CAEC-ENGAGE DRAMATISED READING

Dramatised reading is a form of shared reading in which the story is brought to life
through the use of the narrator’s voice.
The reader becomes a storyteller.
While the narrator reads, they can add details to the story, dramatise the dialogues,
and highlight the various sides of the story – ironic, enchanted, frightened.
Voice, sounds and gestures, pauses and rhythm, can be used to interact directly with
the book and the audience. At times puppets can also be employed in the
dramatisation, ot other elements such as boxes, corks, clothespins, rocks, magic
wands, or paper objects which can easily be produced depending on the age of the
students involved.
The choice of books needs to fall on one of the greatest quality, so that the audience
can love and connect with it; it must also fit the situation and the context in which the
activity takes Place, and it must be prepared carefully.
The story should convey emotions more than a message.
Why is it important for children?
In children, dramatised reading develops the ability to recognise sounds to observe
and recognise characteristics and to give space to the impulse to recreate what has
been heard.
Dramatised reading works on children’s listening and comprehension skills in a
verbal context, and it improves their ability to produce and reproduce vocal
messages.
The second-year students of the social studies course, after having studied the
importance of dramarised reading, individually designed their own activity, either by
choosing a significant book from their own childhood or by creating an entirely new
story to convey an emotion or to recollect good memories.
Afterward, each student created puppets and a backdrop so as to give life to their
story’s characters, using recycled materials such as boxes, pieces of cloth, old
socks, buttons, cups and other household objects they had collected and brought to
school during the year.
The students experimented, designed and created with enthusiasm, and the final
results surprised and moved them.
Presenting their work in front of their classmates was the most complex moment,
since all of the emotions they had felt during the project surfaced again: joy, anxiety,
enthusiasm, shyness, and happiness, each in their own way, and all of them agree
that the most touching moment was the applause they received at the end.