A Model Lesson Design by: Mariel D. Hall
Growing
Books Have
Feelings, Too!
A
Model Lesson Design by: Mariel D.
Hall
Growing
Rationale:
It is significant for students to learn how to read with expression and
fluency
to become skillful and independent readers.
For children to grasp a deeper comprehension of reading, they
must be
able to read expressively. This lesson
will help students read aloud with expression through practice by
monitoring
changes in their voices through volume, speed, and pitch.
Students will also be assessed through
reading whole texts with partners in which their level of expression
will be
documented.
Materials: Chalkboard, chalk,
pencils, paper, The Little Mouse, The Red
Ripe Strawberry, and THE BIG HUNGRY
BEAR by Don and Audrey Wood, multiple copies of When
Sophie Gets Angry - Really, Really Angry…by Molly Bang,
checklist for assessment of expression:
1. Pitch rose and fell.
YES / NO
2. Paces sped up and slowed. YES
/ NO
3. Volume rose and fell.
YES
/ NO
4. Phrasing made sense.
YES
/ NO
Procedure:
1. Introduce the lesson by asking
students if they have ever listened to a really good storyteller. What made him/her a good storyteller? Raise your hand if you remember what. Reading a story is similar to telling a story. You use lots of expression in reading. Can anyone tell me what expression is? Expression is the feelings and emotions we
put into our words. This helps us to
make stories interesting and exciting to our listeners.
We can do this by changing how fast we read,
or changing the pitch of our voices to show confusion (e.g. “What did
you
say?"), sadness (e.g. "My puppy ran away from home."), or
excitement (e.g. "I won first prize!"). Today
we are going to practice reading
expressively with several great books.
2. Read and model the book The Little
Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and THE BIG HUNGRY BEAR
without using any expression. Pay close
attention to my voice. Was the story
exciting or boring? How
can I make it more interesting? Read the
story again using expression. Did you
notice the difference in the two readings?
Which did you think was more interesting? Why?
And the way that skillful readers are able to read expressively
is
through practice with repeated readings.
Suggest going to the school library to pick out books to carry
home and
practice with.
3. Review punctuation with the children, by explaining how punctuation
can let
us know what kind of expression to use when we read sentences. Write three sentences on the board. Read; Sally ate her lunch.
When I read this sentence that ends in a
period, my voice gets lower at the end and it does not have much
expression. Read;
4. Pass out copies of When Sophie Gets
Angry - Really, Really Angry… to each student. This book is
about a
little girl named Sophie who is having a bad day and gets very angry
and runs
out of her house to get away. I want you
to read this book silently to yourself first.
Remind them if they have trouble decoding a word that they
should cover
up part of the word and sound it out and then cover up the other part
of the
word and sound out what is left. Then,
tell them to say the sounds together by blending.
5. Divide the students into pairs so each will have a partner. Using the same book, have one student listen
as his/her partner reads the story. Have
the listener make notes of when he/she heard examples of good
expression. (Give the children practice
first). Then, the partners switch roles. After each role, the student will talk about
his/her notes and point out good examples of expression the other used.
6. When all the groups are finished, I will have each student choose
two
sentences from the book to read aloud to the class that show two
different
expressions. Telling the students, I
want you to remember to make those changes in your voice. Wonderful job!
7. For assessment, I will walk around to each partner team and listen
for children
reading with expression. Use a checklist
to assess.
References:
1.
2. Bang, Molly.
(1999). When Sophie Gets Angry – Really, Really
Angry… Bluesky Press.
3. Elizabeth Sauter, Let’s Be
Emotion Detectors! http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/illum/sautergf.html.
(2001).
4. Meredith Coblentz,
Let’s Read
With Expression! http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/illum/coblentzgf.html.
(2001).
5. Wood, Audrey &
Don. (1994).
The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe
Strawberry, and THE BIG HUNGRY BEAR. Scholastic Inc.
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