Teaching Speaking Through Readers' Theatre Technique
Name : Tomy Widiyanto
Student No. : 113411091
Subject : “Teaching Speaking” Course
English Education Department - 4B
1. Reader’s Theater Technique
Explanation: The instructor selects text relevant to the day’s topic and assigns students in the class to read the text out loud. The text may be a short story, a passage, or a collection of statements. Depending on the length of the selected text and the size of the class all students may be assigned reading responsibilities or only a small fraction of the students may read out loud. If appropriate, the student readers may be encouraged to add drama, flair, or humor to their readings. This technique is particularly helpful for starting discussions, introducing new topics, or shifting gears during a long class period.
Background: The Reader’s Theatre technique is frequently used in elementary schools as an activity that encourages new readers to improve reading confidence, fluency, and comprehension (Martinez et al., 1998). This flexible teaching technique is also used in high schools to develop performance skills and enhance literary studies (Coger and White, 1973).
Examples & Variations: Reader’s Theater can be a particularly effective technique on the first day of class to demonstrate the expectation that most of the talking will be done by students. The statements selected might model suitable contributions as questions, evidence-based statements, etc. Alternately, the statements read during Reader’s Theater could exemplify a variety of strong and weak discussion contributions and students could then analyze which types of statements facilitated class discussion, which statements were less helpful, and/or how weak statements might be improved with the addition of logic, evidence, etc.
The instructor might also choose to shift responsibility for selecting the material read toward the students. For example, in a course focusing on clinical neuroscience, the instructor could assign some or all students to find a quote (or video) from a patient with a specific clinical condition that describes the symptoms from the patient’s perspective. The students who find the quotes might even ask their classmates to do the reading out loud at the next class.
Procedures: Firstly, the instructor explains about the material that would like to be taught. Those are about expression of showing surprise, expression of asking someone to do something and expression of showing happiness. Then, the instructor asks to the students to practice those expressions by grouped performing in the front of the class. The class consists of 40 students, so the instructor makes 4 groups that each group is 10 people.
The instructor distributes the scripts to every student. Then, the students are given two minutes to understand the story of the scripts. The students read loadly the scripts when they are performing. The performing must be like a theatre, so the students are totally allowed to act as good as possible.
The script:
MR. KLEWANG SUBUR
Oneday there is an old man, named Klewang Subur. He is very rich and handsome. He lives in a big house. He has five wives. The first wife is Musyikah, the second is Nur Nyaini, the third is Ling Lung, the fourth is Prikitiuw and the fifth wife is Winda Wow. Klewang Subur has three children, they are Paimen, Painem and Paijo.
Klewang Subur : “ Hmmmm, it is fresh morning while drinking this cup of Perahu Api coffee. I am happy today.”
Ling Lung : “my honey, I wanna ask some money to you.”
Klewang Subur : “How much, darling? I will give it how much you want, anytime anywhere anycondition you need. We are very rich, you know?
Ling Lung : “ oh,,,, you are My nice Klewang, honey.”
Nur Nyaini : “Hon... Honey, I must buy some medicine again, my medicine for the patients have used up. I need $100, I need $100, I need $100,, now darling, now!!!
Ling Lung : “me too, look at to your kids! They need some milk and I must buy it for them. Give me $700, Honey. Now Now, Now!”
Klewang Subur : “wait...wait... calm down.... calm down my all darlings,,,, I confuse I confuse, who should I give the first? Wait wait..... my wives.”
Musyikah : “ I, My handsome husband. I am your first wife. So, you must give the money to me first. Hey you!!! Be patient, these money is for me, you and you will be given by him tomorrow. Is that right, my handsome husband?”
Prikitiuw : “ Noooo...... I am also his wife, I need some money to go swimming. I must heighten my body.”
Winda Wouw : “aaahhhh!!! It is really not important, you know. Look at my face, today I am not using any makeup. I need to buy makeup in order I may seem so beautiful in front of my handsome husband; Mr. Klewang. You need to know that I am the most beautiful of you, you know. Right, my handsome husband?”
Klewang Subur : “Huhhhh (still stress)”
Mr. Klewang Subur became so confuse about the problem. He cannot determine who should he give the money first because he knows the money is not enough to be given to all of hiswives. Something happened when the trouble was culminating.
Klewang Subur : “ well, actually I have the money to give you but it is not enough for all. I must give it to Ling Lung. She do need it so much now, our children do not look fresh today. Do not you have a sympathy to them, darlings? Please, understand me.”
Musyikah, Nur Nyaini, Prikitiuw, and Winda Wow: “ Noooooooo!!!!”
Ling Lung : “oh, my very kind husband. You are very wise. Thank you so much, so where is the money??”
Klewang Subur : “oh yes, I forgot. The money is still in the Bank, darling. I need to go there then. ”
Ling Lung : “What!!!!!!! (unconscious)”
The kids : “Mummy...Mummy..... wake up wake up, it is morning ...it is morning. We are hungry Mom, we are hungry and we have not take a bath yet. Who will take us to bath??”
Musyikah, Nur Nyaini, Prikitiuw, Winda Wow and Klewang Subur: “Ling Luuuungg...”
Klewang Subur : “let us take her to the room soon, help me please.”
After few minutes later, Ling Lung is still unconscious while she is accompanied by the other wives and her children. They are sitting down while Mr. Klewang Subur explained the truth to them.
Klewang Subur : “I am so sorry, my wives. Actually I also do need much money to campaign. I candidated as The President of this country. You know, I am stress. I am stress.”
Children : “why is Daddy stress?”
Prikitiuw : “Why didn’t you tell us before, my husband?”
Musyrikah : “You ignored us, huhhhhh?!!”
Nur Nyaini : “What kind of husband you are??!!!!”
(The wives prepared to punch Klewang Subur)
Klewang Subur : “Wait...wait ...wait...... ”
Winda Wouw : “Wait for what?!!..... “
( Suddenly, Ling Lung wakes up)
Ling Lung : “what’s up here?”
Winda Wouw : “did you know that your husband’s money was spent out for campaign a President.”
Ling Lung : “WHATTTTTT!!!!!”
(Then, Ling Lung got unconcious again)
Finally, Klewang Subur’s wives got sick with him. They asked Klewang Subur to divorce all of them. They were very angry and very disappointed by him.
Nur Nyaini : “I don’t want to be yourwife anymore.”
Musyrikah : “I will be musyrik from you. I won’t believe you anymore.”
Winda Wouw : “You must divorce all of us, Mr. Klewang”
Klewang Subur : “calm down.... calm down.”
Children : “Mothers.... mothers.... what is the meaning of divorce?”
Prikitiuw : “divorce is a kind of food, dears.”
Paijo : “is it delicious?”
Painem : “Yes, of course because it is food.”
Paimen : “ and daddy will buy it for us. Right, daddy?”
Klewang Subur : “Oh my Goddddd.....” (Sat at a chair and close his ears)
(Klewang Subur’s wives and his children didn’t stop talking to him. So, he just sat down and closed his ears)
***
After all of the students finish their performance, the instructor asks to the students to underline and take some notes about expression of showing surprise, expression of asking someone to do something and expression of showing happiness based on the scripts. Finally, the instructor asks to the students to give some questions who don’t understand the material yet.
Benefits: In an undergraduate science lecture, Reader’s Theatre is an efficient way to get many students voices in the classroom and shift speaking responsibilities from the professor to the students. The technique can be useful for getting a variety of viewpoints onto the floor for discussion in a safe and/or efficient manner. For some topics a traditional discussion of volunteers might be difficult to cultivate and/or not reveal the full spectrum of viewpoints because of limited student experiences, lack of knowledge in the field, the controversial nature of the topic, and/or homogeneous demographics. Reader’s Theater is efficient because the professor can construct a script with statements that illustrate the full spectrum of viewpoints, without requiring the class to spend the time to identify the spectrum. Similarly, for controversial topics Reader’s Theater can be a particularly safe method because it is obvious that the reader was assigned the task and is therefore not personally advocating or representing a controversial viewpoint.
It is also important to note that Reader’s Theatre is an effective method for encouraging participation, particularly from quiet students who may be shy and/or lack confidence in their own knowledge. Reading a short segment or statement is a relatively low-stakes activity where a quiet student’s voice can be heard and/or a student who lacks confidence can make a valuable contribution to the class.
Reader’s Theatre has benefits for its readers, but also promotes active listening by the non-readers. The instructor might preface the reading by giving specific instructions that require the non-readers to take notes, identify a stronger/weaker argument, identify an inaccuracy, categorize statements, etc. Given the many distractions inherent in today’s classrooms where students are easily lured away from learning by text messages and social media, Reader’s Theatre is a small way to encourage and demonstrate why focusing, note taking, and/or careful listening are critical skills for success.
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