Engaging Aliterate Students: A Literacy/Theatre Project Helps Students Comprehend, Visualize, and Enjoy Literature

Two diverse groups of urban and suburban adolescent reluctant readers enthusiastically discussed a performance of A Wrinkle in Time . For many of these students, it was their first experience with the theatre. What was even more important than sharing their first theatrical experience, however, was that this was the first time they completed, comprehended, and enjoyed a book assigned in school. The program that created those results investigated how collaboration with a teacher and a theatre director can address the needs of reluctant readers to comprehend, visualize, discuss, and enjoy literature. A significant difference between this study and studies that use drama is how theatre creates multisensory, imaginative experiences that transport audiences into deeply personal interpretations of the printed word. By combining reading with theatre, students found ways to immerse themselves in the actions, thoughts, and dialogue of characters, as well as the settings, sounds, and symbols in the literature.