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Hi there, great to see you.
Thank you for joining me in today's lesson as we continue to explore "The Tempest." My name is Mr. Barnsley, and today we are gonna be getting creative.
We are gonna be writing Miranda's diary.
Let's get started.
So by the end of today's lesson, you are gonna be able to write an accurate, thoughtful diary in the voice of our character Miranda.
Now, as ever, we are gonna have some keywords.
So our keywords in today's lesson are convincing, chronological, isolated, and society.
The definitions of these four words are about to appear on the screen.
I want you to read through each of them carefully, pausing the video if you need to.
And if you wish, you may even want to jot these definitions down.
It's really important you understand what these words mean.
So you recognise them when we discuss them in today's lesson, and hopefully, you might be able to use them in your own discussions and even in your own writing.
Let's have a look at those definitions now.
So let's have a look at the outline of today's lesson.
We're gonna break our lesson down into two learning cycles today.
First, we're gonna be planning Miranda's diary, and then we're gonna be writing Miranda's diary entry up.
So let's get started with planning.
So let's remind ourselves, well a diary is a person's private record of their events, their thoughts, feelings, anything that they've written down every day.
Now let's start to break down then what this means in terms of essential diary writing.
What are we looking for? Well, let's have a discussion, over to you.
I want you to shortly, if you've got a partner, you can discuss this with them, but don't worry if you're working by yourself, you can think this through quietly to yourself or even make a few notes.
But I want you to discuss the following things.
What tense should it be written in if it's a record of events, past, present, or future.
What narrative voice should be used for a person's private thoughts, and how might you structure your diary? Okay, some questions for us to think about.
Pause the video, give this a go, and press play when you are ready to continue.
Well done, I heard some fantastic discussion there, and well done to those of you who were doing equally good listening as speaking, it's really easy to share your ideas, but I was really impressed by those of you who sometimes sat and listened to others as well.
Great job.
Okay, let's have a look at some of the things that you may have said.
So you may have said that it should be in the past tense, because actually, these events have already happened.
You've also said, and well done if you said that you should use the first person, 'cause this is your private thoughts.
Now, this was a more tricky one, but well done if you leaned into and used some of the key words from the beginning of the lesson.
You want to structure your diary in a chronological order, as in it makes sense for you to talk about things in the order that they happened.
Well done if you said all of those things.
Okay, let's do a check for understanding then.
Which of the two following statements are true about diary writing? Is it that diaries should be written in the first person? Is it B, diaries should be written in the third person? C, diaries should be written in the past tense.
D, diaries should be written in the present tense.
Pause the video, select two responses, and press play when you are ready to continue.
Well done.
Absolutely.
You should have got A and C there.
We write in the first person, 'cause these are personal, private reflections, and we write in the past tense, 'cause we're talking about events that have already happened.
Well done if you've got those two correct.
So let's think about how do we use the first person narrative voice.
So to use the first person narrative, we want to use pronouns such as "I," or sometimes "We," because I might be talking about myself and things I've done with others.
I might talk about "my," or I might talk about "our," things that belong to me and my family or my friends.
This tells the reader that the account is written by someone, and they're talking about themselves, and their own personal experiences.
So for example, my hands trembled as I packed away my meagre possessions, okay? I'm giving the reader a really clear indication of what was happening to me, and my own personal experience by using those pronouns, my and I.
We also said that we want to make sure we use the past tense.
Let's remind ourselves how we do that.
Well, we know that the past tense is important because diaries are a record of events that have already happened.
Therefore, it doesn't make sense for us to talk about in the present, and it certainly doesn't make sense for us to talk about in the future.
We want to use the past tense as much as possible.
Now, simple past tense describes an action that began and ended in the past.
An example of this is, I folded my ragged and tattered clothes.
Now we form the past tense by taking the infinitive, which is the basic form of a verb, usually follows "to." So "to fold." And we add the suffix "ed," for example, "to fold" becomes "folded." Now this doesn't happen with every verb, but it's the most common way of forming the past tense.
Right, another check for understanding.
I want you to tell me which of the two of the following sentences are written in the past tense.
I will pack my clothes in the morning.
I packed my clothes.
I love the smell of the forest flowers.
I loved the smell of the forest flowers.
Pause the video, select your two, and press play when you're ready to continue.
Well done to everyone who spotted that B and D were the correct answers there.
Notice they have taken the infinitive, to pack and to love, and they've added that suffix ed, packed, loved to create the past tense.
Well done if you spotted both of them.
Okay, so we are gonna be writing a diary entry in the voice of Miranda, one of our characters from "The Tempest," that we have been exploring.
So this means we need to put ourselves into her shoes.
Think about how she felt.
So yes, we're gonna be talking about private and personal events, but we are gonna be imagining we're Miranda, talking about her private and personal events.
So our aim is to write about three paragraphs for our diary entry, and we're gonna plan them out together.
So in order for us to write a diary in Miranda's voice, we really need to think about how she would've felt.
So let's have a discussion then.
What do you remember about Miranda in "The Tempest?" What happened to her and what was her personality like? Time to pause the video.
If you've got a partner to discuss this with, that's fantastic, but don't worry if you need to work through this by yourself, you can either think through these questions or you can make a few notes on a bit of paper.
Okay, pause the video, over to you, and press play when you are ready to continue.
Welcome back, I heard some fantastic discussions there.
You were really showing how much you understood about the plot and the characters of "The Tempest." Really, really well done, I was very impressed.
Okay, let's have a look at some of the things that you might have said.
So Lucas said, well, "I remember that for 12 years she lived on the island with only her father and Caliban for company, therefore, she was very isolated." And remember that is one of our key words.
It means, kind of, to be alone.
She was very isolated.
Great idea from Lucas, and well done if you said something similar.
And Alex said, "I remember that she was beautiful and caring, but also that she wasn't afraid to tell her father that she disagreed with him." So yes, she was very caring, but she has, you know.
She's not afraid to tell people the truth.
She's very outspoken if she needs to be.
So we can see there's many different aspects of Miranda's personality that we are gonna want to try and capture in our writing.
So for our diary, we are going to be writing about what happens to Miranda after the play ends.
So it's really important that we remind ourselves what was happening to Miranda as the play did end.
So we know that Miranda married Ferdinand who was the son of the King of Naples, and that she's gonna return to Naples with him.
But we don't know what happens to her when she returns.
What we do know is that her last speech of the play is when she says, "Brave new world!" Let's take a moment then to think about what this phrase suggests about how Miranda is feeling as the play comes to an end.
Pause the video and if you've got someone to discuss with, you can do this verbally.
If you're working by yourself, you can either think or you can make a couple of notes.
All right, press pause, over to you, and then press play when you're ready to continue.
Nice discussions.
I really liked.
Really impressed, those of you who are zooming in on individual words and even some of the punctuation.
Let's see some of the things that you may have said.
So well done if you said that the exclamation mark coupled with the words "brave" and "new" suggests that she's really excited.
She really wants to explore the world and meet new people.
So I think this diary entry is gonna have a really hopeful tone, okay? We are looking at a character who is really excited for what the future holds.
Well done if you said any of those things.
Okay, I want you to create a list of all the emotions that Miranda might be feeling at the prospect of leaving her isolated experience on the island, okay? You can either do this verbally with a partner, or you can make a note on a bit paper.
But let's think about lists of adjectives and emotions that Miranda might be feeling at the prospect of leaving the island.
Pause the video, give this a go, and press play when you are ready to continue.
Great job, I heard some great ideas there, and well done for anyone who used a thesaurus to help them to expand their list, that's really impressive.
Okay, let's have a look at some of the things that you might have said.
So you might have said, excited, nervous, anxious.
Okay, yes, it's really exciting, but she doesn't know what's going to meet her when she returns to Naples.
She might actually be quite scared, very determined.
We know she's a very determined young woman.
We know she always speaks her mind, and she's determined to make a success of her marriage and her new life.
I now want you to imagine that you are Miranda, and you are about to leave the isolated island that has been your home for 12 years.
What a long time.
Which three events do you think you would pick to write about on your journey from the island to Naples? Okay, so what things might happen on your journey that you really want to talk about? Things to remember as you do this.
Miranda was only three years old when she arrived on the island.
So she doesn't remember anything about human society, okay? Remember, society is one of our key words.
On the island, she wouldn't have had access to proper clothing or food.
I also want you to remember, the only human beings that she has spoken to in 12 years are her father and Caliban.
These are all things to bear in mind.
So I want you to have a quick think now, what would you talk about? What three events would you like to talk about, to discuss, as you describe your journey from the island to Naples? Pause the video and have a think, and press play when you are ready to continue.
Okay, well done and welcome back.
So here are things that you may have said.
So you might have said for paragraph one, you want to focus on the moment that Miranda packed up her possessions in order to start on the journey to Naples.
You can think about how she feels as she packs all of her possessions away, knowing that she's leaving this island and potentially never coming back.
You might want to focus your second paragraph on when she sailed to Naples, what it was like to be on board the ship.
And in that third paragraph, you might want to think about how she felt when she arrived in Naples for the first time.
She saw the people and the buildings, things that she would've never have seen, she wouldn't have remembered, from when she was a very, very small child.
You might have said those things.
You might have said things that are slightly different, and that's okay as well.
But fantastic if you've thought really carefully about what you want to talk about in your diary entry.
Okay, let's do a quick check for understanding then.
Which two of the following statements about Miranda in "The Tempest" are true? Is it A, Miranda lived on an isolated island for 12 years? Is it B, Miranda lived on an isolated island for five years? Is it C, Miranda exclaims, "Brave new world!" When she sees Alonso and his companions.
Is it D, Miranda cries when she sees Alonso and his companions, which of those two are true? Pause the video, select your responses, and press play when you are ready to continue.
Yes, correct, if you said A and C.
We know she lived on the island for 12 years, but we also know through this exclamation of "Brave new world!" And Miranda's very excited about her new adventures that lie ahead of her.
Okay, it's now over to you for your first task of today.
And you are gonna complete the table to think about how Miranda might have felt at each of these plot moments.
So I want you to remember that she has been very isolated from society for 12 years.
She doesn't remember living anywhere other than the island.
So in the table you can see the three things that we've decided are things to focus on.
So the moment she's packing her possessions, when she's sailing onboard the ship, and when she arrives in Naples for the first time, I want you to think about how she might be feeling at each of those moments.
Pause the video, give this a go, and press play when you are ready to continue.
Welcome back, I could see you trying to be really creative there with your adjective choices.
Let's have a look at some of the things you could have said.
So now it's time to compare your table to mine.
If you like any of my ideas, please feel free to steal them and add them to your table.
So I said that she might've felt quite nostalgic.
So she's thinking back on all the memories that she's had on the island.
So when she looks at her possessions, she might even be quite sad at the idea how her life is going to change.
When she's sailing, she might've felt nervous to the travel at sea, but really excited about the freedom of the water.
You know, she's been trapped on this island, isolated on this island for such a long time.
This water or the sea and the boat really is a symbol of freedom to her.
And when she sees all the people in the buildings of Naples the first time, I think she'd feel quite overwhelmed.
The size and the beauty of this place is just so different to the island that she's come from.
So I think in a sense she'd be overwhelmed, and she might even be quite worried that whether people would judge her, because obviously she hasn't lived in a civilised society in the way that the people of Naples have.
Well done if you said anything similar to that.
Okay, we are now gonna move on to writing Miranda's diary.
We've spent some time planning, we've thought of some ideas.
Now it's time to turn these into writing.
So to make a convincing character voice, we want to make sure we're using all of our senses in our description of their experiences.
So for example, of just saying, "I went on a boat," you want to evoke the senses and show, really show what that experience was like.
So our five senses are taste, touch, smell, hearing, and sight.
So let's have an example of what they might look like in sentence form.
So taste, the sea air left salt residue on my tongue.
So we know there's lots of salt in the sea, and maybe I can even taste that as I'm on a boat sailing across the ocean to Naples.
Touch, under my palm, the wood felt rough and coarse.
So as I stand on the edge of the boat, looking out to sea.
Wafting through the air was the scent of seawater, seeing that salty smell.
I can smell it in the air.
The hungry cry of seagulls pierced the air.
And the expanse of water seemed to last forever.
All of these, you can see all of these sentences are gonna be much more interesting and exciting than just simply saying, "I went on a boat and crossed the ocean." I'm really allowing the person reading my diary entry to picture and also imagine they were there.
Right, let's have a go at using the five senses then.
I want to have a discussion.
How would you represent the excitement and shock that Miranda might have felt at seeing King Alonso and his companions for the first time using the five senses? So let's think about the end of the play.
Think about when Miranda sees King Alonso and his companions for the first time.
Let's see if we can use the five senses to really build a more detailed description of her experience.
And so as a reader, we can really put ourselves in Miranda's shoes.
So table's empty, taste, touch, smell, hearing, sight.
Pause the video, have a discussion, or make some notes if you're working by yourself, and press play when you are ready to continue.
Wonderful job.
I heard some really, really creative ideas.
I love creative writing, 'cause it allows us to really think outside the box.
So well done.
Here are some of the things you may have said.
Let's look at a few examples.
So taste, you might tasted the bitterness of my dry and papery mouth.
You know, when you're nervous, your mouth can go quite dry and it can taste quite bitter.
So well done.
Touch, so she grabbed Ferdinand's hand, and it felt slick with sweat.
So Ferdinand himself feeling a little bit unsure.
Smell, the scent of cinnamon and nutmeg filled the air.
Lovely, some nice sweet smells.
The boots crunched through the mass of twigs and leaves.
And sight, it was as if a rainbow had descended upon us with the beautiful array of colours on show.
Okay, so now as a reader, I'm starting to get a much greater picture, more vivid, clear picture in my mind of what Miranda was feeling as she met King Alonso.
Okay, check for understanding, which of the following sentence considers their sense of hearing.
My eardrums hummed with the ringing of bells.
My nostrils try to curl inwards at the rotten stench.
The velvet softness felt like heaven.
Pause the video, select your response, and press play when you're ready to continue.
That was of course A, my ear drums hummed with the ringing of bells.
I really like the word hummed in there.
It really allows me to hear those bells, and almost that kind of the sound that continues in my ears even when the bells have stopped ringing.
So, fantastic use of that verb there.
Okay, before we get writing, we're gonna just quickly look at a model.
We're gonna identify where this model of diary writing has used first person narrative voice, where it's used past tense, and it's described the senses, 'cause they're the three things we're working on today.
So let's have a quick look at the example.
"The doll felt so light in my hand, almost like a feather.
I couldn't believe that I used to carry that thing with me everywhere with its matted hair and its ripped seams. I hadn't thought about it in years.
Somehow it found its way into my bag as I packed though.
Almost as if I wanted to try and cram as many memories in as possible." Okay, let's deconstruct this and see why this is successful.
Well, plenty of use of the first person narrative through the pronouns I and my, it really shows that Miranda is speaking about her own personal experience.
The past tense, felt, used, found, packed, wanted.
It shows me that this has already happened.
Miranda has already packed, maybe she's writing while now she's in Naples looking back at her journey.
But this is something that has already happened.
And well done that I used touch, to really think about how things feel.
And it helped me to really create a convincing character voice.
So well done if you spotted that the sense that I was really using in this was touch.
Okay, onto our final task of the lesson.
And it is time for you to get creative.
And that's what I love about English.
It's the creativity.
Okay, you are gonna use your plan that you wrote in the first learning cycle today.
And you're gonna use it to create your own diary entry for Miranda.
Some things for you to remember to do.
First of all, you're gonna use first person pronouns throughout.
I, my, we, our, you're gonna use past tense throughout.
Remember that you are writing about something that's already happened.
You're gonna record the events in chronological order, okay? So thinking from the packing your things away, to travelling across, to arriving at Naples.
And you're gonna put yourself in Miranda's shoes.
Remember, you are not writing this from your perspective.
You are imagining you are Miranda.
Think about how she would feel at each moment.
And finally, I want you to make sure you use the five senses.
This is gonna make sure you create a convincing character voice.
It's really gonna help the reader imagine the scene and be able to picture everything that Miranda experienced.
Right, it's over to you now.
Give yourself plenty of time to do this, because we want to give ourselves time when we're writing.
So pause the video, get on with some independent writing, and press play when you've got ready to continue.
Okay, welcome back.
I saw some excellent, really focused creative writing.
I know there's focus when people are writing in absolute silence, it's brilliant to see.
And I was really impressed by all of you who check through your work before you finish, looking out for spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
Something we should always do when we finish writing.
So, great job if that was you.
Okay, before we finish today's lesson, I'm gonna take a moment to pause, stop, reflect, and think about what we've done in our work.
So we're gonna do some self-assessment of our diary entry.
So a checklist for you to use as you assess your own work.
I want you to think about did you use the first person pronouns throughout? Did you use past tense throughout? Did you record the events in a chronological order? Did you put yourself in Miranda's shoes and consider how she'd feel? And did you use the five senses? Pause the video, reread your work, and check it against the checklist, and press play when you're ready to continue.
Okay, fantastic work today.
Thank you so much for joining me for today's lesson, writing Miranda's diary.
Let's have a quick summary of everything we've learned today.
It's really important we check our key learning, make sure we understood all these things.
'Cause if we haven't, that's okay.
We need to take a moment, maybe re-watch part of the video, and then make sure we feel really confident before we finish the lesson today.
So we've learned today that a diary is a person's private record of events, thoughts or feelings, and they are written down every day.
A diary should be written in the first person narrative voice, and in the past tense.
We know a diary should be written in chronological order.
We know it should use descriptions that show the senses, and that can really help create a convincing character voice.
And finally, whilst we don't know what happens to Miranda after the end of the play, so it's been really exciting for us today, for us to be creative and come up with our own thoughts.
I'm so pleased you've joined me for today's lesson.
I hope you do watch more of our lessons in this unit on "The Tempest." Have a great day, thank you so much, and see you all soon.
Goodbye.