How to Teach Mood: Writing Personal Narratives

Some of you already know that narrative writing is HUGE in fourth grade so it's a good thing it's my favorite writing unit.  Well, it just got even better because I found a great sensory details anchor chart on Pinterest!  Our school accidentally over-ordered huge poster paper, so I've been making the most of it this year.  This one outlined another writing lesson on creating mood in a personal narrative.

Exemplars for Sensory Details

The mood anchor chart on ChartChums has a pig, which I changed to a child, but otherwise it worked for my needs.  I hung the poster as a visual, and played, well, basically charades with my class.  I wrote 5 different emotions on cards from my narratives writing unit.  Then I pulled names "out of a hat."  They got to come up and choose a card with an emotion written on it.  By giving them the detail and allowing them to practice it in a context, they can learn from all the examples they see.

Once everyone had a card, I had one student at a time come up with volunteers from their group to act out their emotion.  We already practiced dialogue as well as shades of meaning with words that indicate speaking.  So I gave them each a simple phrase to say for "voice" and cued one person at a time to say it.  I also sometimes "paused" the kids and cued the rest of the class to look at just facial expression since body language involves movement, like we practiced last time that can distract from the nuances on their faces.

The kids really got into it, and by the end of the activity, kids had many examples of sensory details in mind.  Of course not every detail fits everyone's story, but hopefully they had one or two that were applicable to their stories.  When you do this activity make sure you plan for time for them to revise their writing soon after (immediately after, if possible). 

Words Wall for Revising

My Tier 2 Vocabulary board is growing!  Last year I used chart paper and tombstones for those overused "dead" words.  We did a fun activity that got kids up, moving and talking about the shades of meaning for synonyms and antonyms for "good" and "bad."  Then this year I got a great idea on Pinterest to have envelopes for my "dead words."  The boring word is crossed out on the front, and the list of words we create is pinned below.  After a week or so, the words below are removed and placed in the envelope.

Much of the list is student generated, because I wanted to get some of those words in their receptive vocabulary into their productive vocabulary.  But of course, for those kids in my class who already have an impressive vocabulary, I added about 25% new words to the lists.  It was a fun addition to my collection of lessons on improving word choice.

As kids are revising their narratives, they can go up to the board to take better words from the appropriate envelope, then replace them once they've spelling them correctly.  The kids helped come up with the words, and the kids get up to it to revisit "their" words.  It's a truly interactive bulletin board!

The board is pretty cluttered at the moment because we tackled a biggie: "said."  You can see up to 6 distinct sections of words because we classified them into loud, soft, ask, tell, emotional, and "other."  As the year goes on, I look forward to more and more envelopes filling the space!

The lettering for the title, "Words We Change When We Revise" is just a fun, bold font.  I cut up the letters to make them stand out more than if I had just cut the words.  It took a little more time, but I figure if it's a bulletin I keep updating all year it's worth it to make it eye-catching.  And it really is one that can be built on all year.  The current list of green envelopes are more for narrative writing.  Once we start transition words for non-fiction writing, I think I'll switch to a new colored envelope, and another new color for persuasive terminology. 

This was a logical extension to my lesson on adding dialogue to personal narratives.  Next time I'll talk about crafting power sentences and creating mood in our narrative writing.  These lessons will help kids understand the concepts for the reading portion of the state tests on a deeper level because they are using the techniques to strengthen their own stories and become better communicators. 

Edit for Dead Words: Lesson 1

On Friday, we did another Vocabulary Spectrum activity.  I started out by telling my fourth graders that I read the stories in their writer's notebooks, and although they all had different, interesting experiences, most of them described them the same way: they were "good."

So I told the kids to be more clear, we have got to get rid of "good," and for that matter, let's get rid of "good's" opposite, "bad."

For each group (of 4 kids) I picked one person to write "good" words, and another to write "bad" words.  I set 3 minutes on my timer (Kitchen Timer, an Android app for my phone, which crows like a rooster as an alarm).  The kids in each group told the note taker their ideas for "good" words.  When the time was up, they got another 3 minutes to come up with words for "bad." 

At that point, the kids with more limited vocabularies were able to hear words they are not as used to using, so no one was going to be put on the spot if I called on them.  So I "pulled sticks," (like pulling names out of a hat, but instead I use the sticks from the lunch count that they put into cups) and asked every kid to give me a word.  I wrote each word on a (large, 3 by 5) Post It note, had them hold them, and go to the front of the room.  Then I asked the kids to line up according to degree.  "The MOST good on this side, and the MOST bad on that side."

There was some disagreement about where to stand, but as long as it bred discussion and reasoning, not personal attacks, I encouraged the kids to explain their reasoning to each other (and rock, paper scissor as a last resort).  Once most of the kids had decided where to stand, I asked them to read their word with emotion going down the line.

To reinforce the activity, the next day's Morning Work was to choose from the words they worked with and switch for "good" and "bad" within their stories.  It was a quick, simple revision activity that even the most reticent/wants-to-be-done-the-first-time kid can handle!

This activity is part of my Word Choice Activities product.  Next week I'll show you more about revising for word choice by tying our lesson on dialogue to choosing more specific words for "said."  Thinking about precise language will be a stepping stone for later on when we craft power sentences and create mood in our stories.  Some of these activities involve moving around, others involve art, some involve acting.  By switching it up, I consider the learning preferences of all my students because my ultimate goal is to help my students improve their communication skills.

Crafting Power Sentences Lesson

Thanks again to Pinterest, I found another fantastic anchor chart for our personal narratives on crafting "power sentences."  We all want our students to learn how to write with "emotion," but a lot of times they're at a loss:  how do you do that?  They recognize good writing, but they just don't have the vocabulary to liven up their writing.

Enter the 3 step "Power Sentence" formula!

To get the kids into the mindset that our stories should have a mood, before I even led them in topic selection (which has become easier for me thanks to Lucy Calkins) I asked them to write down moods that they wish they could create in their stories.  "Do you wish you could write a scary story?  A depressing story?  A funny story?"  Fourth graders are just starting to think about how they want others to see them, so this question speaks to their SOUL.

Once topics are identified, they've added some dialogue, and their stories are orally shared, and a first draft is made (and the kids think they're done, but as teachers we've only started) that's when I rolled out this anchor chart.  And just I did on the Author's Viewpoint (for My Brother Martin) I decided how exactly to roll out the poster.  I like how she taught it over on Teaching My Friends, but I decided to change it up and save the "mood" for the end, so that the kids would keep guessing what the writer was going for.

Instead of starting with the mood, I started with the "description" side, talked a bit about adjectives, and wrote down their guesses (spending more time on the obvious "the dark and shadowy stairs" than on "the stairs.")  Then I challenged them to go to their desk and add one describing word to their story.  They had 2 minutes, then had to come back to the rug.  It was good frenzied fun for a class that has very little writing stamina at this stage.

Then I unrolled the verb choice, took more guesses about the target emotion, and encouraged them to take whatever verb they want, depending on the mood.  I told them to cross out any example of "went," or "walked" or "came" and writing this word above.  Again, just 2 minutes!  And finally, the body language to show how the person was feeling even more explicitly, final guesses, and 2 minutes to add something.  We ended with a big reveal of the "answers," which they got (except they read "sad" as bored!)  

It was helpful to have a preview lesson with the "dead words" we discussed in two separate lessons (photos later in the year as the board fills up!  But basically like this.).  Here is what the kids did for Morning Work:

I really feel like this anchor chart helped every student, regardless of first language or reticent, to add some emotive words to their stories.  Next step for Writer's Workshop will be a whole lesson about body language!  After that, we'll need more "dead words" lessons, especially for "went."  Luckily Brian over at The Write at Home Blog already posted 200 ways to help us use more precise language.  I can't wait!