The dialogue below between Jody and I is just a sample of the kind of discussion we hope to have as we try to wrestle this template (not even begun) into existence. It addresses the crucial issue of making sure that RT is really about reading and does not become a story dominated largely by auditory input:
Jody said:
In my experience, this makes no sense. If actors are up in the room, students are watching the actors; they’re not reading.
Why can’t reading take place after reader’s theater (ci style)?
I have enough getting kids to follow text with their fingers and eyes as it is–while they are only listening to text. (How many times am I reading and staring straight into a kid’s eyes–he is obviously NOT looking at the text–motioned to him or asked him to get his eyes on the text, only to have him say to me, with complete sincerity, “I WAS looking at the text; I WAS reading.” Completely unaware of what was really happening. He was listening and creating the movie in the brain, but NO reading was taking place–except by me.)
Asking them to attend to actors, the sound of the text, and the symbols of the text seems kind of crazy to me. Am I off base here?
Language acquirers need MANY repetitions of text for the structure, sound, and rhythm to really lock in there–which means I definitely believe in interacting with the text the ways you describe. I do think it is important to not overwhelm the learner with too many places to which to pay attention. (I work w/younger kids. They are pretty easily distracted.)
My response:
You have to have been there. I agree about the difficulty of getting their eyes on the text, but the way I saw it play out with Jason was that he had this way of getting their eyes simultaneously back and forth onto the book and the acting.
Jason asked so many questions that the student would have to keep referring back to the text. The bad ass cloze thing is what made that happen. The scene reinforced the reading. Yes, Jody, you are right that there was a lot of looking at acting, but there was some reading. It will be a skill we have to develop, to redirect the students’ eyes back to the text.
So, the way I saw it, and obviously we are dealing with virtuosity here in Jason, the focus was on the actors but the readers were often returned back to the text. Back and forth.
The great benefit of the scene is that the big gains come in when the scene is over and the students now want to know what happens at which time the director changes hats and becomes a reader leader as in OR-A until the next scene, putting the director’s hat back on.
I will say, Jody, that this was done with adults and that you teach little ones, who may not even be strong readers in their L1. So there is a wide gamut there as we try to define how and where to best use RT.