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7th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 2 of 15

Tone & Mood

How writing feels and sounds

What your child practices

Telling the writer's attitude (tone) apart from the reader's feeling (mood), and seeing how word choice and connotation shape both.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 7.9(F) · tone and mood

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Tone is the writer’s attitude toward the subject: enthusiastic, nostalgic, objective, sarcastic.
  2. Mood is the feeling the reader gets: tense, peaceful, gloomy, cheerful.
  3. Look at word choice and connotation. Words like creaked and shadows build a tense mood.

Example: “I still remember those summer evenings at the lake. Those were the best days.” What is the tone? The writer is looking back fondly at the past. Warm longing for the past is nostalgia. Answer: Nostalgic

Tone & Mood in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 2 of 15 in 7th grade English Language Arts, after Literary Devices and before Persuasive Power.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Sort the words by connotation. Does each word sound positive or negative?

    Sort into: 👍 Positive · 👎 Negative

    • 🛋️lazy
    • 🎯determined
    • 🪙thrifty
    • 🔍curious
    • 🔒stingy
    • 🐂stubborn

  2. Question 2

    Which word best describes the writer's tone?

    I still remember the summer we built the treehouse: the long afternoons, the sticky lemonade, the feeling that summer would never end. I miss those days.

    • Fearful
    • Nostalgic
    • Sarcastic
    • Angry

  3. Question 3

    Which word best describes the mood of this passage?

    Gray rain dripped from the gutters all afternoon. The empty swings creaked back and forth, and nobody came outside to play.

    • Silly
    • Excited
    • Gloomy
    • Joyful

  4. Question 4

    Which word has the most negative connotation?

    • economical
    • stingy
    • frugal
    • thrifty

  5. Question 5

    Which word best describes the writer's tone?

    The movie's plot was predictable, the jokes fell flat, and the ending dragged on for twenty minutes too long.

    • Nostalgic
    • Admiring
    • Critical
    • Fearful

  6. Question 6

    Which word best describes the writer's tone?

    Oh, wonderful. The bus is late again. I just love standing in the rain for twenty minutes.

    • Sarcastic
    • Fearful
    • Sincere
    • Joyful

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