• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Narrative techniques: unreliable narrator, in medias res, frame narrative…; Drama terms: soliloquy, aside, foil, hamartia, catharsis…; Literary analysis: theme, symbol, ambiguity). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Which narrative technique matches this description? A story told in turn by several different characters. (multiple narrators / stream of consciousness / epistolary / frame narrative) → multiple narratorsPrompt: Think about who tells the story, in what form, and where the story starts.
2. Which drama term matches this description? A long speech by one character addressed to other characters. (monologue / soliloquy / catharsis / foil) → monologuePrompt: Who is the character speaking to: themselves, the audience, or other characters?
3. Which narrative technique is used here? The whole novel is made up of text messages and emails between two cousins on opposite sides of the world. (frame narrative / stream of consciousness / in medias res / epistolary) → epistolaryPrompt: Is the form unusual (letters, thoughts), does the story start mid-action, sit inside another story, or have a narrator we can't trust?

• Read the first lines of a short text aloud and ask what students predict will happen and why.
• Share the objective: Literary movements: Romanticism, Gothic, Realism, Modernism and more. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Which literary movement matches this description? 1830s–1840s New England: intuition, self-reliance and the spiritual value of nature.
• Step 1: Literary movements share themes, styles and historical contexts; recognising them helps you write about context.
• Step 2: Transcendentalism: 1830s–1840s New England: intuition, self-reliance and the spiritual value of nature.
• Step 3: So the answer is: Transcendentalism
• Answer: Transcendentalism
• Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

• Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
• Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.

1. Which literary movement matches this description? Mid–late 20th century onwards: playfulness, metafiction and scepticism about single 'grand' truths. (Postmodernism / Harlem Renaissance / Modernism / Gothic) → PostmodernismPrompt: Think about the period and the key features: emotion and nature? terror? everyday life? experiment? jazz-age Harlem? self-reliance? play with fiction itself?
2. Which literary movement does this description most closely match? An essayist lives alone in a cabin by a pond for two years, arguing that simple living close to nature reveals deeper truths. (Transcendentalism / Realism / Modernism / Romanticism) → TranscendentalismPrompt: Which features in the description are most distinctive?

• Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
• Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 8 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

• Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.

1. Which literary movement matches this description? 1920s–1930s: a flowering of African American literature, music and art centred in Harlem, New York. (Gothic / Realism / Harlem Renaissance / Modernism) → Harlem RenaissancePrompt: Think about the period and the key features: emotion and nature? terror? everyday life? experiment? jazz-age Harlem? self-reliance? play with fiction itself?
2. Type the literary movement (in English) that matches this description. From the mid 18th century: mystery, terror, the supernatural and gloomy settings such as ruined castles. → GothicPrompt: Think about the period and the key features: emotion and nature? terror? everyday life? experiment? jazz-age Harlem? self-reliance? play with fiction itself?

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/english/grade-12.