Hop on the
Expression Express
by Jana Bell
Rationale: Students need to learn how
to read
with expression. Without expression, students cannot fully comprehend
what is
going on in the story, and they do not understand how characters are
feeling.
If students learn to read with expression, they will get into the
story, which
will lead to the interest in reading.
The more students are interested in books, the more they will
read, and
the more they read the more fluent and independent they will get. In
this
lesson, the students will listen to parts in a text read with and
without
expression. They will also read with expression themselves. They will
see how
it makes a difference in the story.
Materials: Teacher will need an
overhead
projector, and a copy of “Here Comes the Train” by Charlotte Voake (Publisher: Candlewick, Date Published: 1998-09-02), any
play
from the reader’s theatre website listed below in references, play
money, and
play tickets that read “The Expression Express,” and sentence strips.
Students
will need markers.
Procedures:
Step One: Have
you ever heard a story that was really
boring? I have! That’s because it probably wasn’t read with expression.
Who
knows what expression is? When we read with expression it makes the
book way
better, and much more interesting. We get to know how the characters
are
feeling in the story. Today we are going to hop aboard the Expression
Express!
Step Two: I am
going to read you a story. It is called “Here comes the Train by
Charlotte
Voake. I am going to read it two
different ways; I want you to listen
carefully
as I read. (I will now put it on the projector, and read it without
expression,
really boring-like, and then read it with expression, exciting-like) We
will
only read a few pages. Which one sounded
better? Why? Because it was read with expression, you were able to
really get
into the story, and understand how the characters were feeling.
Can someone tell me how I read with expression? I changed
my voice to fit the scene in the story. This helped me to read
it easier becuase I knew what was going on in the
story, and it helped me to understand it better.
Step
Three: We
are going to play a game now. I have here
some sentence strips with some sentences on them. (Teacher will have
several
different types of sentences, with and without expression.) I am going
to
divide you into groups of 3. I am going to give each group 3 sentences.
Notice
how each sentence doesn’t have periods, exclamation points, or question
marks.
Who can tell me what these are for? I would have someone describe each
one as a review before we start. This is your job. This will earn you
money to get tickets aboard the
expression
express. Your team will decide which sentences need a period, which
needs a
question mark, and which needs an exclamation point. You will add it in
with
your markers. I will give you a few minutes to do this. When time is
up, I will
have each member of your team, come up and read your sentence how is
supposed
to be read, according to your ending marks. The class will decide
whether your
team gets money for your ticket or not.
Step
Four: Great
job! You’ve all earned money! Now we are going to read the rest of the
book I
started earlier. Let’s see if we can read it with as much expression as
possible. This will get us to the train station to get our tickets! We
will now
read together, the rest of the story. If it is a large class, I would
split
them up into halves, and have half the class read one page, and the
other half
read the next.
Step
Five: Didn’t
that sound great! That made the story much more interesting. Now I have
chosen
a play from the reader’s theater. I am going to assign each of you
parts. You
will read the story out as if you were in a play. So you have to read
with
expression! This will earn you a first class ticket aboard the
expression
express. (Each student will get a copy to read) This will be my
assessment to
see that each student reads with expression when their part comes. If
there
aren’t enough parts to go around, I will pick 2 plays. This is a good
idea if
you have a large class, possibly 3. Today we are going to read the
story about chicken little! He was this little
chicken that lived in the woods, and one day , he
was walking around and something fell from the sky and
hit him on the head! Chicken little thought the sky
was falling! DO you think it was really the sky falling?
What do you think it was? We will have to read and find out! We
would now read the play of chicken little listed on the
site below.
References:
This is great for finding
books about trains, there are
several on this page.
http://www.amazon.com/Childrens-Books-About-Trains/lm/3100SIKCMT32G
This is a great sight to
get the plays, they are great.
http://www.teachingheart.net/readerstheater.htm
This is a lesson where I Got ideas, It is called "We arent reading
robots!" by Emily Mills. It came from the Auburn University Reading
Genie Website.