Read it, Write it, Tell it Head 11
Read it, Write it, Tell it Head 11 Home Introduction Teaching Materials Grades 3-4 Grades 5-7 Links Videos Read it, Write it, Tell it Head 11 Read it, Write it, Tell it Head 11

 

Annie Oakley

Mood and Setting Lessons

Grades 3-4
Grades 5-7

 

  

 

Extension Activities

Create a painting, drawing, or three-dimensional setting that clearly indicates the mood of the story.

Mood • Writing Activities

  • Post a picture of a group of people, perhaps in a city or town or at a public event such as a baseball game. Have each student write two descriptions of the scene, one happy and the other sad or ominous.
  • Describe a familiar place, such as a classroom or a mall, under two different sets of circumstances, such as day and night, summer and winter, or crowded and empty.
  • Write a description of a festive holiday scene. Use details that appeal to your reader’s five senses. Your reader should be able to visualize a picture of holiday foods, music, colors, etc., that is appropriate to the mood you are trying to create. Next, try writing a description of a dreary or scary holiday scene. Be sure to use appropriate sensory details again. The smells, tastes, sounds, objects, etc., should be very different from those you picked for your "festive" description. Can you create a story that grows out of one or both of these descriptions?
  • Think of a natural setting that has affected you. The place may be one you visited on vacation once, one you visit frequently, or perhaps it is even your backyard. How does this place affect your thoughts, feelings, mood, and actions? Write an autobiographical piece describing how this setting interacts with your thoughts and/or the actions of your characters.

Mood • Online Resources

Ohio Instructional Management System

“Visions of Poetry – Grade Four”

  • See, feel, hear and experience mood! This lesson offers students an opportunity to internalize the meaning of mood and its expression in a variety of different media.

The Right Mood – Grade Six”

  • In this integrated lesson, students compare how the three disciplines of music, art and literature create mood. They use this information to produce a piece of descriptive writing based on a piece of art or music selected to evoke a particular mood. While the concept of mood is introduced to students in the fourth grade, it remains a challenging concept for many. This lesson helps make the concept come alive at the same time it requires students to take a more advanced look at the meaning of mood.

“Setting – Grade Seven”

  • The students identify parts of the setting that occur in different types of text and explain the setting’s importance to the text. Eventually they illustrate their comprehension of the literary concept through completion of a project.

OHIO RESOURCE CENTER • READING

  • http://www.ohiorc.org/search
  • Scroll to the box that says "I know the ORC resource I want to see," enter the ORC Lesson number, and click "View Resource".

“Lift Every Voice and Sing,” Grades 5-7

  • ORC Lesson# 4540
  • How does a poem or a song express feelings and meanings? Using the book Color Me Dark and a poem by James Weldon Johnson entitled “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” this lesson explores the use of figurative language and imagery. Students explore the origins of the poem and come to understand how it conveys a sense of hope and unity despite hardship.

“The Tell-Tale Hearts of Writers: Exploring the Lives of Authors through Their Literature,” Grades 7-10

  • ORC Lesson# 178
  • In this promising practice lesson, students use a piece of literature by and an article about Edgar Allan Poe to investigate the relationship between word choice and the reader's mood and interpretation of a piece of writing. Each student then creates a visual display that examines a favorite writer through biographical information, analysis of quotations about the author and his or her works, and interpretation of a piece of the author's writing.

“A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words: From Image to Detailed Narrative,” Grades 6-8

  • ORC Lesson# 2747
  • The old cliché "A picture is worth a thousand words" is put to the test in this lesson. Students think critically about their interpretations of the events depicted in an image and then write about their ideas.

Other Online Resources

“Today I Feel ..:” Grades K-4

  • http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/2360/ 
  • In this lesson, students will read and discuss books that talk about feelings. They will tell a story about a time when they had a strong feeling and then something happened to change their mood. Students will experiment with adding facial expressions, gestures, and their voice to express an emotion and will incorporate these skills into their own storytelling experience. This lesson will explore how themes in a book—in this case, feelings—can be explored by embodying a character through storytelling.

“Fiction, Setting the Story,” Part of the Unit: Fiction Writing: Grades 5-8

  • http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/2235/                          
  • Students will explore how to use the elements of fiction to enhance and develop their writing. Students will learn how authors manipulate time and space, mood, and spatial order in descriptions of settings.

“#664. The Giver,” Literature, Level: middle
Concepts taught: colours and emotions

“Interactive Figure: Facial Expressions of Emotion”

“Fiction, Setting the Story,” Grades 5-8  

“Elements of Fiction: Definition of Setting”

“The Elements of Good Storytelling...Writing Dynamic Settings,”
by Kimberly Appelcline

Setting