Title – Teaching Tone vs. Mood using Computer-Based Multimedia

By – F. J. Kaplan

Primary Subject – Language Arts

Secondary Subjects – Computer & Internet

Grade Level – 9-12

Estimated Time: 5 Days

Lecture (1 day)

Project
Creation (2 days)

Presentation (2 days)

Concept / Topic To Teach:

Students will learn the difference between tone and
mood in the literary/theatrical sense.

• Tone – the author’s attitude, stated or implied,
  toward a subject.
  Some possible attitudes are pessimism, optimism, earnestness,
  seriousness, bitterness, humorous, and joyful. An author’s tone can be
  revealed through choice of words and details.

• Mood – the climate of feeling in a literary work.
  The
  choice of setting, objects, details, images, and words all contribute towards
  creating a specific mood. For example, an author may create a mood of mystery
  around a character or setting but may treat that character or setting in an
  ironic, serious, or humorous tone.

(Definitions from Literary Elements – Laura Bokesch,


http://www.orangeusd.k12.ca.us/yorba/literary_elements.htm#TONE/MOOD


)

Standards (TEKS):

(12d) English Language Arts and Reading:
Reading/Media Literacy: evaluate changes in formality and tone within the same
medium for specific audiences and purposes.

(TEKS -


http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter110/ch110c.html


)

(5c) Fine Arts:

Response/evaluation: The student
responds to and evaluates theatre and theatrical performances.

(TEKS -


http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter117/ch117c.html


)

General Goal(s):

Students will use photos and audio to create a
distinct tone and mood.

Specific Objectives:

1. Define tone and mood.

2. Create a visual and auditory presentation
   representing a complementary tone and mood.

3. Revise either the visual or auditory elements of
   the presentation to represent an opposing tone and mood

Required Materials:

1. PC capable of running Microsoft’s
   Photo Story 3 or Macintosh capable of running iMovie.

2. Internet access (for digital photos/audio)

Anticipatory Set (Lead-In):

1. The teacher begins by showing two 30-second
   presentations to the class.

2. The first presentation is a Photo Story/iMovie
   collage of five photos: a sunrise, a flower, two people holding hands, a newborn
   baby, and a smiling candid. The background music is Pachabel, or another
   calming classical piece.

3. The teacher asks what tone is implied by the
   photos. The teacher then asks what mood is implied by the music.

4. Then, a second presentation is shown. The photo
   collage has been replaced with five different photos: a sunset, a wilted flower, a
   great depression breadline, a Persian Golf war photo, and a frowning candid.
   The music is exactly the same as in the first presentation.

5. The teacher then asks how the tone has changed (re:
   photos). Then, the teacher asks about the mood implied by the same music, in
   context with the photos.

Step-By-Step Procedures:

1. Students will be paired in groups of three. One
   student is responsible for gathering five photos. One student is responsible
   for the musical accompaniment. One student is responsible for assembling the
   presentation.

2. The teacher will assign each group a single tone
   (e.g. pessimism, optimism, joy, etc.), and a single mood (ironic, serious,
   humorous, etc.).

3. Each group will use Creative Commons or their
   own personal digital photos to gather five images.
4. Each group will use Creative Commons, or their
   own personal audio collection to select a song.
5. Each group will create a 30-second multimedia
   presentation using either Photo Story or iMovie, and the five images, and the
   music.
6. Each group will then create a second multimedia
   presentation by changing one aspect of their presentation — either the
   music, or the photos.
7. Each group will show their first presentation to
   the class, and the other students will guess both the mood and the tone of the
   presentation.
8. Each group will then show the alternate
   presentation to the class, and the other students will guess whether the mood
   or the tone has changed — and to what effect.

Plan for Independent Practice:

As an additional exercise, the teacher can
recommend that students visit YouTube (or another media site) and look at
various campaign commercials for local and national elections. Students should
be able to identify the tone and mood of the commercials.

Closure (Reflect Anticipatory Set):

The teacher reinforces the prevalence of tone and
mood by encouraging students to scrutinize how authors write about their
characters; the tone of their words, and the mood of the setting that the
characters are placed in.

Assessment Based On Objectives:

Given a multimedia presentation, students will be
able to:

1. identify a singular tone

2. identify a singular mood

3. recognize a deviation in the tone/mood based on
   a singular change to the presentation

Adaptations (For Students with Learning Disabilities):

This exercise does not lend itself to hearing or
visually impaired students because both auditory and visual senses must be
exercised in order to convey the tone/mood.

Extensions (For Gifted Students):

1. As an advanced exercise, text can be added to
   each image as another variable that affects tone and mood. (Note: both
   Photo Story and iMovie allow the user to add text to each image.)

2. Students may wish to select passages from a
   favorite poem or story and superimpose the text against their pre-selected
   music and images to further illustrate what they felt the author(s) were
   attempting to convey.

Possible Connections To Other Subjects:

Social Studies (Political advertisements)

Multimedia and Computers

Theatre and Film

E-Mail

F. J. Kaplan

!