Children's Classics in Dramatic Form - Book Two — Augusta Stevenson

From the Preface.
Dramatic Readers in the Modern Reading Program.
Experience has proved that there is a distinct place for well-written plays for children in the modem reading program. They utilize the inherent dramatic instinct of pupils and enlist their interest and enthusiasm in reading. Moreover, they serve as excellent training in silent reading, since pupils must prepare themselves for the oral presentation by reading the plays silently to get into the spirit of the action and to interpret adequately the thoughts and feelings of the characters. Finally, as a means of training in oral expression such plays are unsurpassed. Pupils lose themselves for the time in the characters which they impersonate and read with such abandon and pleasure that they forget their self-consciousness. The audience situation is admirably provided for, because the success of the play depends upon each pupil's reading his part in a clear, well-modulated, expressive voice.
A Corrective for Overemphasis on Silent Reading
In these days when the schools are awakening to the importance of training in silent reading, there is danger that the abUity to read orally as a fine art and as a contribution to social enjoyment may be neglected. Those acquainted with school work know too well the monotonous, indistinct speech and self-conscious, listless attitude which characterize so much of the reading of pupils in grades above the third. If the modern reading program is carried out intelligently this sacrifice of good oral reading need not be made in the laudable effort to develop the necessary reading skills. The balanced reading program will of course lay much greater emphasis on the development of reading skills, but it will also provide amply for the social interpretation of the printed page through training in oral reading as a social response. The reading of these simple plays has been found, in thousands of schools, to effect a marked improvement in the pupils' oral reading.....