Name : Tomy Widiyanto
Student
No. : 113411091
Subject : “Teaching Speaking” Course
English
Education Department - 4B
1. Reader’s Theater Technique
Explanation:
The instructor
selects text relevant to the day’s topic and assigns students in the class to
read the text out loud. The text may be a short story, a passage, or a
collection of statements. Depending on the length of the selected text and the
size of the class all students may be assigned reading responsibilities or only
a small fraction of the students may read out loud. If appropriate, the student
readers may be encouraged to add drama, flair, or humor to their readings. This
technique is particularly helpful for starting discussions, introducing new
topics, or shifting gears during a long class period.
Background:
The Reader’s
Theatre technique is frequently used in elementary schools as an activity that
encourages new readers to improve reading confidence, fluency, and
comprehension (Martinez et al., 1998). This flexible teaching technique is also
used in high schools to develop performance skills and enhance literary studies
(Coger and White, 1973).
Examples & Variations:
Reader’s
Theater can be a particularly effective technique on the first day of class to
demonstrate the expectation that most of the talking will be done by students.
The statements selected might model suitable contributions as questions,
evidence-based statements, etc. Alternately, the statements read during
Reader’s Theater could exemplify a variety of strong and weak discussion
contributions and students could then analyze which types of statements
facilitated class discussion, which statements were less helpful, and/or how weak
statements might be improved with the addition of logic, evidence, etc.
The instructor
might also choose to shift responsibility for selecting the material read
toward the students. For example, in a course focusing on clinical
neuroscience, the instructor could assign some or all students to find a quote
(or video) from a patient with a specific clinical condition that describes the
symptoms from the patient’s perspective. The students who find the quotes might
even ask their classmates to do the reading out loud at the next class.
Procedures:
Firstly, the instructor
explains about the material that would like to be taught. Those are about
expression of showing surprise, expression of asking someone to do something
and expression of showing happiness. Then, the instructor asks to the students to
practice those expressions by grouped performing in the front of the class. The
class consists of 40 students, so the instructor makes 4 groups that each group
is 10 people.
The instructor distributes
the scripts to every student. Then, the students are given two minutes to
understand the story of the scripts. The students read loadly the scripts when
they are performing. The performing must be like a theatre, so the students are
totally allowed to act as good as possible.
The
script:
MR. KLEWANG SUBUR
Oneday there is an old
man, named Klewang Subur. He is very
rich and handsome. He lives in a big house. He has five wives. The first wife is Musyikah, the second is Nur
Nyaini, the third is Ling Lung, the fourth is Prikitiuw and the fifth wife is
Winda Wow. Klewang Subur has three
children, they are Paimen, Painem and Paijo.
Klewang Subur : “
Hmmmm, it is fresh morning while drinking this cup of Perahu Api coffee. I am happy today.”
Ling Lung : “my honey, I wanna ask some
money to you.”
Klewang Subur :
“How much, darling? I will give it how much you want, anytime anywhere
anycondition you need. We are very rich, you know?
Ling Lung : “ oh,,,, you are My nice
Klewang, honey.”
Nur Nyaini : “Hon... Honey, I must buy some
medicine again, my medicine for the patients have used up. I need $100, I need
$100, I need $100,, now darling, now!!!
Ling Lung : “me too, look at to your kids!
They need some milk and I must buy it
for them. Give me $700, Honey. Now Now, Now!”
Klewang Subur :
“wait...wait... calm down.... calm down my all darlings,,,, I confuse I
confuse, who should I give the first? Wait wait..... my wives.”
Musyikah : “ I, My handsome husband. I am
your first wife. So, you must give the money to me first. Hey you!!! Be
patient, these money is for me, you and you will be given by him tomorrow. Is
that right, my handsome husband?”
Prikitiuw : “ Noooo...... I am also his
wife, I need some money to go swimming. I must heighten my body.”
Winda Wouw :
“aaahhhh!!! It is really not important, you know. Look at my face, today I am
not using any makeup. I need to buy makeup in order I may seem so beautiful in
front of my handsome husband; Mr. Klewang. You need to know that I am the most
beautiful of you, you know. Right, my
handsome husband?”
Klewang
Subur : “Huhhhh (still
stress)”
Mr. Klewang Subur
became so confuse about the problem. He cannot determine who should he give the
money first because he knows the money
is not enough to be given to all of hiswives. Something happened when the trouble
was culminating.
Klewang Subur : “ well, actually I have the money
to give you but it is not enough for all. I must give it to Ling Lung. She do
need it so much now, our children do not look fresh today. Do not you have a
sympathy to them, darlings? Please, understand me.”
Musyikah, Nur Nyaini, Prikitiuw, and Winda Wow: “ Noooooooo!!!!”
Ling Lung : “oh, my very kind husband. You
are very wise. Thank you so much, so where is the money??”
Klewang Subur :
“oh yes, I forgot. The money is still in the Bank, darling. I need to go there
then. ”
Ling Lung : “What!!!!!!! (unconscious)”
The kids :
“Mummy...Mummy..... wake up wake up, it is morning ...it is morning. We are hungry Mom, we are hungry and we have
not take a bath yet. Who will take us to bath??”
Musyikah, Nur Nyaini, Prikitiuw, Winda Wow and Klewang Subur: “Ling
Luuuungg...”
Klewang Subur :
“let us take her to the room soon, help me please.”
After few minutes
later, Ling Lung is still unconscious while she is accompanied by the other
wives and her children. They are sitting down while Mr. Klewang Subur explained
the truth to them.
Klewang Subur : “I
am so sorry, my wives. Actually I also do need much money to campaign. I
candidated as The President of this country. You know, I am stress. I am stress.”
Children
: “why is Daddy stress?”
Prikitiuw : “Why didn’t you tell us
before, my husband?”
Musyrikah : “You ignored us, huhhhhh?!!”
Nur Nyaini : “What kind of husband you
are??!!!!”
(The wives prepared to punch Klewang Subur)
Klewang Subur : “Wait...wait
...wait...... ”
Winda Wouw :
“Wait for what?!!..... “
( Suddenly, Ling Lung wakes up)
Ling Lung : “what’s up here?”
Winda Wouw :
“did you know that your husband’s money was spent out for campaign a
President.”
Ling Lung : “WHATTTTTT!!!!!”
(Then, Ling Lung got unconcious again)
Finally, Klewang
Subur’s wives got sick with him. They asked Klewang Subur to divorce all of
them. They were very angry and very disappointed by him.
Nur Nyaini : “I don’t want to be yourwife
anymore.”
Musyrikah : “I will be musyrik from you. I
won’t believe you anymore.”
Winda Wouw :
“You must divorce all of us, Mr. Klewang”
Klewang Subur : “calm down.... calm down.”
Children :
“Mothers.... mothers.... what is the meaning of divorce?”
Prikitiuw : “divorce is a kind of food,
dears.”
Paijo :
“is it delicious?”
Painem :
“Yes, of course because it is food.”
Paimen :
“ and daddy will buy it for us. Right, daddy?”
Klewang Subur :
“Oh my Goddddd.....” (Sat at a chair and close his ears)
(Klewang Subur’s wives and his children didn’t stop talking to him.
So, he just sat down and closed his ears)
***
After
all of the students finish their performance, the instructor asks to the
students to underline and take some notes about expression of showing surprise,
expression of asking someone to do something and expression of showing
happiness based on the scripts. Finally, the instructor asks to the students to
give some questions who don’t understand the material yet.
Benefits:
In an undergraduate
science lecture, Reader’s Theatre is an efficient way to get many students
voices in the classroom and shift speaking responsibilities from the professor
to the students. The technique can be useful for getting a variety of
viewpoints onto the floor for discussion in a safe and/or efficient manner. For
some topics a traditional discussion of volunteers might be difficult to
cultivate and/or not reveal the full spectrum of viewpoints because of limited
student experiences, lack of knowledge in the field, the controversial nature
of the topic, and/or homogeneous demographics. Reader’s Theater is efficient
because the professor can construct a script with statements that illustrate
the full spectrum of viewpoints, without requiring the class to spend the time
to identify the spectrum. Similarly, for controversial topics Reader’s Theater
can be a particularly safe method because it is obvious that the reader was
assigned the task and is therefore not personally advocating or representing a
controversial viewpoint.
It is also
important to note that Reader’s Theatre is an effective method for encouraging
participation, particularly from quiet students who may be shy and/or lack
confidence in their own knowledge. Reading a short segment or statement is a
relatively low-stakes activity where a quiet student’s voice can be heard
and/or a student who lacks confidence can make a valuable contribution to the
class.
Reader’s
Theatre has benefits for its readers, but also promotes active listening by the
non-readers. The instructor might preface the reading by giving specific
instructions that require the non-readers to take notes, identify a
stronger/weaker argument, identify an inaccuracy, categorize statements, etc.
Given the many distractions inherent in today’s classrooms where students are
easily lured away from learning by text messages and social media, Reader’s
Theatre is a small way to encourage and demonstrate why focusing, note taking,
and/or careful listening are critical skills for success.
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