• 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 narrator whose account the reader has reason to doubt. (epistolary / unreliable narrator / stream of consciousness / multiple narrators) → unreliable narratorPrompt: 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. (foil / soliloquy / tragic hero / monologue) → monologuePrompt: Who is the character speaking to: themselves, the audience, or other characters?
3. Which narrative technique is used here? Bus late again and the rain, why always rain, Mum's voice this morning, must call her, the smell of wet coats, is that Jo across the road? (epistolary / unreliable narrator / stream of consciousness / in medias res) → stream of consciousnessPrompt: 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? 1830s–1840s New England: intuition, self-reliance and the spiritual value of nature. (Harlem Renaissance / Postmodernism / Transcendentalism / Realism) → TranscendentalismPrompt: 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. (Gothic / Realism / Transcendentalism / Modernism) → 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? Mid–late 19th century: ordinary people and everyday life shown accurately and in detail. (Transcendentalism / Realism / Romanticism / Harlem Renaissance) → RealismPrompt: 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? A novel's narrator interrupts the story to discuss with the reader how she might end it, offering three different endings. (Romanticism / Postmodernism / Transcendentalism / Gothic) → PostmodernismPrompt: Which features in the description are most distinctive?

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