Students learn to show a character's feelings and personality through actions, body language, dialogue, thoughts and the senses instead of simply naming them. They find the showing details in an original passage about a nervous performer, match telling sentences to showing sentences, rewrite telling sentences in their own words, and write a short scene where the reader works out the emotion without it ever being named.
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Curriculum: Australian Curriculum. We show specific outcome codes only where they have been verified against the official curriculum document.
Completed: Show, Don't Tell: Revealing Character and Emotion
Year 7 students (typically ages 12–13) working on narrative writing. It is pitched at level 2 · standard.
Yes. The PDF includes a full answer sheet with model answers and success criteria where there is more than one good answer. You can also view the answers online.
About 30 minutes for 11 questions. Short, regular sessions work best: two or three a week beats one long one.
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Try Should Mobile Phones Be Banned at School? — Persuasive Writing.
Success TutoringWorksheetsYear 7 · English · Narrative WritingName
Date
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Trust your reader. Give them the clues and let them feel the emotion for themselves.
Telling names a feeling (She was nervous). Showing lets the reader work it out from details (Her hands shook as she opened the envelope). Read the passage, then answer.
Lena stood at the edge of the stage, gripping her violin so hard that her knuckles turned white. Out in the hall, someone coughed. She swallowed, then swallowed again, but her mouth stayed dry as paper.
"You're on," whispered the stage manager.
Lena's feet did not move. She counted the floorboards between the curtain and the chair in the spotlight. Fourteen. Fourteen steps. She had rehearsed this piece every night for three months.
She took the first step.
(Passage written for this worksheet.)
Rewrite each sentence using the technique named. Do not use the emotion word.
Preview — the PDF contains the full resource and answer sheet.
A NAPLAN-style narrative prompt: an old photograph found in a drawer raises a question that the story must answer. Students plan point of…
Students learn five reliable ways to open a story: with dialogue, action, a question, a surprising statement or a vivid setting. They…
Worksheet · Year 6 · Narrative Writing · Level 2 · Standard
Worksheet · Year 6 · Narrative Writing · Level 2 · Standard
Worksheet · Year 8 · Narrative Writing · Level 2 · Standard
Worksheet · Year 8 · Narrative Writing · Level 2 · Standard
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