INTEGRATING DRAMA 1

Integrating Drama to Increase Student’s Reading Fluency

Ryan M. Murphy

Franciscan University of Steubenville

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Integrating Drama to Increase Student’s Reading Fluency

Introduction

One of my favorite hobbies is drama and theatre. When I really thought about it, I was

introduced to the concept of drama when I watched my first Disney film as a child. I loved being

able to reenact my favorite characters from my favorite scenes of my favorite movies. What’s

more, I would often try to create new scenarios for these characters, new adventures for them to

go on. A lot of children are like this, and love getting the chance to pretend to be someone they

are not, whether fictional or nonfictional. It provides them with necessary skills needed in the

adult world when they have grown older, and can help shape their likes and interests and what

they want to do with their lives. Most importantly, in my opinion, it helps build their

imaginations and creativity. My own passion for becoming an educator was due to the aspect of

making the role of a teacher entirely my own. A teacher can even be seen as an actor, or at least

integrate some drama within their classroom, to help students learn and grow in unique ways.

With such a strong love for drama and the creative arts, I thought more of the ways in which I

could share this with my students, and utilize it in ways that lead to more meaningful learning.

Maybe drama could be used to encourage fun and engaging reading, and help build important

reading skills.

Purpose

The more I looked into the topic of drama integration in education, the more I saw the

activity of “Reader’s Theater.” It is a common activity used to encourage reading skills such

fluency, and involves engaging reading in the form of acting. Fluency refers to reading that is

read with automaticity or accuracy, read with appropriate rate or speed, read with proper
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expression or voice, and read with correct phrasing. Reader’s Theater addresses all four of these

traits by having students rehearse for a performance by reading a script and playing the parts of

various characters before presenting for an audience. This activity appears to be quite effective

by blending multiple types of reading together, such as choral reading, repeated reading, or

partner reading, all of which address the various aspects of reading fluency. This activity seems

to me like a very smart and simple method that brings both reading and drama together. What

made me even more interested in this topic, however, was that Reader’s Theater seemed to be the

only drama-based activity that was discussed, and that left me curious as to the potential that

incorporating drama has in the classroom. What other kinds of activities can incorporate drama

and expression to effectively enhance students’ fluency?

My methodology for finding this answer was centered around searching for a variety of

examples of drama-related activities that were specifically not Reader’s Theater. Despite this, my

other goal was also to compare any activities I happened to find with Reader’s Theater so as to

find any similarities, differences, and discover what makes these activities so effective. A large

majority of my methodology was ultimately obtained, after many attempts, through a handful of

informational articles that detailed the implementation of particular drama-based activities. I

especially wanted to hear from other educators as well, and went to Twitter with the question I

was posing earlier. I also got in contact with a local school in the district of Steubenville and

their elementary school teachers to ask them a series of questions regarding my topic.

Unfortunately, the latter two of my methodology were unsuccessful due to a lack of responses,

but the results were not all unfruitful.

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As I began my methodology, I of course was expecting to find at least one new activity

that implemented drama in the classroom setting. I was also expecting to see a plethora of

articles on Reader’s Theater, as it seems the most popular drama-related tool. My biggest hope

was that I would find an activity that would genuinely surprise me, and stand out as being unique

and without comparison to other activities. No matter the case, I knew it would make me happy

to see many teachers with similar passions as myself, and figured I would get to know a handful

of educators willing to inform me about their own findings.

Reviews of Literature

Teaching reading skills involves addressing many areas of language arts in young

students, including drama. For those who struggle with speaking English, however, is drama a

good method to integrate into the classroom? Gualdron and Castillo (2018), decided to explore

this question in a study that would apply a theater-based methodology to students learning

English in Colombia. The challenge would be to combine both second language (L2) learning

and theater to create a beneficial educational experience. The study took place at a school in

Universidad Nacional de Colombia, as part of a project by students called The E-Theater, an EFL

(English as a foreign language) theater group aiming at learning English through literary and

cultural means. To do this, they would perform literary pieces by English-speaking authors. The

researchers planned their study by addressing elements such as motivation, constructivism,

authentic environment, and collaboration. Fifty-nine students participated in the study, and data

was collected through surveys, interviews, and focus groups. There were multiple phases to the

study, from when The E-Theater was founded in 2008 until 2017. By its conclusion, the

participants admitted the study had greatly enhanced their L2 learning, and various tables in the
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article addressed the activities performed and language skills that were addressed, including

reading, writing, and cognitive abilities. On top of this, participants stated that they had an

enhanced enthusiasm and motivation for understanding and continuing to learn English, despite

the challenges presented in the performing aspect.

When finding research regarding implementation of drama while teaching reading, I

sought articles that were not solely focused on Reader’s Theatre, a common go-to activity. Also,

the age range I am focusing my project on is elementary grade levels, so this particular article

may not seem appropriate at first glance. However, what drew me to The E-Theater was the way

they addressed English Language Learners (ELLs) in their methodology, and I believe that a

similar kind can easily be implemented for younger grade levels. I enjoyed the organization of

this project, what each participant’s role was, and how each skill necessary for L2 learning was

addressed in the activities they performed. In addition to that, this research is very current,

having been around nearly ten years, and does not seem to be stopping anytime soon. The L2

skill that really stood out the most to me was cognitive ability, and the different strategies

necessary to enhance this, such as training memory and thinking capacity. This is the sort of

aspect of language skills that ELLs in younger grade levels struggle with the most. They may

learn to speak, read, and write the language, but will still have trouble remembering what they

learned, or how they can connect to what they read. For that reason, I think an E-Theater for

elementary students could also be beneficial and enhance ELLs motivation and desire for

learning, reading, and speaking.

For young children who do not have a great deal of experience with speaking English,

learning to read can pose quite a challenge. What are ways in which language skills can be
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further developed for these struggling students? Greenfader and Brouillette (2013) explored a

methodology that could provide the answer to this problem. Their article focused on English

learners in California, where many languages seem to collide and cause difficulties for children

growing up in this area. Particularly in San Diego, a majority of new students are ELs. To

address this language barrier in struggling students, teachers and researches have introduced

newer language arts strategies. A particular movement-based strategy that the authors mentioned

is Teaching Artist Project (TAP). The goal of TAP is to create a fun and engaging environment

for students to practice speaking and listening skills. The framework was created with a primary

focus on oral language and practice, which refers to aspects of reading such as vocabulary,

grammar, story construction, and especially communication and comprehension. Researchers

found that when it came to reading instruction, only about 1% accounted for oral language. TAP

fixed this with a two-year program, taking weekly collaboration between classroom teachers and

teaching artists, an elaborate form of co-teaching. Lesson plans utilized dance, theatre, and

movement based activities. Assessment was done via a mixed-methods study, using standardized

tests, interviews, and focus groups. While students benefited from the more engaging and hands-

on activities, it was the classroom teachers that seemed to benefit the most. It helped them feel

more comfortable teaching literacy skills and engaging with their students.

What I have enjoyed the most about the articles I have found are the variety of methods

that involve movement in the classroom. TAP is exactly the sort of simple method that I would

love to see implemented in more classrooms. The lesson would not necessarily have to change,

but students are able to be more involved, whether creating sound effects and movements to

accompany stories, or mimicking the voice of the teacher. What I took away from TAP was that
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it seemed to be a precursor to Reader’s Theatre, more for Kindergarten or First Grade to ease

them into a more involved drama experience. The students could feel more at ease with this sort

of movement and speech-based practice. I also really liked the name of the strategy, and that the

acronym really emphasizes what the goal of the teachers is: for students to become more

engaged in their learning. The article included some well-placed pictures and quotes from either

the author or perhaps from other teachers that showed the potential that TAP had, and the way it

changed the more quiet students into involved students. I can especially see ELLs benefitting

from this strategy, especially when it came to the dance-based activities that encouraged

movement. Best of all, the strategy helps teachers and educators as well, helping them to feel

more at ease with their students through these movement-based methods. I am curious to find out

if other teachers in other districts have implemented TAP in their classrooms.

Good reading and literacy activities require the use of stories, both fictional and those

from the students’ own perspectives. What ways can drama influence the way stories are told and

exchanged in the classroom? Adomat (2009) realized from past experiences that her students

were having difficulties connecting to the stories they read and heard. She wanted to change this,

finding more meaningful and engaging ways for students to share opinions and experiences, to

improve reading comprehension. To do this, she chose to implement drama and visual arts into

activities. She worked with other elementary teachers with a focus in literacy, performing

research in a metropolitan district with a balanced literary framework. This framework

implemented discussion, shared reading, and literature circles. Drama activities were based on

process drama and story drama, such as interviews and representation. To help students connect

with the activities, Adomat would initiate the lesson with a story’s ideas, themes, characters, or
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other similar topics. The article then showed the research being applied to individual students

and how the activities were able to help with their development as emergent readers, learning to

embody characters and deepening their understanding of story elements.

Similar to the TAP strategy, the theme of this article was for teachers to strive for more

student involvement in what they were reading, helping students to make connections and relate

with what the stories were trying to tell them. Rather than find a specific strategy that worked

overall in this one area, the author instead wanted to implement drama to their reading studies in

general, utilizing them whenever possible. So, while Reader’s Theatre was still an option, it was

not the main focus of the author’s research. My favorite example mentioned was the boy who

wanted to cut out characters he drew from a story to then perform the story once again with these

cutouts. This not only utilized story-telling, prosody, and other drama elements, but also

reinforced visual arts implementation. In fact, I found the overall variety of examples listed in

this article on ways to implement drama in the classroom to be very effective and realistic. There

are many different ways for students to comprehend what they are reading, and this aspect of

choice and decisions can help the students have a more personal learning experience. I also liked

how the author addressed social aspects of drama, that drama activities encourage collaboration

and a sense of community in the classroom. I would say that is one of the biggest goals of

implementing drama in the classroom.

Fluency occurs when students combine reading with speaking skills. Reader’s Theater is

a great opportunity to strengthen this, but are there other similar activities that would work

better? Young, Valadez, and Gandara (2016) address this in a quasi-experiment comparing

Reader’s Theater with Rock and Read and addressing their effects of these two strategies on
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second graders. The researchers were especially interested in repeated reading, a method that

increases oral fluency, and a key element of Rock and Read, which is a musically-based activity,

essentially reading through singing. They performed their research at a title 1 school in the rural

south. The researchers worked with 51 students, with a small percentage qualifying for needing

special education. The method used, of course, was Rock and Read, specifically in contrast with

Reader’s Theater. Two songs would be used weekly. On the first day, students listened to the

song once, be shown the lyrics, be invited to sing along, and then be given the lyrics to practice

at home. The next day, they practiced singing the song, with more time devoted to word

recognition depending on each student’s individual needs. Finally, the song was performed. To

measure for fluency, the researchers used DIBELS, specifically the Oral Reading Fluency

division. Using this, they were able to assess based on four categories: expression and volume,

phrasing, smoothness, and pace. Being a quasi-experiment, there were no random factors

involved in the size of the participants, allowing for them to be used as both treatment and

comparison groups, one that used just Rock and Read, and another that combined Rock and Read

with Reader’s Theater. Surprisingly, the group that used just Rock and Read yielded a greater

enhancement of reading fluency.

I really enjoyed this research, and how it compared two similar activities together to

assess their effectiveness. I had never heard of Rock and Read before reading this, but it sounds

like a strategy I would be interested in trying. The results surprised me, however, because when I

started reading I was predicting that the blending of Rock and Read with Reader’s Theater would

have been more beneficial to students’ reading fluency. That is not to say that it did not work, just

not as well as Rock and Read by itself. I suppose this means that the more active nature of
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singing as opposed to reading was more engaging to the students. At least it is nice to know that

two engaging strategies are available to educators today. I approved of the use of DIBELS for

assessment, as the various divisions could have all applied to this particular research, including

vocabulary and phonemic awareness. I would be interested to research these divisions as well as

using Rock and Read.

Methodology

Participants

The “participants” for my methodology were five articles that each detailed a different

drama activity used in the classroom. A sixth article was also used, which gives more practical

advice for when and how to use drama in activities. Four of these articles were from the literature

reviews already mentioned. The other two were found afterwards. Other methodology, including

the attempts to reach out to a local elementary school as well as the education community on

Twitter, did not have enough responses to be its own methodology. Specifically, the school I

contacted was Bishop John King Mussio, and only one teacher responded. On Twitter, only one

educator responded to my post regarding my topic. I shall touch on them more in my

methodology, but they unfortunately were unable to be the sole focus of my research.

Articles

The reason I decided to read through and respond to each of these articles was because

they each shared a common trait in that they touched on one specific activity, that was brand new

to me, that could be used to implement drama when teaching reading fluency. Specific strategies

included The E-Theater, Teaching Artist Project (TAP), Rock and Read, and Radio Drama. The

remaining two articles did not include specific names for activities, but touched on a larger
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amount of smaller activities. While similar, each article had a particular focus that made it stand

out from the others, and that drew me even more towards it. For each article, I would read it, find

the specific activity it touches on, and compare and contrast it with Reader’s Theater to see if it

was an effective teaching method.

School Interview and Twitter

The reason I chose to interview local teachers was to actively engage with and discuss

my topic with other educators. When I decided to try Twitter, my hope had also been to get in

touch with other educators and hear a variety of perspectives. In order to contact Bishop John

King Mussio elementary school, I went to their website and found a list of the faculty and their

emails. I then reached out to each teacher to ask to interview them regarding the integration of

drama in the classroom. As was previously mentioned, only one responded, but I was at least

able to talk with and hear her perspective on the topic, which was very beneficial and helped me

to accomplish my own personal goal of reaching out and connecting with educators. Similarly to

the interview, I reached to the Twitter community, tagging a variety of educators I followed and

who followed me back. Likewise, one responded, and her perspective was also very good to hear

from.

Findings

It is a little difficult to address the findings of this methodology, as it is all based on the

experiences of other educators and a variety of different practices, each who claims that their

research proved effective and useful. When deciding how to best assess my research, I realized

that being an effective educator means hearing from others and using their own findings and

responses to decide whether or not a method would best fit oneself. That being said, I will
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address my findings based on the activities that I found most effective, and what traits the

effective practices had in common with one another.

As a whole, all of the articles and responses I gathered were effective and beneficial to

answering my question. They addressed activities that were not solely Reader’s Theater, and they

expanded upon the idea of implementing drama in the classroom to improve reading fluency.

From rereading my literature reviews, The E-Theater was able to utilize drama to not only

increase the students’ fluency and expression, but also improve their English speaking as a

second language. The TAP strategy was clever because it reinforced repeated reading by

changing the activity slightly to give students the impression that the lesson was brand new,

while reinforcing the skills they were already practicing. Therefore, by having a greater focus on

movement, this study proved to be perhaps the most successful of the practices I discovered. The

Rock and Read strategy was by far the most surprising one to me, as it had never occurred to me

before that singing was a valid drama method, especially with reading. At the same time, it made

sense, as musical theatre already exists when it comes to professional performances, so why not

do the same with education and reading? By practicing a song, almost like rehearsing a script,

they are essentially practicing repeated reading, a great skill to enhance fluency. Comparing the

act of practicing a song with rehearsing a script was my favorite connection made with Reader’s

Theater, and the former seemed to be the more effective method. With each of my literature

review articles, the thing I found they all had in common was that they found ways to have

students read that involved deeper connections with the text, either through movement, music, or

make-believe.
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Radio Drama, a method I had heard about before, was yet another unique spin on the act

of rehearsing and performing. The findings found in this article touched on the topics of teaching

reading with emotion, story genres, and the parts of a story. Out of the methods mentioned in my

literature reviews, this article stands out for being more about the reading elements than the

drama elements, because this is what my topic is ultimately all about. The article reminded me

that these activities are not meant to teach drama, but rather to teach reading. The drama is used

subtly, more for the understanding of story elements and portraying characters and ideas through

speech. I found this article to be the best reminder of what the purpose of drama should be in the

classroom. After all, every activity done in the classroom needs to have a purpose aimed at

student growth. For Radio Drama, that purpose is to understand story elements and practicing

fluent reading by acting out a radio show, a profession that requires fluency and expression.

As for the two respondents to my interview and Twitter question, their answers were very

similar. They told me that they have used Reader’s Theater before, or use activities that involve

students creating skits. The Twitter responder specifically detailed an activity involving group

tableaux, which are motionless figures representing a text or story. I especially liked this idea,

though it did not involve reading directly. Still, it is a creative way to interpret a text. The

interview respondent was a big fan of Reader’s Theater, and use that as her main method of

drama integration. Any other activities she mentioned involved role-playing, sometimes for an

entire day. I also loved this idea, as that way, the student must be thinking of how their character

would think or speak as they go through with the usual routine of a school day. She emphasized

that this really helps with reading fluency.

Recommendations
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There was a lot covered in the articles and even the few respondents regarding drama. I

can fortunately say that the research proved to be very effective and answered my question. They

met with my expectations, and even managed to surprise me with a few especially creative ideas.

I was especially fascinated that many of the articles never even mention Reader’s Theater, as it

seemed to be the go-to drama activity. I must emphasize that the purpose of my research was not

address Reader’s Theater as an ineffective method, or that I personally did not care for it. Rather,

it was to explore the many possibilities that implementing drama and expression can open up in

the classroom. The beauty of every activity is that whether or not it should be used or not is up to

the educator. Some methods will work better for me than others, while another might enjoy

different activities instead. However, each is worth being looked into to some extent, and some

could even be blended together to make for brand new activities. After rereading about the TAP

and the Rock and Read strategy, I was imagining what an activity that blended both music and

movement could look like.

I once again stress that the ultimate finding I received from this research was that a drama

activity’s purpose is not to teach drama, but to teach reading. I personally have such a passion for

expression and drama because, in my experience, I found that the more effective educators I have

come across were very expressive, funny, or dramatic. My biggest recommendation is to use

drama whenever possible. It can be as simple as the way a teacher addresses his or her students,

allowing them to feel like they are engaging in learning that is fun and welcoming. Maybe music

can be a means of learning throughout the day, as is very common with younger grade levels.

Tailor to the needs of individual students. Just like how some teachers will enjoy certain

activities more than other teachers, the same goes for students. Some will learn better through
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moving around and acting, while others would prefer to sing and dance. Whichever activity you

choose, make sure to have a purpose for using it, and make it both fun and meaningful.
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References

Adomat, D. (2009). Actively engaging with stories through drama: portraits of two young

readers. Reading Teacher, 62(8), 628-636.

Greenfader, C & Brouillette, L. (2013). Boosting language skills of english learners through

dramatization and movement. Reading Teacher, 67(3), 171-180.

Gualdron, E & Castillo, E. (2018). Theater for language teaching and learning: the e theater, a

holistic methodology. Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development, 20(2), 211-227.

Maiullo, J. (2018). Radio drama for speaking practice. English Teaching Forum, 56(2), 16-25.

Rieg, S & Paquette, K. (2009). Using drama and movement to enhance english language

learners’ literacy development. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 36(2), 148-154.

Young, Chase & Valadez, Corinne & Gandara, Cori (2016). Using performance methods to

enhance students’ reading fluency. Journal of Educational Research, 109(6), 624-630.

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Appendix A

Email sent to teachers at Bishop John King Mussio prior to phone interview:

My name is Ryan Murphy, a junior Early Childhood Education (Dual License) major at
Franciscan University of Steubenville. One of my classes, Teaching Reading, involves doing
research into a reading-related topic. The question I am posing in my own action research project
is:

Reader's Theater has been a reliable activity for teaching reading skills, specifically fluency.
What other kinds of activities can incorporate drama and expression to effectively enhance
students' fluency?

My professor recommended I interview/survey the faculty of Bishop John King Mussio to gather
appropriate data on this topic. Therefore, I am wondering if you would be able to answer a few
questions relating to my research question. The questions are listed below.

1. When teaching reading skills, have you ever used Reader's Theatre within
your classroom?
2. Are there other drama-related strategies you have used along with or in place
of Reader's Theatre? If so, what were they?
3. Did you find any of the activities you used effective when it came to
improving student's reading skills, especially fluency?
4. Are they any other comments you would like to make regarding this topic?
(optional)

Please let me know if you have any questions at all. I look forward to hearing from you and
learning more about drama integration in the classroom setting!

Thank you so much,

Ryan Murphy
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Appendix B

Twitter post to #educhat:

G'day #educhat I'm doing research on implementing drama into reading

fluency, thought I'd hear from more fellow educators on Twitter.

What drama activities, excluding Reader's Theater, have you used in your
experience as an educator, no matter how small?

Anonymous responder:

I love incorporating skits into the classroom! Having students act out their
own adaptation of the text with different setting/characters. I also have
students do a group tableaux to reflect a theme in a poem or short story—
which is challenging to do!