PETAL Paragraph Builder
Label the Point, Evidence, Technique, Analysis and Link in literature paragraphs, name techniques and pick the analysis that earns marks.
About this activity
Students practise the paragraph literature essays are built from, with model paragraphs on Macbeth, A Christmas Carol and Jekyll and Hyde. They label the five parts, name the technique in a quotation, choose the analysis that zooms in on a word rather than retelling the plot, put a jumbled paragraph back in order, pick context that helps the point, and use a short quotation. The first screen says how PETAL paragraphs fit the student’s exam board’s literature essays (AQA, Edexcel and OCR).
How to use PETAL Paragraph Builder
- PETAL Paragraph Builder is a free English Literature activity for Years 9 to 11 that takes about 10 minutes. Try it on this page on a computer, tablet or phone: there’s nothing to download.
- In a lesson, choose Show on the board to play it together as a class.
- To set it for a class, a teacher shares it and gets a code: students type the 6-digit code at lycolearn.co.uk/join with their first name and the first letter of their surname (no accounts needed), and their scores come back to the teacher.
Students will
- Name the five parts of a PETAL paragraph
- Name a writer’s technique and say what it does
- Analyse particular words instead of retelling the story
- Use short quotations and context that supports the point
Teaching tips
- Project part 3 and ask the class why the retelling sentence gets so few marks.
- Follow up by giving students a quotation from your set text to write their own PETAL paragraph about.