Reader's Theater in Bianca Nieves y los siete toritos

One thing I love to do when reading novels in my class is to act out an interesting or action-packed scene.  I was lucky to see Kristy Placido at an iFLT conference talk about Reader's Theater and she really inspired me to think about possibilities while doing this.   What about background music?  Props? Costumes?  A projected scene on the screen? (Even as I type this post, I am thinking about a few things I could have added to the scene we did below!)

My Spanish IV students just finished reading Carrie Toth's novel Bianca Nieves y los siete toritos, and we had a great time with the Juli vs Sabado bullfight.  The most important elements were the shawls for Salome and Bianca, the traje de luz (purchased at Goodwill for $3), the sword ("borrowed" from my daughters), the montera (a pirate hat turned backwards), the capote (my Feliz Navidad dish towel) and of course the bull (an old bike). Now the fact that the pirate hat and the cape were a little bit small just made for more fun.  And the bike?  What could be more perfect?  What student does not want to ride a bike in the middle of your classroom?  (Or on a short tour down the hall?)

Most of the class was the audience at the bullfight.  Then we assigned specific roles for Salome and Bianca pictured at the back of the video.  El Juli was the star of the show, along with Sábado of course. Here are some clips of the action!

Bianca y Salomé

Here comes Sábado!

Watch out Juli!

Read Dustin Williamson's great tips on Reader's Theater here.  If you have not yet tried Reader's Theater in your classes, give it a shot and really bring the book to life for your students.