Years 7–8 · English · Reference module

Lesson 9: Writing for Audience & Purpose — Who Are You Writing For?

Hold one fact constant while changing form, detail, and register for three clearly described audiences.

Ngā Whāinga Akoranga — Learning intentions

We are learning to: We are learning to analyse how audience and purpose shape language and structure.

Success evidence: I can profile what a reader needs, write three accurate versions of one event, and explain two deliberate changes.

Te Whakatakotoranga | Run of show

  1. Identify audience clues 6 min
  2. Model purposeful adaptation 10 min
  3. Hold the facts constant 14 min
  4. Draft two versions 20 min
  5. Compare register and structure 7 min
  6. Explain one decision 3 min

Total: 60 minutes.

Tirohanga whānui | What this module is doing

This module fails when audience becomes a stereotype—“parents want formal words” or “students need slang.” Writers use evidence about the communicative situation, not assumptions about groups.

You’ll need

  • Open Workshop 9 and display the Friday library event.
  • Prepare three audience cards with actual needs: close friend, whole-school notice, family newsletter.
  • Keep the underlying fact visible so accuracy can be checked.
  • Workshop 9 learner page and portfolio evidence rubric.

Do Now — Same event, different need 6 min

Run it

  1. For each audience, list what they already know and what action they need to take.
  2. Circle the details that must remain unchanged across every version.

Model — Change the wrapper, not the truth 10 min

Run it

  1. Draft a text message and notice from the same fact.
  2. Think aloud about greeting, sentence length, time detail, reason, and call to action.
  3. Model rejecting invented information added merely to sound persuasive.

Guided practice — Audience test 14 min

Run it

  1. Teams receive one draft without its audience label.
  2. Infer its likely audience from textual evidence and name any unsupported stereotype.
  3. Revise one choice so the intended reader can act correctly.

Independent draft — Three versions 20 min

Run it

  1. Write 40–60 words for each supplied audience.
  2. Change form, register, and detail while preserving the closure time.
  3. Annotate two changes and link each to a reader need.

Revision — Accuracy across versions 7 min

Run it

  1. Partners compare the three texts for contradictions or missing action information.
  2. Writers repair one mismatch and remove one unnecessary register performance.

Exit — Audience evidence 3 min

Run it

  1. Quote one changed phrase and identify the audience need it serves.

Ngā huarahi ako | Differentiation

Tautoko / Support

  • Provide form frames for message, notice, and newsletter.
  • Allow learners to dictate all three versions before comparing them visually.

Toitoi / Extension

Add a fourth audience with a competing need, such as library staff, and justify what must be omitted as well as included.

Evidence choices

The two versions may be typed, handwritten, dictated, or recorded in different combinations. Both must preserve the same core facts so audience-driven language and structure remain the evidence under assessment.

Source and cultural-authority boundary

Do not use “an iwi council” or another community as a generic audience exercise. Real organisations have distinct relationships, protocols, language choices, and authority; use their communication only as a sourced case study.

Hononga marautanga | Curriculum

Use language features that support analysis of how meaning is shaped, including those identified in the teaching sequence.

Te Mātaiaho · English · Phase 3 · Text Studies · Practices

Learners analyse textual evidence for audience and purpose, then adapt language and structure while holding factual content constant.

Honest limit: the active Phase 3 English statements omit writing production. This module uses the exact analysis anchor to compare audience effects before adaptation and does not represent Phase 4 audience-and-purpose wording as Phase 3.

Resources and checking