Materials & Prep
- Display or write the two opening descriptions, the model passage, and the guided-practice passage below.
- Prepare a handout with the independent passage and a three-column organizer labeled Word or phrase, What it suggests, and Tone it creates.
- Provide pencils and two colors of highlighters or colored pencils. No other special setup is needed.
Opening: Familiar word choices
DisplayThe puppy bounced across the yard. The puppy carried a bright red ball.
The puppy crept across the yard. The puppy carried a bright red ball.
Have students silently choose which description makes the puppy seem more energetic and which makes it seem more nervous. Ask them to point to or name the word that helped them decide, then turn and talk: “That word makes me picture the puppy as .” Accept a word, gesture, or short explanation.
ConnectExplain that students already used an author’s word choice to build a picture and create a feeling. Today, they will learn to explain how those choices shape the tone, or the author’s attitude or feeling toward the subject, in a passage.
Mini-lesson and modeling: From word to tone
Display“The old house leaned beside the road. Its cracked windows stared at the empty fields. A thin wind slipped through the broken fence, and the lonely trees shivered. No one had entered the house for years.”
Think aloudRead the passage aloud. Say, “I notice the adjective old, but I will not stop at naming it. I ask what old suggests here. Because the house is leaning, has cracked windows, and sits beside empty fields, old suggests neglect rather than comfort. That makes the passage sound eerie and lonely.” Underline old and write: old → neglected → eerie/lonely tone.
Worked exampleModel a second choice. “The word cracked suggests damage. Damage makes me picture a place that is unsafe or forgotten, so it strengthens the uneasy tone.” Then combine the evidence in a complete response: “The author’s words cracked and lonely shape an eerie, lonely tone because they make the house seem damaged and abandoned.”
CompareReplace the descriptive words with neutral ones: “The house stood beside the road. Its windows faced the fields. Wind moved through the fence, and trees moved.” Ask students to compare the two versions. Explain that the event is nearly the same, but the original words make the author’s attitude feel more uneasy. The common mistake is to say only “cracked is an adjective.” The important next step is to explain what cracked makes the reader imagine and how that supports the tone.
Check for understandingStudents hold up one finger for “identifies the word,” two fingers for “explains the word’s effect,” and three fingers for “connects the effect to tone.” Read: “The lonely trees shivered.” Ask, “Which part must be added to make this a strong answer?” Call on students to complete orally: “Lonely suggests , so the passage sounds .” Listen for a suggested image or feeling plus a tone word, not just the label lonely.
Guided practice: Trace the author’s choices
Display“At the edge of the fair, a tiny blue tent waited under the bright lights. Colorful flags danced above its cheerful doorway. Inside, a friendly clown offered each visitor a surprising trick.”
Read: Read the passage once for meaning, then reread it while students underline one word or phrase that affects the tone. Students first identify words independently, then compare with a partner.
PromptGuide students through bright, danced, cheerful, friendly, or surprising. Ask, “What would this word make you picture? Does that picture make the passage sound welcoming, exciting, playful, or something else?” Do not require one exact tone word if students support their choice with evidence.
ScaffoldPost the frame: “The word or phrase suggests . This makes the passage sound because .” Students may choose from a word bank: welcoming, exciting, playful, uneasy, lonely, calm. Use the organizer’s first two columns together before asking for the tone column.
DiscussInvite two pairs to share different evidence. Clarify that a tone claim must match the whole passage. For example, tiny alone might suggest small or vulnerable, but bright, colorful, cheerful, and friendly together create a welcoming, playful tone.
Independent close reading: Explain with evidence
Students read this passage twice and complete the organizer: “Jordan pushed open the garden gate. The narrow path curled between tangled bushes. A swarm of buzzing bees circled the wilting flowers, and a crooked statue watched from the shadows. Jordan took one careful step forward.”
Have students underline at least three words or phrases, write what each suggests, and use at least two choices in a three-sentence response explaining the tone. Their response should answer: “How does the author’s word choice shape the tone of this passage?”
SupportModel the first organizer row without giving the whole answer: narrow suggests a path with little room, which may make Jordan’s movement feel less comfortable. Students may use the sentence frame and word bank, and partners may read the passage aloud to one another. Confer first with students who list adjectives but have not yet explained their effect. Ask, “What do you picture because of that word?” then, “How does that picture make the passage sound?”
CirculateLook for students connecting evidence to tone rather than listing adjectives. If a student says the tone is “scary,” ask which exact words create that feeling. If a student says the narrator is scared, ask whether the passage directly tells us that or whether the words suggest a cautious or uneasy tone.
ExtensionStudents revise one neutral sentence from the passage in two ways, once to create a welcoming tone and once to create an uneasy tone. For example, they may replace narrow path with a wide, sunlit path in one version and a cramped, shadowy path in the other, then explain how the new choices change the tone.
Closing check: Written response
Exit ticket“In the garden passage, the words and shape a tone. The word suggests , which makes the passage sound because .” Students must use two exact words or phrases from the passage and explain at least one effect. Collect the responses. Ask two students to read contrasting responses, then briefly identify which response explains the author’s word choice rather than merely naming adjectives.