Welcome to Playbooks, Inc., the ONLY Multi-Leveled and Colorized Dialogue Reader's Theater company.

WHY READER’S THEATER

Strong reading and comprehension skills are the cornerstone for a successful educational experience. Reader’s Theater is a well-known fluency building strategy and moreover, it engages and entertains students while they learn and improve their skills. Reader’s Theater is "Research-Based Instruction in Reading” as listed on the on the ed.gov website.

Click here for some great research information on building reading fluency with Reader's Theater.

Most of the Reader's Theater materials currently available are not multi-leveled, or well balanced, designed for too many readers, and can require too much preparation by the teacher.

OUR UNIQUE FORMAT

The patented Playbooks, Inc. format provides an enhanced and multi-leveled form of Reader's Theater with each character's role written for specific and different reading levels and presented in a different color. The colorized dialogue helps students follow along and take ownership of their roles. Character dialogue is well balanced throughout the story and designed for small, non-threatening reading groups giving students the opportunity to shine.

Playbooks® are edited and leveled by credentialed teachers, providing dynamic and effective integration with today’s classroom that meet numerous state and federal standards.

Modeling is a key component to building fluency, so the best way to increase children’s reading ability is through listening to more advanced text than they can read on their own. This is because children have higher "listening comprehension" than "reading comprehension." Therefore, in order to increase their reading ability and fluency, they should be "listening" to richer vocabulary and more advanced text than they are able to read independently.

The unique Playbook® format provides struggling readers with opportunities to practice reading their own level of text while being exposed to the modeling of higher level reading. Teachers can privately assign roles according to the reader’s ability (see Level Correlations) and put low level readers with high level readers for the group activity. This allows all students to read together, each at their own level, with confidence and enthusiasm while building fluency.

Each school set of Playbooks® includes tools to assist teachers and ensure successful implementation of your Reader's Theater program. View the classroom implementation video.

 

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Our Feature Story

Bound For Plymouth (Journeys of Discovery Series) An Original Playbook® Story Content for Grades 5 - 8 Reading Stages 4 - 6 Written by: Pat Fine Illustrated by: Liliane Grenier

Story Synopsis: Have you ever been on a cruise ship, or seen commercials for one on TV? They really make it look like fun, but when the Pilgrims sailed to America back in the 1600s, their voyage was a far cry from enjoyable. Their ship was cold and damp, as well as smelly and leaky, and the rough motion often made the passengers seasick. Most of the passengers lived together on a lower deck with only blankets to divide the cramped space into doubtful privacy. They used buckets for toilets, their food was wormy and almost inedible, and it wasn’t just the animals that had fleas! But they were willing to undergo such discomfort in order that their dearest wish for freedom could become reality. This story enables students to experience – on a smaller scale – what life was like on that historic sea voyage.

 

 

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Edu-tainment: a form of entertainment designed to educate as well as to amuse.

Playbooks® Reader's Theater is a great example of "edutainment," a popular way to engage children in learning. The Playbook® format, appealing stories, colorful, pages and optional costume kits make learning fun! Why not invite reading fluency into your classroom through the "edutainment" of Reader's Theater by Playbooks®!

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All Stories are Available in
Small Group School Sets

School Sets include a book copy for each reader, a copy for the teacher, a Teacher's Guide, 2 Reader Assignment Charts, and 2 Award Certificates, and a Cross-curricular Activities Supplement with multiple activity sheets.

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