Quantifiable Evidence, Reading Pedagogy, and Puppets

To advance the America Reads Initiative, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (CSPAC) approved special puppet theatre projects to improve reading in local elementary schools. The following provides an overview of the America Reads Chal lenge and CSPAC's education projects, analyses the joint CSPAC/America Reads puppet project, and considers its efficacy. A consideration of debates between what might be called 'theatre education' (curriculum that develops the student as theatre artist) and 'educational theatre' (curriculum that utilises theatrical practices to develop 'other' skills), and a reconsideration of these very distinctions, based in pedagogical practices and cognitive theory, precedes direct analysis of the project. Systems for analysing educational theatre's efficacy are limited; material data of reading development cannot be linked causally to individual programmes. As an alternative to experiential knowledge, programme leaders adopted the pedagogical strategy 'rereading', which documents reading development in small groups. This author proposes that immediate, focused evaluation helps demonstrate quantitatively the local impact of an educational theatre project, while still maintaining the qualitative value of puppet theatre.