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Playbooks,
Inc. is an education publishing company that is committed to assisting
schools and families in their efforts to increase student reading ability
and enjoyment and to create future generations of lifetime readers by
helping to foster a love of reading in children. We strive to support
the goals set by the No Child Left Behind Act through providing excellent
reading material in a format that builds fluency and improves learning.
Unique and Patented Playbook® Format
The
Playbook® format is patented, unique, and provides Reader's Theater stories with character roles
written at different reading levels and appearing in different colors.
StageBooks™ at Home
In the home setting, parents are able to read with their children in
a manner that promotes reading fluency and enjoyment. StageBooks™ are
designed with the patented Playbook® format to allow parents to match each child's reading ability to certain
characters in the story. Brothers and sisters of different ages and reading
abilities can enjoy the same story together. StageBooks™ provide
a creative substitute for TV and video games, and expose children to
reading role-models and richer vocabulary at home. Reader's Theater is
a dynamic reading activity that children can do together, or a fun activity
for the whole family. The U. S. Department of Education has declared that
reading aloud is the single most important activity that parents can do
with their children to ensure their future success, and that reading aloud
should continue throughout the grades. StageBooks™ help parents and their
children enjoy reading aloud together at any age.
Playbooks® in the Classroom
Playbooks®
Multi-Leveled Reader's Theater was created with the goal of enabling readers
of various ability to read together while allowing all readers
to benefit from and enjoy their reading experience. Often, low level readers
are grouped together and separated from the higher level readers in the
classroom. This leaves them in a stagnant group of struggling readers
who are only exposed to others reading at the same level. With Playbooks®, teachers are able to privately assign roles to students based
on their reading levels, and all readers enjoy the entertaining stories
and the dynamic exercise of reading aloud together like a play. Lower level readers gain the benefits of hearing richer vocabulary and
sentence structure read fluently by their peers while higher level readers
are given challenging texts. This type
of reading translates into higher confidence and self-esteem in children.
Because
Playbooks, Inc. specializes in Reader's Theater, its products are simply
the best available ... from adaptations of classic stories to numerous
new stories originally written and designed in the enhanced Playbook®
format.
OUR MISSION
Playbooks, Inc's. mission is to become a prominent publisher
by providing high-quality children's books in an innovative, unique, and
practical format that enhances the practice of reading aloud in a family
or group, stimulates parent involvement, increases reading enjoyment for
children at home and at school, improves learning, and helps to foster a
love of reading, which in turn creates future generations of lifetime readers.
Through our long-term commitment to this mission, we will be known as a
company that has accelerated access to ideas that inspire, educate,
and entertain, while serving the distinct individual needs of children,
their families, and the educational system.
FROM THE FOUNDER
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Dear Parents,
I would be the first to admit that my greatest inventions, by far, are my three children. It was for them, and for the hope of their continued scholastic achievements, that the Playbook® format was born.
As an avid read-aloud mother, I diligently read stories to my two sons. In addition, I was an animated reader, always known for "getting into" my characterizations using dramatic voices and gestures, which my children continuously enjoyed. As my sons grew older and were able to read for themselves, I naturally focused on reading aloud to my young daughter. It was interesting, however, that during these reading sessions, my boys could always be found nearby, even lurking in the hall outside my daughter’s room. Were they interested in the story, wondering what was going to happen? No—the stories were familiar and had been read to them many times.
The obvious conclusion was that they wanted to be a part of the "read-aloud" experience. Reading the part of a lion in the story, I roared out a sentence and my oldest son repeated it, but expressed it even better. My other two children smiled with joy and my eldest wanted to keep reading that part for the rest of the of story. Then my middle child wanted a role, and even my youngest, who was a very early reader. But we only had one book, and the roles just weren't set up that way. That's when the light bulb went on over my head. Despite the gaps in their ages and reading ability, they wanted to experience reading a story together, and they each wanted a role. It added a level of excitement I had never seen them have before about reading.
I knew we needed a cross between a story and a play to make it work so that each of my children could read a character role, while we still knew what was going on in the story without a stage background, props, or movement. So I started hi-lighting in separate colors the different roles in some of their favorite children's stories, and picking out the parts that would best fit each of my children's reading abilities. We tried a few with the kids, each of the kids taking a part and my husband and I reading the hardest roles. Well, the kids just went bananas and read with such excitement and enthusiasm that it was a blast for all of us! My middle child bowed at the end of one story and said, "I'd like to thank the academy!" That's when I knew I had to expand on this idea and share it with everyone!
We needed more stories with plenty of dialogue and a lot less narration than stories typically have. Or, we needed something structured like a play, but with some narration to replace the missing elements of the visual setting on a stage, and we needed easier and harder roles in the same story! Having trouble finding anything structured like this, I decided to write them myself! I made sure the character roles were balanced and that some were easier than others. I knew role-playing reading in this manner had to be as simple as reading any other story, and so Playbooks® were born.
My children thoroughly enjoyed reading and re-reading the same stories together. They would read, practice and even wear costumes to help bring the stories to life. Their natural inclination to role-play helped fuel not only their desire to read, but to also interpret and question the world around them. I also realized their reading fluency and comprehension skills were improving rapidly from reading aloud with expression and because they were being exposed to richer text and vocabulary being read in the harder roles.
Cast your family today into a StageBook® of your choice, and you’ll begin a lasting tradition of family edu-tainment that will instill in your children a love of reading for a lifetime. Now you can set the stage for the success of your children's future.
Lights! - Camera! - ACTION! Sincerely,
Dianna Cleveland
President, CEO, Founder |
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