Lesson video

Hi, it's me, Ms. Henman.

I am so excited to be teaching you.

We are going to carry on with our learning, which is about the song, 'London is the place for me'.

Are you ready? Let's get learning.

Okay, let's go through our agenda for today.

First, we're going to revise what we learned previously.

Then we're going to consider the tone of the song, and finally, we are going to consider the purpose and the audience of this song.

If you don't have these things, can you pause the video and go and get them? If your brain's not warmed up yet, maybe have a little stretch, get some oxygen in by having a yawn or maybe having a glass of water and then let's get ready to learn.

Okay, my first question is who wrote the song? Ms. Henman, Clement Attlee, the prime minister in 1948, Aldwyn Roberts or Lord Kitchener.

Who wrote the song that we are studying? Have a little time to think.

Do you think you know? Let's see.

It was a trick.

Why have I selected two names? Can you remember? I do.

Lord Kitchener was this man's stage name that he performed under, but Aldwyn Roberts is the name that he was given at birth by his parents.

So he has two names, but he is famous under the name Lord Kitchener.

So who was Lord Kitchener? Got some options here for you.

Can you read them? 'The grand master of calypso', an officer in the army, a famous poet who was born in Trinidad and immigrated to England from Jamaica, a famous musician who was born in Trinidad and immigrated to England from Jamaica.

What do you think? Let's have a look.

Again two.

So I didn't tell you this last time, but he is referred to 'the grand master of calypso'.

And that is why he's got these inverted commas, around that phrase because it's what other people refer to Lord Kitchener as.

He was also a famous musician, who was born in Trinidad and immigrated to England from Jamaica, not a famous poet.

But remember, we can describe him as an author because he did write the lyrics.

Okay, when did he, Lord Kitchener, write 'London is the place for me'? During World War Two, before arriving in England, the day he arrived England or after moving to London.

When did he write it? You got an answer? Let's have a look.

Oh yeah, he wrote it before arriving in England, which is confusing because it's written from the perspective of someone who's already spent time in England.

Thinking time.

When was this song written? Pause the video, have a think.

Can you remember a date? Okay, let's find out.

It was definitely written in the past.

When in the past though? Well, let's have a look.

Okay, I've got a little bit of a timeline here.

You can see on the left hand side, is the first thing that happened on this timeline.

1912, the Titanic boat sank.

Then in the middle, I've got 1948, which is the year the National Health Service, the NHS was established or founded.

And then the final thing I've got is in 1966.

What does it say? Yeah, that was the last time we won the World Cup.

Gosh, okay.

So your task, it's to have a look at those four events that I've put at the bottom of the timeline.

So 1953, Elizabeth II becomes queen, 1939 to 1945 World War II.

Also, we've got the dates of World War I and the day that George V becomes king.

And that all jumbled up, they're not in the correct order.

So the three dates at the top are in chronological order, that means time order, and they're in the right chronological order.

But the four dates at the bottom, they've all become jumbled.

Do you think you can pause the video and draw your own timeline and put all seven of those events, in the correct logical order.

Off you go.

So this is what your timeline should look like.

Now, when was this song written? We know it was written after World War II.

Can you remember? Well done.

It was written in 1948, which is the same year that the NHS was founded, that is when the Windrush boat sailed from Jamaica to England.

Seems quite interesting, but in the same year, the English government asked people who live in the colonies for help and also are trying to establish a government that looks after its people with the National Health Service.

It seems like this government really felt, they needed to care for people after World War II, because so much sadness had happened.

Oh, we've got another picture of Lord Kitchener here.

So we are going to relisten to the song.

I want you to listen carefully to the beginning and see if you recognise the bells, enjoy.

♪ London is the place for me ♪ ♪ London this lovely city ♪ ♪ You can go to France or America ♪ ♪ India, Asia or Australia ♪ ♪ But you must come back ♪ Okay, let's think back to our initial impression that we built up previously and build on that.

So which of these are true? Can you pause the video and read the options please? Okay, do you think the song is about moving to London and living there? Is that true? Do you think the song uses rhyme? Do you think the song is unique because it has a mixture of sounds, which usually aren't heard together? Do you think the song has a repeated refrain or phrase? What do you think? Which ones of these are true? All of them.

Let's have a look at why.

The song is about moving to London and living there.

We know that from having read the whole of the song and listened to that first verse.

The song is unique because it has a mixture of sounds, which usually aren't heard together.

What was it that we heard at the very beginning of the song before Lord Kitchener starts singing? Can you remember? It's the bells.

In fact, those are the bells that Big Ben sound.

Big Ben is attached to the houses of parliament, and they're really famous in London.

If you hear those bells, you think London, I know where that is.

So by using them in his song, Lord Kitchener is setting this song in London.

And we've got those sounds of the bells, but we also have the sounds of the steel drums and the beat and the rhythm in calypso music.

And usually we don't hear those things together.

The song uses rhyme.

Can you pause the video and have a go at looking at which words, rhyme together.

I'll start you off.

London is the place for me, London this lovely city.

I can hear that me and city rhyme together.

Pause the video, read the rest of it and work out which other words rhyme.

Off you go.

Did you do that? Let's have a look.

So me, city, America, Australia.

And then we've got the final line in that first verse, city and it doesn't have another word that rhymes with it.

So we've got two lines which are the same, another two lines which are the same, and then that final line, which doesn't rhyme with anything.

Can you have a go at the second verse? What did you find? I found broadmindedly, rhymes with country, go rhymes with no, and then you've got that fifth and final line, me.

Can you see that we've got a pattern of what rhymes in both of those verses.

Yup, that goes the whole way through the song.

This often happens both with songs and with poetry.

It's called a rhyming pattern.

Can you say that? Rhyming pattern.

Good job.

The song has a repeated refrain, a repeated phrase.

Pause the video.

Which phrase is repeated throughout this song? Let's have a look.

Ah, yeah.

It's actually the title of the song, 'London is the place for me'.

And some variation of it is used throughout the song.

Okay, now we're going to consider the tone of the song.

Now the word tone can have lots of meanings, but I'm going to tell you what it means here.

We're going to consider whether it's a positive song, a negative song and look some of the reasons for that.

Do you think it's positive or negative? Does it make you feel good? Does it make you feel not so good? What do you think? Well, it makes me feel pretty positive.

Consider why this is a positive song.

Which of the adjectives below describe the song? I've written down six adjectives.

So I'm going to say them and I want you to repeat them back to me, so we can practise our pronunciation.

Are you ready? Upbeat, sombre, hopeful, dreary, optimistic, intriguing.

Good job.

Now I want you to pause the video and write down, which ones of these can be used to describe the song.

Which adjectives can be used to describe, 'London is the place for me'? And I've given you a clue, you might think about adjectives or words, which are synonyms for positive.

Off you go.

I found four.

Upbeat, I think the song is upbeat, optimistic, hopeful and intriguing.

I didn't think the song was sombre or dreary.

Those words are more negative.

In front of you, you've got the first two verses of the song.

I would like you to pause the video and to write down vocabulary which is positive.

I found, for example, in the second line, the word lovely, and I think that's a piece of positive vocabulary.

How many can you find? Pause the video and go hunting.

Off you go.

These are the ones I found.

Let's consider why they're positive.

So lovely is an adjective to describe London, and you know, it's a lovely adjective.

It's positive, isn't it? Why did I select the word must? But you must come back to London city.

Well, must is a modal verb.

Modal verb.

And it's a really powerful one.

It's not, you might come back to London city, you could come back to London city, it's saying you really must, and the reason you must is because it's so brilliant and so fantastic.

I chose that as a piece of positive vocabulary.

Then in the second verse, I found the word glad.

Glad means happy or content.

Then I found the word wanted.

I really wanted to know London.

But this is the place I wanted.

Have you ever really wanted something? Well then if you get it, you feel really proud and positive.

The other phrases I found were a place for me.

London is the place for me, with that is a sense of belonging or feeling like you're at home.

And I thought that was another positive phrase in these first two verses.

Now we're going to consider the purpose and the audience of this song.

On the screen, you have got the word purpose and surrounding it, you've got four other words.

Which ones of these words are synonyms for the word purpose? A synonym is a word which is different, but has the same meaning.

Pause the video and write down the synonyms you can see.

Which ones did you choose? Well, I found three, intention, reason, point.

Those three words are all synonyms for the purpose.

So what was the reason that Lord Kitchener wrote this song? What was his intention for writing it? And what was the point of writing it? That's what we're going to be thinking about.

But before we do, we just need to think about what audience means.

Do you think Lord Kitchener's audience was intended to be the people on the Windrush? People in London? Soldiers in the war? Or us, as in you and me today? What do you think? Pause the video and have a little think or say it out loud.

Well, we don't really know do we? But I thought it could be that he intended to write it for an audience of people on the Windrush.

He wants to entertain them whilst they were on the boat.

I think also the people in London.

And actually we've got evidence that he did perform it on the Windrush and he did perform it in London.

It was after the war, so his intended audience wouldn't have been soldiers in it.

Us, you and me today, we're we his intended audience? Well potentially.

He was quite a famous by then, so I think most famous musicians would hope that their songs would be played in 50, 60, 70 years time.

So yeah, I think we were his intended audience.

So I want you to have some thinking time.

Why has Lord Kitchener written this song from the perspective of someone who has been to London? Pause the video and have a little think.

I can tell you we're doing some deep thinking there.

Well, these are my thoughts, we'll never know, but I do have some ideas.

Maybe he wanted people to think he had been to London.

Maybe he wanted to have a song to play, once he had arrived in London, so that he could entertain people.

Maybe he wanted audiences to like him.

And if his audience was going to be people in London, he should probably talk about how great London is.

We've thought about our synonyms for purpose, intention, point, reason.

Now we actually need to work out, what was the purpose? So I want you to pause the video and write a little sentence for me.

I've given you the starter of a sentence that you could use.

I think Lord Kitchener wrote 'London is the place for me' because.

Or I think Lord Kitchener wrote 'London is the place for me' for a number of reasons, which include.

And then you could list your reasons.

Okay, so you're going to need a piece of paper and a pen.

I want you to pause the video and write your sentence.

Press play when you've finished.

You thought you'd finished, but you haven't.

Have you told me why you think this? These are the sentence starts that you could use.

I think this because the lyrics are.

I think this because in the song it says.

So you've made your point before, but now you need to tell me why you think this.

Can you find some evidence? Pause the video and write your next sentence.

Well done.

Should I show you what I wrote? I think Lord Kitchener wrote 'London is the place for me' for a number of reasons, but mainly because he wanted his future audiences, who would likely to be in London, to like both him and his music.

So I've made a point there.

I've told you my main reason that I think he wrote the song.

But have I explained my thinking behind that point? Thumbs up or thumbs down.

Have I explained my thought or given you any evidence? So I'm going to do that now.

I think this because, oh, that key word.

I think this, because in the first two verses he uses positive and flattering adjectives to describe London, which is likely to appeal to London-based audiences.

If you want to magpie anything from my answer, you can pause the video now and add to yours, so to build on your original answer that you wrote down.

I've made another point.

I also think Lord Kitchener hoped he would like London, so that's another reason, and it would be as nice as he describes it in his song.

So I think Lord Kitchener's feeling quite hopeful.

Well done, you have completed another guided reading lesson.

I am really, really impressed with your hard work and focus.

If you want to re-listen to the song, you might want to do that after the lesson.

Otherwise, I look forward to seeing you, in my next guided reading lesson with you.

Have a lovely rest of your day.

Bye.