"Say It with Excitement!"

Growing Independence and Fluency: Smoother and More Expressive Reading

By: Taylor Freeman

Rationale: The purpose of this lesson is to help children grow in fluency by reading with more expression.  We will practice repeated reading which will help children become familiar with a text so they no longer have to decode words and can focus on reading with fluency. In this lesson, children will learn to read with expression by using their voices in different ways by changing their tone and pitch. 

Materials:  Several sentence strips with sentences written on them for modeling and group practice, Dogs at Work

Procedure:

1. "Good morning class!  Today, we are going to learn how to read with expression.  When we read with expression, it helps us to maintain interest in what we read and help us understand what we read.  When we read with expression, we change how our voice sounds.  For example, if I said, 'Have a good day.' [no expression] or 'Have a good day!' [with expression], which one do you think sounds better?  Right! The one with expression.  Now, what about 'please get out your pencils' [no expression].  No. That sounds terrible to me.  Now, I'll say it with expression. 'please get our your pencils.' [with expression].  That sounds much better to me. Today, we are going to practice speaking with expression when we read. 

2. I will model how to read with expression one more time.  Then we will practice as a class using the sentences I provided on sentence strips. 

3. Next, we will practice reading with expression in pairs. "We are going to practice reading with expression by rereading Dogs at Work, which we have read several times.  Remember, Dogs at Work is about four dogs who have jobs.  You'll have to read to see what those jobs are. Don't forget to go back and crosscheck when you don't know or understand a word. When we practice rereading, we become expert readers.  Read with a partner.  Make sure your voice changes pitch and tones.  I will come around to make sure I hear you reading with expression. 

4.  While I am going around to students, I will do an oral assessment.  I will give each student a sentence to read with expression.  I will give them several times to read it and become comfortable with it before assessing them.  Students will be graded on the following.

__ pronounced all words correctly

__varied sound of voice

Resources:

Adams, Marilyn Jager. Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about

          Print. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1998. Print.

Murray, Bruce. The Reading Genie. Auburn University. Web 24 Oct. 2011.

http://www.auburn.edu/~murraba/.

Sims, Matt. Dogs at Work.  Novato, CA: High Noon Books, 2005.