Plays for Reading uses drama as a vehicle for students to practice reading, listening, and speaking. Students become actors interpreting the written text, and the English classroom becomes a rehearsal hall with the focus placed upon putting on a play. Included are one-act plays by William Saroyan, William Inge, Tennessee Williams, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and others. The appendix includes two articles on different approaches for using drama in the English language classroom.

Contents : "The show must go on" by Richard A. Via ; "The case of the crushed petunias" by Tenesse Williams ; "People in the wind" by William Inge ; "Never on Wednesday" by Richard A. Via ; "Feathertop" adapted by Maurice Valency from the story by Nathaniel Hawthorne ; "The oyster and the pearl" by William Saroyan ; "Gaucho" by Gloria Gonzalez ; "Sorry, wrong number" by Lucille Fletcher ; "Frederick Douglass" by Georgia Douglas Johnson.