Since our launch in 2011, Play In A Book has served over 4,000 students in close to two dozen schools and developed a line of materials that excite students while delivering solid results.

The idea for Play In A Book began some years ago when Laura St. John was working in a classroom in Englewood with twenty-five students.  She was very excited to share drama-based reading materials she had developed with the group.  Unfortunately, only five of the twenty-five students were reading at level.  That’s when she realized that in order to have a cohesive lesson she would need to create leveled texts within her materials.  Each leveled text could include a focused phonics skill and key vocabulary words.  With all of these components in one place, everyone from the struggling reader to the accelerated reader could be on the same page.

MISSION STATEMENT

Play In A Book is a Chicago publisher with a mission to improve literacy among young readers using drama.

ARTS INTEGRATION

It is our belief that an arts-based approach, specifically through drama, is a key component to building reading comprehension, word recognition, and oral fluency in beginning readers.  By engaging students in the action of a play, students develop their reading skills through repetition and the process of getting to know their character.

Students are able to participate in the action of the story regardless of skill level as, in our texts for grades 1 - 4, each act of the play is presented in three graduating levels appropriate for beginning, intermediate, and advanced students.  This allows students of varying aptitudes to participate together in the rehearsal process.  The 30-session program, either taught by our instructor or by a school teacher, culminates in the performance of the play for an invited audience.  Through the natural repetition of the rehearsal process, the students gain aptitude with the underlying phonics skills within the text while building reading fluency and word recognition skills.  The accompanying worksheets explore the characters, theme, and setting of the story building reading comprehension.  In practice, students tend to respond to Play In A Book as more of a drama program than a reading program.  By engaging the student through drama, an intensive 30-week literacy program is delivered that draws the children into the action of the story and allows them to explore using their voice within the context of a performance.

We offer an arts-based approach to improved literacy using distinctive, proprietary materials developed over years spent working with at-risk students.  The materials are designed for a guided reading approach that

builds key reading skills using a well-defined lesson plan over the course of multiple sessions.  Further, the materials align with Common Core Standards explicit to recognized national literacy training goals.

A performance-based assessment occurs within the first and last weeks of each program to measure comprehension, vocabulary, teamwork and performance.  Play In A Book averages an overall 36% gain in the skills measured.

Our classroom actors combine professional stage experience with solid training in the classroom, so Play In A Book can successfully implement our program with a diverse student body, while working to maintain high standards of performance.

We can find innovative solutions to an individual school or classroom's needs.  Play In A Book is committed to the goal of furnishing quality arts integrated enrichment and materials for students throughout the Chicago area.