LLED 400 reading response 2

In the article Actively Engaging with Stories Through Drama, we follow young readers as they use drama as a way to engage more in their reading.  Each student had a different background when it came to reading and when using drama they all improved their reading skills with acting.  Drama can be a great tool to use in the classroom.  One student was new to the school and had moved around a lot.  Drama allowed him to warm up to the new environment quicker.  Drama is a way for everyone in the classroom to be open minded and to have the freedom to express themselves as they want.  Drama can also help a reader look deeper into a story as they act out the emotion.  "Tommy used the craft of drama as a way of entering into the stories deeply to explore meaning, often in playful ways, or of extending the drama to include other creative endeavors." Tommy was one of the children that was watched during the this theory of reading.  Tommy was able to comprehend the story better by acting out and then reflecting on the situation.  This is something that I will use in my classroom to help those children that can not imagine the story when reading.  By using drama all children are able to connect to the reading.

In the article "Shared Book Experience: Teaching Reading Using Favorite Books" by Don Holdaway, it focused on how important it is to pick books that children enjoy. If they like the topic the book is on, then they will be much more focused and engaged and ready to interpret the information and connect it to lessons that were learned in class. "Our studies indicated that under suitable m motivation and in a favorable learning environment children would mater literacy skills in a way very similar to that in which they master over developmental tasks, especially those of spoken language." (pg. 294). This means how important it is that children feel the book is going to motivate them, and it can really help in several other developmental milestones even greater than reading such as spoken language or writing. They can do different activities such as role playing, props, hot seat, and songs to help recall and remember information, as well as to really connect with the text and absorb all the reading they just heard.
Going along with Adomat's article, this video ties in very nicely to the article. It talks about how students take on a character and then they take still pictures. It was very interesting to watch and it definitely showed how drama fits in the classroom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nlxw9qflKxk This picture is a picture of Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham. A book that almost every child knows and loves. Teaching this book would be an easier task since most kids love this book and are familiar with it. It is something they could repeat over and over again and even recite it without looking at the book. http://www.seussville.com/books/book_detail.php?isbn=9780394800165