Just Imagine Where You Will
When children first learn how to read,
sentences are detached and choppy. Teaching children how to read
fluency will take much practice, but the mastery brings great rewards.
Being able to read smoother, faster, and with expression will
readers enjoy the text more. Fluency brings to readers greater
automatcity and most importantly, comprehension. In this lesson,
will learn how to read with expression, which will help make their
exciting. They will enjoy reading more, and they will attract an
with their strong, expressive qualities in reading. This lesson
designed to help children become more expressive readers.
Dry erase board
Marker for dry erase board
Copies of Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
by Dr. Seuss. Random
Blank tapes (one per student)
Tape recorder (one for every pair)
Smiley Face Evaluation (Odd
(one per student)
Smiley Face Evaluation (Even Page)
(one per student)
I Think Sheet (one per
Sendak’s, Maurice. Where the
Wild Things Are.
Harper Collins Publishers, 1962. (one per pair)
Suess. Green Eggs and Ham.
Random House, 1983.
(one per pair)
Viorst, Judith. Alexander and
the Terrible, Horrible,
No Good Very Good Day. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1972.
(one per pair)
1. Introduce the lesson by reviewing what we have previously
about fluency: cross-checking. SAY: “Class, I want to
congratulate you on the hard work that you have put in thus far to
become a more
fluent reader. I want to ask you a few questions about what we
learned so far. I am going to read a few sentences. I will
them on the projector, and I want you to silently read along with me.
After I finish reading, I want you to quietly raise your hand and
what I did wrong.”
2. Display these sentences on the projector. ‘After work, Sally
to the mall. She needed to buy a pair of jeans. To her
surprise, as she walked in the door of Dillard’s, she saw Jane, her
-Read it to the class slowly and clearly, with
expression. Instead of saying the word pair, pronounce it as 'par' /p/
Ponder on the word for a few moments, do not self-correct,
as /p/ /a/ /r/, and continue to read. It will be read in this
‘After work, Sally went to the
mall. She needed to buy a
/p/ /a/ /r/ of
jeans. To her great surprise, as she walked in the door of
saw Jane, her best friend.’
3. After reading the paragraph, look up at your class and ask
went wrong. SAY: “Class,
what did you notice was wrong with
I read the sentence?” (Call on a student for a response.
should say something along the lines of: “You said, ‘par’ instead
4. Ask the students what you should have done instead. SAY:
“Class, instead of continuing on
with the wrong word, I didn’t
cross-check, so my sentences seemed a little weird. Instead of
on, I should have pondered on the word for a second, and then finished
the sentence. I then would have gone back to see if I could
the correct word from my context clues. I would try a new word,
correct word) pair, see if it makes sense, and double-check my
re-reading the sentence.”
5. SAY: “You guys did
awesome with pointing out
cross-checking. Now, you might have noticed that when I was
sounded kind of dull and boring. Today, I want to teach you how
with expression. Can someone tell me what expression is?”
6. Write student’s responses of what they think expression is on
board (emotions: happy, sad, angry, jealous, excited, etc.)
“Great job! So we all
agree that expression is a way of
you feel, and when we read, we have to do that by the tone of our
We use expressions every day. Can someone give me some
7. Write student’s responses on the board: (the way we act,
the words we choose to use, the way we say things, if we are happy,
8. Explain to the students that when words are written down, they
are a form of expression. SAY: “Whenever
you read a book or
those words are coming from someone else’s thoughts. When we read
words, it is important that we try our best to read those thoughts the
would have been told to us. That is why it is important to use
expression. Expression will help us to better understand what the
characters are going through in our stories, and what the author wants
9. Write these sentences on separate lines on the board:
- It’s my birthday today!
- OH NO! My birthday cake fell on the ground.
10. SAY: "Alright, in
front of us are a few sentences.
read them to you without any expression in my voice. 'It’s my
Oh no! My birthday cake fell on the ground!'”
11. SAY: “Boys and girls, how
boring did that sound to you?
that sentence with no expression at all. If it was your birthday,
would you be acting?” (Wait and call on students for
responses.) SAY: “That’s
right; you would be excited and
celebrate! So how would YOU have read that sentence? Can I
volunteer?” (Call on a volunteer to read the sentence.)
12. SAY: "Great job!
I liked how you were very
13. SAY: “Boys and girls,
let’s move on to the second and
sentence. How would you react if your birthday cake fell on the
Would you be very dull and say, ‘Oh no! My birthday cake
the ground?’ Or would you be very sad and stressed because your
fell on the ground?”
14. Model how to say the second and third sentences: “So we
say the second and third sentences like this (use a lot of
'OH NO! My birthday cake fell on the ground!'”
15. Explain to them how important it is to use expression when
because it makes the sentences come alive. Write on the board:
was the worst day of my entire life! SAY: “Boys and girls
read this sentence to you in two different forms." (Read
monotone, and a second time with expression.) "Which way sounded
you would say it as if the words were coming from your voice,
own emotions? Exactly, you would say it with much expression.”
16. SAY: “This is why it
is so important that when we read,
read with lots of expression in our voice. Doing so will help us
better understand what the author is trying to tell us. Reading with
expression is like performing in
a play. We would rather listen to someone with expression than
who is solemn, or straight sounding."
17. Write this sentence on the board: It was a spooky night
was very scared! SAY: “As
a class, we are going to read
sentence with tons of expression! Are you ready? It was a
night and Jen was very scared! Great job class! I could
all of you were scared and read the sentence with great horror in your
18. Pass out one copy of Oh,
the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss
child. Put the children in groups of two.
19. SAY: “Boys and girls,
I want you to get with your
pick one person who will read the odd pages, and one person who will
even pages. We are going to be reading aloud to each other.
not your turn to read, I want you to silently read along with your
After they have finished reading their page, take this sheet of
that I am passing out to you (Smiley Face Evaluation), and rate them.
Place a check under the big smile category if they read with lots
expression. Place a check on the straight face if they did
job – maybe they started off well but slowed their expression down
end. Place a check on the sad face category if they did not do as
they could. Read the whole book and when you are done, give your
their evaluation page. Remember to evaluate them for EVERY PAGE
AFTER THEY READ! If you get stuck on a word, don’t forget to use
cross-checking strategy! Alright, any questions? Great!
20. Walk around the room to see if any children need help.
their reading habits.
21. When the children have finished, make sure that they have
22. SAY: “Alright boys and
girls, let’s take a look at our
evaluation sheets. Do you agree with your partner? Do you
they graded you fairly? Well, now that you have had some time to
practice, I have an idea. Get a short story of your choice, (Alexander
and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day, Green Eggs and Ham, Where the Wild Things
Are), one that you really enjoy
reading, and we are going to
tape record it.
When you are finished recording, I want you to rewind the tape
to yourself. Do an overall evaluation of yourself for the story.
you think you used expression really well, then give yourself a big
face. If you think you used expression some of the time, but not
as you could, then give yourself an OK face. Or, if you
you did not do a good job using expression, then give yourself a frowny
classroom goal is for everybody to get big smiley faces. When you
finished, I want you to hand in your tapes to me, and I am going to
them. I hope to give everyone a big smiley face on their tape
so let’s all use great expression!"
23. For assessment: Take up the tape recordings, and listen
Also, take up their peer and personal evaluation sheets.
listening to the tapes, review the sheets and see if you give them the
“grade” (smiley face) as they gave themselves.
Kendrick, Lauren. It’s All about Expression.
Sendak’s, Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are. Harper
Suess. Green Eggs and Ham. Random House, 1983.
Suess. Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Random House, 1990.
Viorst, Judith. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good
Very Bad Day.
Aladdin Paperbacks, 1972.
Click here to return to Constructions
Smiley Face Evaluation (Odd Page)
BIG SMILE STRAIGHT
Smiley Face Evaluation (EVEN PAGE)
Page: BIG SMILE
STRAIGHT FACE FROWNY
Evaluator's Name: ________________________________
I THINK SHEET
BIG SMILE STRAIGHT
I think I deserve a ___________ face because
I can improve my expression during my reading by
My teacher gives me a ____________ face