• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Naming language techniques (GCSE)). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Which technique matches this description? Using weather or setting to reflect a character's mood or the atmosphere. (personification / simile / pathetic fallacy / juxtaposition) → pathetic fallacyPrompt: Recall the key test for each technique: like/as? human actions? weather? s-sounds? exaggeration? contrast?
2. Which technique is used here? In the gleaming shop window, luxury watches sparkled; on the pavement outside, a man slept under cardboard. (simile / juxtaposition / metaphor / personification) → juxtapositionPrompt: Check for 'like' or 'as' first, then human actions, then exaggeration.
3. Type the technique (in English) that matches this description. Placing two contrasting things side by side to highlight the difference. → juxtapositionPrompt: Recall the key test for each technique: like/as? human actions? weather? s-sounds? exaggeration? contrast?

• Read the first lines of a short text aloud and ask what students predict will happen and why.
• Share the objective: Semantic fields: groups of related words. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Which semantic field links these words? heaven, sacred, prayer, angel, worship
• Step 1: A semantic field is a group of words linked by topic; writers use them to build a mood or an extended comparison.
• Step 2: So the answer is: religion
• Answer: religion
• 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 semantic field links these words? profit, invest, loss, market, shares (business and money / medicine / war / nature) → business and moneyPrompt: What topic or area of life do all the words belong to?
2. Which semantic field does the writer use here, and why? "The new rules caged the students; every corridor was patrolled, every minute locked down." (imprisonment, to criticise the rules as too strict / science, to explain the timetable / nature, to praise the school grounds / celebration, to show the students are happy) → imprisonment, to criticise the rules as too strictPrompt: Pick out the words that don't literally belong to the topic being described.

• 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 semantic field links these words? scalpel, diagnosis, ward, pulse, surgeon (law / farming / medicine / music) → medicinePrompt: What topic or area of life do all the words belong to?
2. Which semantic field does the writer use here, and why? "The city's heart beat faster at rush hour as traffic pulsed through its arteries." (the human body, to make the city seem alive / money, to show the city is rich / music, to show the city is noisy / the sea, to suggest flooding) → the human body, to make the city seem alivePrompt: Pick out the words that don't literally belong to the topic being described.

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/english/grade-9.