Hello.

Welcome to a lesson today on "Expressing a personal and critical response to a text." I'm Miss Sutherland and I'll be teaching you today.

Our learning outcome for today is to express a personal and critical response to a text.

We'll be expressing our opinions on "The Cellist of Sarajevo" by Steven Galloway today.

Here are our four keywords for today's lesson.

We have evaluative, critical, superlative, and tentative.

To be evaluative is to judge something carefully.

We can evaluate how successfully a writer achieves a certain effect in their text.

We can evaluate how good a performance is at the theatre.

We could evaluate how good a meal is at a restaurant.

Critical is our next word.

Critical means judging the quality of something.

So as you've seen there, being critical is very much linked to being evaluative.

In order to evaluate, we need to have a critical response.

Superlative.

Superlative is a word to express the highest or lowest quality of something.

So we might say something is the most exciting thing or the least exciting thing.

We're saying that there is nothing more or less exciting than the things we've described.

So examples of superlatives are words, such as most and least.

And tentative.

Tentative language expresses possibility rather than certainty.

So tentative language involves words such as could, might, perhaps, et cetera.

Pause the video now and reflect upon those keywords on your own.

Off you go.

We'll be revisiting all of these keywords in today's lesson.

So in our lesson today, we are first going to look at how we can form our own opinions on "The Cellist of Sarajevo." And then in the second learning cycle, we'll learn how to express evaluation effectively.

So let's begin with trying to formulate our own opinions on the opening of "The Cellist of Sarajevo" by Steven Galloway.

So in this lesson, we're going to practise evaluating aspects of "The Cellist of Sarajevo." So we are going to be judging how well this text achieves certain things or how well the writer achieves certain effects.

The skill of evaluation requires us to have a personal and critical response to a text.

So if we observe our own initial reactions and feelings to a text and gain a personal response, we can then go on to give our opinion on the effectiveness of a text, which is a critical response.

So for example, Aisha reads "The Cellist of Sarajevo" and she observes that she's deeply moved.

That's Aisha's personal response.

She was deeply moved by the text.

Aisha then goes on to say that Galloway is successful at evoking the pain and struggle of war.

So that is Aisha's critical comment on the text.

And the critical comment she was able to make on the text was only possible because she first had a personal response to the text.

So being critical means forming a judgement on something.

And the judgement can be positive or negative.

Remember that different people can form a different judgement on the same thing.

So the Oak pupils were asked what they think about Galloway's use of time in the opening of "The Cellist of Sarajevo." Jun said, "I think Galloway's manipulation of time is clever and powerful." Whereas Izzy said that she thinks Galloway's manipulation of time is distracting from the gravity of the attack during the siege.

It is completely okay that both pupils have different opinions.

This shows they each have their own personal, critical response.

And those things are unique to the individual.

Now, I want you to read the first 12 paragraphs from the opening of "The Cellist of Sarajevo," from it to explodes.

Use the questions below to help you observe your personal response as we read.

Ask yourself how you felt during and after reading? What you liked or disliked about the text? And what aspects of the text stood out to you? Pause the video, read the opening, and observe your personal response as we read.

Off you go.

I hope you enjoyed reading the opening of this text.

It's a really interesting and powerful opening, which I'm sure you had a lot to say about.

A good way to begin expressing an opinion on a text is to simply think about what you liked or disliked about it.

So what did you like or dislike about the opening of "The Cellist of Sarajevo?" Pause the video and discuss.

So let's look at what some of the Oak students said.

Laura liked that the cellist seems to find comfort through playing the cello, despite his chaotic and devastating surroundings.

Jacob disliked that the writer plays with time so much.

For him, it takes away from the gravity of the main attack during the siege.

I wonder if you liked or disliked similar things.

Now, let's unpick Laura's statement to help us form our own opinions on the text.

So Laura liked that the cellist seems to find comfort through playing the cello, despite his chaotic and devastating surroundings.

I want you to discuss what do you think the cello symbolises? Do you think Galloway's inclusion of the cello is important? And why? And would any other object have had the same impact? Pause the video and discuss those three questions there now.

Off you go.

So perhaps you said that the cello could symbolise hope or beauty or joy.

Galloway's inclusion of the cello could be important because it allows the cellist to escape from his devastating surroundings.

And it also allows the reader to understand that there's more to the cellist life than just being a victim of war.

It allows us to connect with the true essence of his character.

And would any other object have had the same effect? Well, to answer that question, we need to consider why Galloway used a musical instrument.

Potentially, a musical instrument represents something very powerful because of the joy that it could bring, because of the way that it could create harmony in the city.

Because of the soothing effect of music.

So potentially, no object would've had the same effect, but you may have had a different opinion.

You may have thought that actually if the cellist was not a cellist, but painter and a canvas and a paintbrush may have had the same impact because potentially anything that produces art may have had the same impact in the opening.

Again, everyone's gonna have different opinions on those three questions, and that's okay.

Now, in order to successfully evaluate what type of response do we need to form? Pause the video and answer that question there to check your understanding of what we've talked about.

Off you go.

In order to successfully evaluate, we need to form a personal and critical response to a text.

So what that means is we need to read a text and observe our own feelings and thoughts towards it.

What initially pops into our mind that will help us form a personal response? And then we need to use that personal response to judge the text to say what is done well.

And that's when we know we formed a critical response.

We need to form a personal and critical response in order to successfully evaluate.

Now, I want you to answer the following questions to express your opinions on Galloway's use of time in "The Cellist of Sarajevo." Here are your four questions to answer.

Number one, Galloway repeats the description of the bomb falling three times.

Do you think this is impactful? Why or why not? Number two, Galloway uses two flashbacks.

One to 1945 and one to the cellist's sister's wedding.

Which do you think is more powerful? Number three, is the writer's use of future tense when describing the cellist's reaction to the bomb powerful? Why or why not? And number four, when it comes to conveying the gravity of the attack during the siege, which is the most powerful section of the extract? There are your four questions to discuss.

They are really going to enable you to form a critical response to Galloway's use of time in this extract.

Pause the video and get answering now.

Off you go.

Some brilliant ideas.

Well done for being confident enough to express your opinions.

Here is Aisha's response to question two about Galloway's use of flashbacks.

So Aisha was asked, which flashback is the most powerful? She said, "Galloway's flashback to the cellist's sister's wedding is more powerful than the flashback to 1945.

I believe this because the former flashback is more intimate, sharing details of the cellist's relationship, making us feel more connected with him and allowing us to feel a greater sense of regret knowing that war disrupted his precious family bonds.

The flashback to 1945 has quite a lot of information and technical language, which means it doesn't stand out or speak to me as much." Now, to what extent did your opinion align with Aisha's? Did you agree that the cellist's sister's wedding flashback is more powerful? Or did you think that the flashback to 1945 where the manuscript is discovered is more powerful? Pause the video and reflect upon your own opinion now.

Comparing and discussing your opinions on a text with other people can really help you to solidify your opinion and justify it.

Now, let's move on to developing evaluative comments.

One way to evaluate a text is by commenting on where feelings and/or ideas are particularly strong or weak in a text.

And one way to do this is by using superlatives.

Superlatives are words used to express the highest or lowest quality of something.

For example, the most, the least, or the something-est.

Let's have a look at what this might sound like them.

Arguably, the most powerful feeling in Galloway's narrative is the sense of inevitability of disastrous events.

Or I think the most compelling reason that the cellist plays his cello for 22 days is his defiance.

So there we have two sentences that use the superlative most.

To say that there is no more powerful feeling or no more compelling reason for each of those things happening.

Now, let's check your understanding of superlatives.

Which of these sentences does not include a superlative? I'll read the sentences with you, a, the most emotive part of the text is when Galloway describes the cellist's sister's wedding, b, Galloway shows how war leads to destruction and grief, or c, I feel the most sympathy for the cellist when he goes and gets his cello in an almost robotic way.

Pause the video and answer.

Which of the sentences does not include a superlative? Sentence b does not use a superlative.

Sentence b is simply a piece of analysis about the text.

It doesn't make a comment on the quality of the text, whereas sentence a and c both use the superlative most.

Now when writing at evaluative responses, it's also a good idea to use tentative language.

Tentative language puts forward ideas, rather than definite answers.

For example, some tentative verbs are, could, may or might.

And some tentative adverbs are perhaps, maybe, and arguably.

Let's have a look at this in action.

Arguably, the most emotive part of the text is when Galloway describes the cellist's sister's wedding.

And perhaps Galloway evokes the most sympathy for the cellist when he goes and gets his cello in an almost robotic way.

It is really important for us to use tentative language when evaluating texts because we are giving our opinion and our opinion is not a fact.

Our opinion is very much subjective.

That means people can disagree with us.

So it's best to express possibility when we're evaluating a text, rather than certainty.

So let's move on to our practise task now.

In the extract, Galloway manipulates time in many ways, and we've looked at that in the last learning cycle.

In your opinion, which manipulation or description of time is the most powerful? So it's your chance to evaluate Galloway's opening here.

In your response, I want you to include superlatives and tentative language.

I want you to include evidence from the text, and I want you to include analysis of what makes that particular aspect of time powerful.

You have a help box on the right there to help you with using superlatives and tentative language in your response.

Pause the video and get writing.

Off you go.

I'm really impressed by the way that you've used superlatives and tentative language to express your opinion on a text.

It's a really important skill and it's a really complex skill.

The way you've shown confidence in this writing task is really impressive.

Now, I want you to read the Oak pupils' responses.

Can you identify what mistakes they have made when using superlatives? Laura said, "The most saddest part of the extract is the flashback to the cellist's sister's wedding because the writer makes the tender feelings between the cellist and his father very vivid." Sam has said, "Of all the time references, the flashback to 1945 is more powerful as it is the most telling.

It allows the reader an insight into the key theme of hope in the narrative, illuminating the symbolism of the cello.

So pause the video now and reflect what mistakes did Laura and Sam make in their use of superlatives? Pause the video and reflect.

Now, Laura has used a double superlative.

Most is a superlative and saddest is a superlative.

She cannot use those two things together.

She should have written the most sad part of the extract.

Now, let's look at where Sam might have gone wrong.

Sam has said, "Of all the time references, the flashback to 1945 is more powerful," instead of the word more Sam should have used most.

The reason for that is because more suggests that Sam is making a comparison between two things, but he hasn't mentioned any other reference to time.

Therefore, Sam should have used the word most, instead of more.

Now, I want you to reread your own work and identify where you have used superlatives and tentative language.

Pause the video and reflect upon your own work now.

Off you go.

Great job.

I'm really impressed in the way in which you've been able to express your own opinion in today's lesson and the way that you've been able to evaluate a text.

It's a very impressive skill indeed.

Here's what we've learned in today's lesson.

In order to evaluate, we should form a personal and critical response to the text.

In order to form a personal response, we can reflect on how a text made us feel, what stood out, and what we like or dislike.

Each reader can form a different opinion on the same parts of a text.

We can use superlatives to help us express our judgments on a text.

And we can use tentative language to express that our opinions are ideas, not facts.

Thank you so much for joining me in today's lesson where we expressed our personal and critical responses to a text.

I hope you are more confident in evaluating texts, and I hope to see you in another lesson doing some more reading very soon.