One of my favorite ways to get my students involved in the scriptures is to help them learn how to read with emotion. When you read with emotion the whole text really comes alive and it allows you to see new and varied meanings throughout; which is always a bonus.
Several years ago as I was reading Genesis 24 I discovered a simple reader's theater tucked neatly away within its verses. Knowing that reader's theater encourages the use of emotions by the readers, I decided to take it out and create a usable script that would allow my students to practice reading the scriptures in a more natural and emotion filled way. (An added bonus of this scriptural reader's theater is that the students who are not reading a part can choose to follow the script right out of their scriptures as the story unfolds.)
To make this as easy as possible, I created two scripts: one for the teacher and one to copy for each student who will be bringing this theater to life (there are eight parts, with the possibility of switching six of those parts midway through so that you can have up to 14 students involved in the reading). On both scripts are found places throughout where the students are asked to stop reading. At each of these points, the teacher's copy has several thought provoking questions that can be used to help everyone engage more fully with the scriptural account you are reading.
I hope you will enjoy sharing this with your class just as much as I did with mine. Don't forget to encourage them to read with emotion! I promise, it makes a huge difference and you and your students will see things and consider things you never had before. So happy reading and more especially, happy emoting!
Tip: Put yourself out there and give your students an example of what it looks like to read with and without emotion (It's not as hard as it sounds. Pick a verse from the scriptures and read it with the following emotions: happy, sad, angry, frustrated, no emotion, etc. You can even let your students try to guess which emotion you are trying to convey). Once they see your example they will better understand what you mean when you ask them to read with emotion.
Included below is a fun poster you could display to get your students thinking about all the different kinds of emotions they might use as they read.
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