ELA Lesson Plan
Teacher(s): Boyle/Thompson
Subject: English Language Arts
Grade: 7
Lesson Title
Test it Out: Understanding Mood and Connotative Meaning
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Newsela Reading
Standards
Word Meaning and Choice
Multimedia
Learning Objective
Example statements
about what students will
learn from this particular
activity.
Students will be able to understand the difference between technical and connotative
meanings of words.
Students will be to understand how the connotative meaning of a word affects the meaning of
the text.
Students will be able to understand how different students interpret connotative meanings of
words.
Learning Standard
Include the standard that
this activity helps teach.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative,
connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on
meaning and tone.
Lesson Content
How will you introduce
the lesson to your
students? How will you
teach them the skills they
need to be successful?
How will you allow
students to practice the
skills they learned with
Newsela’s Write + Quiz
feature? How will you
assess mastery?
Example sections and
sentence starters to guide
your planning.
Direct Instruction:
● Think-Pair-Share- students will turn to their partner and tell them what the article is
mostly about.
● Reading the article was an assignment for homework the previous night.
Modeling:
● Review definition of mood/tone (previously taught)
● Definition of technical and connotative meanings of words
● Review CCSS in student friendly language and compare it to the original CCSS as
an example of mood/tone and technical/connotative words:
○ CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4: Determine the meaning of words and
phrases as they are used in a text, including connotative and technical
meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and
tone.
○ Our re-write: Understand how your feelings about words impact your
reading.
● Ms. Boyle and Ms. Thompson will select two key words from the article introduction.
● We will use Newsela PRO’s annotation feature to highlight those key words and
write the feelings they evoke in the margin. We will then SHARE these with students
so they can see exactly what they are to do on their article.
● Ms. Boyle and Ms. Thompson will put the two key words on a poster and make a
word map to show all the different connotations a word can have.
● The teachers will also discuss how those words affect the mood/tone of the
passage.
Student Practice:
● Students will be in pairs and have an assigned section. As a pair, they will pick two
words to highlight and they will write their connotations as annotations.
● Each group will share their two key words with the class by placing them on the
poster and explaining their word map.
● Each group will also share how the words they selected and the feelings they
evoked contributed to the mood/tone of that section.
Guided Questions:
● How did the connotations affect the mood/tone of each section?
● How did the technical meanings of words affect the mood/tone of each section?
● Why do the connotations of meanings affect the overall mood/tone of the passage?
● Will some of your peers have a different interpretation of the feelings that the words
evoke? Why is that important to consider?
● What do we think the overall mood and tone of the passage is?
● How did the mood/tone of each section contribute to the overall mood/tone?
● What was helpful about taking the time to look at individual words? How did it
change your view of the text?
Assessment:
● Students will complete the quiz as homework to help demonstrate their
comprehension of the article.
● Students will answer the write prompt to show that they both understood the article
and they grasped the class discussion.
Accommodations
What scaffolds can be
included to support
learners? Can you
anticipate different
reading levels for
students?
Extensions
How can you support
high level learners? Can
you anticipate reading
levels and Writing Prompt
to challenge?
●
●
Teacher can assist pairs that need help during the pair work.
Students prepared for class by reading the article at their just-right reading level.
Teacher can find levels in Student Progress section of the Binder.
●
Teacher can edit Write prompt to reflect class discussion:
○
Suggestion: Write a short story intended to create a similar mood to the
mood the article had for you. Please use three specific words to help justify
why your story would create that mood.
○
Suggestion: Write a paragraph that convinces the reader what the mood of
the article is. Please use three specific words to help justify that that is the
mood of the article.