Fifth graders understand many different kinds of moods. However, the differences between tone and mood may confuse them at first. Teachers need to explain that tone isn't something they feel. It concerns the way the poet feels and the emotional impact the poet wants to have on readers. A writer such as Jack Prelutzky generally sets an upbeat, humorous tone in his poems. For example, students might say that Prelutzky's tone in "Be Glad Your Nose Is on Your Face" is fun, goofy, happy, lively or positive. As to mood, they might identify the jokes in the poem -- such as a nose "sandwiched in between your toes" having to endure smelly feet -- as making them feel light-hearted, cheerful or like laughing. Many tone and mood words overlap. So students might say that Prelutzky's tone is silliness and that they feel silly hearing it read aloud.
Classroom word walls may already be crowded, but teachers should make room for a tone-and-mood word list during a poetry unit. The class can help build it beginning with an initial discussion of words they know about good and bad feelings. A longer word list can be included in individual student packets of poems to share in class. When involved in whole group, small group or partner readings, students can quickly flip to the list for help in thinking about how a poem makes them feel and whether their mood matches clues in the poem indicating the author's intention. Visual lists, such as ones with faces illustrating what feelings look like, are helpful for all students but particularly for English language learners.
By selecting poems that range from sad to happy and humorous to serious, teachers increase student opportunities for discussing an array of moods and tones. Also, by listening to and reading poems of similar tone that touch on related themes, students are encouraged to discuss mood and tone on a more sophisticated level. Langston Hughes' poem "The Dream Keeper" establishes a protective tone in which the narrator wants to shelter children's tender dreams from "too rough fingers." In contrast, Christina Georgina Rosetti's poem "A Chill" also alludes to a child's need for protection, such as baby birds sleeping "beneath their mother's wing." Yet at the end, it becomes clear that no "warm soft sleeping-place" is available for the narrator.
Following a read-aloud of a poem -- whether involving the whole class or a small group -- students can discuss how the poem made them feel. The teacher can guide the discussion by asking students to identify what words or other characteristics -- such as repetition, rhythm and rhyme -- affected their moods. Yet analysis doesn't always need to be written or spoken. Texas teacher David Sebek suggests giving each student a copy of a text on which words can be boxed that indicate the author's tone and affect the student's mood. Then the student can draw a picture on the text representing the poet's tone.