Step 1: Explicit Teaching & Modelling
Define the outcome-specific metalanguage (language, 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 how an author uses language and illustrations to portray characters and settings in texts, and explore how the settings and events influence the mood of the narrative. They identify the relevant language or text feature, point to evidence and explain how it contributes to meaning or purpose. Key concepts include language, character, setting.
Learning target: discuss how an author uses language and illustrations to portray characters and settings in texts, and explore how the settings and events influence the mood of the narrative
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.
Transfer
Use a fresh short extract. Students identify one literary choice, quote or describe the evidence and explain its effect on meaning or response.
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: identifying and discussing how the use of descriptive language creates setting and influences atmosphere, and draws readers into events that follow; for example, “The castle loomed dark and forbidding.”
- E2: discussing the language used to describe the traits of characters in stories, their actions and motivations; for example, “Claire was so lonely; she desperately wanted a pet, so she hatched a plan to get what she wanted.”
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 — Explore how words, illustrations and events change a story's mood.
As you watch: What is one clue that the narrator's feelings about Jeremy are changing?
Load video player Loads YouTube in this lesson. See the video notice below.
Try it: Compare the beginning and ending: give one word or picture clue for the mood in each part.
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.
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Curriculum equivalents: Victoria, NSW and international
Curriculum equivalents for How an author uses language and illustrations to portray characters...
Mapped skill: discuss how an author uses language and illustrations to portray characters and settings in texts, and explore how the settings and events influence the mood of the narrative
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 | AC9E3LE03 · Year 3 |
| Victoria | Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0 — English | VC2E3LE03 · 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: AC9E3LE03 — AC9E3LE03: Discuss how an author uses language and illustrations to portray characters and settings in texts, and explore how the settings and events influence the mood of the narrative
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