A Day at The Circus : Engagement for Sleepy Readers

Struggling readers need to feel as though they are watching a show in order to be fully engaged. Students want to be entertained, especially while being read to or else, they will fall fast asleep.

Read aloud are a time to actively model and engage students in fluency and prosody (the rhythmic and melodic aspects of speech).  Reading with good expression, intonation, including pitch, tone, volume, and emphasis on certain words allows students to find meaning and better comprehend the text.

Let’s try passage #1 : Read the following paragragh aloud with prosody:

Now the queen moved. She raised her ugly head, looking about; then very slowly she crawled to the edge of her throne and slid noiselessly into the water. Up and down the long tank she swam, turning at the ends as you have seen captive seals turn in their tiny tanks, turning upon their backs and diving below the surface.

How would you read the above text with prosody ?

Let’s try passage # 2:

I’m late, I’m late. For a very important date.

No time to say hello. Goodbye. I’m late, I’m late, I’m late. The queen fixed her gaze upon a plump young maiden. Her victim tried to turn away, hiding her face in her hands and kneeling behind a woman; but the reptile, with unblinking eyes, stared on with such fixity that I could have sworn her vision penetrated the woman, and the girl’s arms to reach at last the very center of her brain.

Slowly the reptile’s head commenced to move to and fro, but the eyes never ceased to bore toward the frightened girl, and then the victim responded. She turned wide, fear-haunted eyes toward the Mahar queen, slowly she rose to her feet, and then as though dragged by some unseen power she moved as one in a trance straight toward the reptile, her glassy eyes fixed upon those of her captor. To the water’s edge she came, nor did she even pause, but stepped into the shallows beside the little island. On she moved toward the Mahar, who now slowly retreated as though leading her victim on. The water rose to the girl’s knees, and still she advanced, chained by that clammy eye. Now the water was at her waist; now her armpits. Her fellows upon the island looked on in horror, helpless to avert her doom in which they saw a forecast of their own.

Why would middle school students enjoy this excerpt as a read aloud ?

Teaching and Reading with goals  will allow students the opportunity to be entertained engaged and less likely to fall asleep during a reading session.

• Purpose 1: Entertain, Inform, Persuade .
• Purpose 2:Theme, Preview , read headings and subheadings
• Investigate: how does the world around students connect to theme ?
• Keywords in the story and concepts (feelings to connect and understand what they are reading)