Reader's Theater

Being a Star Makes Reading Fun For You and Your Students!

Improve Reading Fluency and Comprehension with Playbooks®, the Best Reader's Theater Program Available

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Playbooks® Reader's Theater Program

Playbooks® is the leading social-interactive, role-play reading enrichment program in the nation with its patented Roleplay Reader® format of color-coded dialogue text, and easier and harder roles in the same story. Playbooks® materials have been making a difference in schools since 2001 and provide the most comprehensive tools for effective Reader's Theater implementation. 

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3000+ Programs

Used in 3000+ School, Summer and After School Programs

6 million Students

Positively impacted over 6 million students

130+ Titles

Over 130 Titles to choose from across Grade Levels and SEL Topics

What is Reader's Theater?

Reader's Theater is a great way to teach a love of reading and increase fluency and comprehension. It is a method of reading a story aloud, like a play, without memorization, props, or a stage. Students are each assigned a character role and read their part with expression, meaning, and enthusiasm. It's best done in small, non-threatening groups of approximately 6 students so students can become practiced at their roles prior to reading/performing in front of a group or audience. 


Reader's Theater also meets nearly 50 objectives in the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy, as well as most State Standards!

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U.S. Department of Education

"Repeated and monitored oral reading most effectively improves reading fluency and overall reading achievement."

-Put Reading First (Second Edition)

National Reading Panel

"Fluency is the crucial bridge between word recognition and comprehension. And repeated oral readings are a key method for building fluency in all students."

-Teaching Children to Read

Loyola University 

"Word recognition and reading comprehension improves 27% when text is presented in color compared to bold text, and 35% when presented in color compared to contrasting fonts"

Inside Playbooks ®

Patented Color-Coded & Multi-Leveled with Easier & Harder Roles in One Story

• Colorful text to easily follow roles
• Fun Illustrations to maintain engagement
• Easier and more difficult roles to allow students of different levels read with confidence and accuracy.
• Balanced roles to allow all readers to speak regularly.

A Suite of Reading Solutions for All Grades - CLICK on the Image to Shop!!

READER'S THEATER JR. ® (K-2)

Reader's Theater, Jr.® is a unique series of ten important early childhood topic sets,
each of which includes one full-length reader's theater story and five mini-stories which are designed to be read first and help prepare young readers for the full-length story (along with additional materials).  Our simple and engaging stories are especially created for this age group with topics including Counting, Alphabet,
Weather, Healthy Foods, Fitness, Community Helpers , People Pals, Shapes, Learning and Trying New Things.

Passengers: Curriculum-Based Reader’s Theater (K-5)

Curriculum-Based Readers Theater (CBRT) incorporates the basics of traditional Reader’s Theater— actors reading aloud from a script, performing without costumes, props, or stage movement. CBRT scripts are subject based —science, math, and social studies—dramatizing the content to make it more interesting and memorable and to inform and entertain. Reading these types of scripts is effective in increasing retention of curriculum information, improving reading fluency, engaging students in a learning experience.

Playbooks® K-12

Playbooks® are our core set of titles, with a range of topics and grade levels. Each is an engaging story that students will love, including beautiful illustrations. Featuring over 80 titles, all Playbooks® are multi-leveled, and color coded. Playbooks® carefully balance character roles so that all readers participate throughout the entire story, even the struggling readers! Playbooks® multi-leveled
character roles are edited using a proprietary leveled word dictionary and strict sentence structure guidelines, so students achieve ultimate success and fluency among their peers. 

Print & Virtual Formats for In-Person & Distance Learning

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Playbooks® are Research-Based & have Proven Outcomes

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Implementation Tools

We know efficacy is often based on implementation, so we've provided you a full implementation program to help you support your students and deliver the best experience possible. Our resource library includes videos, teacher's guides, printables, student awards, and teacher's certifications.

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How to Order

We know there are a lot of options so let us help you navigate all our programs to help you find the best one for you. You can order online or call, email or fax any questions or orders. 

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