ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes Reader's Theater as a literacy activity that allows students to take a piece of literature, analyze it and translate it into their own scripts. The purpose of this qualitative study was to engage bilingual and English Language Learners (ELL) elementary school children in critical literacy using Reader's Theater. Participants in this study were three groups of bilingual and ELL schoolchildren from a low-socioeconomic-status school in the southwestern borderlands. The author's approach to Reader's Theater involved all dimensions of literacy through dialogue, reflection, problem posing, and creation of solutions through theater games, scripts and performances. The results demonstrate that bilingual and ELL elementary students can engage in dialogue and deep critical thinking about issues connected to their lives and triggered by children's bilingual books with social messages. They problematize what they read and create solutions using theater and performance.
