Mood is a concept every person is familiar with, however, students struggle with the concept of analyzing text for mood. To bring the concept to the forefront of their minds, I will pass out the handout Emotions and Mood. This handout asks the students to answers questions about feelings and emotions. Making the connection to feelings and emotions is helpful for students when identifying mood. Giving the students the tools of vocabulary to identify mood is something they can grasp onto.
I will give students the handout and have them work on completing it. Next, I will have the students share their responses in a Round Robin. During a Round Robin, the students work with their group of four to share their responses. Each person has the opportunity to share their responses. As one person is sharing, the others are listening, adding to the conversation, and praising. This will allow the students to work on their discussion skills.
Once the students have had the opportunity to share, we will discuss what feelings are and how they affect our mood.
To help the students make the transition to mood in text, I will begin using a media they are familiar with; movies. In most movies, the mood is inferred by what we see and hear. It is very visual and concrete. This will help the students transition to using text to identify mood.
First, I will project the Mood Power Point, and instruct the students to update their table of contents in their spiral. Next, I will ask the students if reading a book, listening to a song, or watching a movie has ever made them "feel" anything. I will give students about one minute to respond in their spirals. This can be a hard question for them to answer. I may give them some personal examples to assist with their response.
Next, just to give the kids an opportunity to share and hear others' responses, I will call on three students to share.
To help students better understand what I am talking about, I will inform the students they will be watching two movie clips. They are to view the clip and think about how the director of the movie is trying to make them feel. What is the director trying to get his audience to feel by watching the clip?
I will show the first video clip. The first video clip is the original trailer for the Disney movie Mary Poppins. The director plays upbeat music, shows images of people smiling, laughing and playing. It sets the mood to be fun and happy. Once we view the fist clip, I will have the students respond to the prompt of the Movie Clip Organizer. This will allow them to process the concept of feelings and help to make that connection to mood.
Next, I will show the second movie clip. In this clip, the director has taken the same movie, Mary Poppins, but set it to scary music, manipulating the scenes to display a rapid fire of images that appear to be scary. The director was trying to create a different mood. Once we view the video, I will ask the students to complete the Movie Clip Organizer for the second movie.
Finally, we will discuss as a class the differences between the clips and especially what the directors did to make us feel differently. I will then connect this to mood, by saying authors, like directors want their readers to feel something when reading their stories as well. They want to create a mood and they do this by the language they use to write. Today, we are going to look at that language and try to determine mood.
Next, I will have the students copy the definition of mood from the Mood Power Point into their spirals.
To get the students analyzing for mood, they first need to observe for clues. An easy step to get them there is to use pictures. This helps them to think link detectives looking for clues. This activity will help them to create a word bank for mood and place these images in their heads that can later help when using text.
Have the students complete an Around the Room. I will place the pictures for mood in the mood power point up in different locations around the room. I will number each picture so every student knows what picture we are talking about when discussing. The students can use the Around The Room Graphic Organizer to record their thoughts. Have the students work with their shoulder partner to analyze the picture and determine the mood the photographer captured. As the students are working, you can monitor and check for understanding. If students are struggling to determine mood provide them with the Mood Word Bank. The students often struggle with this because they do not have the vocabulary to identify mood. Once given a word bank, I find they have much more success. Allow about 10-12 minutes to work on the around the room.
Once the students are done, bring them back and display the pictures onto the board. Discuss each picture and what mood the students felt the photographer captured. Have the students support their responses using clues in the picture. This will help them to be better prepared when they are asked to support their responses using the text.
Finally, take it to text. Display the short passage from the power point onto the board. Read through the passage with the students. As you read, model how you are reading to identify mood and underline any clues in the text that will help you identify the mood. Once you have finished, model how you are going to use that to infer the mood of the passage.
To start the students off analyzing text for mood, I will give them Short Passages to work with first. This will help to build their stamina for a larger selection.
I will pass out the handout for practice and have the students work with their shoulder partner to analyze the text for mood. I will provide some students with a word bank, if needed. I will also review with any students how to use the author's language to assist with identifying mood.
I will allow the students time to struggle through the activity. Once they have finished it, I will collect it for a quick assessment.
Now that we have had some practice with short passages, pictures, and media, we are ready to take it to the text.
I will have the students reading the story The Talking Skull. I will have them make annotations on the text for clues and evidence of mood. What language is used? What words show tone? What is the setting? These are all clues that can help us determine mood. This story is found in our purchased resource, however, any short story with mood will work!
I will allow students to work, reading the story on their own. I will monitor them as they are working, stopping to ask students why they underlined certain details in the story.
To help the students process the information presented today, I will give the students a Closure Slip. This will give the students the opportunity to think about what we learned today in class and help them identify any areas they still feel they struggle in or areas they found success. It is a good tool to use to help the students reflect on their own learning.