Step 1: Explicit Teaching & Modelling
Define the outcome-specific metalanguage (context, character, setting) and model how to identify the feature, select evidence and explain or use it.
Learning goals
1. Outcome Overview & Core Concepts
Students learn to discuss characters, events and settings in different contexts in literature by First Nations Australian, and wide-ranging Australian and world authors and illustrators. They identify the relevant language or text feature, point to evidence and explain how it contributes to meaning or purpose. Key concepts include context, character, setting.
Learning target: discuss characters, events and settings in different contexts in literature by First Nations Australian, and wide-ranging Australian and world authors and illustrators
4-Step Instructional Sequence
4. 4-Step Instructional Sequence
Step 2: Guided Analysis
Work through a second example together: What is the choice or feature? Where is the evidence? What does it do here?
Step 3: Collaborative / Independent Practice
Students annotate, compare, read, edit, speak or compose with a fresh example, then apply the concept independently.
Step 4: Formative Assessment
Use an unseen micro-text, oral task or creation task. Require precise evidence plus a justified explanation or deliberate crafting choice.
Subject-Specific Content & Key Examples
2. Subject-Specific Content & Key Examples
Evidence about character
Instead of “the character is brave”, point to an action, line of dialogue or narrator description and explain how it supports the inference.
Setting shapes events
Compare the same event in a crowded city and an isolated forest. Discuss how setting changes what can happen and the mood a reader may experience.
Author choice creates effect
A repeated sound, image, metaphor or sentence pattern matters because of what it makes the reader notice, imagine or feel in that moment.
Use source-based cultural evidence
When a text, language name or cultural protocol is discussed, identify the source and describe what it supports without treating one example as representing all First Nations Peoples or Countries/Places.
Curriculum Coverage & Elaborations
Curriculum Coverage & Elaborations
The content description is the required target. The elaborations below are taught as examples and contexts, not as disconnected checklist wording.
- E1: exploring the ways wide-ranging authors tell the same story, identifying variations in the storyline
- E2: discussing characters and their relationship with Country/Place and families in literature by First Nations Australian authors (teaching context)
- E3: discussing similarities and differences in the way the wolf is portrayed in different versions of children’s stories by wide-ranging world authors
- E4: exploring the ways Australian settings are portrayed in stories
Common Student Misconceptions
3. Common Student Misconceptions
- Feature spotting: Explain how the exact feature shapes meaning, communication or response.
- Retelling: Select precise evidence and analyse it rather than repeating content.
- Automatic effect: Interpret choices through audience, purpose, context and surrounding text.
- Vague explanation: Replace “this makes it better” with the exact feature, evidence and likely effect.
Practice Thought & Formative Assessment
Practice Thought & Formative Assessment
Use a fresh example that has not been modelled. Ask the student to show the exact clue, feature or language choice and explain or use it independently.
🎥 Optional Video Lesson
The SkillrHub lesson remains the primary learning resource. This optional video reinforces the explanation; you can complete the lesson and practice without watching.
Before you watch:
- Pause after each worked example.
- Try the examples yourself.
- Return to the SkillrHub lesson before continuing.
Recommended: 'Enemy Pie' read by Camryn Manheim
StorylineOnline — Discuss characters, setting and events in a story by a world author.
As you watch: How does the setting help the two children spend time together?
Load video player Loads YouTube in this lesson. See the video notice below.
Try it: Name the author and illustrator, then describe one event and how it affects a character. Compare with an Australian or First Nations text selected in your lesson.
Video unavailable, inaccurate or unsuitable for this year? Report a video problem to SkillrHub by email. You can continue with the written lesson and practice resources.
About these videos
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Curriculum equivalents: Victoria, NSW and international
Curriculum equivalents for Characters, events and settings in different contexts in literature by...
Mapped skill: discuss characters, events and settings in different contexts in literature by First Nations Australian, and wide-ranging Australian and world authors and illustrators
These references identify matching or closely related learning. Curriculum sequence, terminology and depth vary, so teachers should use the mapped skill and lesson difficulty to confirm suitability.
| Region | Curriculum framework | Closest level or code |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | Australian Curriculum v9.0 | AC9E3LE01 · Year 3 |
| Victoria | Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0 — English | VC2E3LE01 · Level 3 |
| New South Wales | NSW English K–10 Syllabus (2022) | EN2-UARL-01 · Stage 2 |
| United States (USA) | Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts | Grade 3 |
| Canada (Ontario) | Ontario Curriculum — English | Grade 3 |
| United Kingdom (England) | National Curriculum in England — English | Year 4, Key Stage 2 |
| India | NCERT / CBSE — English | Class 3 |
Australian Curriculum v9.0 is the canonical source for this SkillrHub lesson. Victoria and NSW entries name the closest published state codes or outcomes; international entries are planning references rather than claims of identical curricula.
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Topic reference: AC9E3LE01 — AC9E3LE01: Discuss characters, events and settings in different contexts in literature by First Nations Australian, and wide-ranging Australian and world authors and illustrators
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