My students also need to hear fluent reading in order to become fluent readers. The speeches that have been selected pay close attention to the use of persuasive voice to influence their audience. After listening to a section of a speech I will implement an echo reading activity to give the students an opportunity to get a better sense of how reading a speech can be accomplished fluently and accurately. They will mimic the speaker accentuating and stressing the same words. I will ask my students what they noticed about how the dialogue was read, differentiate between how statements and questions were read, examine how excitement was added, and how the speaker's emotions were captured by the use of stress and intonation. If my students are unable to come up with answers to these questions, I will model the answers that I am looking for.
The objective of this activity is to help students realize that how they read the text will determine how they understand the sentence. By adding pauses and changing volume in the correct situation the speeches we study give the audience a better understanding of their messages. I will write on the board sentences from the text being analyzed and have students reread the sentence stressing a new word each time.
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1. "This we do know: a world that begins to witness the rebirth of trust among nations can find its way to a peace that is neither partial nor punitive." Eisenhower's Chance for Peace.
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2. "United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do." Kennedy's Inaugural Address.
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3. "We will not react to this threat to American lives merely by plaintive, diplomatic protests." Nixon's Cambodia Incursion Address.
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4. "Today I say: as long as the gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind." Reagan's Tear Down This Wall.
The use of end punctuation to accentuate voice is necessary to understand how to read a sentence. Periods, question marks and exclamation points when used correctly will give the reader a better understanding of the nature of the message. I will ask the students how the change in stress changed the meaning of the sentence. I will then add end punctuation to the sentence and ask the students how voice should change with each form. I will ask the students what influence different end punctuations had each time it was read. How did the voice change as the sentence was read?
