Encourage scholars to retell their favorite short story or folktale, adding personal details to make it their own. After reading their book of choice several times, story tellers retell a tale verbally to their classmates. 

Pupils are often confused by the literary terms tone and voice. Focus on tone by analyzing the poems suggested here, which are all from Words with Wings: A Treasury of African-American Poetry and Art. While reading through each poem,...

What makes a good speaker? Upper elementary learners practice oral fluency by working with a partner to read nonfiction books. While reading, they practice using correct tone of voice, making eye contact, and speaking clearly.

Young scholars read to their peers from selected texts. As one person reads, the other person listens to his/her peer, noting tone and fluency. Afterward, they reflect on each other's reading. There is a guided reflection worksheet...

First graders explore the days of the week.  In this days of the week lesson, 1st graders listen to the story The Billy Goats Gruff, then act out the events by stepping on "rocks" that name the days of the week.  Students must...

Youngsters write and construct their own autobiographies based on The Hundred Penny Box by Sharon Bell Mathis. They engage in pre-writing steps, narrative writing, and peer editing. This is the second part of a two-part project lesson plan.

Partners practice reading fluency by reciting sentence strips to each other with proper expression and intonation. Partner A chooses a strip at random and reads it silently, then aloud with expression. Partner B reads the same sentence...

Use text marking and highlighting to explore the structure of a poem. After listening to Allan Ahlberg read "Please Mrs. Butler," learners locate stanzas and patterns on their copy of the poem using the text marking technique. Class...

Learners on the autism spectrum can have difficulty expressing care or providing emotional support for others. Support them with this series of presentation slides that break down the steps to showing others you care, from appropriate...

Singers practice perfecting the song, Alleluia. They focus on singing techniques, style, phrasing, and working with syncopation. This lesson is a microteahing lesson and includes a warm up and vocal exercises. 

Ninth grade girls get together to sing the song Hello Girls. They warm up with common voice exercises then work to maintain melody, harmony, pitch and tone. 

Halloween isn't fun for everyone — but playing together is! Read about Esme and her space pirate friend with a short reading passage, accompanied by ten short answer questions.

Reader's Theater is a great way to build fluency, intonation, and dramatic flare. The class reads the theater piece, "The New Friends" paying attention to how they express emotion and feeling as they read. They discuss the use of plot,...

Appropriate assertive and non-verbal assertive communication is the focus of this lesson designed for the special education classroom. Using mirrors, class members practice assertive responses to a variety of situations.

Students use several strategies in poetry to convey tone and speaker. In this language arts lesson, students read and build vocabulary as they gain a larger understanding of how to write poetry. Students then work in groups in order...

Work to improve oral expression while reading aloud. Young scholars read sentence strips, changing their volume, speed, and tone to match what is written, making the sentence more meaningful. They read an entire story with a partner who...

Get out those bells, sand blocks, and sticks! Your kindergarteners use their singing voices to ask and answer friendly questions while keeping rhythm. They take turns in a group and in pairs singing questions and answers while keeping...

Little ones are led through a series of rhythmic songs and chants while they march, clap, and use their tummies as percussive instruments. They work on singing in pitch, chunking, and keeping a steady beat. 

Students categorize studenT toys by intelligence types. They review toy safety and function and identify the appropriate play age of various toys. They read and evaluate studenT books and write one of their own.

Have your class doing everything from reading literature, analyzing literary devices, identifying independent and dependent clauses, discussing, and writing creatively with the rich resource found here. After a mini lesson on independent...

Students find vivid verbs in literature and use them in their own writing. In this vivid verbs lesson, students use a 'Thinking Thesaurus' of major verbs to study common verbs. Students then practice rewriting sentences using vivid...

Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech has reverberated through American history, giving voice to women of color who had not previously been heard. Learners analyze the tone, audience, purpose, occasion, and speaker of the speech’s...

Teach young learners the benefits of repeated readings. Practice the strategies of repeated readings, timed readings, and one-minute reads to become fluent readers that retain what they've read. They receive a copy of If You Give a Mouse...

Learning by example is always effective if it's paired with independent practice opportunities! Model good reading practices for your class. Learners listen to the teacher model examples of reading with voice, expression, and tone...