Learning Intention: To be able to answer close reading questions on tone

Success Criteria I understand what tone is I can identify tone questions I can use the correct formula to answer tone questions

Think-Pair-Share List as many types of close reading question as you can.

Four Heads are Better than one Now make up a four and discuss your findings. Can you group them together?

Types of Question 1.Understanding Questions 2.Analysis Questions 3.Evaluation Questions

Analysis Questions ask you to employ the skills you have been learning all through English – identify techniques or stylistic features, comment on why the author has chosen to use them and show why they are effective.

Analysis Deal with style, sentence structure, punctuation, word choice, expressions used, figures of speech, structure of an argument, tone. May ask for a word – only give one. If it asks for a phrase – give a couple of words, not a sentence. If it asks for a sentence – give a sentence.

Walkabout Talkabout Write down as many different kinds of tone that you can think of. You have 2mins then you will move onto the next table.

Humorous or light hearted: jokes, hyperbole, to amuse or make fun of author or subject. Ironic or tongue-in-cheek: criticise or mock in a humorous way, using irony. Emotive: stir up emotions – anger, pity. Strong emotional words used to express extremes of feelings.

Colloquial or chatty: slang, abbreviations, short sentences. Personal comments included often. Persuasive or argumentative: very positive statements (best, biggest) typical of advertising; emotive language may be used; rhetorical questions; first person (“I”); use of second person (“you”, “we” etc).

Identify the tone of the next examples and try to give reasons for your answer.

Woohoo! The exams have arrived! After hours of rigorous studying the day has come for me to demonstrate my knowledge of the wonderful, fantastic subjects. Bring it on! Excited

Stressed These quotes are like a foreign language to me. There’s too much to learn. There’s no point in me entering the exam hall. I’ll never do it. I’ll never pass.

I am dreading these exams. I can’t sleep thinking about them. When I think about them my knees start to buckle. Terrified

Confident I don’t have any fears about the exams. It feels as if I know enough to do well. I don’t have to get stressed out about it. I am under no pressure as I am well prepared and have studied the best that I can.

Nonchalant I’ve got the English exam on Wednesday. Not too scared. Whatever happens, happens. You can only do as good as you know. If you don’t know it by now you never will. It’s too late to make a difference. I’m just going to go in and see what happens.

Depressed The fear of the exam dominates my life. I listen to music to cheer me up but it clings to my heart. I think I’m a failure. When I think of writing 2 essays I feel like I am going to fail and leave school with no education.

We have now recognised the fundamental role of comet and asteroid collisions in shaping evolutionary change and this recognition means that the notion of “survival of the fittest” may have to be reconsidered. Survivors of essentially random impact catastrophes—cosmic accidents—were those creatures who just happened to be“lucky” enough to find themselves alive after the dust settled. It doesn’t matter how well a creature may have been able to survive in a particular environment before the event—being thumped on the head by a large object from space during the event is not conducive to a long and happy existence. (2005) SQA - Close Reading Explain how the writer creates a slightly humorous tone in lines 34–43.

In your groups discuss and answer the questions on tone. Pass your answers to the next group who will peer assess them