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Tone Worksheets
This page features worksheets and resources that help teach tone. Students are often tested on their ability to interpret a narrator's tone. They need practice to get it right. Get your practice work here!
What Is Tone?
Tone is the narrator's attitude toward his or her subject. It is like tone of voice. People describe both types of tone using the same words. For example, if the narrator were mocking the characters, we might say the tone is sarcastic. But unlike tone of voice, which uses sound to help convey feeling, readers can only infer the narrator's tone from the text. So readers have to pay extra close attention.
How Does One Identify Tone?
Perceiving the narrator's tone is a basic reading skill, but it requires critical thinking. Readers must comprehend the text, consider the narrator's sincerity, and make a judgement. The reader must decide whether the narrator is overreacting, pouting, or just playing around.
Sometimes one's tone says more than one's words.
Tone Worksheets and Resources
Here are some worksheets and resources to give students practice with identifying tone. Each worksheet has four poems. The speaker in each poem expresses a certain tone. Students must read the poems, determine the speakers' tones, and explain their answer using text. Though I have included answer keys, please bear in mind that these are suggestions. Student answers will vary.
Tone Lesson 1
Here is an animated PowerPoint slideshow teaching students about TONE. It gives students definitions, examples, and helpful tips about how to interpret and describe the speaker's tone. Also, there is a five question practice activity after the lesson. This is a great way to start a unit on tone.
Tone Worksheet 1
This worksheet has four poems, each with a different tone. Students identify the speaker's tone in each poem and explain their answers using text. This will give students some great practice with tone. Suggested reading level for this text: Grade 4-8.
Tone Worksheet 2
Here is another tone worksheet with four poems and eight problems. Students interpret the speaker's tone and support their answers with text. Suggested reading level for this text: Grade 5-9.
Tone Worksheet 3
Here is yet another worksheet to help students master tone. Students read the short poems. Then they interpret the speaker's tone and support their answers using textual evidence. Suggested reading level for this text: Grade 5-9.
Tone Worksheet 4
This tone worksheet is a little more challenging than some of the other tone worksheets. The poems are a bit more challenging, but students still must interpret the speaker's tone and support their answers. Suggested reading level for this text: Grade 5-9.
Tone Worksheet 5
This tone worksheet features 4 short poems. Student read the poems and analyze each speakers' tone. They explain their answers and also answer comprehension questions about each poem. Suggested reading level for this text: Grade 5-9.
Theme
Common Core State Standards
Tone Anchor Standard
R.4 - Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.RL.1.4 - Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.
RL.6.4 - Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.
RL.7.4 - Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds (e.g., alliteration) on a specific verse or stanza of a poem or section of a story or drama.
RL.8.4 - Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
RL.9-10.4 - Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).
RL.11-12.4 - Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors.)
Click to VIEW Grade Level Standards for R.4
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Marva Grant delancey
/ January 3, 2023Thanks for this site. It very helpful.
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/ June 21, 2021Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful work!
Laurie Frazier
/ October 17, 2019Really enjoy using this site, and I appreciate the time and dedication you put into the site and the fact that it is absolutely free!! I have recommended it to a good deal of teachers!!
keelahrose
/ October 17, 2018What happened to the other tone worksheets? These used to be short stories, now they’re all poems.
Mr. Morton
/ October 24, 2018These are all the tone worksheets that I’ve ever had. Perhaps I should write some with stories…
Terri
/ December 15, 2020Yes please!!!!
Judith
/ May 9, 2018Love these worksheets to review and reinforce skills in my junior and senior classes. They are excellent for individual and group work. You have provided an amazing resource that saves me lots of time. Your time and effort used to set this up is greatly appreciated.
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Mr. Morton
/ June 29, 2018Thank you kindly for saying so. I appreciate you using the site.
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