Virginia SOL 7.RL.2.B
The Standard
Analyze how the elements of an author’s style (e.g., word choice, sentence structure, dialogue, figurative language, imagery) are used to influence and develop tone.
Virginia Standards of Learning for English · Craft and Style
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify the tone of a literary passage and examine the language that creates it. They explain how word choice, imagery, dialogue, figurative language, and sentence patterns shape that tone.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students identify a precise tone, such as uneasy, bitter, or playful. They use quoted details and explain how specific language or sentence patterns build that tone.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often name the reader’s mood instead of the narrator’s or speaker’s tone. They may label a tone without citing specific language or explaining its effect.
How to Assess It
- Give students a short paragraph and ask: “Name the tone, quote two details that create it, and explain how each detail supports your answer.”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a passage, colored highlighters, and labels for diction, imagery, dialogue, and syntax, then have them mark details that create tone.
Ask students to rewrite a tense paragraph as humorous, then explain three language changes that shifted the tone.
Play Tone Detective by displaying short excerpts while teams identify the tone and earn points for citing and explaining strong evidence.
Compare two product reviews of the same item, and have students explain how word choice makes one sound enthusiastic and the other disappointed.
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Related Standards
- 10.RL.2.C
Analyze how authors use specific word choices, syntax, tone, and voice to convey the author’s intent and viewpoint.
- 6.RL.2.B
Explain elements of author’s style as purposeful choices (e.g., imagery, figurative language, and word choice) to develop tone.
- 8.RL.2.B
Analyze how the elements of an author’s style (e.g., dialogue, sentence structure and word choices) are used to influence and develop tone and voice.
- 7.RL.2.A
Analyze how elements of authors’ styles (e.g., word choice, dialogue, form, voice, rhyme, rhythm, and/or sound devices) contribute to meaning in various forms o...
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