The Girl Who Gave Great Advice — Reading + Tone Analysis Lesson (Grades 9–10)

Engage students with BJ Novak’s witty short story while teaching mood, tone, irony, and sarcasm — with flexible options for reading discussion or analytical writing.

Objective:

Students will explore how Novak’s use of diction and irony creates a sarcastic tone, and practice articulating this understanding in discussion or in structured analytical writing.

This lesson pack is designed in two versions so you can choose the depth that works best for your class:

Version 1: Reading & Literary Analysis Lesson

1. Printable and digital reading questions for close reading
2. A lesson slide deck introducing mood, tone, irony, and the definition of sarcasm
   • Options for class discussion and small-group collaboration (students share interpretations of tone, mood, and Novak’s message about advice-giving & social interactions)

Perfect for a 1-day literary analysis lesson with high engagement and rich discussion.

Version 2: Analysis + Writing Lesson

✔ Everything in Version 1, plus:

1. Practice Tone Paragraph Assignment (print + digital): scaffolded with claims and reasoning provided; students develop evidence and analysis to explain Novak’s sarcastic tone
2. Exemplar paragraphs (“meets” & “exceeds expectations”) to model strong analytical writing
3. Supports for CER (claim, evidence, reasoning) structure and quotation integration

Ideal for extending the story into analytical writing and building paragraph skills.

Why Teachers Love It:

• High-interest text with quirky humor and irony students “get”
• Explicit support for literary analysis skills (tone, mood, irony)
• Flexible design: choose discussion-based or writing-based instruction (or both!)
• Ready to print or assign digitally

No-prep, ready-to-teach, and classroom tested.

What's Not Included?

Please note that this unit includes scaffolded reading questions AND instructional writing materials and mentor texts for "The Girl Who Gave Great Advice" in the collection, One More Thing by BJ Novak, but I do not own the rights to distribute the stories themselves.

You will need a copy of the story.

I recommend purchasing a copy of the text to use for yourself, previewing the text here, or borrowing from the library.