It's Valentine's Day, Emily! Reader's Theatre Script -With Rubric

Included in the It's Valentine's Day, Emily! Reader's Theatre Unit:

15 page script

10 characters + the narrator

Reader's Theatre Evaluations based on 4 levels and 5 criteria.

Student Success Criteria

Student Friendly Goals

Teacher's Reader's Theatre Checklist

It's Valentine's Day, Emily! synopsis:

Layla and Dolores are two witch sisters who hate Valentine's day, while little witch, Emily, loves Valentine's Day. Layla and Dolores begin creating a scheme to ruin Emily's Valentine's Day. Meanwhile, Emily and her friends begin preparing for Valentine's Day by making cards. Dolores and Layla find Emily in her tree house, and they mock her, saying that no one will send her any Valentine's cards, then they fly over her, and send all of her Valentine's Day cards flying out of the tree house. Emily begins to believe that no one will remember her on Valentine's Day. Emily's friends, Barry and Carrie, think that Layla and Dolores should not get away with hurting Emily's feelings. On Valentine's Day morning, Dolores and Layla receive Valentine's cards from two secret admirers. Both of them become excited and begin to prepare their castle by making dinner for their secret admirers, who will be arriving that evening. When evening arrives, the two secret admirers knock on the front door, but there is something odd about them. One admirer is a rat that stinks like moldy cheese, while the other admirer is a slimy giant toad. Layla and Dolores are disgusted with their admirers, and try to figure a way out of their blind dates.

Will Emily be able to enjoy Valentine's Day, and will she receive cards from all of her friends?

Will Carrie and Barry be able to get back at Dolores and Layla for making their friend sad?

How will Dolores and Layla get rid of their stinky and slimy secret admirers?

Find out in It's Valentine's Day, Emily!

Do not fear the reader's theater format. Students love these adapted stories because they are listening to the story and they are a part of the story by playing a character within the story.

Reader's theatre inspires reluctant readers to join in the fun. The strongest and most advanced readers in your class will encourage other students to raise their hand and participate in the story. I also use reader's theatre to add to my drama marks.

If the reader's theatre format did not work for my students and I, then I would have stopped creating and adapting them years ago.

Reluctant readers sometimes feel anxious looking at pages of text, whereas a reader's theater script is broken up into narration and different characters speaking, thus making the story more accessible to those students who have not discovered the incredibly fun activity of reading for entertainment.

I use shorter stories with minimal characters in literature circles.

When can one make time for a reader's theatre story in class?

When I am not reading a reader's theatre unit with my class, I usually reserve Friday's for the reading of a one-off story. It is an event that the class looks forward to, since they do not know which story I will choose. Great for Librarians and small groups. I project the stories on the screen and assign characters in class. Some characters only have 1 line. A supporting character like that is perfect for a reluctant reader.

I have read these stories remotely/online and in class/in-person.

I encourage teachers and instructors to allow students to practice their parts at home before they read in front of the class. They can try different voices and tones when they practice. It is also good for family bonding time. The student's parent/guardian can play another role and they can read together.

I hope you, and your students have a fun time reading It's Valentine's Day, Emily!

Happy Valentine's Day and Excelsior!

Mr. Marvel: The King of Reader's Theatre