Contends that inconsistent judging often leaves contestants more confused than educated. Analyzes the effects of training and experience on judges' agreement in oral interpretation contests. (PD)

Suggests areas of future research for oral interpretation scholars: (1) the effects of performance on classroom audience and performers, (2) performance in nonacademic contexts, (3) the functions of nondramatic performance, and (4) the history of performed literature. (PD)

Provides six classroom exercises to stimulate student awareness of the principles of Readers Theater. Emphasizes the use of scripts and space, flexibility of voice and body, staging, pantomime, and characterization. (PD)

Presents results of a survey of practices employed in critical judgments of performed texts in oral interpretation. Outlines preferred types of evaluation forms, criteria for evaluation, and what students find most helpful in the evaluation of performance. (JMF)

Argues that English teachers who use plays in their classes should emphasize the effects and interpretation of the words of the scripts as they are spoken. Offers four suggestions whereby teachers can focus on the playscript as it is performed, not written. (RL)

Examines literacy practices in their sociohistorical contexts, drawing examples of religious reading practices and stances from Orthodox Jewish reading practices. Notes that religious reading practices highlight the repertoire of reading genres, strategies, and stances that members of modern multicultural societies learn to control. Concludes that…

The Rural Educational Alliance for Collaborative Humanities (REACH) Program, designed to enrich humanities study in rural South Carolina schools, encourages youngsters to explore their communities' history and culture, thereby connecting rural schools to community life. This article praises assessment as theater and urges its use in other…

Describes a poetry assignment in which students select a poem to analyze and present before the class. Observes that unlike the traditional postures of detachment and impersonality, this approach of self-selections encourages students to establish an intimacy with poetry. (MM)

Describes a poetry-presentation assignment in which students select poems from examples studied in class and prepare oral presentations incorporating visual, dramatic, technical, or musical arts. Describes several student presentations resulting from this assignment. (MM)

Describes the development of reading fluency and expression, noting connections among oral reading fluency, word recognition, and spelling. The article presents a model of the stages of literacy development that recognizes the role of tacit knowledge in learning to read and write. A spelling inventory for teachers is included. (SM)

Offers the author's narrative of the recent history of performance studies, focusing on the current place of literature, its instability as a recognizable genre of discourse, and its uncertain value in the academic market. Discusses the problem of literature's loss of "academic capital." (SR)

The authors acted on their belief that familiarity with text and repeated readings of it would help students with fluency, comprehension, and confidence. They assembled a list of "cuttings" excerpts of full-length books from which seventh-grade students could choose to prepare a public reading. After working alone, in pairs, and reading for a…

The primary pedagogical principle of Reader's Theatre is that it "dramatizes" literature to provide both a visual and an oral stimulus for students who may be unaccustomed to using their imagination to experience literary works like novels, poems, essays, or short stories. Promoting a suggestive, "theatrical mind" approach to…

A program was designed, developed, and implemented to increase the participation of fourth-grade students in a district-wide storytelling festival in Florida. The target school was the only one in the area to send no students to the festival year after year. The program was planned to work with 10 students in a storytelling practicum with 3 goals,…

This anthology of literature contains selections that can be performed in classrooms, workshops, and speech and theater conventions as reader's theater, defined as a dramatic approach to literature. Divided into six categories--comedy, mystery/suspense, Christmas specials, folklore, children's classics, and the human spirit--the anthology features…