Lesson video

Hello, my name is Ms. Corbett, and welcome to an English lesson with me.

Today's lesson title is thinking from the character's perspectives in "Anna Hibiscus' Song." And thinking from the character's perspectives is so fun 'cause we almost get to be like actors and imagine that we are them.

For this lesson, all you are going to need is your thinking brain, your listening ears, and your looking eyes.

You will also need a copy of this book here, "Anna Hibiscus' Song." And it would be great if your copy could look just like mine.

If you haven't got it ready, maybe you need to pause the video and go and get it now.

Pause the video now.

Fantastic.

I think we are ready to get started.

Can you put your book in front of me and then get yourself ready so you are showing that you are listening? Today's lesson outcome is I can think from someone else's perspective.

So by the end of this lesson, you will have imagined that you are different characters to really help us understand the story and why the characters did certain things.

And here are the keywords that will help us to get there.

Are you ready? My turn, then your turn.

Remember, don't worry if you don't quite know what they mean 'cause we will get there throughout the lesson.

Are you ready? Perspective, adjective, emotion, first person.

Fantastic.

Thank you so much for joining in with me there.

Let's move on to the first part of our lesson, expressing emotions.

First, we need to really make sure that we know the story really well because rereading a story really helps us to remember the plot, as well as notice details in the text and the illustrations.

So can you get your copy of the story ready for me and you can read or listen to somebody read it to you, the whole story without stopping.

I really hope you enjoy.

Pause the video now.

Fantastic.

I really hope you enjoyed listening to the story.

After listening to the story, can you think of some adjectives to describe how the characters are feeling during the story? I'm going to give you a few.

They are definitely feeling happy.

Some characters feel excited, some characters feel calm, some characters feel loved.

Can you think of any more? Could you pause the video? The characters are feeling? Off you go.

Fantastic.

Keep those ideas in your head.

So we now know that rereading a story helps us to learn even more.

So have a think.

Which adjective best describes how Anna feels throughout the whole story? Is it upset, uninterested, which means so not interested in anything, or happy? Which one do you think it is? I'm going to give you five seconds to think.

Are you ready? Five, four.

And zero.

Which one did you choose? Anna feels happy.

At no point in this story does she feel upset and she's definitely not uninterested because she's so interested in what all of her family members are doing.

So today you are going to imagine that you are Anna and you are going to think about how she's feeling at different points in the story.

This means that you are thinking from her perspective.

There's our keyword, perspective.

So it means that you're gonna think and imagine that you are her and you're thinking from her perspective.

When we think from somebody's perspective, these words we might use: I, me, my, mine, we, us.

Fantastic.

Using these words means we are speaking in the first person.

Fantastic.

So we are talking about ourselves and we're talking about ourselves, but now we're not ourselves.

We are Anna and we are imagining we are her.

So these are some of the words that we can use.

Thinking from someone else's perspective helps us to imagine how they are feeling.

Our feelings are the emotions we have about something inside.

So an example feeling or emotion might be happy and then we can express that outside of our bodies in different ways.

So if we're feeling happy, we might be smiling.

Can you smile at me? We might be giggling, we might be laughing, or we might be bouncing up and down.

So our feeling emotion inside is happiness, and then we can show that with our faces, with our body movements or with our voices.

So I'm going to imagine that I am Anna, so I'm no longer Ms. Corbett anymore.

I am Anna.

Nice to meet you.

I'm Anna.

I am sitting at the start of the story watching my family.

I am going to imagine that I am her with my body and with my face.

Are you ready? Freeze-frame.

How do you think I was feeling? Could you repeat it after me do you think? I look calm.

I look relaxed.

Fantastic.

So I'm using what I know from the story to act how the character's feeling, and then we can get some great descriptions from it.

Now it is your turn.

You are no longer you, you are Anna.

Nice to meet you, Anna.

Can you say, hi, I'm Anna? Fantastic.

Maybe you could use the book to help you, but I want you to imagine that you've been trying really hard to pound the yams and you've finally managed to do it.

I'm going to give you a moment to think and then I'm going to ask you to freeze-frame.

Show me with your face, show me with your body and freeze-frame.

(teacher gasping) Wow, I'm going to tell you how I think you look and I'd like you to repeat it.

You look proud, you look relieved.

If you're feeling relieved, you're thinking thank goodness, I did it, well done.

You might also be looking strong.

Now it's my turn to be Anna again and I am doing gymnastics with the cousins.

So I'm going to look through my book and I'm going to remind myself using the illustrations what I look like and maybe some of the words that I use.

Okay, I'm ready.

Ready? I'm going to freeze-frame.

(teacher gasping) Are you ready to see how I'm feeling? Can you copy after me? I look dizzy.

I look energetic.

Well done because after doing gymnastics, it's made me feel very dizzy after cartwheeling, but also energetic.

I'm full of energy.

Now it's your turn.

You are Anna and you are dancing with Uncle Tunde.

Maybe you might have to look in the book to find it.

Have a look at what you're doing, have a think about your body, and I'm going to describe how you are feeling in five, in four, in three, two, and one, freeze-frame.

Fantastic.

Are you ready to repeat? You look excited.

You look delighted.

I might also say you look energetic, the same one as the gymnastics because you're doing lots of activity.

Fantastic.

So that shows us that thinking from a character's perspective is lots of fun and it helps us to understand and describe how characters are feeling at different points of the story.

We know that for most of the story, the characters are only really feeling positive emotions, which can make the story really joyful to listen to and to read.

And we have carefully just then chosen adjectives to describe how each character felt at different points of the story because just using happy, happy, happy, happy would be boring and repetitive.

We can think from any character's perspective from the story, not just Anna.

We could imagine that we are grandfather counting.

We could imagine that he's saying, "Happiness makes me feel calm and relaxed.

It makes me want to count." Then we could imagine that we are the aunties.

They're pounding yams. Happiness makes us feel strong and powerful.

It makes us want to pound yams. So we're talking about the feelings and then saying what it makes them want to do, their actions.

Now it's your turn to choose a character and think from their perspective and describe how the happiness makes you feel and what you like to do when you are happy.

So not you.

Imagine you're the character.

You can choose any character in the story.

Start by saying, "I am," introduce yourself.

Happiness makes me feel mm and mm.

It makes me want to.

And then remember what they did in the story.

Can you pause the video now? And off you go.

Fantastic.

It was so great to see so many different characters.

Let's look at some examples.

I am the cousins.

Happiness makes us feel energetic and active.

It makes us want to do gymnastics.

And another one.

I'm Uncle Tunde.

Happiness makes me feel energetic and delighted.

It makes me want to dance.

So there, the same adjective, energetic, has been used, but it's made the characters, depending on who they are, want to do different things.

I wonder whether you chose their characters or whether you chose some different ones.

Fantastic job.

Let's move on to the next part of the lesson, understanding the story.

We know that "Anna Hibiscus' Song" is different to stories like traditional tales because it does not have an obvious beginning, middle, and end or a problem to solve.

Instead, the story explores what makes the different characters in Anna's family happy.

The beginning of the story introduces Anna, the setting and the main plot.

The main plot is understanding what makes people happy and what they do when they are happy.

The story ends with Anna singing a song about all of the things that make her family happy that we have seen throughout the story.

So by looking at what each family member does when they are happy, we are summarising.

So imagining that somebody else hasn't read the story, and we are explaining the main things that happen.

So we're explaining that when granddad feels happy, grandfather feels happy, he likes to count.

When grandmother feels happy, she likes to squeeze grandfather's hand.

When the aunties feel happy, they like to pound yams. When the cousins feel happiness, they like to do gymnastics.

Uncle Tunde likes to dance and papa likes to hold onto Anna.

And then finally, Anna likes to sing lots of songs.

I want you to now, because you're such an expert on the story, think again from Anna's perspective.

You are Anna.

Are you ready, Anna? What could you hear when you are sitting in the tree? Imagine at the start of the story and at the end of the story actually you can hear something.

What could you hear? I could hear.

Pause the video now and share.

Off you go.

What could you hear? I could hear birds singing in the trees.

You could, couldn't you? Which made you want to sing your song.

Are you ready for the next question? What does Uncle Tunde do when he is happy? Hmm.

What does Uncle Tunde do when he is happy? Uncle Tunde likes to when he is happy.

Can you pause the video now and share? Uncle Tunde likes to dance when he is happy.

Fantastic.

You are Anna.

What do you like to do when you are happy? Maybe you could get your copy of the book and look towards the end to help you.

I like to mm when I am happy.

What do you like to do? Pause the video now.

What do you like to do? I like to sing when I am happy.

Well done if you got all of those questions.

Now I would like you to match the character to what they do when they are happy.

Remember, the book is there to help you.

Use your copy of the book to help you if you need to.

We've got Uncle Tunde, Anna, and grandfather, and then the actions or movements that we have, singing, counting, and dancing.

Maybe you could match them by saying it in a full sentence.

Uncle Tunde likes.

Anna likes.

Grandfather likes.

Pause the video now.

Should we see if you got it? Uncle Tunde likes dancing.

Fantastic.

Can everyone do a mini dance for me? Anna likes singing.

Can everyone do a sing? La.

Beautiful.

And grandfather likes counting.

Can everyone quickly count to 10? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Well done.

Now it's your go to have a go at some independent questions now and you can use the book to help you.

You could either write your answers down or you could just say them.

Use the book to help you answer these questions.

What type of tree was Anna sitting in? Anna was sitting in a mm tree.

Why do you think Anna decided to sing a song? I think Anna decided to sing a song because.

What do you like to do, so thinking about yourselves, when you are happy? And how would you describe how it makes you feel? Maybe you could try and use some of the adjectives that we've looked at today.

Happiness makes me feel mm and mm.

It makes me want to mm.

And you could choose something from the story or something different.

So you have three questions to try and answer in as much detail as you can.

Pause the video now and off you go.

Fantastic.

Should we see how you got on? Here are some answers that you may have come up with.

What type of tree was Anna sitting in? Anna was sitting in a mango tree.

I love the smell of mangoes, so I bet it smelt amazing.

Why do you think Anna decided to sing a song? I think Anna decided to sing a song because she heard the birds singing.

Or you might have said, "I think Anna decided to sing a song because she realised that's what made her happy." Finally, what do you like to do when you are happy? And how would you describe how it makes you feel? Now, everybody's answers here are going to be different.

Here's one example.

Happiness makes me feel powerful and energetic.

Two adjectives that we've looked at today.

It makes me want to dance.

I wonder what your answers were like.

Well done for answering so beautifully to really show that you're knowing the story really well.

Thank you so much for another fabulous lesson today.

We have learned that one way of inferring, so understanding a character's feeling is looking at their expressions in an illustration, looking at how they move, what they do and what they say.

Discussing the emotions of others helps us to generate powerful adjectives to describe an emotion or action like energetic, relieved, powerful, relaxed.

Using words such as I, me, my, mine, we, or us is a way of speaking from the first person perspective.

What an amazing lesson.

Well done and I really hope to see you again soon.

Bye.