February 2016 | Crafting Connections
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Author's Tone and Mood- A Free Activity!

Friday, February 19, 2016
This free mood and tone lesson features vocabulary words, a writing activity, and an author's tone anchor chart.

If there is one thing I have learned in teaching various ELA concepts over the years, it is to get the kids writing whenever possible. It seems as though students who can write a short piece that illustrates an important concept, can also better identify that same concept when they are reading the works of published authors.

For example, when I teach text structures, my students write a passage using each text structure (description, sequence, compare and contrast, cause and effect, & problem and solution). Likewise, when I teach points of view, my students write a passage in 1st person, 3rd person limited, and 3rd person omniscient. (Check out this particular free lesson HERE.)

When I teach students about an author's TONE and the MOOD created by a passage, I get them writing on Day #2. (In case you are curious about Day 1, I always try to introduce concepts with a PowerPoint.) By this time, they already know that author's tone refers to an author's attitude about his or her topic.

Because I'm forever trying to expand my students' vocabulary, I begin this lesson by going through the mood/tone vocabulary flashcards. (These words are in my PowerPoint, so my students have been introduced to the words before this lesson.) I hold up a word card, students discuss the meaning with their partner, and then I randomly choose a pair to share their definition. After a word has been defined, I place the card on my chalkboard tray. At the end of the vocabulary review, all of the word cards are lined up on the tray.
This free mood and tone activity features 16 vocabulary words, a writing activity, and an author's tone anchor chart.

Next, we brainstorm some topics that two people may have very different attitudes about, and hopefully students will use some of the words we just reviewed. Here is an example of a brainstormed list:
This free mood and tone activity features vocabulary words, a writing activity, and an author's tone anchor chart.

Students choose one of the topics we brainstormed or another idea, and write two short passages that contain contrasting tones on the provided paper. Here are a couple of student samples:
This free mood and tone activity features vocabulary words, a writing activity, and an author's tone anchor chart.

This free mood and tone activity features vocabulary words, a writing activity, and an author's tone anchor chart.

If you want to use this lesson in your classroom, download the word cards and the writing paper HERE!
This free mood and tone activity features vocabulary words, a writing activity, and an author's tone anchor chart.

Looking for additional mood and tone activities?
The following image shows some of the items available in my TpT store!

Teach students to identify the author's tone and the mood of a story by using this bundle of engaging activities!


~Deb
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