General tips for improving expression
- Model how the text should be read – using an appropriate tone, pace and volume
- Make the teaching of expression and your use of it explicit
- Provide opportunities for hearing authors reading their own work
- Emphasise that punctuation is intended to help the reader understand where the expression should come
- Encourage pupils to identify the phases in a piece of text
- Let children listen to audio books
- Use a variety of texts to promote different feelings
- Engage in reading theatres so the children have regular opportunities to read aloud
- If a child does not want to read aloud encourage them to sub-vocalise along with the other pupils
- Use paired reading in Key stage 2 and above to improve the flow of the reading – do not let a pupil struggle with decoding as they will lose all sense of what is being read.