By dramatizing a literary work, students are able to have fun with the material while they learn it. This will not only improve their motivation in reading a particular story, it will help students see literature in general as something alive and relevant instead of just words on a page. Students who need to read different roles are also more motivated to follow along with the story so they do not miss their lines.
Many students can recite the plots of movies they saw many years ago, yet they cannot remember a story they read a day ago. By dramatizing a piece of work, students are able to take in a story in a way that is more familiar to them, making it easier to remember the basic plot information that they too often forget. Also, if students are required to memorize certain lines in order to perform a skit, this can help them learn and practice memorization techniques that can be useful in other areas, both academic and practical.
Many of the literary works students read in textbooks seem, in students' minds at least, to come with pre-packaged interpretations that they only need to skim the text to find. By adapting a literary work into a dramatic form, students must come up with their own interpretation. This encourages them to question the answers they have already been given and develop better critical thinking skills. And if they decide the interpretation from the book was right after all, their closer examination of the text will help them understand it more completely.
Differentiation is the term educators use for using different kinds of teaching methods to appeal to students with different skills and backgrounds. Dramatizing a work of literature instead of simply reading it can be an effective way to engage students who learn through action and motion more easily than through lectures and written work. Even for students who do well with more traditional methods, dramatizing literature can get them to approach the material from a different angle.