ABOUT US

Playbooks, Inc. is an education publishing company that since 2001 has been 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 and unique. Playbooks® provide multi-leveled and colorized reader's theater stories with each character's role written at a different ability level and appearing in a different color. It is simple for teachers to implement and easy and fun for students to follow. 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. This type of reading translates into higher confidence and self-esteem in children.

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®, 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.

Playbooks® at Home
In a home setting, parents are able to read with their children in a manner that promotes reading fluency and enjoyment. Playbooks® are designed 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. Playbook® stories provide a creative substitute for T.V. 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. Playbooks® helps parents and their children enjoy reading aloud together at any age.

Because Playbooks, Inc. specializes in reader's theater, its products are simply the best available ... from adaptations of classic stories to numerous original stories written and designed in the enhanced Playbook® format.

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Playbooks®
The most dynamic form of reader's theater

Playbooks® are a progressive form of reader's theater based on current research.

Playbooks® have multi-leveled character roles allowing for inclusive learning groups.

Playbooks® have color-coded text making reading aloud easier and fun.

Playbooks® are aligned with state standards.

Playbooks® motivate students and help create enthusiastic readers.

Image of Dianna Cleveland
Dear educators and parents,

Most reading programs are so driven to improve reading test scores that they forget about fostering the love of reading in children. My children taught me that being a star makes reading fun! As a mother, I avidly read aloud to my three children. As I read to my youngest, the older ones would hang by the door, and then would quickly be on the floor listening to stories they had already heard so many times before.

One day, my oldest repeated a sentence I had roared out from a lion character in the story, but he did 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.

We needed 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, and 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.

Playbooks, Inc. acknowledges the fact that in order for children to become fluent, successful readers, they have to have the desire to read. By making reading fun, Playbooks, Inc. combines literacy and entertainment through Playbooks® Reader’s Theater, and we are committed to offering new and exciting stories every year.

Sincerely,

Dianna Cleveland
President, CEO, Founder

Dianna Cleveland has been a reader’s theater author, developer, and instructor for more than 10 years and is considered to be one of the foremost experts on reader's theater in the country. She teaches interactive and hands-on reader’s theater implementation workshops to educators and after-school providers at conferences and educational trainings throughout the nation.

 

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Playbooks® Reader’s Theater Books
and Materials are All Printed and
Processed in the USA.

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