Lesson 9 - Mood & Tone

🕐 Lesson Overview

Bellringer - Mood in Music
Notes: Mood & Tone
We Do: Identifying Mood & Tone
Introduce Vocab: "The Tell-Tale Heart"

⭐ Objectives

I can identify the mood and tone of a literary text.
I can analyze how an author's choices create mood and tone.
I can use and define new vocabulary.

📏 Standards

🗽 NYSNGSS

8R4:
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings. Analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning, tone, and mood, including words with multiple meanings.
8R6 - RL:
In literary texts, analyze how the differences between the point of view, perspectives of the characters, the audience, or reader create effects such as mood and tone.
8L3:
Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
8L5:
Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
8L6:
Acquire and accurately use general academic and content-specific words and phrases; apply vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

🗒️ Lesson Plan

Anticipatory Set

As a bellringer, the teacher will play a short clip (about one minute each) from "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears and then from Lorde's 2013 cover of the song. As they listen to the clips, students will, in their journals, write down words they would use to describe the feeling of each song.

After listening and writing, students will share their lists with a peer and engage in a Turn & Talk around the following questions:

What was different about the two versions of the song?

What emotions did the artist express or make the listener feel?

Which version of the song did you like more?

The teacher will take attendance as students discuss. Once sufficient discussion time has elapsed, the teacher will invite students to share their responses. The class will then review the agenda and objectives.

Developmental Activity

Students will record the following notes in their journals about mood and tone. The teacher should advise students that mood and tone can be different but can also be the same. Additionally, the teacher will recommend that students pay attention to the following when attempting to identify mood and tone:

word choice (diction)
sentence structure and punctuation
imagery
other figurative language

As a "We Do" practice, the teacher will read aloud the following passage from "All Summer in a Day," which appears after the children remember that they locked Margot in a closet:

They stood as if someone had driven them, like so many stakes, into the floor. They looked at each other and then looked away. They glanced out at the world that was raining now and raining and raining steadily. They could not meet each other’s glances. Their faces were solemn and pale. They looked at their hands and feet, their faces down.

After listening to the teacher read the passage, students will engage in a Turn & Talk, which help them to analyze the passage.

What is the mood — the atmosphere or vibe of the passage?

What is the tone — how does the narrator seem to feel about the children?

What choices does the author make to create these feelings? Remember: Look at word choice, sentence structure, imagery, and figurative language.

After sufficient time for discussion has elapsed, the teacher will invite students to share their responses. The teacher should highlight that adjectives are used to describe mood and tone. If possible, the teacher should display the passage on the board and underline specific words, quotes, etc. within the passage that establish the mood and the tone.

The teacher will then introduce vocabulary words for "The Tell-Tale Heart." Students will copy the words and definitions into their journals. The teacher should provide examples for each word as it is introduced.

dreadful: (adj.) extremely bad or unpleasant; causing fear or terror

acute: (adj.) sharp, severe, or sudden

cunning: (adj.) shrewd or sly; deceiving; crafty

vex: (v.) to annoy, irritate, or cause worry and distress

hearken: (v.) to listen closely and pay attention to

fury: (n.) intense, wild, and often destructive anger or violence

agony: (n.) extreme physical or mental pain and suffering

The teacher will ask students to make a prediction about the mood and tone of the class's next text, "The Tell-Tale Heart," based on the vocabulary words provided.

Closure

Students will have the remainder of the period to work on the "The Tell-Tale Heart" Pre-Reading Check assignment.