Relationships Shape Change

Overview

In lesson 4 of 16, students revisit key interactions in the visual text and examine how relationships influence the central character’s choices and development. They will combine close viewing, collaborative performance, and evidence-based explanation, building towards PEEL writing.

Learning intentions

• WALT explain how relationships shape character choices and change.
• WALT use visual evidence, including timestamps, to support an interpretation.
• WALT explain how behaviour and film techniques communicate power, trust, loyalty, conflict, and influence.
• WALT consider how perspective affects our understanding of a relationship.

Success criteria

• I can map at least two relationships involving the central character.
• I can support each relationship with accurate, timestamped evidence.
• I can explain one way a relationship influences the central character.
• I can use the chain: technique or behaviour → effect → character or idea → wider message about human nature.

Curriculum links

• Te Mātaiaho English — Introduction / Years 9–10: integrated study of texts and language.
• Te Mātaiaho English — Introduction / Years 9–10: engaging with complex ideas across literary and non-fiction texts.
• Te Mātaiaho English — Introduction / Years 9–10: preparation for deeper literary analysis and more complex text creation.
• Te Mātaiaho English — Example novels and student-read texts: relating to characters while considering contexts beyond students’ prior knowledge.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–5 min · Hook and retrieval. Open with the opening question and visual-text still: “Who has the most influence over the central character, and how do we know?” Students silently recall one interaction from the previous lesson, then share a behaviour, feeling, or choice they noticed.

2. 5–13 min · Revisit interactions. Use the interaction-recap slides to replay or display two or three relevant moments, pausing for students to record the timestamp and a precise observation on the relationship evidence worksheet. Prompt: “What does the character do, and what might this reveal about the relationship?” Check that evidence is observable rather than speculative.

3. 13–23 min · Explicit teaching. Teach the terms relationship, influence, loyalty, trust, power, isolation, empathy, betrayal, perspective, and dynamic. Briefly clarify the idioms “stand by someone”, “break the ice”, and “see eye to eye”, including when an idiom may not accurately describe a relationship. Model a relationship web: place the central character in the middle, add two characters, and label arrows with supports, pressures, challenges, protects, deceives, mirrors, or isolates. Think aloud using the analysis chain: “The character stands physically apart; this creates isolation; it reveals a damaged relationship; the wider message may be that exclusion can alter someone’s choices.”

4. 23–35 min · Relationship-web investigation. In groups of four or five, students complete the relationship web and timestamped evidence section. Each group maps at least two relationships and labels each arrow with one influence word. They must add one timestamped detail per relationship, such as gesture, dialogue, camera distance, facial expression, positioning, or change in behaviour. Circulate and ask: “Who has power here?” and “Does this relationship stay the same?” Conduct a quick web check before groups move on.

5. 35–46 min · Silent freeze-frames. Assign each group a verified interaction from their web. Groups create a silent freeze-frame showing the relationship at a significant moment, without revealing the scene verbally. Display the freeze-frame observation prompts. Observers identify gesture, spacing, framing, and facial expression, then infer the relationship dynamic and justify their interpretation with a timestamp. Remind students to represent conflict or power safely and respectfully.

6. 46–55 min · One-minute explanation. Students individually prepare a one-minute oral explanation using the sentence frames and analysis chain: “The relationship between ___ and ___ is shown as ___. At ___, the use of ___ causes ___. This influences ___ by ___. It suggests that ___ about human nature.” Students deliver the explanation to the teacher, record it on an approved device, or rehearse it with a partner before presenting. Listen for a relationship, timestamped evidence, effect, influence, and wider idea.

7. 55–60 min · Plenary and homework. Use the final reflection and homework slide. Students complete an exit response: “One relationship changes or influences the central character because…” Collect webs or photograph them for formative records. Set homework: write one PEEL-ready claim about a relationship, supported by two timestamps.

Resources

• the Relationships and Influence slide deck
• the relationship evidence worksheet
• Visual-text clip or stills of verified interactions
• Device or audio recorder for optional oral explanations
• Projector or interactive display
• Timer
• Board and markers
• Emotion and relationship cards
• Headphones or captions where available

Assessment

• Check each group’s relationship web for two relationships, labelled influence arrows, and timestamped evidence.
• During freeze-frames, assess whether students identify gesture, spacing, framing, and facial expression and connect these to a relationship dynamic.
• Record or note the one-minute explanation, looking for a clear claim, evidence, effect, character influence, and wider message. Use the homework claim to plan the next PEEL-writing lesson.

Differentiation

• Provide role cards for group participation, relationship icons, colour-coded web templates, translated vocabulary, and sentence frames. Allow students to respond in written, oral, or visual form.
• For EAL learners, pre-teach vocabulary with images and examples; pair them with a supportive peer and accept labelled diagrams before extended speech.
• For dyslexic students, use the uncluttered web template, colour coding, captions, recorded instructions, short chunks of text, and oral rehearsal before writing. Avoid dense tables and allow speech-to-text.
• Support students who need structure by assigning specific group roles: evidence finder, timestamp checker, web designer, performer, and spokesperson. Provide a partially completed model web.
• Extension: analyse how a relationship changes across two interactions or exposes a power imbalance. Students should explain what causes the shift and how it changes the audience’s perspective.