STEM Content in Reader's Theater
In 2009, President Barack Obama announced a new initiative called Educate to Innovate. The initiative is all about improving students' performance in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Since then, the push to include hands on STEM activities in afterschool, summer school, and the regular school day has continued to grow. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan publicly endorses these efforts.
At the same time, Secretary Duncan has been a big supporter of several reading initiatives, including 2009's Read to the Top! and 2010-2012's Let's Read. Let's Move. First Lady Michelle Obama has also participated in these initiatives. The push for reading fluency, together with the push for STEM education, largely defines the curriculum of public, private, and homeschools around the nation.
Roleplay reading can cover any content, including STEM, making it the perfect tool for covering both reading enrichment and STEM curriculum requirements. According to Secretary Arne Duncan, stimulus funds should be trickling into methods that are innovative and engaging as well as measurable and sustaining. Reader's theater meets all four categories.
In May 2010 Playbooks® launched its first STEM-specific story, Planet Parade. It teaches students in Grades 4-7 fun and amazing facts about our solar system! Readers learn how important each planet's location is to its individual characteristics, and to keeping the solar system stabilized. After all, we are able to live on the Earth because it is just the right temperature, distance from the Sun, and has water and oxygen. If anything was different, we might not be here!
Watch your students' reading skills soar while covering your program's STEM requirement. More Playbooks® with STEM content are coming soon, but in the meantime click here to get your set of Planet Parade today!
