Introducing podTheatre

Before we had iPods, and long before cable "on-demand" movies, people told stories. Probably within days of telling the first story, someone had the idea of trying to mimic voices, add sound effects, and entertain other early humans gathered around a fire. By the time radio appeared, public reading was a popular diversion. Even Charles Dickens liked to perform his stories for audiences. Radio simply added to an existing tradition.

While the Golden Age of Radio probably ended in 1962, audio dramas are still produced. Some of these are also being produced directly to the Internet. This is the spirit of podTheatre! It is old-time radio (OTR) reborn in a commercial-free, wide-open medium. A group of people, or even one person, can write, record, and distribute "theatre of the mind" for the entire world.

Rationale for podTheatre 

We believe you can use podTheatre across the curriculum, in conjunction with writing across the curriculm (WAC).

Benefits of podTheatre

Why should you consider using podTheatre in your classroom? We don't have a single answer, but instead want to suggest that podcasting and readers' theatre are a natural combination — an evolutionary step more than revolutionary. We think podTheatre extends readers' theatre in several ways:

• Serves multiple learning styles during the process of creating a podTheatre production
• Requires a cooperative effort, allowing students to demonstrate personal strengths
• Demonstrates writing across the curriculum and the connections among classroom topics
• Reinforces the concept of a "real audience" for student works via sharing podcasts / podTheatre

For those of us with special needs students, podTheatre opens a new path to self-expression and creativity. With podTheatre, physical limitations don't matter... technology offers freedom. A student in a wheelchair can be (and has been) "Superduperamazing Man!" There's an important production role for almost every student. Inclusion happens naturally with podTheatre.

Readers' Theatre

In its most common form, readers' theatre (RT) uses scripts to recreate stories as plays. RT is most often used in elementary classrooms. In 2003, research supported by the U.S. Dept. of Education was published indicating that students participating in RT improved reading fluency up to three grade levels. Performing for an audience changed how students perceived reading. According to research led by Bonnie B. Armbruster, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, students exhibited improved phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and vocabulary.

Research:

Google Scholar: Papers on Readers' Theatre

http://playbooks.com/readerstheaterresearch.shtml

http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/instructor/readerstheater.htm

Some of the earliest research supporting the use of RT appeared during the 1960s and early 1970s. These early studies relied on what we might consider "traditional" RT scripts: folk tales, tall tales, fairy tales, and other stories children knew. In these models, students were often read the familiar story by a teacher. The students were then given prepared scripts and assigned roles to read.

RT can be transformed into podTheatre. After working with prepared scripts, it is hoped that students would begin to generate their own adaptations or even original productions. Original works are more likely in middle school and high school, but we believe a teacher chould help students create original productions in even earlier grades.

Using 10-Minute Plays

After experimenting with readers' theatre, students might be interested in 10-minute plays. A 10-minute play is, quite logically, a short play that can be performed in approximately ten minutes. 10-minute plays can serve many possible purposes in the middle school curriculum. These short plays can be written by a whole class, by individual students or as a small group assignment. Plays written by others can be used in the classroom for critique and analysis. Because of their length, a number can be performed during one class period or they can be used as an element of the lesson.

For some examples of 10-minute plays, for short explanation of how to write them, or to purchase a play see: http://www.10-minute-plays.com/index.html.

We encourage you to look for plays in the public domain. Why? Because of copyright laws! Please keep in mind that podcasting a 10-minute play and placing it online is a performance and would require permission and payment. Podcasting a play and not making it publicly available (keeping it exclusively on a courseware management system that is password protected or on the hard drive of a computer) often is the wisest choice unless it is a play created by students or the teacher.