeated reading practice and to ensure flow of the story.

Week 3: Practice and present

■  Days 1–4: Students select parts to read and practice, giving one another tips on how to read the lines for best effect. If the group wishes to add props and enact the script, discuss and decide on best options.

■  Day 5: Share the presentation with the rest of the class or other classes, or video record it for the group’s enjoyment.

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