11/9

Warm-up: Choose 5 tone words from the list. Identify a subject discussed in your independent reading book that the author has that attitude toward.

Ex: Judgmental – Alexie toward his classmates


Classwork: Create a chart to analyze the author's tone toward 3 subjects. Follow the directions below


Create a chart that discusses 3 specific subjects of the text. Do not attempt to tackle the big ideas – abstract nouns – that you listed for subject. These huge ideas are too unwieldy to unpack thoroughly in this format. For example: Do not make one of your subjects “race” if you are discussing Being a Black Man. Instead choose something manageable such as unionized labor, criminal sentencing disparities, or joint custody of children.

For each of the 3 subjects, chart the following:

1.Tone – Author’s attitude toward that particular subject. You can use words of your own or those off the tone word list, but remember to describe his tone, not his writing style. Remember that tone is complex and that one word is often not enough to describe tone. See below!

2. Diction – Choose at least 5 words or phrases that contribute to creating that particular tone toward that specific subject. If you have multiple tone words because the author’s attitude toward the subject is complex and varied, please label which tone word the diction choice produces.

3. Effect/Purpose/Function -- Obviously you are still gathering information about the text as a whole, but what does the author’s discussion of this topic seem to contribute to the text? What is the author trying to accomplish? Is s/he presenting an argument –logical or not? Influencing your feelings? Convincing you to believe something? Narrating an event? Comparing like or unlike things? Making a point? Expressing a new idea? Debating an issue? What should we think about the topic or person being discussed?


Example (incomplete) from Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me”:
Subject Tone Diction Effect/Purpose/Function
1. Reading Appreciation, Wonder, Awe
2. His classmate’s attitudes toward education Disappointment, Frustration Tone of frustration -- “fought with my classmates” “could remember how to sing a few dozen powwow songs” “complicated stories and jokes” “failed were ceremonially accepted”
Tone of disappointment: expected to be stupid” “struggled with basic reading” “monosyllabic” “submissively ducked”- Alexie shows the huge disparity between what Indian kids CAN do and what they refuse to do in school in order to be accepted. This proves that their intelligence is not limited, as their teachers think, but rather that his culture doesn’t value education. He is frustrated that their failure is their choice and that they don’t break the mold as he did.
3. His father Admiration, Love, Respect


Homework: Work on Independent reading assignment (checkpoint 2 is due on 11/14), review grammar for quiz next week