Teaching Tone and Mood in the Language Arts Classroom

Intro Assessment

Practice Intro #1

This summer, on my first trip to California, I caught my first glimpse of windmills. They sat in rows stretching as far as the eye could see. When I saw them, those swirling flowers of potential energy, I knew I was looking at the future of America. Alternative energy sources can and should be used to replace fossil fuels as America’s primary energy source.

• What do you expect the paper to discuss?
• What kinds of evidence will the paper use?
• What will the tone of the paper be? Will it be positive, negative, or neutral?
• Does this introduction immediately appeal to ethos, pathos, or logos? How do you know?
• Does this introduction make you curious as to what the rest of the paper will say?

Intro Assessment

Practice Intro #2

Practice Intro #3

The earth is dying, and the human race is killing it. Humanity’s use of fossil fuels is contributing to the destruction of the ozone layer, the pollution of oceans, the death of wildlife, and even to wars and genocide in many third-world countries. America is one of the worst offenders in its use of fossil fuels; its dependence on fossil fuels must be curtailed and, in the future, stopped altogether. Alternative energy sources can and should be used to replace fossil fuels as America’s primary energy source.

According to Energy Information Administration's (EIA), “the US consumed approximately 317.1 billion gallons of oil in 2006. This amount equals about 868.8 million gallons per day or 2.9 gallons per person per day” (EIA). America is using oil as if it were an endless resource, operating under the assumption that, somehow, it will always find another access point when the supply runs out. Americans could be in for a rude awakening if other sources are not utilized as soon as possible. Alternative energy sources can and should be used to replace fossil fuels as America’s primary energy source.

• What do you expect the paper to discuss?
• What kinds of evidence will the paper use?
• What will the tone of the paper be? Will it be positive, negative, or neutral?
• Does this introduction immediately appeal to ethos, pathos, or logos? How do you know?
• Does this introduction make you curious as to what the rest of the paper will say?

Triptych

Writing Introductions

Intro Assessment

Intro Writing Assignment

What do you expect the paper to discuss?

What kinds of evidence will the paper use?

What will the tone of the paper be? Will it be positive, negative, or neutral?

Does this introduction immediately appeal to ethos, pathos, or logos? How do you know?

Does this introduction make you curious as to what the rest of the paper will say?

Now, draft ANOTHER introduction using a technique completely different from your first AND second. Have this introduction make your reader anticipate a different TONE. Make sure to include your thesis statement in your introduction.

Assess your introduction using the 5 introduction assessment questions.

Draft an introduction using one of the techniques explained or modeled. Make sure to include your thesis statement in your introduction.

Assess your introduction using the 5 introduction assessment questions.

Now, draft another introduction using a technique completely different from your first. Have this introduction make your reader anticipate a different TONE. Make sure to include your thesis statement in your introduction.

Assess your introduction using the 5 introduction assessment questions.

Analyzing for Tone

Write about something that makes you really happy.

Tone Freewrites

Write about something that makes you really sad.

• Mad, Sad, Glad Writing

Write about something that makes you really mad.

Connotation and Euphemism

Transitioning from Mood to Tone

This is where I get into uncharted territory...

Analyzing a Text for Mood

Mood Music

Visualization Exercise

Mood Music Handout

“Fanfare for the Common Man” – Aaron Copeland

“Night on Bald Mountain” - Modest Mussorgsky

“Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” – Metallica

“Travelin’ Prayer” – Billy Joel

“Halcyon + On + On” – Orbital

Imagine you are on the beach, your ultimate vision of what a beach should be.

What do you see? What do you hear? What do you smell? What do you taste? What do you feel?

Share a unique detail from your personal beach.

How do all of these beach images make you feel?

Providing students with a list of appropriate mood words will help them begin to understand how to recognize mood in text.

Mood Words for Younger Students

Mood Words for Older Students

Mood words might be appropriate for class vocabulary words, since many of them may be unfamiliar to students.

Recognizing Imagery in Written Text

Words to Describe Mood

Provide students with a fish outline, coloring supplies, and a copy of Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, “The Fish.”

Read the poem aloud first to allow students to experience it purely as a narrative text.

Have the students read the poem again, making a mark next to any words they are unfamiliar with. Students may look those words up in the dictionary (or you may provide them with definitions beforehand).

Students read the poem again, this time marking words and phrases that “paint” the picture, or create the image, of the fish.

Using the coloring supplies, students make their fish outline look as much like the fish in the poem as they possibly can.

Project the poem (if possible) and ask students to point out the words and phrases in the poem that inspired their coloring of the fish.

Have students judge whose fish looks most like the fish in the poem.

You will be surprised how many students’ fish look very unlike Bishop’s fish.

Mood in written text is often created through setting.

Analysis of mood can begin with setting.

Any assertion that is made about the mood must be supported with textual evidence.

Commentary ties the textual evidence to the assertion about the mood.

Student Handout

Excerpt from Nightrise

Critical Analysis of Mood

in Written Text

Playing with the Senses

Bring in, or have your students collect, a wide variety of small items that appeal to one or more of the senses.

Let students choose an item, then, after exploring it for a few seconds, do approximately two minutes of quick writing.

Students trade items and continue writing whatever the item inspires.

“The Cask of Amontillado” – Edgar Allan Poe

“Cask of Amontillado” Mood Paragraph

“The Sniper” – Liam O’Flaherty

“The Scarlet Ibis” – James Hurst

“Marigolds” – Eugenia W. Collier

More Great Mood Texts

Sensory Details

Sensory details appeal to the five senses

Visual

Auditory

Olfactory

Gustatory

Tactile

Sensory details create imagery.

Imagery contributes to the mood of a text.

Sensory Details

Mood Art

What subjects do you notice?

How do these subjects make you feel?

How would it feel to be next to them?

What colors do you notice?

How do these colors make you feel?

How would you feel if you were in a room of the same colors?

What textures do you notice?

Are the textures rough or refined?

How do you think they would feel if you touched them?

Sensory details are often the foundational medium through which mood is created.

Many students need to be taught how to recognize sensory details in texts of all varieties, which will help them recognize mood and imagery in written text.

Memoir and poetry are excellent media for exploring sensory writing, which can help solidify a student’s understanding of mood and imagery.

Mood Film

Mood 101

What is the setting of the film?

What are the subjects of the film?

What colors do you notice?

What does the music sound like?

What do the narrator’s or speakers’ voices sound like?

What words in the dialogue have strong emotional connotation?

How does the combination of all of the above answers make you feel? How would you feel if you were there?

Mood, n.- the feeling that a literary work (text) conveys to a reader. Also known as atmosphere.

Created in written or verbal text through an author’s subject, characterization, setting, plot, and use of diction, including figurative language, imagery, sound devices, etc.

Created in aural text through subject, tempo, key, pitch, distortion, etc.

Created in visual text through subject, color, texture, contrast, composition, etc.

Created in film though a combination of the creations of written or verbal, aural, and/or visual mood(s).

Anna Nero

Anna.nero.pchs@gmail.com

THE Paulding County High School

Mood Music

Visualization Exercise

• Mood Music Handout
• “Fanfare for the Common Man” – Aaron Copeland
• “Night on Bald Mountain” - Modest Mussorgsky
• “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” – Metallica
• “Travelin’ Prayer” – Billy Joel
• “Halcyon + On + On” – Orbital

• Imagine you are on the beach, your ultimate vision of what a beach should be.
• What do you see? What do you hear? What do you smell? What do you taste? What do you feel?
• Share a unique detail from your personal beach.
• How do all of these beach images make you feel?

Recognizing Imagery in Written Text

Words to Describe Mood

• Providing students with a list of appropriate mood words will help them begin to understand how to recognize mood in text.
• Mood Words for Younger Students
• Mood Words for Older Students
• Mood words might be appropriate for class vocabulary words, since many of them may be unfamiliar to students.

• Provide students with a fish outline, coloring supplies, and a copy of Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, “The Fish.”
• Read the poem aloud first to allow students to experience it purely as a narrative text.
• Have the students read the poem again, making a mark next to any words they are unfamiliar with. Students may look those words up in the dictionary (or you may provide them with definitions beforehand).
• Students read the poem again, this time marking words and phrases that “paint” the picture, or create the image, of the fish.
• Using the coloring supplies, students make their fish outline look as much like the fish in the poem as they possibly can.
• Project the poem (if possible) and ask students to point out the words and phrases in the poem that inspired their coloring of the fish.
• Have students judge whose fish looks most like the fish in the poem.
• You will be surprised how many students’ fish look very unlike Bishop’s fish.

Critical Analysis of Mood

in Written Text

Playing with the Senses

• Bring in, or have your students collect, a wide variety of small items that appeal to one or more of the senses.
• Let students choose an item, then, after exploring it for a few seconds, do approximately two minutes of quick writing.
• Students trade items and continue writing whatever the item inspires.

• Mood in written text is often created through setting.
• Analysis of mood can begin with setting.
• Any assertion that is made about the mood must be supported with textual evidence.
• Commentary ties the textual evidence to the assertion about the mood.
• Student Handout
• Excerpt from Nightrise

More Great Mood Texts

Sensory Details

• “The Cask of Amontillado” – Edgar Allan Poe
• “The Sniper” – Liam O’Flaherty
• “The Scarlet Ibis” – James Hurst
• “Marigolds” – Eugenia W. Collier

Sensory details appeal to the five senses

Visual

Auditory

Olfactory

Gustatory

Tactile

Sensory details create imagery.

Imagery contributes to the mood of a text.

Sensory Details

Mood Art

• What subjects do you notice?
• How do these subjects make you feel?
• How would it feel to be next to them?
• What colors do you notice?
• How do these colors make you feel?
• How would you feel if you were in a room of the same colors?
• What textures do you notice?
• Are the textures rough or refined?
• How do you think they would feel if you touched them?

• Sensory details are often the foundational medium through which mood is created.
• Many students need to be taught how to recognize sensory details in texts of all varieties, which will help them recognize mood and imagery in written text.
• Memoir and poetry are excellent media for exploring sensory writing, which can help solidify a student’s understanding of mood and imagery.

In the Mood for Mood

Mood Film

Mood 101

• Mood, n.- the feeling that a literary work (text) conveys to a reader. Also known as atmosphere.
• Created in written or verbal text through an author’s subject, characterization, setting, plot, and use of diction, including figurative language, imagery, sound devices, etc.
• Created in aural text through subject, tempo, key, pitch, distortion, etc.
• Created in visual text through subject, color, texture, contrast, composition, etc.
• Created in film though a combination of the creations of written or verbal, aural, and/or visual mood(s).

• What is the setting of the film?
• What are the subjects of the film?
• What colors do you notice?
• What does the music sound like?
• What do the narrator’s or speakers’ voices sound like?
• What words in the dialogue have strong emotional connotation?
• How does the combination of all of the above answers make you feel? How would you feel if you were there?

Anna Nero

Anna.nero.pchs@gmail.com

THE Paulding County High School

Teaching Tone and Mood in the Language Arts Classroom

Mood Films

Mood Music

Presented "In the Mood for Mood" at a GCTE conference.

This has worked really well in the classroom.

Rob stole my thunder...

Context of Teaching

SLO Test

ELACC9-10RL1 & RI1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. (reading comprehension: implicit & explicit information) - 20%

ELACC9-10RI4 & RI4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone. - 7%

ELACC9-10W2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. - 6%

ELACC9-10L3: Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening. - 5%

ELACC9-10L5: Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. - 5%

Anna Nero

• Title II School - 54% Free and Reduced Lunch - 2012
• 10th Grade Honors and General Ed Classes
• Variety of home situations
• Many would be considered economically disadvantaged
• Struggle with close reading
• Struggle with providing textual evidence to support a claim
• Struggle with literary analysis in general

THE Paulding County High School

Inquiry Question

How can I effectively teach students how to create and analyze for mood and tone in the classroom?