How Authors Build Suspense | KS2 Active Reading | Suspense Techniques

Turn reading into writing by helping pupils identify the techniques authors use to create suspense.

This Active Reading PowerPoint is particularly useful alongside a suspense writing unit, as pupils are explicitly asked to identify techniques including rhetorical questions, short sentences, shock phrases, sensory description, similes and show-not-tell within the extract.

Further questions develop vocabulary in context and inference before asking children to explain how the author builds suspense throughout the text.

Ideal for: Year 5/6 • Reading into Writing • Suspense Writing • Authorial Technique • Inference • Vocabulary • Greater Depth Discussion