Improving reading comprehension with readers theater

Abstract

Although readers theater has traditionally been recommended as a method for improving reading fluency, this 18-week quasi-experimental study examined the effects of a readers theater instructional protocol that updates and expands on traditional approaches by adding specific tasks that engage students in various reading comprehension and vocabulary activities. Because the students were not randomly assigned to either condition, propensity score matching was used to minimize potential bias between the groups. After the matching procedure, the overall total of second-grade students decreased from 145 to 76. A repeated-measures analysis of variance was conducted for all three measures. The results revealed statistically significant time effects on all three measures of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test, including decoding, word knowledge, and reading comprehension. Only the reading comprehension measure was qualified by an interaction effect, and the results favored the readers theater treatment group. Implications for instruction and future research are discussed.

Keywords:

• Instruction
• readers theater
• reading comprehension

Additional information

Funding

Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at Sam Houston State University.