Speculative Fiction Choices

Overview

Students identify audience, purpose and conventions of speculative fiction, then distinguish science fiction, fantasy, dystopian fiction and horror through brief examples. They apply this understanding by selecting an intended audience and purpose for an upcoming speculative fiction assessment.

Learning intentions

Students will:

• identify the audience and purpose of a text
• recall the meaning of speculative fiction
• distinguish common speculative fiction genres using textual clues
• select an appropriate audience and purpose for their own writing

Success criteria

• I can explain what speculative fiction is.
• I can identify genre conventions in a short example.
• I can choose a target audience for my assessment.
• I can explain how my purpose and audience will influence my writing choices.

Curriculum links

• Year 9 English: plan, create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts for specific purposes and audiences.
• Year 9 English: create and edit literary texts that experiment with text structures, language features and literary devices for purposes and audiences.
• Year 7 English: create and edit literary texts using language features and literary devices encountered in texts.
• Year 8 English: organise and expand ideas while selecting structures and language features for particular audiences and purposes.

Lesson structure (15 minutes)

1. 0–2 min · Hook and prediction. Teacher displays three short opening lines on the hook and genre examples deck: “The moon had been missing for three nights”, “The city’s robots enforced every rule”, and “The forest whispered her name”; students silently predict what each text might be about and share one reason with a partner.

2. 2–5 min · Explicit teaching: audience and purpose. Teacher defines audience as “who the text is created for” and purpose as “why it is created”, then models how vocabulary, detail and tone change for a younger audience, a peer audience or an adult audience; students complete the first section of the audience, purpose and genre worksheet by selecting a likely audience and purpose for two short text descriptions.

3. 5–8 min · Explicit teaching: speculative fiction. Teacher explains that speculative fiction imagines altered, impossible or future worlds and introduces four accessible genre groupings: science fiction, fantasy, dystopian fiction and horror; students record one distinguishing convention for each in the genre table on the audience, purpose and genre worksheet.

4. 8–11 min · Guided genre sort. Teacher reveals four brief examples on the hook and genre examples deck and prompts students to identify clues such as advanced technology, magic, controlled societies, fear or the supernatural; students work in pairs to match each example to a genre and justify their choice using the stem, “I think this is ___ because ___.”

5. 11–14 min · Assessment audience decision. Teacher explains that students must decide on a target audience for their upcoming speculative fiction assessment and models a clear response, such as “My target audience is Year 8 readers because I will use accessible vocabulary, suspense and a fast-moving plot”; students complete the final section of the audience, purpose and genre worksheet, choosing an audience, purpose and likely genre, with one sentence explaining each choice.

6. 14–15 min · Plenary and check. Teacher asks three students to share one choice and revisits the success criteria on the hook and genre examples deck; students submit or show their completed audience decision and answer: “What is one writing choice you will make because of your audience?”

Resources

• the hook and genre examples deck
• the audience, purpose and genre worksheet
• Whiteboard and markers
• Student pens or pencils
• Projector or interactive display

Assessment

• Listen for accurate use of audience, purpose and genre during partner explanations, prompting students to identify the textual clue supporting each answer.
• Check worksheet responses for a correct definition of speculative fiction, appropriate genre distinctions and a specific target audience.
• Use the final response to assess whether students can connect audience to a deliberate writing choice.

Differentiation

• Provide the sentence stems “The audience is ___ because ___” and “This is ___ fiction because ___” for students who need language support.
• Keep the genre definitions and examples visible throughout the lesson; read examples aloud and highlight key clues on the screen for EAL learners and students requiring literacy support.
• Allow students to choose from suggested audiences such as peers, younger readers, adults or online readers before developing their own choice.
• Extend confident students by asking them to identify a hybrid genre, such as science-fiction horror, and explain how two sets of conventions could work together.