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EnglishYear 9 English: literary study, response and academic writing30 min★★★ difficulty

Context, audience and literary tradition

Texts are written by someone, for someone, at a particular moment. Used well, context explains why a text takes the shape it does — used badly, it is a list of dates.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Draw on knowledge of the purpose, audience for and context of the writing, including its social, historical and cultural context and the literary tradition to which it belongs

Key learning points

  • • Purpose shapes form
  • • Audience and assumption
  • • Using context as evidence
  • • Belonging to a tradition

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 19 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

knowledgepurposeaudiencecontextwriting

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 19 · Discover5%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 19

Watch first

Context, audience and literary tradition

An English teaching video on this topic from The Learning Hive Academy. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Draw on knowledge of the purpose, audience for and context of the writing, including its social, historical and cultural context and the literary tradition to which it belongs

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 19

Before we start

What you already know

You should already be able to make a claim about a text and support it with evidence.

Recap: Making an informed personal response
3

Key words

Part 3 of 19

Key words

Words you'll need today

Context
The conditions surrounding a text's writing and reading.
Purpose
What the writing is trying to do.
Audience
Who the writing is aimed at.
Tradition
The body of earlier writing a text responds to.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 19

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Purpose and audience

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 19

Learn

Purpose shapes form

A pamphlet arguing for reform, a novel serialised in monthly parts and a poem written for a friend look different because they are doing different jobs. Serial publication explains cliffhangers; a persuasive purpose explains repetition and direct address. Asking what a text is for often explains a structural choice faster than any other question.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 19

Learn

Audience and assumption

Writers assume knowledge and values in their readers. A text may assume its audience shares a religious framework, or knows a place, or will be shocked by something we now read calmly. Spotting these assumptions shows what could be taken for granted at the time, and reading against them is how modern readers find meanings the first audience missed.

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Quick check

Part 7 of 19

Quick check

Serial publication helps explain...

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Quick check

Part 8 of 19

Quick check

A strong context sentence links a belief to...

9

Reset break

Part 9 of 19

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 19

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Context and tradition

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 19

Learn

Using context as evidence

Weak context sits in a separate sentence: 'This was written in 1847.' Strong context explains an effect: 'Writing for readers who expected an obedient heroine, the narrator's refusal in chapter twelve would have felt like defiance.' Attach the contextual point to a specific moment in the text and it does analytical work.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 19

Learn

Belonging to a tradition

Texts answer earlier texts. Gothic novels borrow ruins and secrets from earlier Gothic; war poetry after 1918 argues with heroic verse written before it. Naming the tradition lets you notice what a writer keeps and what they refuse, and the refusals are usually where the argument is.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 19

Quick check

Audience assumptions matter because they show...

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 19

Quick check

Naming a literary tradition helps you notice...

15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 19

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • People often add context as an isolated fact. Link it to a specific moment and its effect.
  • People often assume modern reactions match the first audience's. Values shift over time.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 19

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

17

Challenge round

Part 17 of 19

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

Serial publication explains cliffhangers; a persuasive ____ explains repetition and direct address.

Writers assume ____ and values in their readers.

A text may assume its ____ shares a religious framework, or knows a place, or will be shocked by something we now read calmly.

18

Mastery quiz

Part 18 of 19

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Context, audience and literary tradition

6 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Purpose means...

  2. 2. Context is used badly when it is...

  3. 3. Gothic ruins and secrets are an example of...

  4. 4. A modern reader may miss a shock the first audience felt because...

  5. 5. Which is the strongest contextual comment?

  6. 6. Audience and purpose are best identified...

19

Lesson round-up

Part 19 of 19

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Extract

The last bus

The bus shelter smelled of wet coats. Mira pressed her timetable flat against the glass, as though staring at the numbers might make the 9:42 appear. Rain tapped the roof in small, impatient fingers. Somewhere behind her, a shop shutter came down with a sound like a full stop.

She had been brave all day. She had been brave in the corridor, brave at lunch, brave when the register reached her name and nobody looked up. Being brave, she decided, was mostly a matter of keeping your face still.

Headlights swung around the corner and lit the puddles gold. Mira picked up her bag. Tomorrow she would say something. Tonight she would simply go home.

Original extract written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Find two words or phrases that show how Mira is feeling, and explain what each one suggests.
  2. How does the writer use the weather and the sounds to build the mood? Use a short quotation.
  3. Write the next paragraph in the same style, keeping the writer's short sentences at the moments that matter.

  • Reading response

    Reading

    Read the extract again, then write about how the writer makes you feel that way. Use a short quotation and explain your choice of words.

    2 paragraphs (PEE)

  • Extended writing

    Writing

    Write your piece in full, then redraft the opening so it hooks the reader.

    250–350 words

  • Reading log

    Reading

    Note the book, the pages you read and one thing you noticed about the writing.

    20 minutes' reading

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Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover

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