Hello, everyone.

Welcome to today's lesson.

My name's Dr.

Clayton.

I'm gonna be guiding you through a learning journey today.

Today's lesson's called Developing Reading Skills and Personal Responses to Non-Fiction Texts.

And what we're going to do over the course of the lesson is think about what questions you can ask about non-fiction texts in order to make predictions about them, but also to understand what the writer is saying and how you feel about the views or information within the text.

So if you're ready, grab your pen, laptop, whatever you're using for this lesson, and let's get started.

So by the end of the lesson, you'll be able to make predictions about two unseen non-fiction texts and develop a personal response to them.

So we have five words today we're gonna be using as our keywords.

They're identified in bold throughout the learning material, and I'll try to point them out to you as well so you can see them being used in context.

So our first keyword is non-fiction, and this means prose writing that's informative or factual rather than fictional.

We're going to spend our first learning cycle conceptualising non-fiction and think about why we should analyse non-fiction texts.

Our second keyword is predict, which means to say or estimate a specific thing will happen in the future or be a consequence of something.

We're going to be thinking about what questions we can ask of non-fiction texts in order to make predictions from the information given to us in the title.

Our third keyword is prose, and this means written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure.

So when we say that non-fiction's prose writing, we mean it's written in its ordinary form.

Our fourth keyword is informative, which means providing useful, interesting information.

So when we talk about non-fiction being informative, we mean it provides you with useful information.

Our final keyword is personal response, which means a reflection on one's thoughts, feelings, and opinions on a particular topic or a piece of literature.

We're going to be thinking about what questions you can ask to develop a personal response to a text.

So I'll just give you a moment to write down those keywords and their definitions.

So pause the video, and write them down now.

Fantastic.

Let's get started with the lesson.

So we have three learning cycles in our lesson today.

For our first learning cycle, we're gonna be forming ideas about non-fiction texts and think about what questions we might ask in order to try to understand them, but also think about why it's important to interrogate and analyse non-fiction texts.

For our second learning cycle, we're going to apply our questions to a non-fiction text in order to make predictions about it and then consider how we might develop a personal response to the text.

For our third learning cycle, we're going to use those same skills to a second non-fiction text, and this time will be more independent work, rather us talking through it step by step together.

So as I said, today we're going to be reading and considering a couple of non-fiction texts.

So let's start by defining what non-fiction is and how it's different to fiction.

So non-fiction means prose writing that's informative or factual rather than fictional.

And fiction means literature in the form of prose that describes imaginary events and people.

Now, given that non-fiction is informative or factual, so it gives information rather than tells a story, we might be tempted to think we should take it at face value and not really have a personal response to it.

However, this lesson is really going to interrogate how we can understand and analyse non-fiction and why it's important that we do so.

Now, when we're approaching a fictional text for the first time, we might ask the following questions.

Who is the writer? When was the text written? What genre is it? Now, genre means what type of text it is.

So for fiction, we might talk about the fantasy genre or the historical fiction genre as a way of categorising the text.

We also might ask what we can predict about the text based on the title.

Now I always like to approach a text by asking questions 'cause I think it can take away some of the intimidation of staring at a text and not knowing how to start.

But I also think it brings us back to what I think is the core of studying text, which is developing a questioning and curious attitude about the world around us.

Now, what I'd like you to think about is which of those questions do you think are relevant to non-fiction? So, remember that non-fiction is writing that's informative or factual.

Which of those questions do you think applies? Now, if going through this with someone else, you might talk over ideas together.

And for those by yourself, you might just think over ideas.

So pause the video.

Take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back, everyone.

Now like our Oak pupil, Izzy, you might have thought that all of those questions are relevant.

Asking questions about the writer, the time period, the genre, and the title are all ways we might start to approach a non-fiction text, just as we do fiction.

The only difference is that in non-fiction, we're asking questions about whether it's an article or a letter, for example, in terms of genre.

Now, I'd like to take a moment to think about, now, is how we might start to differentiate a little bit and think about what other questions we might might ask of a non-fiction text that we might not necessarily ask of fiction.

Pause the video.

Take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back, everyone.

Some fantastic discussions, there.

And you might have thought that asking questions about the audience is important to non-fiction, because how we relay information depends on who we're giving the information to.

We might also ask questions about where it's published.

Now, this is not to say these questions aren't at all relevant to fiction, but I think we might argue they're more relevant to non-fiction because of the greater differentiation in non-fiction publication sources than fiction.

We're more likely to be able to understand a non-fiction text based on which newspaper it's published in, for example, rather than think about which publishing house has chosen to publish a fictional text.

Now for a quick check for understanding.

So, which question is missing from our list? Who is the writer? When was the text written? What can we predict about the text based on the title? Who is the audience? And where is it published? Pause the video.

Take a few moments to consider which question is missing.

The correct answer is what genre is it? Asking this question for both non-fiction and fiction is really useful because it helps to see how a text is meeting or subverting the conventions of that genre.

Now we can understand meaning from that.

So, very well done if you got that right.

Now I want to spend just a bit more time on these questions so we really understand why they're important to ask and what they might reveal about a text.

So what I'd like you to do is think about how these questions might help us to understand a non-fiction text.

So why am I asking who the writer is, when the text was written, what genre the text is, what we can predict about the title, who the audience is, and where is it published? How do these questions help us understand a non-fiction text? Pause the video.

Take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's talk through what you might have said.

So, asking questions about who the writer is allows us to consider their characteristics and their personal context and how that might help us understand their perspective.

Asking when the text was written offers social, political, and cultural context.

We can then compare the text to normalised ideas of the time, and that again helps us to see the perspective of the writer.

Asking questions of the genre, so for example if the text is a letter, a speech, an article, or an opinion piece, might offer us information about who the audience is and what the purpose of the text is.

Now, the title's always important to consider, because our first impression of a text.

It's designed to attract an audience.

So asking questions of the title helps to understand how the writer wanted the text to be perceived.

Asking questions of the audience helps to think about who the writer wanted to reach with their information and why that might be.

And finally, asking about the publication might offer us information about who the audience is and what the reach of the text is.

So for example, thinking about a specific journal or newspaper might tell us about the likely audience of the piece.

And now for a quick check for understanding.

So what I'd like you to do is tell me whether the following statement is true or false.

So, is it true or false that considering who the writer is might help us understand a non-fiction text? Pause the video.

Take a few moments to consider.

The correct answer is true.

Now I'd like you to tell me why it's true.

So pause the video.

Take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back, everyone.

You might have said that considering characteristics such as the age or sex of the writer might help us to understand their perspective.

If we know anything about their personal context, that also might help us understand why or how they see the world in a certain way.

So, very well done if you got those right.

Amazing work so far, everyone.

For the first task of the lesson, I'd like us to pause for a moment and really think about the why question behind what we're doing.

So, the definition of a non-fiction text is prose writing that's informative or factual rather than fictional.

Since non-fiction by definition is informative or factual, we might be tempted to think we don't need to analyse non-fiction in the same way that we do fiction.

What I'd like you to think about is why do you think it's important to analyse non-fiction texts? I think this why question is so important because it underpins the purpose of our lesson.

But I also think it's such an important question to ask in general, to really think about how the world works and what our place in the world is.

So pause the video.

Take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back, everyone.

There's some great discussions there.

And it was interesting to hear people say that sometimes they don't think to ask why they're doing something, they just do it because they've been told to do it.

And I really want to encourage you to take ownership of your learning and always think about that why question.

Now, in terms of non-fiction text, let's take a look what two of our Oak pupils said.

So Laura said, "I think it's vital we understand who is offering us factual information and analyse why they might be trying offer us those particular facts." And Izzy said, "Yes, analysing how information is presented to us helps determine what the intentions behind the text are.

There's always an element of bias or purpose in non-fiction." Now, I'd like you to pause for a moment.

Consider how well Laura and Izzy's ideas align with your ideas.

So pause the video.

Take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back, everyone.

Now, I'd actually argue it's potentially more important to analyse non-fiction texts because they're supposedly telling us factual information about the world.

We want to interrogate not only what they're telling us, but also why they're telling us that.

How do they want to influence how we see the world based on how they're presenting us information? Fantastic work so far, everyone.

For the second learning cycle, we're going to apply some of our questions from the first learning cycle to a non-fiction text, and think about how we can develop a personal response to it.

So before we look at the text, let's just remind ourselves of how we might approach and respond to a non-fiction text.

So we might ask the following questions.

Who is the writer? When was the text written? What genre is it? What can we predict about the text based on the title? Who's the audience? And where is it published? So our first non-fiction text is "My Struggle with a Tiger" by Charles Jamrach in "The Boy's Own Paper," volume one, number three.

It was published on February the first, 1879.

Now, we're going to focus on the title and the information provided us for a moment.

And I'd like you to answer the following questions.

So, who is the writer? When was the text written? What genre is it? What can we predict about the text based on the title? Who's the audience? And where is it published? Now, if you're working through this with someone else, you might talk over ideas together.

If doing this by yourself, you might just think about your ideas.

So pause the video.

Take a few moments to answer the questions.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's talk through what you might have said.

So the writer is Charles Jamrach.

It was written in 1879.

In terms of genre, the title says "my," so we know it's a first person experience, and that's just a personal article about Jamrach's own experience.

In terms of the title, it's just a personal story involving a wild animal, so perhaps some sort of adventure, especially because it says a "struggle," which implies some sort of threat or journey.

In terms of the audience of publication, the newspaper title is "Boy's Own Paper," and that suggests a youthful, male audience.

So now we have the answers to our questions.

We want to think about how we can interpret this information and how it might help us understand the text.

So pause the video.

Think about how the information that it's a personal story about a tiger published for a youthful, male audience by a male writer in 1879 might help us understand or interpret the article.

Welcome back, everyone.

Now, some of you may have been able to draw on contextual information you know from other lessons or texts to make the connection between the Victorian period and how men were supposed to act.

Reputation was everything in the Victorian period.

Therefore, we might suggest there's a certain perception of himself the writer would want to give, especially because he's writing a story to an audience of young men.

So he'll not only want to influence how they perceive him, but also perhaps shape what they should aspire to be.

So as Laura says, perhaps he'll want to portray himself as brave to enhance his own reputation, but also suggest to young men they too should want to be brave.

Now, as well as making predictions and asking questions about text in order to help us understand it, we also want to think about developing a personal response to text.

Before we do that, though, I again want us to think about that why question.

Why do you think reflecting on our own thoughts or emotions regarding a non-fiction text is important? Pause the video.

Take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back, everyone.

Some fantastic ideas, there.

As our Oak pupil Izzy says, "Our reaction to a non-fiction text helps us to situate it within our personal context and view of the world, and then we can start thinking about how the writer has presented information in this way to elicit this sort of reaction." I always think it's important to take a moment to think to yourself about why you respond to a text in a certain way.

And I want to emphasise, you don't have to have a positive reaction, because we all have our own emotions and memories that we bring to our reading.

Once we've taken a moment to reflect on our response, we can then start to think about how and why the writer might have wanted to create that response in us.

Now for another quick check for understanding.

What I'd like you to tell me is whether the following statement is true or false.

So, is it true or false that considering your personal response to a non-fiction text is an unimportant detail? Pause the video.

Take a few moments to consider.

The correct answer is false.

Now I'd like you to tell me why it's false.

So, why is our personal response important? Pause the video.

Take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back, everyone.

You might have said, "Our personal responses to texts are really important because it helps to see the text through a lens of our personal context and understand how and why it fits to our view of the world." So now we're going to consider how we respond to Jamrach's article and create a personal response.

Now, in order to develop our personal response, we're gonna consider the following questions.

What is the view of the writer? Do I share the same view? What ideas do I think are important to remember? How does this text relate to my own experiences in life and world events? Does this text cause me to see the world differently? Now, what we're gonna do is talk through the first paragraph together to get a sense of how you might approach the text.

So pause the video, and let's talk through it together.

Okay, so let's read through the first paragraph together, and see how we might start to answer those questions.

Develop our personal response.

"It's now a good many years ago, when one morning a van-load of wild beasts.

." Okay, so I'm gonna pause there, and highlight that phrase for two reasons.

So, I think the word wild, to me, suggests that he's acknowledging that they are from somewhere different.

He's bringing them somewhere unnatural.

And I think the word beast is really important because it suggests they're dangerous, but it also suggests this real distinction between humans and animals.

And I think in modern day society we've, perhaps, blurred those lines a little bit.

I think we're more sympathetic to animals, and we see them as having a consciousness.

We see them as having feelings rather than being a big distinction between humans and animals.

"Which I had bought the previous day from a captain in the London Docks, who brought them from the East Indies." Now, I think this is quite interesting, here, because it suggests that he's focusing more on where they come from, rather than what the animals actually are.

So perhaps he cares more about them being from somewhere different rather than what the animals actually are.

"Arrived at my repository in Bett Street, St.

George's in-the-East." Okay, so calling it a repository suggests that this is something he's done before.

So perhaps suggests that he is very open to the idea of animals in captivity because he, himself, owns lots of animals in captivity.

"I myself superintended the unloading of the animals, and had given directions to my men to place a den containing a very ferocious full-grown Bengal tiger, with its iron-barred front close against the wall." Okay, so I'm just gonna highlight iron-barred, here, because again, I think this really highlights a difference between, perhaps, Victorian and modern attitudes towards animals.

You know, he is focused on keeping this animal contained, and he's focused on keeping it in an environment that doesn't, perhaps, feel particularly pleasant for the tiger.

And I think nowadays we're much more aware of things such as enrichment, and we're much more aware that if animals are going to be in captivity, we have to make it as if the environments feel homely to them.

So I can already see a difference between my view of the world and Jamrach's view of the world, because I think my view towards the animals is much more sympathetic than what he seems to be initially portraying.

So now that we've talked through the first paragraph together, I'd like you to read and respond to the rest of the article.

So you'll find a copy of Charles Jamrach's "My Struggle with a Tiger" in the additional materials, and I'd like you to read the rest of the article.

Once you've read it, I'd like you to answer the following questions to develop your personal response.

So, what is the view of the writer? Do I share the same view? What ideas do I think are important to remember? How does this text relate to my own experiences in life and world events? Does this text cause me to see the world differently? So pause the video.

Take a few minutes to read the rest of the article and answer the questions.

Welcome back, everyone.

I hope you enjoyed reading the article and seeing how you felt about it.

I think we're likely to have some different responses to the article, which is great, because literature is all about having individual moments of reflection and thinking about how it resonates with you as a person.

Now, I'm gonna share the responses of one about Oak pupils, Izzy, and I'd like you to think about how well her ideas align with your ideas.

So, what is the view of the writer? "I think he thinks that animals should be kept in cages for people to look at and be subdued by force if necessary." Do I share the same view? "No, I don't think animals should be kept in cages for people's entertainment." What ideas do I think are important to remember? "For me, I think the idea of the animal trying to get out and then it being physically forced back into the cage is important to remember." How does this text relate to my own experience in life and world events? "I think it relates to wider conversations around animals in captivity." Does this text cause me to see the world differently? "I don't necessarily think it causes me to see the world differently, but I do think it's a reminder of how unnatural it is to keep animals in cages." So pause the video.

Think about how well Izzy's ideas align with your ideas.

Welcome back, everyone.

Now, I think the subject of animals inspires some very emotional, very different reactions in people, particularly issues around captivity and whether animals should be kept in zoos, for example.

So it's amazing to see people responding in such a mature and empathetic way to other people's ideas.

Fantastic work so far, everyone.

Onto our third learning cycle.

We're going to look at our second article, but this time I'm going to let you work through it in a more independent way.

So we've talked through the questions you might ask about a article's title throughout this lesson.

I'd like you to apply those questions to our second article, which is called "Gorilla Recaptured After Escape from London Zoo." A reminder, our questions are who is the writer? When was it written? What genre is it? What can we predict about the text based on the title? Who is the audience? Where is it published? Pause the video.

Take a few moments to answer the questions.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's talk through what you might've said.

So, the writer is Kevin Rawlinson.

It was written in 2016.

The fact the subtitle says "reportedly" shows this is the third hand account of the instant.

The article's an informative article, meaning it's reported by the writer rather than being experienced by the writer.

An animal has been recaptured after escape.

Now, we're drawing on the fact this is published in a national newspaper, "The Guardian," which suggests the audience is the general public rather than a specific target audience.

Now, just as we did with our first non-fiction text, I want us to take a moment to think about what that information might tell us about the text, how it might help us understand it.

So pause the video.

Take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back, everyone.

Now, here it's all about thinking about which information offers us relevant clues.

In our first non-fiction article, the fact it was a male writer seemed important because of the timeframe.

Here, though, I'm not sure we'd say the sex of the writer seems the most important detail.

As our Oak pupil Izzy says, the date of the article seems very important, because being a recent article, it perhaps suggests a more sympathetic view to how we treat animals.

The genre of the article also seems very important because "the fact it was reported makes it seem as if the writer has a less personal, emotional investment in the story; however, the fact that it's in a national newspaper suggests they'll want to make it dramatic in some way to make people engage with it and buy the newspaper." Now for a quick check for understanding.

So which of the following piece of information implies the writer may want to make the article feel more dramatic? So, A, the fact it was written in 2016; B, the fact it was written by a man; or C, the fact it was written in a national newspaper.

Pause the video.

Make your selection now.

The correct answer is C, a national newspaper.

Always remember that newspapers are designed to make money, so they want you to buy them and read the stories, therefore they're inclined to make it seem as if the stories are more dramatic or interesting.

So, very well done if you got that right.

Amazing work, everyone.

We're now to the final task of the lesson.

Now, just as we did in the second learning cycle, I want you to think about what your personal response to the article is.

There's a copy of Kevin Rawlinson's article in the additional materials.

I'd like you to first read the article and then answer the following questions to develop a personal response.

So, what is the view of the writer? Do I share the same view? What ideas do I think are important to remember? How does this text relate to my experiences in life and world events? Does this text cause me to see the world differently? So pause the video, read the article, and answer the questions now.

Welcome back, everyone.

So, now that you've gathered your personal response to the text, I'd like you to share your ideas with a peer and consider the following questions.

So, did you have the same view about the subject matter? Why do you think your views might have been similar or different? Did you have similar or different opinions on which ideas are important to remember? Why do you think that might be? Did you both have the same opinion on whether you think the text caused you to see the world differently? Why or why not? Pause the video.

Consider the task now.

Welcome back, everyone.

I know it can feel daunting to share your thoughts with someone else, but I also think it's incredibly valuable because it helps to understand the world through someone else's eyes, and that will lead to a place of understanding and empathy, where we can respect and understand each other.

You all did amazingly well today, everyone.

Here's a summary of what we covered.

Asking questions about the writer and the time of publication can help us understand the perspective of the writer.

Asking questions about the genre, audience, and publication can help us understand the writer's intentions.

Analysing non-fiction's important because helps understand why information is being offered to us in a certain way.

Developing a personal response is important because it helps to see how the text fits with our worldview.

I really hope you enjoyed the lesson, everyone.

I hope to see you for another lesson soon.

Goodbye.

(mouse clicks).