Drama in Dialogic Read Alouds: Promoting Access and Opportunity for Emergent Bilinguals

In this report, we explore the potential for drama pedagogy in the classroom to support the engagement and growth of emergent bilingual students in language and literacy. We are focused on the use of drama to promote dialogic interactions during teacher read alouds. This study was conducted as a collaborative, action research investigation involving classroom teachers and university-based researchers. Our goals focused on three areas. First, we were interested in the impact of the drama intervention on comprehension. Second, we were interested in the responses of students to drama in read alouds with attention to differences in responses related to gender, grade level, skill level, and English Language Learner (school labeled) status. Third, we were interested in the students’ explanations for why (or why not) drama enhanced their engagement with the stories read. The findings suggest the power of incorporating drama to promote participation and dialogic interactions in support of language learning