Year 8 · English · Short stories · Lesson 1
Openings and narrators
How short stories hook readers: types of opening, first- and third-person narrators, and Poe's unreliable narrator in ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’.
20-minute video lesson
Teaching, worked examples and 20 practice questions solved step by step.
Watch free for a monthWhat your child will learn
- Identify types of story opening
- Tell first-person from third-person narration
- Explain an unreliable narrator
- Make inferences from details
- Write your own opening lines
The method
- Identify the type of opening.
- Identify the narrator.
- Quote a detail.
- Explain how it hooks the reader.
Key words: narrative hook, first person, third person, unreliable narrator, inference, in medias res, atmosphere.
Worked examples
The first three practice questions from the lesson, with every step.
Question 1
What is a narrative hook?
- Step 1: An opening that grabs the reader
Answer: An opening that makes you want to read on
Question 2
Who wrote ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, and when?
- Step 1: Edgar Allan Poe, 1843
Answer: Edgar Allan Poe, 1843
Question 3
What genre is ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’?
- Step 1: Gothic horror
- Step 2: Dark, creepy, about madness
Answer: Gothic horror