Hello there.

Fantastic to see you today.

Thank you so much for joining me in today's lesson as we continue to explore myths, legends, and stories that inspire.

My name is Mr. Barnsley, and I'm really excited to continue reading with you.

We're gonna be looking at extract from a book called, a novel called "The Silence of the Girls" by Pat Barker.

And this was published by Hamish Hamilton.

You are going to need to make sure you've got access to this, the opening.

We're gonna be looking at the opening a few paragraphs in today's lesson.

All right, when you've got access to this, when you've got a copy, then I think it's time for us to begin.

Let's get started.

So let's have a look at today's outcome.

By the end of today's lesson, you are gonna be able to show your understanding of "The Silence of the Girls" through comprehension and annotation.

Some key words to look out for then.

The first two go together really nicely.

First person and perspective.

And when we see those words together, we are talking about a text that's been written from the point of view of a narrator of the story.

This means that we follow the story from one particular character's point of view.

We will expect to see pronouns like I and me.

Other words to look out for are tension and suspense.

We'll be looking at these in the second half of today's lesson.

Tension is what the readers feel when they start to anticipate, they start to feel like something bad is gonna happen.

Suspense is a state that the reader is held in as we wait for some conflict that we're anticipating.

We're anticipating that a certain event or outcome is gonna occur.

And when we're kind of in that waiting stage, we can call that state suspense.

And then annotation.

We'll be doing that as we read the extract in the first half of today's lesson.

And that means to make short notes on or about a text.

Okay, keep it out for these five words in today's lesson and let's get started.

So we are gonna be reading an extract from "The Silence of the Girls," and the focus today is all about understanding the extract.

In the first half of the lesson, we're going to do some reading and annotating.

The annotating, the making notes is gonna really help us make sure we understand the extract.

And then the second half of the lesson, we're gonna show our understanding through discussing tension and suspense in that text.

Okay, so it's time for us to get started by doing some reading and annotating.

Now we are gonna be reading an extract from a novel called "The Silence of the Girls," written by Pat Barker.

And I want to give you a little bit of background information about this novel before we read.

So it's written in the first person.

Okay, so we can see it.

We're seeing it from the first person.

We're following a narrator's point of view.

And the narrator is a woman called Briseis.

Okay? The narrator is a woman called Briseis.

Now Briseis is a character in Greek mythology.

She was given to Achilles after he raided her home city of Lyrnessus.

Now Achilles you may have heard of.

He's a much more famous character in Greek mythology.

He's a handsome brave warrior.

Okay? So you might have heard of Achilles, you might have even looked at Achilles in other lessons, but he's a much, much more famous character in Greek mythology than Briseis is.

Now he is famous, as I said, for being this renowned warrior.

He's also known for having a fight with Agamemnon.

Now Agamemnon was another king in Greek mythology.

And this was a fight is over Briseis.

And when Agamemnon loses to Achilles, he is forced to give Briseis over to Achilles.

So let's pause for a moment, and with that information, let's start to make some predictions and think about the text that we are gonna read.

I want you to think about what might it feel like to be Briseis, okay? How might it feel like to be Briseis in this situation? And then I also want you to think about why do you think Barker might have chosen to write from Briseis' perspective? Like, consider the title of the text in your discussion, "The Silence of the Girls." What do you think? All right, I'm gonna hand over to you for this one.

If you've got a partner, you can be discussing with them.

But don't worry, if you're working by yourself, you can just think through these questions independently and even make some notes if you wish.

Okay, over to you then.

Pause the video.

What might it feel like to Briseis, and why might Barker have chosen to write from her perspective? Pause the video, have a think, have a discuss and press play when you've got some ideas.

Welcome back.

Some really interesting discussions.

Lots of you were talking.

I heard words like injustice and unfair when you were talking about Briseis.

Like, she has been, has no choice in the matter.

She's just given away like she's a possession.

Lots of you, I could hear feeling very frustrated and quite angry at the treatment of Briseis there.

And I really like the link then you made to that from those feelings to why Barker might have chosen to write from Briseis's perspective, and particularly linking that to the title, "The Silence of the Girls." Here we can make some inferences that actually maybe Barker is wanting to give a voice to these characters.

Often the women in Greek mythology who were ignored and the stories were told from their perspectives.

And at this moment we are getting, you are seeing an opportunity to hear from the women, the women whose voices were very often silenced.

Well done if you said something similar.

Some really great discussions there.

So true or false then? Barker called her novel "The Silence of the Girls" because it is told from Achilles' perspective.

Is that true or is that false? Pause the video and have a think and press play when you think you've got the right idea.

Well done if you said that was false.

Now let's justify that.

Is it A, Barker uses her title to criticise the female characters from mythology for not speaking up? Or is it B, Barker uses her title to make a comment on the idea that the female perspective of many Greek myths is often ignored or untold? Which of those do you think feels like the most logical justification? Is it A or B? Pause the video.

Have a think and press play when you think you've got the right answer.

Yes.

Really well done if you said B.

I think we can argue that Barker is using her title to make a comment.

She's making a really specific comment about how women's voices were not heard in many Greek myths.

They're often ignored or just not told at all.

Okay, so the extract we are gonna read today is taken from the opening of the novel.

Now here the Greeks are attacking Lyrnessus.

Now Briseis along with other women and children is confined to a building in the city for her protection.

Now Ismene, a woman who has been enslaved by Briseis' husband, Mynes, is with her.

So we're not just hearing from the perspective of, well, we are hearing from the perspective of Briseis, but she's accompanied by another woman, Ismene.

All right, that's a little bit more context.

Before we get started, I want you to match each character in "The Silence of the Girls" to what we know about them.

So I've given you some background information, some background information to this mythology.

I want you to make sure before we start, we can match everyone up.

So I want you to tell me what you know about Briseis, Ismene, Achilles, Mynes, and Agamemnon.

All right, pause the video, see if you can do some matching and press play when you think you've got the right answers.

Okay, welcome back.

Let's see how you got on there.

So Briseis we know is the narrator.

She's royalty in Lyrnessus.

We've got Ismene, and she is enslaved.

So we know she's been enslaved.

Achilles is a renowned warrior.

He's a famous warrior.

Mynes is married to Briseis, and Agamemnon is the king.

Well done if you've got all of those correct.

Okay, so we are gonna be reading and to help us show our understanding and make sure we're understanding the text, we're gonna do some annotating.

Remember annotating is making brief notes on the extract.

So I'm gonna remind you how to annotate.

You may have done some annotation before.

If you haven't, if this is your first time, then you're gonna want to read all these really carefully.

If not, it's always good for us to do a reminder.

So one thing we can do is circle the most important vocabulary.

So for example, these might be words that describe our key characters.

They might be words that we don't recognise as well, and words that we want to kind of go back to and clarify.

So key words we want to circle.

We can then underline any other words or phrases.

So these might not be the ones that we feel are the most important, but they're still worthwhile us revisiting.

So it could be when we learn something really specific about a character we might want to underline that word or phrase.

Now, square brackets is to remind us, draw our attention back to full sentences that we think are really quite important.

So for example, when Briseis realises her life is about to change, that might feel like a really important sentence that we might want to come back to later.

So we want to put square brackets around this to remind us where it was.

Now we use a star for, like, the most important sections of a text, the most important ideas.

So if we think something really, we say, actually this feels like the most important part of this page, or this paragraph, I'm gonna put a star there to remind me where it is, to remind me I can come back to it.

And finally, we write notes in the margin or, you know, we just make some notes on the side of the text about key ideas or inferences.

So this is specifically things that aren't said explicitly in the text where it may be where we've had to do some reading between the lines.

And we want to remind ourselves about those ideas that we've had.

Okay, so if you haven't done any annotating before, I would suggest you pause the video now and read through each of these again.

If you have, and this was just a nice reminder, then I think it's time for us to move on.

Okay, so we are going to be doing some reading and annotating as our first practise task today.

So I'm gonna hand over to you to read the first paragraph of chapter one of "The Silence of the Girls." Remember I said you are gonna need a copy of this novel to be able, or access a copy of the opening of this novel to be able to access this lesson.

So you're gonna read paragraph one of chapter one, and this starts on paragraph three.

The final word of the paragraph is butcher.

So when you get to that word, you want to stop.

All right, pause the video, handing over to you now just to read that first paragraph.

Okay, we'll read that first paragraph and then we'll practise some annotation together.

All right, over to you.

Read by yourself or in a small group if you've got some people to work with, read paragraph one, chapter one.

Pause the video, do some reading and press play when you are ready to continue.

Some fantastic reading there.

Really well done.

Now we are gonna continue reading shortly, but I just want us to watch Alex do some annotating and explain his ideas just to check we all feel really confident about how we annotate a text.

So looking at the first paragraph, Alex underlined the word butcher, because it actually really highlights how violent Achilles is.

He also underlined the phrase that described Achilles' great reputation.

He put square brackets around the sentence, which describes how the women in Lyrnessus view Achilles.

He thought this was a really important sentence that he might want to revisit.

So he put a star next to the idea that the women in Lyrnessus never say good things about Achilles.

Okay, this might seem really interesting particularly in other ways that Achilles has been presented in potentially some other stories as this warrior.

And any notes, let's think of the notes that Alex made, the key inferences.

Well, he wrote that Barker shows that Achilles is someone to be feared.

He also wrote that Briseis's voice has traditionally not been heard.

So Achilles' good reputation is the one that is remembered.

That's really interesting, isn't it? That actually when we hear all these stories from Achilles' point perspective, he's presented as a hero, a warrior, someone brave and noble.

But actually by flipping this and seeing this from Briseis's voice, a voice that we are not used to hearing, we're actually seeing a side to Achilles that we might not be used to when we hear other versions of Greek mythology.

All right, it's over to you now to continue doing some reading annotating independently.

So I want you to read "The Silence of the Girls" from the beginning of the novel to the end of paragraph two.

And that is on page five.

It finishes with the word now.

And then I want you to annotate as you go.

Remember you can circle key vocabulary, underline words and phrases, use square brackets for important sentences, stars next to the most important ideas, and then write any additional notes or inferences that you want to make.

All right, over to you.

Pause the video, give this a go and press play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

Some fantastic reading there.

It was great to see you reading the text so carefully and making all of those notes to really help you remember and check your understanding of what you've been reading.

Okay, we're gonna take a moment before we move on to reflect on the annotations we've made.

We're gonna do that by looking at some of the annotations that Alex made and then making some comparisons to those that we made as well.

So Alex said he circled the words butcher and inhuman because they both are used to describe Achilles.

He also underlined the simile, which describes the sound of Achilles yelling.

It compared Achilles to a wolf.

He put square brackets around the sentences which described Briseis's life in Lyrnessus.

He also put a star next to the idea that Briseis hears Achilles before she sees him.

And he wrote that Briseis's feelings of fear increase as the extract develops.

At the end, she seems to realise that she is about to be enslaved.

Right, why don't we take a moment to reflect on the annotations that you have written.

If you've got a partner you can discuss with them, you can share some of the most important annotations that you think you made.

If you are working by yourself, you can just compare yours to Alex's and you can think, okay, what were the most important annotations that I made? All right, pause the video, take a moment to reflect on the work that you have done, the annotations that you made so far, and press play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

So you've done some excellent reading and annotating so far.

This is really starting to help us understand the extract that we've read.

But now we're gonna really prove that by showing that we can talk about tension and suspense in this extract.

That's really gonna help us show that we've understood what we've read.

So writers create tension and suspense in their writing to engage the reader, to keep us engaged.

So tension is what we, the readers feel when we start to anticipate, when we start to expect something bad is going to happen.

We might anticipate a conflict or a particular event or some kind of outcome.

But it's this feeling when we think, okay, I expect something is gonna happen here.

And yeah, it's making me feel very tense.

Now, suspense is the state that we are left in as we are waiting.

So whenever we're waiting for this, as the tension rises and we're waiting for something to happen that we're anticipating, that means that we're being kind of held in this state of suspense.

So Barker we know creates feelings of tension and suspense throughout.

At the start of the extract, she presents Achilles as a brutal and arrogant character, and that creates tension, okay? To think of this brutal and arrogant character, we're thinking, okay, and what's he going to do? We're held in this sense, state of suspense, because Barker describes the journey of Briseis and the other women who are away from the fighting.

Okay, so we know that there's this brutal character who's been introduced, but we're in suspense because actually we are following the perspective of the women.

The tension begins to increase as Barker describes the noises that the women can hear, and they start to realise that brutal punishments await them.

And the extracts leaves us, it ends with the reader in a state of suspense because we, like Briseis, realise that there is a terrible future that awaits her.

But we're not exactly sure what that future may be.

So Alex and Sophia, two of our eight pupils, discuss these moments of tension and suspense.

Alex says, "Arguably a powerful moment of suspense is when the young boys are pretending to fight the Greeks.

They're only little, and you suddenly realise that the people in the tower are completely defenceless just waiting to meet their fate." Sophia says, "For me, the moment of highest tension are the descriptions of Achilles.

You know he's coming for Briseis, and he's described as being a wolf, inhuman and a butcher.

All of these present him as a terrifying and cruel invader." What I want you to do now is skim and scan the extract from "The Silence of the Girls" and discuss where and how does Barker create tension and suspense.

Okay, if you've got a partner, I think you can do this in pairs.

But don't worry, if you're working by yourself, you can just reread through this extract and try and find the bits that really stand out to you as creating tension and suspense and start to think to yourself, like, how? All right, pause the video.

Over to you for this.

And press play when you are ready to continue.

All right, welcome back.

Let's check to see how you got on there in that activity.

Which of these moments do you think from "The Silence of the Girls" are examples of Barker creating tension and suspense? Is it A, when Briseis describes her journey as a holiday? Is it B, when Briseis says that she has always been kind to Ismene? Or is it C, when Briseis describes the noises of the battle her countrymen are losing? A, B, or C? Pause the video.

Select a response and press play when you think you have the answer.

Yes, really well done If you said C.

There is tension and suspense here because Briseis can hear, but she doesn't know what is happening.

She doesn't know for sure, but there is this impending sense of anticipation that her countrymen are losing, and therefore she is about to be enslaved.

And this creates both tension and leaves us and the characters in a state of suspense.

Okay, over to you then for our final task in today's lesson.

Alex has made the following statement.

"Barker creates tension and suspense in the opening of 'The Silence of the Girls.

'" I want you to show your understanding of this extract by proving Alex's statement is true.

You're gonna do that by selecting and explaining evidence from the extract from "The Silence of the Girls" from page one to the end of paragraph two on page five.

I've done one example for you.

So Alex wrote, "Through her description of Achilles as a butcher, this opening suggests that we are going to see some brutality in the text." All right, over you.

You're gonna need a copy of "The Silence of the Girls" in front of you from the beginning to the end of paragraph two on page five.

All right, as much evidence as you can find, prove Alex's statement is true.

Pause the video, give it a go and press play when you're ready to continue.

Really well done.

Fantastic to see you looking so carefully for evidence and really, like, evaluating which evidence was the most worthwhile, okay? We didn't wanna just put every word down, and it was great to see you kind of weighing up whether it was valuable evidence, and that shows a really good understanding of the text.

So here is one of Sophia's ideas.

She wrote, "When Barker uses a long sentence to describe the sounds of the battle, which get louder, and the women can hear the hammering on the gates, the invaders are getting closer and thus tension increases." Okay, let's check.

Did Sophia use evidence? Yes, she did.

She talks about a long sentence.

She used individual words, louder and hammering.

Does she talk about, explain how this creates tension? She said "Yes, because the invaders are getting closer, tension increases." So she uses one of those keywords, tension or suspense, and that really helps develop her explanation.

Right, I want you to now look at your mind map, look at the ideas that you came up with, and I want you to ensure each of your ideas meets the checklist.

You've got some clear evidence, and you're using keywords, tension and suspense to explain, okay? Pause the video, reflect on the work that you've done, and press play when you're ready to continue.

All right, that's it.

We've reached the end of today's lesson.

You have done some fantastic work today at reading and understanding the extract from "The Silence of the Girls." On the screen, we've got a summary of the key learning that we've covered in today's lesson.

Let's quickly go through that together to check that you're feeling really confident before you move on to your next lesson.

So we've learned that Briseis is a character from Greek mythology.

She is given to Achilles, a renowned warrior, as a prize of war.

Pat Barker wrote "The Silence of the Girls" from the first person perspective of Briseis.

The novel begins with Briseis in her home city of Lyrnessus which is under attack from the Greeks.

Barker creates tension and suspense through the descriptions of Achilles, the battle and hints about Briseis's future.

And when annotating a text, you can use a range of symbols and notes to help develop an understanding of the text's ideas.

Fantastic work.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

I do hope to see you again in one of our lessons in the future.

Have a great day with the rest of your day, however you choose to spend it.

And I will see you all soon.

Bye bye.