Matching Expression to Tone and Mood

Let the tone of a passage shape your voice when reading aloud.

Expression, or prosody, is how your voice rises, falls, speeds up, and slows down. In middle-school texts, expression should match the tone (the writer's attitude) and the mood (the feeling the reader gets). Read this: 'The hallway was silent. One light flickered. Somewhere behind the last door, something scraped across the floor. ' The short sentences and unsettling details create suspense, so you would read slowly, quietly, with pauses between sentences.

Now this: 'The crowd roared as the ball sailed over the fence, and the whole team poured onto the field! ' Here the mood is joyful excitement, so your pace quickens and your voice lifts. To choose your expression, look for clues: word choice (scraped, roared), sentence length, and punctuation. Then decide what feeling the writer wants and let your voice carry it. Expression shows that you understand, and it helps listeners understand too.

• 1Prosody is the rise, fall, and pace of your voice
• 2Match expression to the tone and mood of the text
• 3Clues: word choice, sentence length, punctuation