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English lesson plan · 11th grade (Year 12 in England) · 45 minutes

Words for tone and attitude: indignant, sardonic, conciliatory…

Vocabulary

CCSS RI.11-12.6CCSS RL.11-12.4England: SAT Reading and Writing (Text Structure and Purpose)England: AP LanguageEngland: GCSE English Language Paper 2 Q4

Objective and success criteria

Students will: Words for tone and attitude: indignant, sardonic, conciliatory….

  • I can answer questions on today's skill on my own, without help.
  • I can explain each step and say why it works.
  • I can check my answer and spot a mistake.

Before and after

Needs first: Word choice that reveals a writer's attitude; Tone and mood

Leads to: Satire, parody, caricature and deadpan

Materials: Word cards, A thesaurus or dictionary, A short text with the target words, Mini whiteboards, A short model text on the board, Printed student sheet (below).

Warm-up · 5 min

  • Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Word choice that reveals a writer's attitude; Tone and mood). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
  • Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.
  1. Is the proposed answer correct? The writer approves of the plan's cost: "The scheme is ___." → economical (yes, it is correct / no, it is not correct) → yes, it is correctPrompt: Decide whether the writer's attitude is positive or negative.
  2. Choose the word that best conveys the writer's attitude. The writer finds the building threatening: "The new tower ___ over the square." (stands proudly / looms / soars / rises gracefully) → loomsPrompt: Decide whether the writer's attitude is positive or negative.
  3. Oh, wonderful. Another meeting about meetings. I can hardly contain my excitement. What is the speaker's tone? (sorrowful / sarcastic / frightened / sincere and excited) → sarcasticPrompt: What feeling do the word choices create?

Hook · 5 min

  • Show an interesting word in a sentence and ask what it might mean from the clues around it.
  • Share the objective: Words for tone and attitude: indignant, sardonic, conciliatory…. Read the success criteria together.

I do: model it · 10 min

  • Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
  • Example: Which tone word matches this description? showing deep respect
  • Step 1: Precise tone words let you describe a writer's attitude exactly in analysis.
  • Step 2: reverent: showing deep respect
  • Step 3: So the answer is: reverent
  • Answer: reverent
  • Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

We do: guided practice · 10 min

  • Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
  • Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.
  1. Which tone word matches this description? fondly longing for the past (apprehensive / indignant / reverent / nostalgic) → nostalgicPrompt: Think about whether the attitude is positive, negative or neutral, then how strong it is.
  2. Which word best describes the speaker's tone? I still picture my grandmother's kitchen, warm with bread, and wish I could step back into those summers. (nostalgic / reverent / sardonic / detached) → nostalgicPrompt: What feeling do the speaker's word choices and punctuation reveal?

You do: independent practice · 10 min

  • Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
  • Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 8 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

Exit ticket · 5 min

  • Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.
  1. Which word best describes the speaker's tone? Sales fell by 4% in the third quarter. Further data will be available in January. (detached / earnest / conciliatory / apprehensive) → detachedPrompt: What feeling do the speaker's word choices and punctuation reveal?
  2. Which tone word matches this description? angry because something seems unfair (indignant / detached / reverent / nostalgic) → indignantPrompt: Think about whether the attitude is positive, negative or neutral, then how strong it is.

Watch out for

  • Picking a "bigger" synonym that doesn't fit the meaning.
  • Ignoring the clues in the rest of the sentence.

Support and stretch

Support

  • Review first: Word choice that reveals a writer's attitude.
  • Use concrete materials: word cards.
  • Give the first step of each question, or a partly worked example to finish.
  • Pair with a confident partner for the guided practice.

Stretch

  • Move on to: Satire, parody, caricature and deadpan.
  • Explain a common mistake in writing and how to fix it.
  • Write a word problem that uses today's skill, then solve a partner's.

Homework and more practice

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/english/grade-11.

Free lesson plan from eurekami.com/lesson-plan-builder

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Words for tone and attitude: indignant, sardonic, conciliatory…

Name

Date

Score/ 8

  1. Question 1

    Type the tone word (in English) that matches this description. showing deep respect

    Answer

  2. Question 2

    Which tone word matches this description? unwilling or unable to believe something

    • A. indignant
    • B. earnest
    • C. incredulous
    • D. nostalgic

Two Views on AI and Art

Text 1. When photography was invented, some painters declared that art was dead. Instead, painting changed: freed from the need to record reality, artists explored colour, emotion and abstraction. Image-generating AI may play a similar role. Used as a tool, it can help people sketch ideas quickly, test compositions and bring visual thinking to those who never trained as artists. The question is not whether AI will end art, but what new kinds of art people will make with it. Text 2. Comparisons with photography are tempting but misleading. A camera records the world; many AI image tools are trained on millions of existing artworks, often without their creators' permission or payment. Until artists can choose whether their work is used, and are fairly credited, it is hard to call this simply a new tool. The problem is not the technology itself but the way it has been built.

  1. Question 3

    Read "Two Views on AI and Art". Which word best describes the attitude of Text 1 towards AI image tools?

    • A. indignant
    • B. optimistic
    • C. apprehensive
    • D. contemptuous

  1. Question 4

    Which word best describes the speaker's tone? How dare the council close the library without asking a single resident!

    • A. optimistic
    • B. earnest
    • C. indignant
    • D. incredulous

The Gettysburg Address (Abraham Lincoln, 1863)

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

  1. Question 5

    Read "The Gettysburg Address (Abraham Lincoln, 1863)". Which word best describes the tone of the speech?

    • A. reverent
    • B. detached
    • C. contemptuous
    • D. sardonic

  1. Question 6

    Type the tone word (in English) that matches this description. showing that something is worthless or beneath consideration

    Answer

  2. Question 7

    Which tone word matches this description? trying to end a disagreement and restore goodwill

    • A. reverent
    • B. conciliatory
    • C. sardonic
    • D. incredulous

  3. Question 8

    Which word best describes the speaker's tone? Tomorrow the results arrive, and I cannot shake the feeling that something has gone wrong.

    • A. apprehensive
    • B. incredulous
    • C. conciliatory
    • D. nostalgic

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Answer key: Words for tone and attitude: indignant, sardonic, conciliatory…

  1. 1. reverent

  2. 2. C. incredulous

  3. 3. B. optimistic

  4. 4. C. indignant

  5. 5. A. reverent

  6. 6. contemptuous

  7. 7. B. conciliatory

  8. 8. A. apprehensive