The Link Between Drama Based Reading Instruction And Reading Comprehension

Introduction to reading comes through phonetic reading boxes. The reading boxes are cleverly organized, going from simple to the complex. Reading does not follow the same process of writing, which is taking our own thoughts and symbolizing. When we read, it is not our language with which we are working with, it is the author’s language. Reading is the analysis of the language followed by a synthesis. Story telling and socio-dramatic play in the environment can help the child develop an imagination that fosters a higher capability to understand what is being read to them.

As well as the quality of spoken language that children hear on a day to day basis will have a vast impact on the grammar and language they use. Therefore teachers and all teaching staff should ensure they continue to develop children’s confidence when it comes to communication by developing the skills needed to explain their understanding this is also vital when it comes to understanding and explaining of books or other recourses. All children should have access to and be encouraged to develop their role in drama. Pupils should be able to adopt, create and sustain a range of roles, responding appropriately to others in role. They should have opportunities to improvise, devise and script drama for one another and a range of audiences, as well as to rehearse, refine, share and respond thoughtfully to drama and theatre

According to the Georgia Department of Education, the Georgia State School Board of Education adopted a new set of standards known as the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts. Since the Common Core Standards State Standards assess the same English Language Arts standards as the Georgia Performance Standards, Georgia’s curriculum is called Common Core Georgia Performance Standards. Of the ELA standards for first grade, one requires that students be able to ask and answer questions based on the details in a text. This standard also requires that the student be able to retell stories, including details, and demonstrate comprehension. This could be an issue for special needs students. Students with a learning disability in reading often have difficulty comprehending texts in books and other reading material that is written at their grade level. However, there are many strategies to use to improve reading comprehension in struggling readers. With the increase use of technology, my review is written to determine if pre-recordings readings are more effective than teacher-led read aloud in improving comprehension skills of students with disabilities.

My literacy intervention plan is to teach reading comprehension skills through an afterschool drama program. The drama program would take place twice a week at an elementary school in Washington, DC. The target students would be 2nd graders that have been identified by their teachers as students who struggle with reading comprehension. However, all students are welcomed to participate.

In a previous lesson, the teacher demonstrated a “Think-Aloud” strategy with Gary Soto’s short story “Seventh Grade,” to teach students the elements of a plot. The teacher read the beginning of the story and then stopped to ask the students to identify information about the characters, the setting, and the background information that establishes the exposition of the plot. She repeated this process with the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution. The students recorded notes and observations in a graphic organizer.

315-317) was used throughout the lesson in order to give the students an example of how to use the strategies that were taught. Before children would work on assignments alone, the teacher would model exactly what is expected of them, and keep examples of what was modeled during the lesson so the students could look back to it if they need to. Read-alouds (Cooper, 2015, p. 37) were used in this lesson to really help children to focus on certain topics of the text. “Sometimes the best way to help children understand a particular piece of text is to read it aloud to them and discuss it with them” (Cooper, 2015, p. 37). Think-alouds (Cooper, 2015, p. 30) were incorporated into this lesson when trying to explain how to use the strategy of character mapping. Think-alouds are a great way to explain to students how to use a specific skill or strategy so that they can have a better time comprehending it. Semantic maps (Cooper, 2015, p.83) were used in this lesson for brainstorming ideas from the text to later reference when making illustrations and creating short responses to the text. This strategy is also a great tool for second-language-learners because it helps to narrow down the specific parts in the text to help create more details of the topic being taught. Cooperative “popcorn” sequencing(Annenburg Learner, 2015) was used in the lesson to allow a variety of students to participate in the

Reading comprehension may be the most important skill for any student to acquire and is therefore an area of particular interest to educators. Without adequate comprehension skills, students are limited in their reading, analytical and occupational abilities. To many, including the student’s themselves, comprehension or “good reading” skills begin and end with simple decoding. It is thought that if students can ‘read’ and define the vocabulary they are reading, then they also comprehend what is read. True comprehension goes far beyond decoding, however. True comprehension requires visualization of a text, predicting events in the text, making inferences about the text and clarifying what is not

Active reading: students will discuss and practice active reading with annotations in class and at home. Students will do various activities in class to boost their understanding of plot, characterization, and setting.

After about two weeks of playing theater games with the students to motivate them and get them out of their comfort zone it was time to begin our reader’s

The author begins by saying that her lessons should be used as a resource, not a strictly followed procedure, and should be adapted to fit the needs of each teacher’s classroom. Graves is a strong believer that the teacher must give the students opportunities to act. Before reading the play, she has her students give oral presentations on “themes” that will help the class to build interest and background knowledge. Then, the teacher should briefly outline the play for the students. She has her students read the first scene of the first act independently. Graves says that before beginning to read, the students should be taught the correct pronunciation of all of the character’s names. The teacher must create a lighthearted atmosphere so that as the class begins to read the second scene of the first act, the students feel comfortable laughing out loud about parts that they think are funny. Graves believes that this will help fuel discussion about the scene. Then, she asks the students to act out their interpretation of the characters’ actions in the second scene. After, each student is assigned a role and advised to focus more on the actions of their character and less on their lines. Once the students have had the chance to show the actions of their character, have the class focus on Bottom’s actions and how the other characters seem to react to

Teachers use environmental print to pique children’s interest in written and visual language. Children notice signs and logos, and they understand these symbols to mean the places and items represented. This emerging literacy is taken into the classroom, and, with intentional instruction, the foundation for fluent reading and writing is laid. Children use written language experiences, such as reading predictable books, writing notes to classmates, and playing in dramatic literacy play centers, to develop an understanding of the concept of a “word”. Alphabet concepts play a critical role in the emergent reader’s development. Phonemic and phonological awareness, along with phoneme-grapheme correspondence lead to phonics. Phonics generalizations

The NSW Drama Syllabus also states, “the study of drama engages and challenges students to maximise their individual abilities through imaginative, dramatic experiences created in cooperation with others”. In this topic I will explain why drama is not only important for the curriculum, but why it should be incorporated into all key learning areas and teaching practices. My research states that drama is natural to how children learn, I say this as I think back to my employment experience watching toddlers engage in play. The

However, the second method being discussed in this paper, the whole language approach, focuses much of its attention on making sure the student understands and enjoys what he or she is reading. Whole language instruction occurs when a student acquires language rather than learning it through direct instruction (Brooks 35-36). This method is more child centered than teacher dominated, because the objective is for the student to learn how to read through talking and doing rather than through passive listening. Unlike phonics, whole language uses a variety of ways to give students the opportunity to interact with the text they are reading. Questioning, discussing, problem-solving, listening, writing, drawing, and dramatizing are among the ways students interact with text. Students are also encouraged to implement simple strategies while reading such as: reading the sentence and guessing what word will come next, looking at the picture on the page to help figure out the sentence, and also rereading the sentence for clarification. This method also does a good job in allowing the students to engage in text at their own speed and often in their own ways (36).

Despite the claim that Drama in Education ( DIE) as a pedagogy dimmed its popularity in the Western world since 1990 until 2016 (Gallagher, et al. , 2017), in the year of 2011, Morrow, et al. included it as one of the best practices in literacy instruction. Some of the teachers who had the experience of trying process drama in their classrooms found that the pedagogy improved students’ participations, pushed students to use their imaginations, performed deeper understanding of the topics being learned and made the students learn to have empathy ( Long, 1998). Do the voices from the classroom resemble to what researchers and theories have to say on process drama?

Reading comprehension at a knowledge level is a complex task. Reading comprehension instruction that attempts to move students beyond the knowledge level to a place of true understanding is daunting at best and not something that can be left to guess work. A review of current literature in