Reading With Intonation

Reading with intonation is our focus in reading this week. During reading conferences we are so pleased to see students apply the strategies they have learned in Reader’s Workshop to their reading. They are using picture clues, looking for sight words, looking for letter combinations, noticing bossy “e” words and two vowels walking. Students are pointing to the words when they need to and they are paying attention to the punctuation. Using these strategies along with the others we have focused on has helped the children to decode the text or read the words. This is a great step to becoming a fluent reader. Now we need to focus on some strategies to help us comprehend or understand what we read. We have noticed that most students are reading the text in a word by word, staccato, monotone manner. The boys and girls will learn to read with intonation and hear how that will help them enjoy the story better. If they like and enjoy the story, then they will better comprehend what they read. You can help your child practice this at home with the book in a bag. Have your child read his or her book twice each night, first to decode the text, and once again to read with intonation. Here is an example of two students reading the same story, The Big Giant. One is reading in a staccato manner and the other is reading with intonation. See if you can hear the difference.