With the current education climate so focused on accountability, teachers need to ensure that their teaching practices are supported by today's content-specific standards. To meet this need, "A Comprehensive Guide to Readers Theatre" shows not only how to implement Readers Theatre in the classroom but also how to use it to meet current literacy standards. This practical, comprehensive guide goes well beyond the scope of typical "how-to" books on Readers Theatre and extends the applicability of this instructional method with the following special features: (1) Fun and easy-to-use supplementary activities; (2) Reproducible assessment tools; (3) Hands-on demonstrations of script creation using real literature-based scripts; (4) Performance schedules teachers can tailor to their classroom's specific needs; and (5) Matrixes illustrating how Readers Theatre meets literacy standards. Although the descriptions of script creation and performance are geared toward the middle school classroom, the authors also show how to easily adapt Readers Theatre in the elementary or high school classroom and with struggling readers, gifted students, and English-language learners. Following a preface, this book is divided into three parts. Part I, Getting Started, presents: (1) An Introduction to Readers Theatre; (2) Launching Readers Theatre in the Middle School Classroom; and (3) Developing the Performance. Part II, Exploring Genres through Readers Theatre, continues with: (4) From Script to Performance: Fiction; (5) From Script to Performance: Nonfiction; and (6) From Script to Performance: Poetry. Part III, Extending Readers Theatre Applications, concludes with: (7) Supplementary Activities for Students; (8) Readers Theatre beyond the Middle School Classroom; (9) Meeting the Standards through Readers Theatre; and (10) Assessing Readers Theatre. Appended are: (1) Recommended Sources and Resources for Scripts; (2) Cross-Curricular Connections; (3) Reproducible Forms; and (4) Standards. An index is also included.