Feelin Froggy
Lesson for teaching smoother, better phrased and
more expressive reading!
By:
Dana Harbin
Rationale:
As students improve on their fluency it is equally important for them to improve on reading with expression. Learning to read with expression will not only make reading more interesting for the reader it will also make listening to them read more interesting. This lesson will help children to read with expression by showing students their changes in volume, speed, and pitch of their voices as well as the expression on their face while reading.
Review:
What do we do when we come to a word that we do not know? That's right we use cover-ups and cross-checking to accurately complete the sentence. This helps us to decode correctly thus, getting the meaning of the sentence.
Materials:
Sentence strips with text "I love chocolate sundaes with whipped cream and a cherry on top." And "I don’t like going to the doctor."
Class set of Froggy goes to the doctor by Jonathan London
Checklist for students to use while
taking notes
1. Did he/she read smoothly? ___________________________________________________
Where could he/she use a little work? _________________________________________
2. Did he/she show facial expression? ____________________________________________
Where could he/she use a little work? ________________________________________
3. Did he/she have voices changes? ______________________________________________
Where could he/she use a little work? _________________________________________
*For teacher assessment add:
4. Does the student have an overall understanding of expression? _______________________
Procedure:
1.
Have you guys ever heard a really good storyteller? "What
do you think made them fun to listen to?" "good answers" "so you think
that reading with expression made them fun to listen to?" "Well today
we are going to be working on reading with expression just like those
storytellers."
2. Now I am going to read this sentence "I love chocolate sundaes with whipped cream and a cherry on top." ( Read monotone with no expression on my face) Now listen again "I LOVE chocolate sundaes with whipped cream and a cherry on top!!" "Can you tell me which of those sentences would convince you that I really do love chocolate sundaes?" You're right the second one would." "Can you tell me why?" "You're right because I read with expression."
3. Now I would like for you guys to try. Place sentence strip on the board with the sentence "I don't like going to the doctor." "Now how do you think that you might use expression to read this sentence?" "You’re right, I bet you would use a little bit of a whiny voice, because it says I don’t like going to the doctor." Now everyone think really hard silently for 10 seconds about how you would read this sentence. Now I will show you how I would read it. "I don’t want to go to the doctor." Read really reluctantly with a sad face. Now if you would like to share how you would read this sentence, raise your hand. (Call on a couple of students to share their reading.)
4. Now get a partner. (Pass out one copy of Froggy goes to the doctor to each pair of students. "Please turn to the second page." "Do you see the funny way that FRROOGGYY! Is written at the top of the page?" Why do you think that it is written that way? GREAT! You know that it is written that way because it should be said with lots of expression. I will read that for you one time and then I want us all to practice saying FRROOGGYY with lots of expression together." Model how to say it and then have the class choral read it once. Very good! I think that you are all ready to read Froggy goes to the doctor with lots of expression.
5. "I want each of you to read through it once to get familiar with the text and then read through it again showing expression." (Don't forget that if there is a word in the text that you do not recognize, now is the time to decode and cross-check so that when you are reading with expression this word will not cause any problems.) ( As students are reading through the book the first time I will walk around to get a general idea where each individual child is so that when I assess I can assess on the progress they have made instead of how well fluently they read in comparison to the other students. I will also ensure that the students realize that the only person they are competing against is themselves, and if they improve then they have succeeded.) As your partner reads through it the second time I want you to take notes on which places they did really well, and which places could use a little work. I want you to share that information with them and then I want each of you to read through it one more time to see if the places that need work get better.
6. After each of you have read through the book three times, I want you to pick out your favorite three pages. It is very important that you can read these three pages with lots of expression because you will read these three pages to the class. (While students are reading to the class I will assess them based on their progress from their original reading.)
References:
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/discov/grimmettgf.html
"Acting Lessons" by April Grimmett
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/guides/roddamgf.html
"Express yourself!" by Melissa Roddam
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/guides/mcintoshgf.html
"Happy Birthday or boring Birthday?" by Kelly McIntosh
London, Jonathan. Froggy goes to the
doctor.
Click here to Beginnings
For further information, send information send e-mail to harbidm@auburn.edu