Lindsay Brett 1 Spanish Skit Practice with a

Lindsay Brett 1

Spanish Skit Practice with a friend 1 - Hola Maria. 2 - Hola Maestra, ¿Co`mo esta` usted? 1 - ¿Maria, estudiaste para la prueba? 2 - No estudie`. Lo Siento. Me siento muy mal. ¿Cuando esta` la prueba? 1 - ¡Hoy! Necesitas estudiar todos los di`as. 2 - Si`, pero quise ir de compras la noche pasada. 1 - Esa fue una decision muy mal, chica. 2 - Lo siento Maestra. Voy a empezar estudiando un poco cada noche. 2

Vocabulary for Spanish • • Estudiar- To study Usted- you (polite) Muy- very Sentir- To feel Comprar- to buy Necesitar-To need Querer- To want Hacer- to do or make 3

Singapore Study Engineering students • Apprehensive about English • Presentation due during 2 nd year of ESL. • Struggles: word pronunciation, spoke too fast _ Plan of attack: Read chapter about communication types and discuss. Taught scripting by scripting their conversation. Results: Pg 5 Table (Patrick, 2008). 4

Methods 1. Select the book 2. Plan curriculum as a collaborative, extended experience 3. Partner with a colleague 4. Introduce literature, theatre and plan to STUDENTS 5. Small Groups 6. Discussion – Wow moments and Confused times 5

How 7. Invite guest artists to discuss about book and students’ ideas 8. Prepare for performance- Thoughts, comments, questions, etc. 9. Immediate feedback using discussion prompts from earlier. 10. Provide encouraging environment (Brinda, 2000) 6

Honolulu Theatre for Youth Camp • • • 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 10 Days ELLs 10% of student population in Hawaii Start with creating situations physically and verballyex: “What are things people do at the beach? ” Tableau- physically acting Listen to island myths Act Narrate tales Everybody had to talk in the room (Entering, 2006) 7

Book to Script Let students choose Day 1 - Read book Day 2 - Script Day 3 - Rehearse 8

Methods 1. Choose book- relate to topics or concepts 2. Multiple characters 3. Text to dialogue 4. Chapter book vs. different book for groups 5. Create timeline (Elementary- 5 days) • Day 1 - Distribute scripts- model fluency • Note inflection, punctuation, etc. • Day 2/3 -Split groups heterogeneously. Highlight parts • Day 4 - Dress rehearsal • Day 5 –Perform (La. Cour, 2009) 9

Science and Reader’s Theatre • “Talking Science” – Habit of mindarticulate scientific understanding. • Experiments + Articulation= Developing and Testing their own theories about. • Use science stories or books to create reader’s theatre. - Little Cloud by Eric Carle - The Cloud Book by Tomie de Paola (El-Hindi, 2003) 10

Methods • Science book or science trade book • Expand explanations of academic words • Emphasize “performance” Table and Rubric (Kinniburgh & Shaw, 2007) 11

Emergent Readers • Choral Reading • Prompt cards with illustrations • FAMILIAR – Use texts with familiar words, phrases and themes (Moran, 2006) 12

Picking the Right Script • Group according to interest instead of reading level ( Parker). • Try to find a script where your students’ culture is represented. • Identify characters like themselves = Self worth • Pick a script that students can understand. • Plot should be easy to understand characters be working through a dilemma (Weisenberger, 2009) 13

Pitfalls • Not all students are familiar with theatre. • May not have linguistic ability to produce a script. – Always proof • May have strong inhibitions at first. (Patrick, 2008) 14

Tips in Theatre • Practice being dramatic and expressive! • Monotone in fluent readers = NOT TRYING/ Not unable • Sharpen skills needed to conduct group activities. • Small groups/Guided Reading- VERY EFFECTIVE (Ford & Opitz, 2002). • Involve families • Practice! Substantial practice = substantial improvement (Rinehart, 1999) • Give Clear instructions (Patrick, 2008) 15

What do I need? • • Basics Tips Scripts- Binders Stools Uniform appearance Small props (pipe for Pied Piper) 1. Hold binder lightly in one hand- Use other hand to make gestures 2. Don’t look down but half of the time- look only with eyes 3. You can move around with RT (Shepherd, 1994) 16

Tips Continued Where to look? • Narrators- off-stage • Characters- other characters & offstage • Mime– Walk in place – Sleep Beginning and Ending Open- info about story, author, actors End- Speak in rhythm, slowly. Audience should know (Shepherd, 1994) 17

Teaching Vocabulary Activities • Vocabulary Notebook –include synonyms and antonyms • Synonym Web • Possible Sentences: -Target words/known words • Root/Prefix/Suffix chart (Linan-Thompson, Vaughn, 2007) • • • Methods Explicit Methods- given definitions Implicit Methods-must infer Multimediamapping/graphing Capacity – Meaning/emphasized Association-connect known and unknown words STUDENT ENGAGEMENT!! 18

Spanish Skit Practice with a friend 1 - Hola Maria. 2 - Hola Maestra, ¿Co`mo esta` usted? 1 - ¿Maria, estudiaste para la prueba? 2 - No estudie`. Lo Siento. Me siento muy mal. ¿Cuando esta` la prueba? 1 - ¡Hoy! Necesitas estudiar todos los di`as. 2 - Si`, pero quise ir de compras la noche pasada. 1 - Esa fue una decision muy mal, chica. 2 - Lo siento Maestra. Voy a empezar estudiando un poco cada noche. 19

Spanish Lesson Plan 1. Teacher Read 2. Underline words we know 3. Introduce vocabulary 4. Discuss pronunciation 5. Practice with a friend 6. Discuss meaning of skit 7. Practice again 20

Sample Script 21

What do I Do Now? Find Script Assign parts – Characters – Narrators 22

Opportunities for Others • Tutors- Graduate students/ Parents/ Community members • Teacher lead whole group time • Tutor work with individual groups • They can serve to give extra attention to each group. (Tyler, 2000) Students actually requested more opportunities to read and practice. (Rinehart, 1999) 23

Targeting • Reading Fluency • Writing • Listening • Comprehension 24

Sample Lesson plan 25

Wrap Up • Final Thoughts and Questions • Remember: - First attempts may fail, benefits may not be immediate (Moran, 2006). 26

Resources El-Hindi, A. (2003). Integrating Literacy and Science in the Classroom: From Ecomysteries to Readers Theatre. The Reading Teacher. 56 Kinniburgh, L. , & Shaw, E. (2007). Building reading fluency in the science classroom through readers’ theatre. Science Activities. 44: 1 Ford, M. , & Opitz, M. (2002). Using centers to engage children during guided reading time: Intensifying learning experiences away from the teacher. The Reading Teacher, 55(8): 710. Linan-Thompson, S. , & Vaughn, S. (2007) Research-based methods of reading instruction for English language learners. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Patrick, N. (2008). The impact of readers theatre in the classroom. Polyglossia. 14. Rinehart, S. (1999). Don’t think for a minute that I’m getting up there: Opportunites for readers’ theatre tutorial for children with reading problems. Journal of Reading Psychology. 20: 71 -89 Shepherd, A. (1994) From Script to Stage. The reading teacher. 48(2): 184 -186 Tyler, B. , & Chard, J. (2000). Using readers theatre to foster fluency in struggling readers: a twist on the repeated reading strategy. Reading and writing quarterly. 12: 163 -166. Weisenburger, S. (2009). Using Readers Theatre with multicultural literature. Retrieved from www. eddigest. com 27