Teach Tone Using One Language Essay

Literature Activity #1
Title: “Teach Tone Using One Sentence and a Red Hat”
Source: http://www.elabuffet.com/2013/03/this-scenario-middle-schooler.html?m=1

Applicable Standard: ELAGSE7RI4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the
impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.
The seventh grade English/ Language Arts standard “ELAGSE8RL4” states that students will be able to determine the tone of a text by analyzing the writer’s usage of diction. Tone allows readers to obtain insight on a narrator’s attitude towards characters and events in the plot. Additionally, the importance of tone extends to every interaction that students experience; consumers of information need to demonstrate an awareness of a speaker’s management of language that potentially results in biased statements.

Description: In the lesson “Teach Tone Using One Sentence and a Red Hat,” the teacher describes the following scenario to her students:
Typical middle schooler.
At home after school.
Mother, calmly, to middle school student: I've asked you twice already
to unload the dishwasher.
Middle schooler: I said I will... when I'm finished.
Mother slowly looks up at middle schooler.

If smoke were capable of coming out of one's ears, she would look like the
smokestack at a plastics factory:
“Don’t. Speak. To. Me. With. That. Tone.”
Middle schooler, sensing danger, plays dumb, shrugs innocently,
attempts to sound sweet: “What? I didn't do anything. I said I'll help
you, that's all. I'll do it now.”
Eruption narrowly averted.

Anne explains that the conversation between the middle school student and the mother is an example of tone. The scenario activates the students’ prior knowledge and experiences by providing an example that is relative to their lives. She gives the students a typed version of the scenario and tells students to use their inference skills to determine the tone of the speakers. After underlining details that support their inferences, she guides them to understanding that the short and choppy sentences convey tension, which develops the mood of the passage.
Then, Anne puts on a red hat and goes to the whiteboard to write the sentence “I didn’t say you stole my red hat.” She asks the students the question “how many meanings can be derived from this sentence, written exactly as it is?” The students reply with “one.” She underlines the word “I” and asks a student to read the sentence aloud, emphasizing the first word.

She explains to the students that by accentuating the subject of the sentence, the reader could interpret the meaning as “I didn’t say that you stole the red hat, but someone else did.” She underlines each word in the sentence individually and has the students read the sentences aloud, demonstrating diction’s ability to alter the meaning of a

statement.