Rationale: Reading fluency is a crucial part of a childâs growth in reading.  An important part of reading fluency is reading with expression.  The goal of this lesson is to teach children to read expressively.

Materials: chalkboard, chalk, index cards with one of the three punctuation marks on them - each set of children will get a random punctuation mark so that when we share as a class we will have all three, enough age appropriate decodable books for children to read in pairs, class book for teacher to read like Matilda by Roald Dahl, sample chart for assessment

Procedures:
1. We will begin this lesson by reviewing the importance of noticing what kind of punctuation mark a sentence ends with.  There are three different punctuation marks that we are going to learn about, the period, the question mark, and the exclamation point.
2. The teacher will write three sentences and each sentence will contain one of the punctuation marks.  Then she will read them to the class modeling the appropriate expression needed.  ãToday we are going on a field trip!ä uses the exclamation point, ãSara, come here please.ä uses the period, and ãCan I borrow your pencil?ä uses the question mark.
3. Next the teacher will have the children work together as a class to come up with sentences using each of the three punctuation marks, and then having the class read them using expression.
4. Then the teacher will separate children into pairs and pass out small index cards that have an exclamation point, a period, or a question mark on it.  In these pairs the children will make up a sentence using that punctuation mark and practice reading it with expression.  Then each pair will come up and share their sentence with the class and the class is responsible for telling them which punctuation mark they had, by listening to them read it with expression.
5. The teacher will regroup the children in pairs by reading level.  One person from this pair will go and pick out an age appropriate decodable book to read.  Then the pair will take turns reading the book aloud to one another using expression.
6. ãClass today we learned how to read a book with expression.   Reading with expression is so important because as we found out today, it makes the book much more interesting.ä
7. As a closing activity the teacher will then read aloud to the class from their class book like Matilda as a reward for their hard work.
8. For assessment the teacher will have the students come up individually during center time to read an age appropriate decodable book with expression.  The teacher will use a chart to mark the number of times that each punctuation mark was read with expression successfully or unsuccessfully.
9. For a follow-up activity the teacher can ask that the students go home and look for examples of sentences in magazines, newspapers, flyers, etc. that have the three different punctuation marks in them.  Then when they come back to school the next day they can make a big chart as a class and glue each sentence in the appropriate column to see which punctuation mark has the most.

References:
 The Genie Website; www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/fluency.html

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