It's all well and good when you're asked to identify a speaker's tone using his or her body language, facial expression, and pitch and emphasis. Identifying the tone of a written passage is another challenge entirely. Check out an...

Tone and mood are easy to use interchangeably—and yet they are very different elements of literature. Help middle schoolers discern between the way a speaker feels about his or her subject and the way the audience is meant to feel with a...

The AP Literature and Composition exam is all about close reading. Test takers are presented with a passage and asked to analyze how an author uses literary devices to create a desired effect. Prepare your students for the exam with a...

"It was a dark and stormy night. Perfect for making Christmas cookies." Distinguishing between the mood of a piece and the tone can be tricky, but with the help of this presentation viewers quickly see and are able to identify the...

Good questions can help focus readers' attention on the elements writers use to add depth to their stories. The questions on this worksheet do just that and encourage readers to think critically about a story and author's purpose.

Want to safeguard your students against peer pressure? Teach them all about rhetorical appeals, common attack methods, and various argument tones with a reference sheet on persuasive techniques.

Three of Emily Dickinson's poems, "I like to see it," "Because I could not stop for Death," and "We grow accustomed to the Dark," provide instructors with an opportunity to model for class members how to use close reading strategies to...

Are your AP classes struggling with Document Based Questions? Nip their problems in the bud with this clear and comprehensive presentation, which compares a "dazzling DBQ" to a hamburger, outlining all of the layers therein....

Designed to be used with an independent reading book, this activity provides practice with identifying and explaining literary terms. While they read, individuals find instances of literary devices and elements in use in their books....

How is an essay like a hamburger? Detailing the "meaty" parts of a well-written essay, this presentation takes students through the process of using a strong thesis statement to write a thorough and engaging response to a Document Based...

Middle schoolers in particular will benefit from this simple presentation. Forty slides cover story elements like the protagonist, antagonist, and setting, and literary devices are also included. Some examples are given, but for the most...

Slideshow explores the connection between word choice and the author's tone.

Learn about author's attitude and tone, and see examples of tone used to convey nostalgia, cynicism, and sentiment in a text. This is an excellent resource for helping students identify key words and phrases that give clues about the...

A nine-slide presentation discussing how to use punctuation to create or reflect the author's style. W.9-10.1d Style/tone/conv

This lesson introduces diction. This tutorial shares a short audio lesson [5:11] and supplemental notes with the lesson's content.

This book review clearly states in the first paragraph what is not included as part of the text. The book centers its content around the "perception of key." The author is known for her "probe-tone" method, which is defined. For a book...

This lesson focuses on evaluating the connotation of a vocabulary word. It defines connotation and gives an example. It details three steps: read the word in context, determine the tone of the overall reading, and compare the tone with...

This is a glossary entry for the term "Mood" including a definition and a discussion of mood from "Talkie List Dec 06."