3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Reader's Theatre Collection!, May 19, 2008
The number of same-gender schools is on the rise, and even schools with both boys and girls are experimenting with single-gender classes. Ann N. Black has rewritten classics for readers theatre appropriate for middle-school boys that lends itself perfectly to the all-male classroom.
Many of the original literary short stories, this collection is based on, are studied in the major text-books found in schools, and so would be familiar to both their readers and their audience. Black has done a terrific job finding classic literature that particularly appeals to middle-school boys including strange, frightening, and action-packed stories such as: The Masque of the Red Death, The Monkey's Paw, To Light a Fire, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Adventure of the Speckled Band, White Grizzly, The Pied Piper of Hamlin, Sleepy Hollow, The Ransom of Red Chief, and The Country of the Blind.
The readers theatre format encourages the shy as well as the class clown to participate. It improves reading skills and increases vocabulary while using cooperative learning. It is a cost-effective way to do a performance for a school that may be lacking the funds to put on a full-scale production as well.
Black includes a short background on each author and a few paragraphs for teachers concerning production notes for costuming and staging ideas. The character parts are weighted equally so no one performer will lose focus before he is "on" again. Black has done a good job with translating the stories from page to stage, though she does use a broad literary hand adding additional characters and utilizing narrators. The dialogue is fast-paced and the writing is clear.
Though the title explicitly states it is readers theatre for boys, girls could easily play a variety of parts in the selections, so it would be appropriate for any middle school library, speech or drama classroom, or any classroom that studies communication.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not Just for Boys, March 26, 2008
We are meeting once a week and using this book for our homeschool small group. The reader's theater format is excellent, and we enjoy the background information that goes with each story. We have both boys and girls in our group (4 families) and they all enjoy the stories equally. Our ages range from 10-16, plus the adults.
A good selection of stories, so there's something for every taste. A few of the kids are really excited about the sounds that are written into each story and enjoy adding those as we read. We do need to take a few minutes to decide how to divide the roles, as there are more roles than people in our group, giving some of the kids multiple roles.
I would definitely recommend this book if you're considering doing reader's theater with a group.
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