Lesson video

Hello, everybody.

It is me, Miss McCartney, how are you today? Fantastic.

In today's lesson, we are going to be working on the reading skill of summarising.

Now when we are working with explanation texts, like how birds fly, being able to summarise and explain the most important points is really important and can help our listener or our reader to really learn about the world.

And that's what's so great about being a storyteller.

Let's get started.

I'm really excited.

In this lesson, you will need a piece of paper or something to write on, a pencil or something to write with and your wonderful creative brain.

If you need to go and collect anything to make sure you're fully prepared, pause your video now.

Excellent.

Now that we are ready, let's have a little look at what we are going to be learning about today.

We are going to start with a spelling activity where we are going to look at some common exception words.

Then we are going to do a reading strategy check to make sure that we are ready to read all together.

And then we are going to practise summarising.

Shall we get started with our spelling? Show me a thumbs up if you are ready.

Brilliant, I am ready too.

Today we are going to be looking at common exception words.

And common exception words are a little bit tricky, because we cannot sound them out.

We cannot use our phonics.

They are common, which means we use them all the time, but they are an exception, which means they don't follow the rules.

So because we use them all the time in our writing, we really need to know how to spell them.

My turn, your turn.

Every, your turn.

Only your turn.

Even, your turn.

Fantastic pronunciation everybody.

Now the first thing that we are going to do is we are going to look at the words.

So let's talk about every first.

We're going to look at the word every, we're going to say every, then you are going to cover it up on your screen and you are going to try and remember how to write it.

Then you are going to check, if you get it right you're going to give yourself a nice big tick.

And if you don't get it right, then you are going to fix it and learn from your mistake.

When you have done, look, say, cover, write, check, for every you are going to repeat the process for only and even.

Can you pause your video now.

And for each word I would like you to look, say, cover, write and check.

Brilliant.

I could see some really, really frowned brows because these words are tricky and that is okay.

Can you hold your spellings up so I can see the work that you have done? I am so impressed because I can see some children that did make a mistake.

But when they checked their work, they fixed their mistake.

So that is really, really good.

Well done, everybody.

Did you hear everybody has the word every in it? So that just proves why it's so important.

We are now going to practise using these words in a sentence so that we can write them down and have another go at spelling and using them correctly.

So can you write three sentences about birds using our common exception words.

So Miss McCartney's example is, not every bird can fly.

Not every bird can fly.

Think about a chicken.

Okay, pause your video now and create your three sentences.

Brilliant, can you hold up your sentences and point to your favourite sentence, what's your favourite one? Uh, I can see some really, really great sentences.

One of our sentences said, even small birds can fly.

That is true.

Well done.

Another sentence used the word only.

And it said you can only hear the birds singing in the morning.

I normally do only hear the birds singing in the morning.

You have written some great sentences.

Let's get started with our reading now.

Let's think about how we can make sure that we are ready for our reading.

The first thing we need to do when we are reading is make sure that we have our magnet eyes on the text.

So as I'm reading, you need to have your eyes on the word that I am reading.

The second thing you need is listening really carefully.

You might hear some words that you don't know how to say.

So you need to listen really carefully.

So you learn how to say them.

And the third thing, you need your reading finger ready, following along the words that I am reading.

Are you ready to start reading? Fantastic, let's get started.

Okay, we are starting with flapping.

First, flapping.

Birds use their strong chest muscles to flap their wings.

Wings come in all different shapes and sizes.

Birds must flap their wings to take off.

However, not all birds can fly.

Some birds need to fly to find food, avoid predators, find a mate, or migrate.

Remember migrate is when the season changes, so it might get colder or it might get hotter, and the bird flies somewhere else.

Planes have a similar shape as bird wings.

But instead of flapping their wings, we use engines to thrust them into the air and create the lift needed to fly.

When a bird flaps its wings, the wing pushes down against the air and so pushes the bird upwards.

The faster the wings flap, the harder they push upwards.

When you flap your hands, can you feel the wind against them? Try it.

That's what pushes the bird up when they flap their wings.

Okay, so this is just like the explanation that Dr.

Bird Brain gave us, Professor Bird Brain gave us.

However, there is a lot more new information.

And today, we are working on the skill of summarising.

My turn, your turn, summarising.

Your turn.

Brilliant.

And when we summarise, we read a piece of text and we are able to explain the most important points.

So the first thing we are going to do is use the words firstly, then, as a result.

I want to know how a bird flies by flapping their wings and you are going to use the words firstly, then, as a result.

Have a go at crafting your sentences.

Pause your video now.

Brilliant.

I'm going to say my first statement and then I would like to hear yours.

I think it's really important that birds use their chest muscles to fly.

So I am going to say, firstly, birds use their chest muscles to flap their wings.

Now I'm going to pass over to you.

What is the next really important piece of information? Use the word then.

Off you go.

Brilliant.

One of our learners said, "then the bird flaps its wings "and the wing pushes down on the air." Fantastic.

Yes, so first, the bird uses its chest muscles, then the wing pushes down on the air.

Fantastic.

I would now like you to use the sentence then as a result.

And tell me what happens next.

What really important information do I need? Okay, whisper to your screen now, as a result.

Fantastic.

I heard one of our learners say, "as a result, the bird is pushed upwards "and can begin to fly." Fantastic.

So we have used the summary words.

Firstly, then and as a result, and when you are reading a text, you could use those summarising words to help you find the most important points.

Second task, can you summarise how birds flap their wings in 10 words, and then five words.

If you need to, you can go back in the video so that you can read the text again.

And I would like you to write down how birds flap their wings in 10 words, and then five words.

Pause your video now to complete your task.

Brilliant.

Can you hold up your writing so that I can have a little look at your summaries? Oh, I'm noticing some patterns here.

And the pattern that I'm noticing is lots of our learners have the same key words, and key words are the really important words that we must have to understand how birds flap their wings.

So some of the words I have seen are push, upwards, air and wing.

Did you have those key words in your summaries? Brilliant.

Now, when we summarise using 10 words, and then five words, it makes us really think about which words are the most important.

So again, if you're reading your own story, you could practise summarising the story in 10 words and then five words and having a little think about what are the most important words? Brilliant.

Let's read the next section of our text.

Gliding.

Second, gliding.

some birds fly by flapping their wings constantly.

Flap, flap flap.

Some birds fly by flapping their wings, then fixing them in position like an aircraft and gliding.

When birds glide, they move forward through the air with their wings tilted at an angle.

Some birds can even tilt that individual feathers to help them glide.

Once again, the air pushes against the wind and pushes the bird up.

That's why sometimes birds fly Without flapping their wings at all.

Small birds like swallows glide when they are hunting for insects in the air.

Swallows glide much closer to the ground than eagles.

If small birds like swallows started flying with eagles, then they would most likely get eaten.

Bird to glide, learn how to tilt their wings and feathers by watching birds who are similar to them.

So it might be birds who are in their family, or it might be birds that look like them.

So we have found out a lot more information about gliding now, but we still need to summarise and pick out the most important pieces of information.

Let's see how we're going to do that now.

We are going to use the same summary words first, firstly, then, as a result.

I'm going to give you an example.

Firstly, birds can change the angle of their wings by tilting them, then the wing pushes against that air.

As a result, the birds can fly without flapping their wings at all.

Hmm, I wonder how different or how similar your summary is going to be using our summarising words.

Pause your video now and summarise using the summary words.

Brilliant.

I could hear such eloquent answers, picking out those key words again, those really important words that we really need to be able to understand how and why birds glide.

Task two, I am going to model using the sentence stems to think about important information and supporting information.

Now when we are summarising, we focus on the important information.

So I would like to know the difference.

Let's listen to Miss McCartney's example.

The most important information about gliding is that birds can tilt their wings and the individual feathers because this helps them to glide and they don't have to flap their wings.

I think the tilting of the wings and the feathers is really important.

Swallows gliding lower than eagles is an example of supporting information, because I don't need to know that information to know how a bird glides.

But it helps me to learn more about birds.

I would now like you to pause your video and speak those two sentences to the screen thinking about important and supporting.

If you need to go back and re-read the text, that is fine.

Pause your video now.

Brilliant.

So somebody noticed that when we were talking about aeroplanes , that is supporting information, it wasn't really, really important, but the wing pushing against the air to lift the bird up and tilt them so they can glide, that was really important.

We needed that.

Well done.

Let's read the third section of our explanation.

Third, steering.

Steering allows birds to change direction.

Hummingbirds often need to change direction really quickly because they live in the forest.

They have wings that are swept back, like wings of a fighter jet.

Birds change the angle and shape of their wings and tails and so change the way the air pushes against them.

Birds can twist the very tips of their wings to help them change direction.

If a bird loses their tail, oh no, perhaps they are in an accident, they can still steer, but they have to move their wings much more quickly to be able to choose their direction.

Birds need to be able to move the middle of their bodies to be able to steer.

A duck cannot bend very well in the middle and therefore they are poor steers.

Just watch a duck fly.

Hmm, next time I go to the park, I'm really going to see if a duck can fly and how it moves.

I'm going to see if they are good at steering or poor at steering.

Let's think about how we're going to summarise this information.

Can you remember our three summarising words? Brilliant.

Firstly, then, as a result.

I would like you to use those three summarising words to summarise how and why birds steer.

Pause your video now.

Brilliant.

I'm going to tell you what I heard some of our learners saying.

One of our learners said, "firstly, birds can change the shape "and angle of their wings.

"Then they can also change the shape "and angle of their tails.

"As a result, they can change direction." Okay.

We are now going to think about the key words and we are going to pretend that we are explaining how birds steer to an alien who has never seen a bird before.

So my sentence stems. If I were going to explain to an alien how birds steer, I would use the key words? And you are going to tell me what you think the key words are.

The alien will definitely need to know? An alien wouldn't need to know? What can we tell the alien later? Pause your video now and have a go with the sentence stems. Excellent.

I wish we could meet an alien so that we could actually explain to them.

Okay, I am going to tell you Miss McCartney's thoughts.

If I were going to explain to an alien how birds steer, I would use the key words, wing, tail, change, shape.

Those are my four key words.

That alien would definitely need to know that by changing the shape and angle of their wings, birds can choose their direction.

I think they would also know to know that birds can move the very tips of their wings to change direction.

Hmm, what would the alien not need to know? I don't think that alien would need to know that hummingbirds have wings just like fighter jets.

I could tell them that later when they've learned a bit more.

Well my answer is similar or different to yours? Whisper to the screen.

Hmm, what I really liked is that some children's answers were really different.

But we all had the same key words to help us to really summarise.

You have done a brilliant job at reading today.

Well done everybody.

If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter tagging at @OakNational and @TeachTMcCartney, #LearnwithOak.

I wonder if you could read a book today and use the strategies that we have learned to summarise your text.