8th Graders Study Tone & Mood in Writing

As they prepare to write their own short stories, the 8th graders at RCS spend time studying various literary elements, including tone and mood. To practice creating a specific mood in a piece of writing, students watched the sketch "PencilFace," and in groups they applied their writing tools--word choice, sentence structure, punctuation, and figurative language--to create the chilling mood the clip created.

The students then voted for the piece of writing they thought had the best representation of the mood "PencilFace" evoked.

---

FIRST PLACE:

by Aryah, Eden, Gabrielle, and Sofia

Watching from afar, he waits. He sees her, balancing on a metal bar, feet swinging back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Patience. Here she comes! Slowly, painfully slowly, through brittle grass, to his awaiting poise. Anything you want you may have for a price. Yes, yes, for one, simple price. Innocent intentions, it seems. Cake, kite, lollipop. Lollipop? What could be bad about a lollipop? At least, that's what she thinks. Grinning, wildly, so uncontrollably, as she drew. Her childish joy was incitement to his wicked hunger. Then appears the black hole, the endless, pulsing spiral against the dull gray of dilapidated classrooms. Her hair, swishing wildly, as The Hole pulled her closer--oh so quickly-- no one could help her now. SWOSH-it sucks her in. Her curiosity had gotten the best of her, for the last time. Just another victim, a period at the end of the Pencil’s twisted sentence.

---

SECOND PLACE:

by Allen, Angela, Bethany, Caleb, and JonLuke

On a dusty and hot day near dusk, while the shadows flickered and the syzygy began, there was a lone girl known as Annabelle swinging on a bar staring into the deserted safari of emptiness. With the dried out bushes and tumbleweeds blowing in the gust of wind, Annabelle got off the bar and traveled a distance to grab a rotten piece of wood and she dusted it of it’s dirt. After grabbing it, she walked to the old, deserted and broken down school courtyard. Out of thin air, a humanized pencil materialized. It had the face of something that you would see in a nightmare it’s smile too large like it had a devious plan for her. With the blushed cheeks and golf ball sized eyes it stared into her soul triggering a sensation she hadn’t felt in a long time. Annabelle didn’t know what to think and so staring at the revolting look the pencil had, it made her heart beat low and her eyes go bloodshot. She hoisted the pencil up into her crusty, dirty and calloused writing hand, and began to draw in the air. Thump thump thump. Faster her heart went. The dull tip of the pencil that still seemed like it could cut as well as a sharpened knife made a black line where ever she put the pencil, “poof” a cake appeared, and fell to the ground. She looked at it for a second, looked back at the pencil, which smiled at her mysteriously. She ran to the cake, and began to savor the thing she had longed for. In her mind, as if the pencil was controlling her, Annabelle began to think of other things, like kites and books. She looked at the pencil, picked it up, and drew again in the air. Once again the thing she drew came to reality, a kite appeared, and it fell to the ground. Annabelle put the pencil in one of her arms and the kite in the other and set off. They flew with it for hours, while the pencil manipulated her. Annabelle loved kites but had nobody to play with, but this time it was different she had Chuckie the Pencil Face. She ran around and around in the tall grass that never had been cut, tripping on the sharp rocks, and broken off tree limbs. Though Annabelle hadn’t realized there were no trees around her and the sun seemed beaming on her hotter than before, as if the sun, instead of going down, was coming back up again. She didn’t know and so she just started up again and again. Annabelle got tried and stopped running and put down the kite, but while doing this she set down the pencil, looked at its mischievous smile and eyes, and picked up the kite. Suddenly, the kite flew out of her hands, but there was no wind. She looked around and released the cake had disappeared and then she looked back at the kite but it wasn’t there. Her stomach growled quietly, she was hungry. This time Annabelle savored a lollipop… a giant lollipop. She began to draw the lollipop, but forgot the stick for it. A lollipop without a stick is… well Annabelle didn’t have that image in her mind but Chuckie the Pencil Face did because he knew this would happen. So, Chuckie the Pencil Face took this perfect opportunity and completed his plan. “Boom... Boom… Boom” the strange black hole attracted her with the ciceronian sound. Annabelle didn’t know what to think of it. She knew this wasn’t the lollipop that she had drawn, but the unknown intrigued and the fact she didn’t know what it was pulled her in. She stepped slowly one foot in front of the other until. “Poof” a silent scream you could not see, but you could see her inside the black hole as her eyes stared out. Slowly, the hole began to shrink, with Annabelle in it. With wide eyes, Annabelle disappeared with the hole and was gone.

---

THIRD PLACE by Erica, Ian, Kacie, and Lucas

There she was, hanging on a corroded pole in the middle of a barren field on a clear day. Suddenly she turned her head, confused, she saw a pencil with an unbelievably grotesque face and demonic smile, It stared at her with dead and cold eyes, as if to penetrate her soul. Almost as if it she was drawn to it, she reached out her hand reluctantly, and grasped it. All of a sudden, she saw images of a cake. As she turned the pencil on its side, she began to scribble the cake she envisioned. The cake she drew suddenly appeared out of thin air. She darted toward the cake and started to pick it apart until it was gone. The pencil still stood there with it’s blank distinct smile, widening, Widening, WIDENING, as if his smile was about to tear. Still she picked up the pencil and began to sketch out a kite. Once the kite appeared, she ran with an oblivious grin on her face with the pencil in her hand. She abruptly halted, seeing a vision of a lollipop. She attempted to draw the swirls, forgetting the stick. She looked puzzled as the swirls turned into some kind of black void. Cautiously, she approached the void with a slight feeling of curiosity. She turned to see the pencils disturbing face one last time before being sucked into the dark abyss that was the portal...