Novel Inspires Tone Jar Creation
In the Year 8 Course 1 English class, students have been studying the novel Parvana, a story about a young girl and her family who live in Afghanistan. As part of the novel study, they were asked to select a passage from the novel and analyse the tone that was present. Then, they had to create a tone jar that visually represented the tone in their passage. Here are a couple of our tone jars and how our students created them.
"In my chosen passage, the tones included scary, fearful, determination and courage and are represented in my tone jar. Initially, Parvana was fearful about going to the prison to get back her father who had been taken from the Taliban, as the Taliban controlled the prison. The tone in this part was scary and fearful so used the colour black. I also included a small rock, representing Parvana feeling small and scared in comparison to a large rock, which represented the big, scary problem she was facing that she felt she wouldn't be able to get through. Next in the passage Parvana starts to think about people who give her courage, showing determination, alongside a hopeful outlook. In the tone jar I chose the colour yellow to show her being positive, having determination. I also put in a plant within the harsh conditions. Despite this plant having a challenge, it didn't give up and die but had determination, it found another way to grow in the end. Likewise, Parvana had a challenge, but she didn't let that stop her from getting through it. In the last section of the passage Parvana overcomes her challenge, asking for her dad back. Courage is shown this time. In my jar courage is represented by the colour orange as it stands out as from the greenery it is amongst. Parvana showed courage by overcoming her fear, stood out and went up against the Taliban." - Monaye Iannolo
"For my tone jar, I chose to convey the authoritative tone used by several characters in Parvana. I compared it to Paghunda Zahid's 2020 poem 'You think you are strong' which is written from a timid, point of view. The two pieces connected to each other via their similar themes, values and attitudes demonstrated by separate characters, yet they have contrasting contexts. I made use with at-home materials to create my tone jar and to depict my responses to the novel and poem. Altogether I enjoyed participating in the activity." - Micah Santos
"After analysing Parvana and selecting a passage, I created a tone jar representing the shift between two tones, despair to hope. The objects I chose to place in my tone jar, include a candle, a flower, a coin, and a black to yellow background. The meaning behind each of these items relate to the passage and the poem. The candle represents the change of tone from hope to despair because it starts as a pretty, coloured, round piece of wax, but once it is lit, and begins to melt, it's gone. The flower represents the change of tone from despair to hope because flowers start as nothing but a little seed. As it gets fed enough with sunlight and water, it grows into something filled with hope and beauty. The coin represents the change of tone from hope to despair, as many people are exuberant when they receive money so they can spend it on something, but like the candle, once you spend it on something, it's gone. Finally, the black to yellow background simply means the change from despair to hope, because black symbolises despair, and yellow symbolises hope, so when those two tones/colours shift, it creates an ombre background." - Fatema Alfallahi
