Nonfiction Readers Theatre for Beginning Readers

Teachers and librarians are continually looking for an interesting, fun way to input content knowledge to build that background information which will help push up student expository reading scores. Nonfiction readers theatre is one way to accomplish this. Professor Fredericks offers 30 short nonfiction readers theatre plays for the young reader (grades 1-3) on topics ranging from earth and natural science to community helpers, holidays, and government. Test scores across the country show American students are far more able to read narrative than nonfiction text. Some research speculates this is due to a great lack in the background knowledge of many children. Librarians are beginning to realize that a unique fit for the school librarian is as a provider of background knowledge materials for teachers to use.