Mood Malfunction

This worksheet helps students in Grades 5, 6, and 7 strengthen reading comprehension, social-emotional learning, and digital citizenship skills by examining how AI can misinterpret emotional tone in text messages. Learners analyze short examples where an AI incorrectly labels emotions such as sarcasm, fatigue, or fear, then compare the AI’s interpretation with the likely human intent behind the message.

Learning Goals

• Tone & Subtext Analysis (Grades 5-7) – Interpreting emotional cues such as sarcasm, stress, and uncertainty in written text
• Social-Emotional Understanding – Recognizing how emotions are expressed and misunderstood in digital communication
• Digital Citizenship – Identifying limitations of AI systems in detecting feelings and social context
• Critical Thinking – Comparing human interpretation with AI-generated emotion analysis

Instructional Benefits

• Teacher-Created Resource – Designed to align with ELA, SEL, and technology literacy standards
• Realistic Text Examples – Uses short messages students can easily relate to
• Classification & Explanation Tasks – Students label AI interpretations and justify their reasoning
• Communication Skills Focus – Encourages strategies for clarifying tone to avoid misunderstanding
• Low-Prep Format – Ready to print and use in classrooms or homeschool settings

This printable worksheet helps students build awareness of emotional nuance, context, and tone in digital communication. By examining where AI misreads feelings and how humans can clarify meaning, learners strengthen empathy, close reading, and critical analysis skills. It is a practical resource for classroom and homeschool instruction focused on emotional intelligence, thoughtful communication, and understanding the limits of AI in interpreting human emotions.

This worksheet is part of our Good vs. Bad AI Worksheets collection.