I think that the Newsies reader's theatre could be a good introduction to a social studies unit. Following this, I would create a timeline with the class and look at what was going on at this time.

Using the readers theater helps bring a sense of reality to a historical event. Sometimes teaching history lacks a connection but having students act and pretend to be people from certain time periods help gain the deeper understanding.

After reading Newsies, I would have students engage in an inquiry exploration activity. I would provide them with various resources to explore, including both print and digital resources. The students will have to read through the resources and develop 3 ideas or pieces of information that they learned about this time period.

-Catherine

I think that readers theatre is a great way for children to practice their fluency and learn about social studies.

Journal Prompt:

Asking students to put themselves in the shoes of those kids. " What would you do if you were in those children's shoes? Why was the strike so important?" or make it more creative by asking students to "write a day in your life as if you were one of the kids in newsies"

The Reader's Theatre activity would serve as a great way for students to strengthen their conceptual understanding of the events in the play and the time period. However, students will need more context to fully understand the history and its implications.

Follow up to Newsies Reader's Theatre:

• have students work in groups to make signs for the strike

• review vocabulary and identify key phrases from the reader's theatre

• students create a timeline of the events within the play and then add new events after reading a tradebook or other resources

After the readers theater, I would have a whole class conversation on what the story was about and what they learned. I would do a brainstorming activity as well and write their ideas on the board. I would then clarify any ideas or questions and provide the students with definitions of important terms to help them better understand if necessary. After we determined what the topic of the story was, I would have students participate in a research activity to learn more about the historical topic. They could do this using books or online kid-friendly databases.

Some benefits of Reader's Theatre are developing fluency and increasing comprehension skills, encouraging students to step out of their comfort zone, showing them a new way to learn information, providing an opportunity for collaboration and social interaction in a fun and engaging way. This is beneficial for teaching historical topics in the classroom because it puts the students in the shoes of someone who experienced that event and makes it more real.

As a follow up I would talk about timelines and have students see what happened leading up to the war, during the war and after the war. We could research nonfiction age-appropriate books on the topic.

I feel like it is a great way of getting students engaged in history in a more fun way. Often history is viewed as a "boring" subject so I feel like it makes it more enjoyable. I also feel like this one in particular was nice for kids to relate to because it is about kids who's lives where way different student's lives today.

Following this I would have the students make a chart comparing their lives today to that of kids lives over 100 years ago. As well as have a discussion as about what was so important about giving kids a right to education and safe work environments.

After completing the Reader's Theatre, I would revisit the historical context of Newsies. I would tie this into our social studies unit to revisit important events that took place during this time. Students would then create their own timelines using the events from the play that we will revisit and add onto throughout the unit.

Readers theatre allows student to practice reading aloud using fluency in a way that’s fun and engaging for them. I did a readers theater for a lesson on fluency in my 2nd grade student teaching placement! They absolutely loved it and asked to do it again! It was so nice to see them want to learn. For my lesson, I picked very common plays that they heard of before. However, I think it will be extremely beneficial to use readers theatre for a historical topic. This will allow them to put themselves in the shoes of someone from a certain period of time. This can help them better understand what was occurring at that time!

After reading this, I would have the students do a story sequencing where they talk about the beginning middle and end of the story with a partner. They can then create a timeline of important events. This can then carry on to other important events that happened around the same time. Readers theatre is very engaging for students for students of all ages so incorporating this will help the students get more out of the lesson.

Students are able to foster deeper understanding of the topic by bringing the characters to life. It also exposes students to different perspectives on historical topics that may be difficult to understand. Reader's theatre allows students to engage with one another and collaborate in new and fun ways.

I think reader's theatre is a great way to put students in the mindset and perspective of something that happened a long time ago. I think also it is a great way to get some of the quieter kids to participate and engage all students in learning a historical topic rather than just sitting and copying notes!

As a follow up activity to the "Newsies" reader's theater, I would have students write their own plays within groups, expanding on the topic. Students would also be allowed to use the kid-friendly search engine, "Kiddle" to explore more about the topic. This then allows for students to collaborate, but also have an independent aspect as I would assign roles for the actual development of the play. Then the students can act out their plays in front of the rest of the class. They will have to use their context clues from this play to develop their own unique ideas. In this activity, students could even create the setting of their play on bulletin paper. I feel as though, this would be a fun and interactive activity where students can lead their own learning.