Judy's Workshops
Winners!Books Kids Will Sit Still ForSelecting Books for ChildrenLiterature and Library SkillsBooktalking & Reading Aloud Multicultural Books Acting It OutStorytellingHi Ho LibrarioKeynote Speeches Parent ProgramsMusical BooktalkBER Seminars
ACTING IT OUT:
Storytelling, Creative Dramatics, & Reader's Theater
Find out what's been missing from your literary landscape. Make books and stories spring to life through performance art with a blast of interactive book activities to get children reading and speaking with expression, fluency, and pleasure. All the comprehension skills booklets in the world won't help students fathom cause and effect the way acting out a story will.
Explore techniques in storytelling and drama so your students do more than just READ books and stories—they LIVE them. Telling stories to children and using creative drama to extend that story allow children to develop new criteria for interpreting characters and understanding their actions, as well as gain intuitive knowledge of story structure and plot. As a group activity, creative drama provides children with the freedom to try out ideas without fear of ridicule.
With Readers Theater, a more structured drama variation, children are given or write their own scripts to act out a scene or a story. You don't need stage sets or props, unless you decide to memorize your scripts and put on a play. Readers Theater stresses reading aloud, and as such, is a boon to the children who are less flamboyant.
In a day full of interactive fun, you'll:
• Participate in storytelling activities, Reader's Theater, and creative drama presentations
• Explore aspects of characterization through speech
• Play with language to spur students' creativity
• Learn simple stories to tell
• Consider ways to use storytelling and drama across the curriculum

Judy's modeling of storytelling and drama techniques will leave you inspired and ready to use these successful, easy-to-use strategies with your students.