Curated OER
Tone and Mood
How are mood and tone similar? Different? Help your readers understand the difference between the two with this helpful guide. On the first page, they read the definition for both tone and mood and identify words that are describe each....
District 186 Springfield Public Schools
Tone, Mood, Theme, and Motif
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...
E Reading Worksheets
Tone: Voice of the Speaker
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...
Thoughtful Learning
Adjusting Your Writing Voice
"Yo, what's up?" "Nuttin!" While such a dialogue might be appropriate between friends, it would be ill-advised in more formal situations. A mini-lesson asks young writers to consider how to adjust the voice they use to bring their...
Virginia Department of Education
Identifying Audience and Purpose
Use a fun and creative activity to introduce junior high learners to how writing changes for different audiences and purposes. The activity begins with a reading by the instructor where teens visualize a food fight in the cafeteria. In...
Deer Valley Unified School District
Close Reading: Analyzing Mood and Tone
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...
Curated OER
Persuasive Essays
Follow this outline to write persuasive essays with your 11th grade college prep classes. Using the internet, they research a topic, citing their sources correctly. They work with a partner to peer edit their rough drafts, checking for...
Curated OER
What's My Tone?
Students answer a question in the same tone of voice that you ask it in. In this tone lesson plan, students respond to the volume and expression of the teacher's voice.
Curated OER
Abigail as Mother (Part II)
Different tones for different audiences. That's the big idea behind the second lesson in a two-part series that reveals Abigail Adams as a mother. Scholars examine letters Abigail Adams wrote to her sons, John Quincy Adams and Charles...
Reading Through History
Ain't I a Woman?
Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech has reverberated through American history, giving voice to women of color who had not previously been heard. Learners analyze the tone, audience, purpose, occasion, and speaker of the speech’s...
Florida Alliance for Arts Education
Theatre Arts
What skills do storytellers employ to bring to life the characters and events in their tales? After listening to a recording of a Haitian folk tale, class members consider how tone of voice, pace, and gestures can be used to enliven a...
Curated OER
Storytelling
Show young readers how to put some personality and voice into their storytelling with an in-depth assignment. Kids practice saying the same thing, such as counting from one to ten, in different tones and perspectives, and then work on...
American Evolution
Virginia Runaway Slave Ads
What does an ad reveal about a culture, or about the values of its intended audience? Class members examine a series of runaway slave ads—one of which was written by Thomas Jefferson—and consider what these primary source documents...
Curated OER
A Water Droplet's Experience in the Hydrologic Cycle
Young scholars write a story from the perspective of a water droplet on a journey through the water cycle. They use the 6+1 Traits writing method to focus on voice in the writing as they create characters that their water droplet has...
Curated OER
Rubric for Research Papers
This rubric is decent, but it doesn't provide a point allotment for each category. Use this as an outline to create a more comprehensive assessment for your writers' research papers.
Curated OER
Exciting Expressions
Elementary schoolers observe and demonstrate a variety of strategies for reading with expression. They listen to the teacher read A Fine, Fine School with and without expression and discuss the differences. Then in pairs, read the same...
Curated OER
Say What? (A Murder Mystery)
Middle schoolers practice their performance, expression, and logical thinking skills by asking questions and speaking in correct tones. They attempt to meet IEP requirements in these areas by presenting murder mystery clues using the...
Curated OER
Analyzing Speaker, Language, and Tone in the Writings of Benjamin Franklin
Students analyze writings by Benjamin Franklin. In this Benjamin Franklin instructional activity, students discover the pseudonyms under which Franklin used to write. Students compare and contrast 2 selections by Franklin.
Curated OER
Hoops! There It Is!
Fifth graders view and discuss the use of voice in writing through the in-your-face, aggressive, powerful messages of the Nike advertisements and the book Hoops as examples of the intensity words can have and how voice is expressed. A...
Curated OER
Text Elements—Vampires
Students explore the tone and style of passages from horror genre literature. In this literary elements lesson, students read The Vampire by John Stagg and the War of the World script by H.G. Wells, Students write about the way the...
Curated OER
Much Ado About Illumination
Learners analyze the language and characters in the Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing. In this Shakespeare play lesson plan, students read section of the play and discuss the speech of Benedick and Claudio. Learners record the...
Curated OER
Poems Put to Use
Students listen to sample poetry recitations. They discuss times when poetry might be used in real-life situations to move/motivate other people or audiences. They identify particularly moving passages and then quote them effectively to...
Curated OER
Exeter Model
Eighth graders analyze what makes poetry reading interesting to an audience. They read five short poems. Student free write their interpretations of those five poems. With the help of one line from their free writing, 8th graders start...
Curated OER
Drama: The New Friends
Reader's Theater is a great way to build fluency, intonation, and dramatic flare. The class reads the theater piece, "The New Friends" paying attention to how they express emotion and feeling as they read. They discuss the use of plot,...