Tone

Tone and mood are probably the two most difficult concepts to teach students. Teenagers are infamously bad at picking up on tone in speech, must less in writing or other media. This becomes horribly tragic when students are unable to identify satire when they see and end up being disgusted by some of the dryly humorous quips of authors, or when students are unable to determine whether or not the author's tone is factual and didactic or a tone that would indicate an attempt at persuasion.

Here is a list of words that can be used to describe tone and mood. Having this list handy will help kids to find the correct words to describe the feelings and intent behind the piece. Consider having them choose a word, then discuss their choice with peers. They can work together to understand their different selections. Challenge them to choose one that fits best.

If they completely don't understand tone, which may be the case, consider showing them two YouTube videos such as the ones linked below. The same film is taken and cut into two different versions of a trailer, but the editing choices made should leave the viewer with two different ideas of the tone/

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