The Goal to Perform in Readers’ Theater Motivates Boys Who Struggle With Reading

Abstract

There is a global concern regarding boys’ poor engagement in literacy activities. It is suggested that boys enjoy ways of learning that are active and have explicit goals. Readers’ theater (RT) provides an active and collaborative means of practicing oral reading fluency, with a clear goal of performing for an audience at the end of training. In the context of an intervention study for struggling readers in grades 3 and 4 (9–10 years old), we investigated whether boys benefit more than girls from the goal to perform in readers’ theater in terms of reading fluency development, engagement, and retrospective perception of their learning. We found that girls slightly outperformed boys in expressive reading and showed higher engagement in RT. Girls were also more interested in drama and more likely to participate in the study. However, boys showed a larger reduction in RT-related disaffection over time. In addition, boys in the goal-oriented program reported learning to act and immerse themselves in the text more often than boys in the practice-oriented RT. In contrast, girls reported learning these skills also in the practice-oriented RT. We conclude that the goal to perform in RT may be particularly helpful in engaging boys in RT.