Tag Archives: tone

E1: General Notes

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Semester Exam Study Guide

The semester exam study guide is available now.

Improving Your Tone Quiz Score

English I students who are unhappy with the results of their tone word quizzes will have the option to increase their grades by completing the following work:

  1. Choose five shorter selections we’ve read this year.
  2. Determine the tone of each selection.
  3. Choose words from two different sections of the selections that you will use to back up your tone assertion.
  4. Be prepared to deliver this information to me orally after the break.

I had initially said this was an option only for students with D’s or F’s on the quiz, but I’m opening it to all students. The amount your grade will increase will be a topic for teacher-student negotiation.

Test, The Highwayman, and Tone Shifts

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First and sixth periods took a test on the short stories unit. We’ll begin the poetry unit tomorrow.

Second and fourth periods looked at tonal shifts in poetry. We examined two poems by Billy Collins (“Forgetfulness,” available here, and “The Lanyard,” available here) and “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” (available here).

Seventh period completed “The Highwayman” (available here), looking at all the ways the poem is similar to a short story. We’ll read one more narrative poem tomorrow.

The Highwayman Inn - geograph.org.uk - 353180

The Highwayman Inn – geograph.org.uk (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

 

Homework
  • First and sixth periods: none.
  • Second and fourth: read “The Road Not Taken” and determine the location of the tonal shift and identify the contrasted tones.
  • Seventh period: none.

Tone, Review, and Narrative Poetry

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First and sixth periods had a review for the test. We used the “Someone Wanted But So” engagement as a way both to review select stories and to provide a gauge of understanding for tonight’s studying.

Second and fourth periods worked on tone in poetry. We went over a few tone words and then re-examined some poems from earlier in the unit to determine their tone.

Seventh period began reading the famous “The Highwayman” after doing some vocabulary review and an anticipatory exercise for this famous poem. As we read it, we were keeping track of the elements of the piece that were like poetry and the elements that were more like a short story.

Seventh Period's Notes

Seventh Period's Notes

Homework
  • First and sixth periods: study for tomorrow’s test.
  • Second and fourth:
    • complete the tone exercise for Billy Collin’s “Forgetfulness”;
    • begin reviewing tone words for quiz next Monday.
  • Seventh period: make two predictions about “The Highwayman” based on what we’ve read so far.

Literacy, Voice, and Evaluations

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First period continued working with voice, specifically looking at how word choice affects voice. We explored slang, informal, and formal synonyms and looked at how those choices carry certain implications.

Second and sixth periods began the second unit on Nightjohn. We wrote and talked about literacy.

Fourth period evaluated their bias projects. We’ll be starting a new unit on mythology and the Odyssey tomorrow.

Homework
  • First period:
    • look up “idiom”;
    • find five examples of idioms.
  • Second, fourth, and sixth periods: none

Tone and the Sonnet

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Students in first and seventh periods used a graphic organizer to learn what tone is and how characters in the Diary of Anne Frank exhibit it.

Fourth period completed the sonnet and lyric poem forms today.

Homework
  • First and seventh periods: none.
  • Fourth: revise presentations to incorporate more class praticipation (see the presentation basics page).
  • Second period:
    • finish the journal entries (as necessary);
    • read II.1 from Diary of Anne Frank.

Final Practice and Tone

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First, second, and seventh periods practiced their parts from Anne Frank.  First and seventh periods also worked on using context to determine a word’s meaning.

Fourth period completed work with tone. After writing a description of walking a dog with a prescribed tone, students read their work to the class and the audience had to identify the tone. We wrapped everything up by looking at the specific details that indicated the writer’s tone.

Homework
  • First and seventh periods:
    • complete the pre-reading exercise (from class);
    • review your part.
  • Second period: complete character/conflict chart.
  • Fourth period: read through the “Tone” side of the “Tone/Mood Words” handout and make a list of all the stems you recognize. (It’s not necessary to know the meaning in order to list the stem; you simply have to recognize it as a stem, perhaps thinking to yourself, “What does that mean?”)

Rehearsal and Tone

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Fourth period continued working on mood and tone. We watched a few trailers for films in which the genre had been switched through skillful editing.

  • Dumb and Dumber was turned into a horror film, Lurk and Lurker;
  • The Shining was transformed from horror film into a feel-good romantic comedy; and
  • Mary Poppins edited as a horror film, Scary Mary.

After examining the elements of tone and mood in the trailers (music, sound effects, lighting, scene sequence), we tried our hand at writing the same thing (an account of taking a dog for a walk) with different examples of tone and mood.

All other classes worked on Diary of Anne Frank.

Homework
  • First, second, and seventh periods: continue reviewing parts at home.
  • Fourth period: none.

Preparations and Presentations

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First, second, and seventh periods spend the day preparing for the in-class performance/reading of Diary of Anne Frank.

Seventh Period

Seventh Period

Second Period

Second Period

Seventh Period

Seventh Period

Second Period

Second Period

Seventh Period

Seventh Period

Each group had a chance to practice as a group and discuss the text. I also shared with students the grading criteria:

  1. Preparedness: I am familiar with my lines (not necessarily memorized) and I understand the meaning of my words.
  2. Awareness: As I’m performing, I am aware of what others are doing and what I should do in response. I am also aware of where we are in the play and know when my character will be speaking again.
  3. Expression: The tone of my voice and my gestures reflect my character’s emotional state.
  4. Volume: Peers can hear me at all times.
  5. Enthusiasm: It’s obvious that I’m doing my very best, and I’m taking it seriously.

Fourth period completed the presentations/class discussions for “Cub Pilot on the Mississippi” that we began yesterday.

Fourth Period

Fourth Period

It was an informal practice for the coming poetry unit, during which students will be teaching small mini-lessons on topics and/or poems.

Additional pictures are available at the gallery.

Homework
  • First and second periods: review your individual roles.
  • Fourth period: analyze the tone/mood sheet; determine the mood of the three major pieces we’ve read in class thus far.
  • Seventh period:
    • review your individual roles;
    • study for stems test.

Initial and Final Thoughts

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First, second, and seventh periods finished the anticipatory lesson for a unit on The Diary of Anne Frank. As such, we had an today, drawing on students’ prior knowledge of the Holocaust and making it personal through a series of reflective writing exercises. To do this, we looked at a slide show I created about the Holocaust, starting from the rise of the Nazis and ending with some photos I took in 2005 during my own visit to Auschwitz.

Walling up the Ghetto

Working

Leaving the Ghetto

Electrified Barbed Wire

Fourth period went over “Cub Pilot on the Mississippi”, paying close attention to how Twain uses formal diction to create a playful mood in the memoir. We simply prepared in groups today for the main presentation and discussion tomorrow.

Homework
  • First and seventh periods: none.
  • Second period: complete vocabulary preparation for Anne Frank.
  • Fourth period: none.

Holocaust and Written Style

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Fourth period worked on three elements of an author’s (and individual selection’s) style:

  • diction
  • tone, and
  • mood.

We looked at an example selection to see how the author manipulated words and phrases to create a specific mood and tone.

First, second, and seventh periods  began a couple of days of lessons dealing with the Holocaust in preparation for reading the Diary of Anne Frank.

All periods turned in the final draft of one or another projects.

Homework

Fourth period: read “Cub Pilot on the Mississippi”

Final Draft and Intro to Style

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First and seventh periods had a final day of work on the memoir final draft. It is due tomorrow, along with several other documents:

  1. First draft
  2. Peer editing form
  3. Second draft
  4. Final draft
  5. Rubric

Fourth period worked on the nonfiction form and will continue tomorrow. We’ve begun a short unit on the memoir and we will be focusing on the relationship tone, mood, and diction have with author’s purpose and audience.

Second period began Diary of Anne Frank by looking at the Holocaust and setting the stage for the Frank’s dramatic hideout in Amsterdam.

Homework
  • First and seventh periods: finish final draft of memoir.
  • Second period: three questions students might have about the information presented today.
  • Fourth period:
    • complete the final draft of the Antigone essay (rubric available here);
    • read page 435 (on tone, mood, and diction).