Lesson video

Hello everyone.

I'm Ms. Corbett, and welcome to today's lesson, Character, Setting, and Plot in the story 'Anna Hibiscus' Song'.

We will be reading through the whole story together.

So you need to make sure that you have a copy of 'Anna Hibiscus' Song' by Atinuke for this lesson.

Can you pause the video and go and get it? Off you go.

Have you got it? Well done.

As well as that, it would be great if you could have somebody to read the book to you and to talk to you today.

As well as that, you need to turn on those listening ears, those looking eyes, and that thinking brain.

I think we are ready to get reading.

Today's lesson outcome is, I can make a prediction based on illustrations, the setting, and key vocabulary.

These keywords are going to help us get there.

Can you repeat them after me? You should recognise most of them, but there might be some that you are not sure of, and that's okay, because we will learn them throughout the lesson.

Are you ready? My turn, your turn.

Illustration.

Prediction.

Character.

Setting.

Plot.

Fantastic, thank you so much for joining in with me so well.

Let's start the first part of our lesson, looking at the front cover.

I would like you to have the front cover in front of you.

I've got mine in front of me.

What can you see on the front cover? Think about all the things that you can see, but maybe also look out for things like the title or the illustrations.

Pause the video and say everything that you can see.

Pause the video now.

Well done.

Should I tell you what I can see? I can see the title, and the title of this story is, I'm gonna read it, 'Anna Hibiscus' Song'.

Hmm.

I can see all around, illustrations.

Illustration is one of our key words and that means the drawings or the pictures in a story.

And the front cover is full of illustrations.

I can also see the name of the author and the name of the illustrator.

Fantastic.

So I want you to look at the front cover yourself now, and I would like you to get your pointing finger.

And can you point to the title? Are you pointing to it? I hope you're pointing to the title, 'Anna Hibiscus' Song'.

Get your pointing finger back.

Can you point to the illustrations? I'm pointing all around my page because the page is full of illustrations.

Get your pointing finger back.

Can you point to the name of the author? Well done if you are pointing to the name of the author.

And finally, one more pointing finger.

Point to the illustrator.

Fantastic.

So Anna Hibiscus is a character created by the author.

The author's name is Atinuke.

The author is the person who writes the words in the book.

Atinuke was born in Lagos, Nigeria, which is a country in the continent of Africa.

And now she lives in Wales, which is in the United Kingdom.

I am going to tell you some of the things I noticed from the front cover.

So I'm going to have a look at it and see.

Hmm, I can see a little girl sitting in a tree watching a colourful bird.

I can see the word 'song' in the title.

And I can see a character's name in the title.

(Ms. Corbett gasping) I wonder if you can tell me what you notice and what you can see.

I can see.

Pause the video now, off you go.

Fantastic.

I love that you shared some of the similar things that I saw but also spotted some different things.

Well done.

Usually the main character features on the front cover.

The front cover shows us a little girl in a tree and the title includes her name, Anna Hibiscus.

Have a look at the little girl.

Are you looking at her? She's smiling while sitting in the tree.

So here are some adjectives that I would use to describe her because she is a noun, because she is a person, so I can use adjectives to describe her.

Are you ready? Can you repeat them after me? Calm.

Happy.

Relaxed.

Peaceful.

I think she looks all of those things sitting in the tree.

Which adjectives would you use to describe how Anna Hibiscus looks on the front cover? Here are your choices.

Disappointed.

Relaxed.

Excited.

And calm.

Could you pause the video and decide how you think she looks? Off you go.

Let's see what you thought.

I think she looks relaxed 'cause she's sitting with her shoulders down watching and listening to the birds.

I also think she looks calm sitting there quite happily.

I don't think she looks disappointed because she doesn't have an upset look on her face.

And even though excited is a happy emotion, she doesn't look like she's bouncing up and down.

That would be a bit dangerous in a tree.

So we can make predictions about what a story might be about using the front cover by looking really carefully.

So the illustrations and the title help me to predict what a story might be about.

The illustrations and the title.

I look carefully at the illustrations of the characters to help me predict how they are feeling.

Those are some really good suggestions on how to make a great prediction.

I will use the front cover to help me to make a prediction about what the story will be about.

I will make my prediction and then I'll explain why I predict that.

Are you listening? Remember, one person's prediction might be different to someone else's because we have not yet read the book.

So we don't know.

I predict that the story is about a calm little girl who loves to sing to animals.

I think this because the little girl looks happy about the birds, and the word 'song' is in the title.

So I've made my prediction and I've explained why.

Now it's your turn to use the front cover to make a prediction about what you think the book is going to be about and explain why using 'because'.

Then can you listen to somebody else's prediction and talk about whether they're same or whether they're different? I predict that the story is about.

I think this because.

Pause the video now and off you go.

Fantastic, I loved hearing your predictions.

Here are some of the predictions that I heard.

I predict the story is about a little girl who is taught to sing by birds.

I think this because birds are known to make tuneful music and 'song' is in the title.

So here, we're using what we know about the world as well.

I predict the story is about a little girl who loves to explore nature.

These are great predictions.

I think this because there is a little girl in a tree surrounded by leaves, flowers, fruit, and birds.

So all the things in nature.

Two very different predictions, but two great predictions that have used the front cover to help them really, really carefully.

I wonder if your prediction was similar or different to those ones.

Now we are going to start reading the story and explore the characters and setting.

To find out more about the characters and setting, you are going to read or listen to the first page of the story.

So can you open up your book for me and turn to the first page where there is full writing? And I want you to listen to or read the first page, starting with the word 'Anna', and then have a look at the illustrations and stop there.

Pause the video, and off you go.

I hope you enjoyed the first part of the story.

So where is the setting of the story after listening to that first page? The setting of the story is.

I'm going to give you 10 seconds.

You might want to look at the book again to help you.

10.

Five.

Zero.

The setting of the story is Africa, a continent in Africa.

We know that Atinuke, the author, is from a country in Africa.

So the first page introduces the main character, Anna, and the setting, Africa.

The story is set in the same country that Atinuke was born, Nigeria.

Africa is a continent, and Nigeria is a country in the West of Africa.

So here is a map of our whole world, and you can see the continent of Africa, and Nigeria is a country in the West of Africa.

Nigeria is very close to the equator.

Can you see that line in the centre? Which makes it a very warm country.

The first page gives us more information about the setting.

It tells us that it's in the morning time, that it is hot, that there are mangoes in the tree, and that it's cool, but only in the shade of the tree.

Close your eyes and I want you to try and imagine what you can hear, smell, feel, touch, and see, using your senses.

Try and imagine that you are there just from that first page.

Close your eyes, pause the video.

Do that now.

(Ms. Corbett sighing) I was imagining the birds singing, the sun shining down, and me trying to get into the shade to protect myself.

I could smell the juicy mangoes and I could feel the breeze of the leaves moving.

I wonder what you could imagine.

So let's see how you've been listening.

Which continent is the story set in? Is it Africa, Asia, or Europe? Could you pause the video now and decide? The story is set in the continent of? Pause the video.

Well done if you said the continent of Africa.

Fantastic.

Now I would like you to turn the page and read or listen to the next page in the story.

Pause the video now, and I really hope you enjoy.

I hope you enjoyed the next page of our story.

Can you name some other characters other than Anna that we have been introduced to? Other characters in the story are? Could you pause the video and try and list as many as you can? Off you go.

So we have been introduced to all of Anna's family.

We have got Grandmother, Grandfather, Aunties, Cousins, Papa, Uncle, and Mama.

We will learn more about these characters as we move through the story.

Being surrounded by family makes Anna feel really happy.

Knowing other books by the author Atinuke, I know that she likes to write books that are set in Africa and that are about families.

Now we have been introduced to more characters and we know the setting, we can make an even more detailed prediction.

So what can we use to make a prediction? Can we use the illustrator's name? Would that help us? The setting, the characters, or the title? Which one of these can we use to make our predictions? We might be able to use more than one.

Pause the video now.

We can use, off you go.

What do you think? We can use the setting.

So use where the story is set to help us make a prediction.

We can also use the characters that we've been introduced to and the title.

The illustrator's name is useful, but it doesn't really help us make a prediction.

I have already made one prediction using just the front cover.

I predict that the story is about a calm little girl who loves to sing to animals.

I think this because the little girl looks happy about the birds and the word 'song' is in the title.

But now we've read a little bit of the story, I will make another prediction.

I predict that the story is about a happy little girl named Anna who loves to sing about her family.

I think this because the word 'song' is in the title, so I'm still using that bit, and we have been introduced to Anna's family.

Now it's your turn to make a prediction using what we have learned so far about the front cover, the illustrations, the beginning of the story, and the characters and setting.

Then listen to someone else's prediction.

So I predict that the story is about, and then I think this because.

Pause the video now, off you go.

Fantastic, I'm so impressed with how carefully you're thinking about your predictions.

Did you manage to make a prediction using what we've learned so far? And did you listen to anybody else's? Here's one that I listened to.

I predict that the story is about a little girl who loves to sing to her family.

I think this because she's happy when she's with her family and the word 'song' is in the title.

So that's quite similar to my prediction, but they used the fact that she's happy when she's with her family.

Fantastic.

Let's move on to the final part of the lesson, understanding the plot.

Now you are going to listen or read a really long section of the story, most of the story, where you can learn even more about the characters and the settings.

And also the plot, which is what happens in the story.

So I'd like you to turn over your page and start listening at the word 'quickly'.

Take note of all of the illustrations and the words, and then I would like you to stop at page 24 with the word 'big' with an exclamation mark.

Remember to stop there.

Pause the video now, and I really hope you enjoy.

Off you go.

Did you enjoy listening to the story? I really hope you did because I really have enjoyed reading it too.

So what has Anna found out about each character? Anna has found out what? Pause the video now and have a discussion about it.

Off you go.

Well done.

Anna has found out what each family member does when they're happy.

Here are some examples of what some characters do when they're happy.

Grandfather counting, Grandmother squeezing hands, Aunties pounding yams, Cousins doing gymnastics, Uncle Tunde dancing, and Papa holding Anna.

All of them like to do different things when they are happy.

Have a look at Anna on page 23.

So the page before that you stopped on.

Have a look.

Have a look at her really closely.

She's got her arms up in the air.

She's walking towards Mama, I think.

What do you notice happens to Anna every time someone else shows their happiness? What do you notice? Anna gets happier and happier.

As she sees all of her family members happy around her, she becomes happier and happier.

So, thinking about their happiness, can you match the character's name to how they show their happiness? We have Uncle Tunde, Grandfather, and the Cousins.

And then the things that they might do are counting to five, gymnastics and cartwheels, and dancing.

Pause the video and match them.

Off you go.

Well done.

So Uncle Tunde likes to dance.

Fantastic.

Grandfather likes to count to five, and the Cousins love to do lots of gymnastics.

Well done.

That shows that you are listening to the story really, really clearly.

Now the best part, you get to listen to the end of the story to hear how it ends.

Pause the video now and listen or read to the end of the story.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

I really, really hope that you enjoyed the story.

I know I did.

Why do you think then now we've got to the end that the title of the book is 'Anna Hibiscus' Song'? The title of the book is 'Anna Hibiscus' Song' because, why do you think it? Pause the video now.

What do you think? The title is 'Anna Hibiscus' Song' because Anna thinks of a song all about how her family show happiness, which is such a lovely, nice way to end the story.

I wonder whether you read the words of the song or put it into a tune.

Maybe next time you listen to the story you could put it into a tune.

The plot is what happens in a story.

The main plot of the story here is following Anna discover what her family members do when they are happy.

The story ends with Anna celebrating this by singing a song about all of the ways and also ways that she will show her happiness in the future, which is such a special message.

So what is the plot? What does the word plot means? Does it mean where a story takes place, what happens in a story, or a person or animal in a story? I'm going to give you just five seconds for this one.

Five.

Three.

What do you think? The plot is what happens in a story.

Where a story takes place is the setting, and a person or animal in the story is a character.

Now, we've got to the end of the story.

We know the characters, we know the setting, and we know about the plot.

Different people may have different responses to a story.

Sharing your opinion, so how you feel about something, about a story helps you to start to know what type of stories you do and do not enjoy.

We can think about these questions to help us.

What was your favourite part of the story? Don't answer just yet.

Why was that your favourite part? Who was your favourite character and why? And is there anything about the book that you would change? Hmm, interesting.

So you are going to ask those questions to the person nearby and then you are going to answer them yourself.

What was your favourite part of the story and why? My favourite part was mm, because.

The next question.

Who was your favourite character and why? My favourite character was mm, because.

And is there anything about the book that you would change? Would you change a part of it? Would you change some of the characters? Would you change the setting? Or if there isn't anything, you could just say, I wouldn't change anything.

I would change mm.

Pause the video and have a really nice discussion together.

Off you go.

I loved hearing your responses to the story.

It's really, really important that we share those.

Here's some things that I've heard.

My favourite part was when Uncle Tunde and Anna were dancing because they were having so much fun.

My favourite character were the Cousins because I love gymnastics like them, and they included Anna.

That's a really nice one.

I would change the story by adding even more kind family members.

The book could be so long if we did that.

Fantastic.

Thank you so much for sharing your responses, and I wonder if yours were similar or different to these ones.

Thank you for learning with me today.

I had a really great time reading the story with you and talking all about it.

We know that making a prediction means making a guess about what you think might happen in a story, and we can use illustrations, the title, and knowledge that we already have to make those.

We also know that Nigeria is a country in the continent of Africa, and as Nigeria is close to the equator, Nigeria is a warm country.

People can have different personal responses to what they have read and different likes and dislikes.

Thank you so much for learning with me today and I really hope you enjoyed the story.

I really hope to see you again soon.

Bye.