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  • 1.  Reading Out Loud

    Posted 02-16-2017 06:19
    I am offering a special course in the last quarter on 'the art of reading out loud' - we will look at the use of sound and how it generates meaning in texts that were specifically written to be heard (not just read).

    Think sonnets, tongue twisters, speeches, children's books...the idea is to offer part literary analysis, part public speaking class, part acting workshop (focused on vocal technique).

    I'm in the gathering phase right now and would love any ideas that folks might have. Good texts (to read aloud OR on the subject) or anything else for that matter...games, exercises, videos, anything...

    Thanks for your help!

    Jake Miller
    Department of Theater
    Germantown Friend School
    Philadelphia, PA


  • 2.  RE: Reading Out Loud

    Posted 02-16-2017 09:01
    Jabberwocky popped into my head.  For a more advanced group this could be tons of fun!

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    Amy Learn
    Ballwin MO
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Reading Out Loud

    Posted 02-16-2017 09:42
    I love working with Victor Borge's inflationary language. I've found it really requires the students to focus on enunciation and inferences based on what the word would originally sound like to what is actually written

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    Shira Schwartz
    Chandler Unified School District
    Chandler AZ
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Reading Out Loud

    Posted 02-16-2017 11:13
    You should check out the Poetry Out Loud competition here. I think it's too late to be a part of your state or region's competition, but it's a wonderful program, and still worth doing. I'm pretty sure it checks all of the boxes you're looking for. The website has a great number of teaching resources as well.

    Someone else mentioned The Jabberwocky, which is great too. I often have the students create a choral poem of that or of the children's book, The Gruffalo.

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    Christopher Hamilton
    Drama Teacher
    Kennewick WA
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Reading Out Loud

    Posted 02-17-2017 07:49
    An interesting idea!  Perhaps some of E. E. Cummings' poetry?  It would  lend itself to analysis and to reading out loud.  Or maybe Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First?"  

    Good luck,

    Ken Robinson

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    Kenneth Robinson
    Drama Club Sponsor
    Wapahani High School
    Selma IN
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Reading Out Loud

    Posted 02-17-2017 08:08
    There was an article a couple of years ago in Teaching Theater by a college professor who used  Green Eggs and Ham for interpretative reading.  He had an entire unit on it and I've used his idea with children with whom I teach  a narrative language class for  elementary children with reading issues and also with my Middle School Drama classes.  He used it at the college level.  We have also used Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day.  Another choice is to take literature they love and have them take sections and convert the dialog to first person with one or two interpreters as in an Oral Interp Forensic event.  I lean toward fantasy and have had success with The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, CSLewis.  Fanny Flagg's, Daisy Faye and the Medicine Man    has some hysterical stories, all in first person.  I always think of Yellow Boat .  Lastly, melodrama is great fun.  

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    Valerie Scott
    Drama Teacher/Director
    Perimeter School
    Johns Creek, Ga
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Reading Out Loud

    Posted 02-17-2017 12:57
    Spoon River Anthology, Edgar Lee Master's collection of free-verse poems is now in the public domain.  All of them are first-person monologues.  Gutenberg.org has it online.

    I just did a one-act compilation from Spoon River for our state Thespian festival, and my students love the work.

      

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    C. J. Breland
    Asheville High School
    Asheville NC
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Reading Out Loud

    Posted 02-17-2017 16:56
    My class uses 'Twistable Turnable Man' by Shel Silverstein.  We also add movements in for every phrase, which is loads of fun!!

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    Andrea Rassler
    Concord NC
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Reading Out Loud

    Posted 02-23-2017 10:37
    Jake, I love this!!  Would you be willing to share lesson plans?

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    Dianne Rowe
    Birmingham AL
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    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Reading Out Loud

    Posted 02-24-2017 07:06
    This is all really helpful - thank you. 
    And yes, I'd be happy to share lesson plans...once I actually write them!


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    Jake Miller
    Department of Theatre
    Germantown Friends School
    Philadelphia PA
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    Original Message


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