Another great way to engage your students is through the creation of storyboards that asks your students to find Tone, Word Choice, Imagery, Style, and Theme. This activity is called a TWIST (an acronym for the literary elements). In a TWIST, students focus on a particular paragraph, or few pages, to look deeper at the author’s meaning.
Using any paragraph or short selection, students can examine, depict, explain, and predict what will happen while getting a good idea of the tone of the story.
“Let that skull alone!” said a gruff voice. Tom lifted up his eyes, and beheld a great black man seated directly opposite him, on the stump of a tree. He was exceedingly surprised, having neither heard nor seen anyone approach; and he was still more perplexed on observing, as well as the gathering gloom would permit, that the stranger was neither Negro nor Indian. It is true he was dressed in a rude half-Indian garb, and had a red belt or sash swathed round his body; but his face was neither black nor copper-color, but swarthy and dingy, and begrimed with soot, as if he had been accustomed to toil among fires and forges. He had a shock of coarse black hair, that stood out from his head in all directions, and bore an ax on his shoulder. He scowled for a moment at Tom with a pair of great red eyes.
| T | TONE | Surprised, Perplexed, Observing: Tom is startled because he is alone in the woods and was not expecting to see anyone, especially someone so uncommon looking. |
|---|---|---|
| W | WORD CHOICE |
Gruff, Gloom, Not Seen, Black, Stranger, Dingy, Begrimed, Soot, Shock. |
| I | IMAGERY |
“...he was dressed in a rude half-Indian garb, and had a red belt or sash swathed round his body; but his face was neither black nor copper-color, but swarthy and dingy...” |
| S | STYLE |
The narrator uses particular imagery and description to illustrate the stranger to the audience. |
| T | THEME |
The narrator speaks of the stranger as an apparition and places a grisly familiarity to the figure who is the devil. Knowing Tom's miserly ways and his encounter with this figure, the reader can infer that Tom will sell his soul to the Devil for wealth. |
(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)
Student Instructions
Perform a TWIST analysis of a selection from "The Devil and Tom Walker". Remember that TWIST stands for Tone, Word Choice, Imagery, Style, Theme.