Week One Exam Practice

Overview

Students complete a timed, exam-style English task modelled on a typical Week 1 assessment: close reading of an unfamiliar text, identification of language choices, and a concise analytical response. The lesson establishes expectations for independent reading, evidence selection and precise explanation within a short examination timeframe.

Learning intentions

• WALT read an unfamiliar text closely and identify its main idea and purpose.
• WALT recognise language techniques and explain their effect on the reader.
• WALT use relevant evidence to support an analytical response.
• WALT manage time and present clear exam-style answers.

Success criteria

• I can identify the text’s purpose, audience and central idea.
• I can select a short, relevant quotation.
• I can name a language choice and explain its effect.
• I can write a developed response using evidence and accurate terminology.

Curriculum links

• English Learning Area (Years 9–10, 2026) — Text Studies: responding to and interpreting written texts.
• English Learning Area (Years 9–10, 2026) — Language Studies: examining how language choices shape meaning and response.
• English Years 9–10 text specifications — engagement with texts from around the world.
• Overall Assessment for the English Learning Area — developing evidence of progress in Text Studies and Language Studies.

Lesson structure (20 minutes)

1. 0–2 min · Exam briefing. Teacher opens with the exam-style introduction slides and explains that this is a short Week 1 replica task, not a graded final examination. Students clear their desks, write their name and date on the Week 1 exam replica worksheet, and listen to the instructions.

2. 2–5 min · First reading. Teacher displays the unfamiliar text, The Last Bus Home, on the introduction slides and reads it aloud once while students follow silently. Students read the text a second time, underlining one important idea and circling one striking word or phrase.

Text: The Last Bus Home

The bus waited beneath the orange streetlight, its doors breathing open and shut. Around it, the town was folding itself into darkness: shops lowered their metal eyes, cafés stacked their chairs, and the river carried the last scraps of daylight away.

Mara stood at the shelter with one hand pressed against the glass. Behind her, the sports centre glowed like a small promise. She could still turn around. She could still step inside, where voices and music would cover the message buzzing in her pocket.

Instead, she watched the driver check his mirror.

“You coming?” he called.

Mara looked towards the dark road beyond the bridge. Then she climbed aboard.

3. 5–8 min · Decode the task. Teacher models how to unpack the command words “identify”, “explain” and “analyse”, referring to the exam command words reference mat as a quick support. Students annotate the task on their worksheet and briefly tell a partner what each question requires.

Exam-style questions

• Identify the text’s central idea and intended effect on the reader.
• Identify one language technique or significant language choice in the text. Quote the relevant words.
• Explain how this choice helps communicate Mara’s situation.
• Analyse how the writer uses setting to suggest a decision or change.

4. 8–14 min · Timed individual response. Teacher sets a six-minute timer, reminds students to answer in complete sentences, and circulates without supplying interpretations. Students complete the questions independently on the worksheet, using the structure: point, evidence, explanation. They should prioritise a precise quotation and explain its effect rather than listing several techniques.

5. 14–18 min · Self-check and improve. Teacher displays the self-check prompts on the exam response and checking slides. Students reread their answers and improve one response by checking that it includes a clear idea, a short quotation, a named language choice and an explanation of meaning or reader effect. Students use a different-coloured pen if available.

6. 18–20 min · Exit response and debrief. Teacher asks students to complete the final box on the worksheet: “The most important decision Mara makes is… because…”. Students submit the worksheet as they leave or place it face down for collection. Teacher briefly identifies one common strength and one next step without publicly ranking responses.

Resources

• the exam-style introduction slides with hook, text, instructions, timer prompts, question display and self-check.
• the Week 1 exam replica worksheet with the reading text, exam-style questions, answer space and final reflection.
• the exam command words reference mat for command-word support.
• Projector or interactive display.
• Visible timer.
• Pens or highlighters.
• Spare copies of the worksheet and enlarged text for accessibility.

Assessment

• During the first reading, check that students can identify a central idea and a significant word or phrase.
• Collect the worksheet to assess understanding of purpose, evidence, language choice and explanation; use a simple four-point check: idea, evidence, terminology, explanation.
• Use the final sentence to identify students who understand the character’s decision and those who need further support with inference.

Differentiation

• Provide selected command words, sentence starters and a short glossary on the worksheet for students who need support: “The writer uses…”, “The words… suggest…”, and “This makes the reader…”.
• Allow students with reading or processing needs to access the text in an enlarged format, reread silently, or hear the text read a second time where appropriate.
• EAL learners may discuss the central idea with a partner before writing and may use a bilingual dictionary if permitted by classroom routines.
• Challenge confident students to explain how the opening and ending mirror each other, using two brief quotations without simply naming techniques.