Reading ‘The Twisted Tree’: explaining the creation of tension
I can understand the plot and explain how tension builds to a climactic moment.
Reading ‘The Twisted Tree’: explaining the creation of tension
I can understand the plot and explain how tension builds to a climactic moment.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- Martha tells Stig about her supernatural abilities.
- Martha's mother tells them to leave the cabin immediately, making the reader feel apprehensive for them.
- Tension increases as they discover the murdered bodies of Yrsa and Olav and hear another howl.
- Tension is the feeling of suspense and excitement that keeps readers interested.
- Time conjunctions can be used to explain a writer's development of tension.
Keywords
Sombre - deep seriousness or sadness
Skeletal - like a skeleton
Anguish - extreme unhappiness caused by physical or mental suffering
Shrouded - cover with a cloth after a person has died for burial
Entity - a thing or existence
Common misconception
Tension is only about scary or dangerous situations.
While scary or dangerous situations can create tension, tension can also arise from emotional conflicts, difficult decisions, or unresolved mysteries. It's about keeping readers eager to know what will happen next.
To help you plan your year 7 english lesson on: Reading ‘The Twisted Tree’: explaining the creation of tension, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 7 english lesson on: Reading ‘The Twisted Tree’: explaining the creation of tension, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 3 english lessons from the 'The Twisted Tree': fiction reading unit, dive into the full secondary english curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
You will need access to the text 'The Twisted Tree' by Rachel Burge, published by Hot Key Books, 2019.
Content guidance
- Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
- Depiction or discussion of serious crime
- Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering
Supervision
Adult supervision required
Licence
Lesson video
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Starter quiz
6 Questions
the protagonist
found in Mormor's cabin: he began to live there after running away
Mormor's neighbour: he gives Martha a lift and checks on her
Olav's wife: he seems to know what really happened to Mormor
Martha's grandma: she knows all of the family secrets
Exit quiz
6 Questions
beginning of the chapter
a shift in the chapter
middle of the chapter
end of the chapter