Teach Students to Create Mood in Writing

Humorous, mysterious, eerie, happy, gloomy. whimsical, the list goes on! Creating mood when writing is what gives a piece of writing life! Often students struggle with this literary element unless they are directly taught how to create mood. So...how is that done? The ideas below give you a place to start. If you have other ways you teach mood, be sure to add them in the comments section!

Mood: The feeling you have when listening to or reading a story

1. Discuss words that describe a mood for a story, chapter or written piece. Make the list on the board. Ask students to choose one word and give a few sentences orally that could be used to support that word. ie. mysterious "He was confused. That hallway wasn't there only a minute ago. What's going on here?"

2. Read a short selection from one of the Edgar Allen Poems or stories. If you want spooky, you can't do better than Poe! Choose selections from other stories your students may have read in class, or on their own. Decide the mood. Discuss that mood will most likely change throughout a story. Another great book is "The Best Christmas Pagent Ever". The first paragraph is terrific!

3. Write different types of mood on slips of paper, fold and put in a hat. Ask students to pull our a slip of paper and write a paragraph that would show that mood. Exchange with a partner and ask them to read the selection, then guess what mood is being conveyed.

4. Show pictures from the Internet. Ask students to write one word to describe how they feel about that picture. List the words on the board and discuss.

How about some great videos about teaching Mood (and tone)

This short video is an illustration of pictures and words that describe the tone. It would be great to use in an opening lesson.




If you need some good pictures to use with your lesson, check out the sites below:

This is a terrific Pinterest page with loads of great writing pictures...great for mood!
Writing Picture Prompts

This site has a PowerPoint of 50 great pictures:
50 Picture PowerPoint

If you need a great resource to test and evaluate your students' writing, check out the resources below by clicking on the cover.

25 Fantastic Writing Prompts!

Sometimes we all need some ideas for writing prompts for our students….Here are some great ones!

1. If I was a raindrop I would….
2. What does a chicken think about when it's inside the egg?
3. If I was invisible I would….
4. She should have never left the skunk into her house because…
5. He opened the fortune cookie and found a map, so he…
6. What if there were no clocks?
7. What would happen if we used cookies for money?
8. If I was a teacher I would…
9. If I was three inches tall I would…
10. If I was an ant…
11. Yesterday I woke up as a superhero so I…
12. What would you do if your best friend was a Martian?
13. It was one of those days when everything went wrong!
14. What would you do if a genie gave you three wishes?
15. This is my recipe for the best desert ever!
16. What would you do if you could flap your arms and fly?
17. Describe the perfect treehouse.
18. The worst thing I ever ate was…..
19. What would you do with a giraffe as a pet?
20. You wake up to see a small dinosaur in your back yard. What do you do?
21. You see a fairy sitting on your bed post. What happens?
22. You win $100 to spend any way you choose! What will you do with the money?
23. The egg you found in the yard just hatched. It's a dragon! Now what?
24. Penguins have taken over your bathroom. What's going to happen?
25. If elephants had wings...

Want some more story starters? This site gives story elements, then the kids make up the story…Love it!

Click Here

If you are interested in writing worksheets that cover the Common Core for 3rd and 4th grade writing, check out these resources by clicking the cover.

Hook Your Reader!

Getting kids to start their writing with an interesting "hook" is vital to good writing! I always start with just three of the tried and true hooks, a quote, surprising fact, or a question. (see the anchor chart below). There's many more, but this is a good place to start without overwhelming kids. Once they have the basic three down, add more!

What's a Hook?  It's something that "hooks" your reader's attention and makes them want to keep reading. When teaching hooks pull some of your class's favorite books and look at those first paragraphs. Discuss what makes them great. Get a copy of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" by Barbara Robinson. The first sentence in the books says, "The Herdmans were the worst kids in the history of the world!".  How can you ever put that book down???

What are some of the primary "hooks" writers use?

1. Use a quote: It can be a literary quote, a quote from a famous person or even a quote from your favorite TV program or store. "There's nothing to fear, but fear itself."
2. Start with a question. This method is very easy for younger students to use. "Why did he go into the haunted house?"
3. Start with an exciting scene or event. The explaination can always come later, but the exciting event will make readers want to keep reading.
4. Use an surprising fact or statistic.
5. Start with a very short (no more than five words) interesting sentence. For example, "He thought it would explode."
6. Start with a metaphor or simile. "He knew he was in a pickle! Now what could he do?"
7. Use onomatopoeia, for example, "Crash!"
8. Use an interjection, for example, "Stop"!
9. Dialogue, sometimes the conversation between two people, or the person's thinking to himself can be a very compelling hook.
10. An interesting anecdote. "It was my first dive into the ocean. Little did I know what was about to happen!"

Need a good idea to help students learn the different "hooks"?  Ask students to take their favorite fairy tale and rewrite the first sentence of that fairy tale using the hooks above.  Students of any age would love this! To make it even more fun, do it in groups!! It would look something like this:

The three bears:
1. (question) What do you think would happen if a human girl broke into a bear's house?
2. (Metaphor/simile) Goldilocks knew she was in a pickle! It had started so innocently!
3. (dialogue) "I shouldn't, I really shouldn't go into the bear's house. They're not even home. I really, really shouldn't, but I will!"
Etc.


The following anchor chart is a good one to start students into thinking about how to hook their reader. Using only three techniques at first makes it easier for younger students to concentrate on exactly what they should do.

How about terrific writing prompts to get those writing juices flowing? This site has LOTS!

Happy writing!

Get Common Core writing worksheets that will help your students grow and improve their writing abilities.  Click on the covers below!