Action Strategies For Deepening Comprehension: Role Plays, Text-Structure Tableaux, Talking Statues, and Other Enactment Techniques That Engage Students with Text

by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm

Before reading, hand out lines of a poem and have students try to build an idea of what the poem will be about...invite two students to play good angel/bad angel for a book character...have students perform a vocabulary statue depicting the meaning of terms such as global warming or deforestation. This book has many motivating ideas like this that energize students before, during, and after reading. These strategies can be done individually, or through pair work or groups. Great for deepening reading strategies such as activating prior knowledge, inferring, visualizing, making connections, and more. For use with Grades 4 & Up.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2002

Reviews

[Heather Stringham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I would have found this book years ago. I love the ideas that are presented by Wilhelm about how to make reading and literature come alive in the classroom through dramatic techniques. It is an amazing concept that I cannot wait to try in my classroom.

[Elie · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot of good information in this book, and I am planning to change my way of teaching in order to incorporate more of these drama strategies into my English class.

Dr. Wilhelm gives many, many ideas for getting kids active in their reading or whatever they're studying by talking, working together, seeing many sides of an issue, and being physically active. I'll definitely go back through the book and write down all the ideas I had starred and want to use and remember come September. I wonder what the research has to say about drama and ELLs, though, which make up a majority of the kiddos I teach.

My biggest issue was that, despite there being so many strategies, I had a hard time visualizing how they would work, not just in my own class but at all. I didn't feel like many of the ideas were explained so that I could visualize how they worked or why they would be a worthwhile strategy to use. Again, I have a whole new toolbox of strategies that I feel comfortable trying or adapting, but there are many more ideas I am abandoning. Maybe I'll come back to this book in the future.

[Marguarite Markley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The focus of this reading is using "Enactments" to deepen comprehension of texts for students. Jeffrey Wilhelm draws from Lev Vygotsky's social learning theory. According to the author, drama (in a number of ways) will help children become better able to understand nonfiction and fiction texts. He uses a short story called "The Fan Club" to offer strategies to incorporate active play into the classroom. Wilhelm addresses reservations that some teachers have about using enactments and provides solutions to common teacher concerns. He focuses on using a HUGE VARIETY of active lessons to build prior knowledge, understand the story, and to relate the text to real life. Teachers looking for new ways to help children "get" the material should definitely read this book.

[jacky]

I really enjoy having discussion in class because I get to hear the students' ideas and I can lead them as necessary; however, I know that they don't all like it and that it gets boring day after day. Recently, I have been doing more practice kind of work - like writing in pairs, looking at ads, sharing ideas on a bulletin board. The kids really like these kinds of things and I am really enjoying being able to circulate and talk with them as they work, both about the work and to get to know them better. My hope is that a book like this will introduce to me more activities that have the results of discussion, but in a more hands on / fun format.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely a must-read for reading teachers at all levels. Wilhelm gives very practical strategies for increasing student engagement and comprehension of texts through the use of drama. It sounds scary but this isn't performance drama but rather process drama, whose purpose is to help visualize and bring to life a particular moment, scene, or character. I got a TON out of this book and have been using the strategies in my classroom, with much success.

[Whitney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Jeff Wilhelm! He really gets kids involved in the learning. I always used a bunch of his strategies.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the "hot seat" idea. I use it as a great prewriting strategy too.

[Alexis · Rating 2 out of 5]

pls let me read