Tone Activities and Tone Bingo

1. Tone Activities and Tone Bingo

2. Fill-in your Bingo card with tone vocabulary words. Make sure you select words from each column.

3. Tone Activity • Here you have several examples of passages that illustrate various emotional states. Please note the following: • The actual “tone word” is not used in the passage; rather, it is implied through the diction, • Each passage is at least four sentences in length so the person listening can get a good sense of the attitude, • The diction of each passage is loaded in such a way that the emotional state is clear to the listener; and, • Some passages contain interesting language devices to enhance the attitude and power it forward.

4. Name that tone! • I do not think that you are a bad person by any means. Your current behaviors seem to suggest that there is something going on that you can not rationalize and react to in a productive manner. That is called a defense mechanism. For instance, if a person is instructed to go directly home, but instead chooses to stop at various stores and arcades so as to pass the time. He may indicate that he does not want to spend time shopping and playing video games. He is, instead, showing an avoidance behavior that suggests he does not want to be home at all. Therefore, he prolongs getting there. You are displaying that behavior, and I do think it is more productive for you to address your feelings with your parents directly instead of evading them.

5. Did you say…. DIDACTIC Informative, but with the intent to teach or moralize

6. Name that tone! • The innocent child whose life was tragically taken by a masked gunman had barely begun to savor life. Her life, though short, had a power to bring others joy through her goodness, sense of humor, and compassion for animals and for others. Her absence leaves us with a void, never to be filled again.

7. Did you say… Elegiac expressing deep sorrow; mournful

8. Name that tone! • Just remember that I am here if you need me. That’s my job as your Resident Assistant. Go ahead and unpack your clothes and let me know when you are hungry. I will take you around campus and introduce you to some friends and sorority members. Maybe you would like to join a club!

9. Did you say… Amiable in a friendly way

10. Name that tone! • Oh – my – Gosh! You have no idea how much you scared me! There is no way I am going with you on a roller coaster again. I thought I was going to wet myself. You are such a jerk and I am never speaking to you again! Of all the things! Humph!

11. Did you say… Histrionic Overly theatrical, melodramatic

12. Now your turn… • Get in a small group or partner. • I will come around and give you a tone word. • You have 10 minutes to write a passage illustrating the tone. • The actual “tone word” is not used in the passage; rather, it is implied through the diction, • Each passage is at least four sentences in length so the person listening can get a good sense of the attitude, • The diction of each passage is loaded in such a way that the emotional state is clear to the listener; and, • Some passages contain interesting language devices to enhance the attitude and power it forward.

13. Quinceañera • Judith Ortiz Cofer • My dolls have been put away like dead • children in a chest I will carry • with me when I marry. • I reach under my skirt to feel • 5 a satin slip bought for this day. It is soft • as the inside of my thighs. My hair • has been nailed back with my mother’s • black hairpins to my skull. Her hands • stretched my eyes open as she twisted • 10 braids into a tight circle at the nape • of my neck. I am to wash my own clothes • and sheets from this day on as if • the trickle of blood I believe • travels from my heart to the world were • 15 shameful. Is not the blood of saints and • men in battle beautiful? Do Christ’s hands • not bleed into your eyes from His cross? • At night I hear myself growing and wake • to find my hands drifting of their own will • 20 to soothe skin stretched tight • over my bones. • I am wound like the guts of a clock, • Waiting for each hour to release me.

14. Three days after watching the Ed Sullivan Show my mother told me what my schedule would be for piano lessons and piano practice. She had talked to Mr. Chong, who lived on the first floor of our apartment building. Mr.Chong was a retired piano teacher, and my mother had traded housecleaning services for weekly lessons and a piano for me to practice on every day, two hours a day, from four until six. When my mother told me this, I felt as though I had been sent to hell. I whined, and then kicked my foot a little when I couldn't stand it anymore. "Why don't you like me the way I am?" I cried. "I'm not a genius! I can't play the piano. And even if I could, I wouldn't go on TV if you paid me a million dollars!“ My mother slapped me. "Who ask you to be genius?" she shouted. "Only ask you be your best. For you sake. You think I want you to be genius? Hnnh! What for!Who ask you!" "So ungrateful," I heard her mutter in Chinese, "If she had as much talent as she has temper, she'd be famous now. Excerpt from Amy Tan, “Two Kinds,” Joy Luck Club