Tone Posters

Tone – the speaker’s or author’s attitude toward the (1) subject and (2) audience

When analyzing fiction or nonfiction, tone is one essential literary device to consider. Before students can recognize tone, they must first learn some examples. It's easy to hand students a sheet of tone vocabulary or hang a poster of tone words on the classroom wall, but why not get them more involved?

Tone Posters is an activity that requires students to:

• work in pairs,
• research,
• and synthesize information.

Results - Students will create a Tone Poster to display on your classroom wall; it will prominently display the [1] tone word of their choice, the [2] definition in their own words, and a [3] visual representation of the tone word.

Steps

1. Ask students to find a partner (they seem to work best in pairs).
2. Present the following list: AP Tone Vocabulary. 
3. Distribute the Tone Writing Chart or have them create it on notebook paper.
4. Assign students up to four (4) Tone words from the chart and have them copy their assigned words to the Tone Writing Chart.
5. Provide resources for them to conduct the research described on the Tone Writing Chart.
6. Allow students to choose one word as their poster word.
7. Provide resources for them to find or create a visual to represent their tone word.
8. Hang posters in the room for students to reference when analyzing fiction and nonfiction.

Your students finished product might look something like this:

Although it is not exactly a Tone word, the example does contain the  three requirements for the Tone Posters: [1] Title, [2] Definition, and [3] Visual.