Lesson video

Hello and welcome, my name is Mr.Santhanam and welcome to lesson seven of 10.

Today's learning objective is all about learning to read as a writer.

So we're really going to be thinking about what choices do writers make and why do they make them? So that can make us better writers when we come to do our storytelling of the story of the Eagle God and the bravest bird in the forest.

Now, first of all, I want to talk to you about your favourite stories and what makes them so special.

The reason I want us to think about our favourite stories is that we can think about all the dramatic things that happened in the middle part of that story.

We're going to do my turn, your turn.

I am going to say what my favourite story is.

And then I'm going to think about what other dramatic things that happened in the middle part of that story.

Then it will be your turn and then I might have another go as well.

You can play this with your friends, your family members, or even your teacher, if you are in class.

So, my favourite story is "The Three Little Pigs" and the dramatic things that happened in the middle part of that story is it's when the three little pigs each make their houses and the Wolf tries to blow each of them down.

And it happened three times.

So that's three new things that make the story very dramatic and builds that tension in the middle.

Now, your turn, what's your favourite story and what dramatic things happen in the middle part of that story? I love that story, that's a great one.

What else is my favourite story? My favourite story is "Cinderella" and I love the part in the middle.

When the fairy godmother turns up and turns her dress into a beautiful dress, makes all the animals and the pumpkin into her courage.

She goes to the ball, she dances with the Prince and then the clock strikes 12 and she turns back into a maid and she has to run away.

What's your favourite story? Great idea, I'll do one.

My favourite story is, I like "Jack and the Beanstalk." where he finally gets to travel up the beanstalk.

He goes into the giant's house, the giant chases him.

There's three things that happened in that story that make it very, very exciting.

Gone, on one last one.

What's your favourite story? Amazing, now that we've had some time to think about what our favourite stories are and the dramatic things that happened in the middle, we can really start to think about what are the dramatic things that happen in our stor?.

In this lesson, you will need some paper a pencil and your brilliant brain.

Pause the video now while you go and get those things.

Amazing gold star, let's go on with the lesson.

In today's lesson, we are going to first, review our middle tool kit so that we can really think about those things that make the middle part of our stories so dramatic and so interesting that keep us wanting to know more.

We're then going to do an activity, which is all about reading as the writer and thinking as if we are the writers.

And thinking as if we are the writers of a story, so that when we come to write our own story, we know the thought processes that go on.

And finally, we're going to a retrieval activity to really pick out those key things that make for such a great middle part of a story.

First of all, let's review our toolkit.

I know that when I'm being a brilliant storyteller, I want to create middles that build drama.

This can happen with adding new setbacks and events.

It can happen with slowing down time to build anticipation.

It can be using vagueness or hinting to really create mystery, what's going to happen next? And also using uncertainties so that we really want to find out what happens in the end.

Just like, when we weren't sure what was going to happen with the fire.

Was it going to burn down the forest? Was it going to go out? We didn't know.

And that's what made our middle part so engaging and so interesting.

First of all, let's have a think about, what are new events and setbacks or problems that happened in our story that we're going to tell? Let's think back about the little bird and the forest fire.

What are the new problems that happened in the middle part of the story? Can you think of any? That is some brilliant ideas then I heard, that first of all, there was a raging fire that was devouring the forest, tearing down all the trees and scaring away all the animals.

That's definitely a problem in the story, isn't it? I also heard that some people were saying that the gods were up in the heavens and they were doubting the little bird.

That was a problem as well.

There was no one cheering her on at that stage.

I also heard some people saying that the animals even run away from the forest, leaving the little bird on her own.

That was definitely a problem.

Before she had all her friends there then suddenly she was left all alone to fend for herself.

And that makes us as the readers go, "Oh no, what is she going to do on her own?" I also had some people say, "Even the Eagle God doubted the little bird and the Eagle God came down to help her." Even he at first was saying to her, "little bird, what are you doing? You can't put out this firewall on your own.

You need to run away." So I can see that they were four at least four different things that happened in the middle part of our story that keep building that tension and that drama that leave the readers wanting to know more.

The more that characters abandoned the little bird in the story, the more the readers want her to survive.

And the more that people doubter her, the more the readers believe that she can be determined and really prove herself.

Now let's think about how can we slow down time to build anticipation? What kinds of things slow down the time in the middle part of the story? What do you think? Right, this one is a little bit tricky.

Well I think if I was to think about the things that slow down the time to build anticipation, that means anticipation means that we are wanting to know more.

What's going to happen? Things like when we use long sentences, sometimes it's great to use short sentences so that we are filled with drama like this.

But if we use long sentences, that makes us really think about the sentences and it really slows things down.

The longer our sentences are, the longer we will build anticipation.

Using lots and lots of detail and description that way we really understand what was going on.

But it kind of distracts us, from what's about to happen.

And although it's really interesting to read all that detail in that description, we kind of really want to get to the next point to hear, what's going to happen? Sometimes using repetition can really slow things down.

Remember in the "Three Little Pigs," it wasn't just one little pig that built a house and had it knocked down.

It was three little piggies, that had their houses knocked down, well two, and then one more with the brick house.

But that can really slow things down and keep us wanting more.

Now this one is very tricky as well I get confused about this one.

How can we use vagueness, vagueness means there's no specific answer or hinting to add mystery? Again when we're hinting at something we're not giving the answer straight, we're sort of pushing someone in the right direction.

So how can we do that to add mystery? What do you think? That's some great ideas there.

Using the word something, is really great for vagueness and hinting, because we don't know what that something is.

It leaves our imagination to run wild and that adds mystery.

Using the word, it, can sometimes add mystery as well.

What is it? Very mysterious.

Phrases like, what should I do? That shows that the character doesn't know.

They want to have an answer.

Sometimes saying a voice said, whose is the voice? I don't know, could be anyone's, very mysterious.

Okay, now that we've had a great really in depth look at our toolkit.

Let's have a go at reading like a writer.

so that we can really get into the mindset of being a great storyteller.

First of all, I want us to pick out where we can see new events and setbacks.

Then you are going to retrieve that information by finding and picking out yourself.

One day as the gods slept peacefully in the heavens, some snoring loudly and others yawning in their slumbers, the Eagle God lay awake.

He drummed his fingers as he thought about how he could get the other gods to respect him.

It's not fair, he thought to himself sadly.

Suddenly down below, something caught his eyes, A flickering light, a blood flash of orange and red, a trail of smoke.

He rubbed his eyes to check if he was dreaming.

A shock run through him as he suddenly realised what was happening.

The forest had caught fire.

An almighty beast of flames began to devour the trees, in the darkness of night.

Animals howled as they run for safety.

He sat up, fully awake and alert now.

He knew he had to do something.

Pause the video now, while you try and pick out and retrieve the parts of that paragraph, where there are new events and setbacks.

We are presented with new problems. How did you do? Did you manage to find any? These were the things that I found were the new problems and setbacks.

So, suddenly down below something caught his eye.

First, he was fine in the heavens.

He was sort of just thinking to himself, everyone was asleep.

There was nothing particularly wrong.

And then suddenly that's where he sees the fire.

That's the new problem.

He sat up, fully awake and alert now, he knew he had to do something.

He couldn't just sit in the heavens and do nothing on his own.

He knew that it was his responsibility to help somehow.

That's another new problem.

Now let's have a look at where we slow down time to build anticipation Pause the video now and think about where can you see long sentences? Where can you see we're adding detail and description to slow down time and build anticipation that leaves us wanting more? So I thought, that we really built anticipation where it says he rubbed his eyes to check if he was dreaming.

A shock, run through him, as he suddenly realised what was happening.

We haven't said exactly what's happening yet, but we're slowing down time.

We're adding action and detail and description to really draw out that time of an anticipation.

Now this one's tricky too.

Where do we see vagueness and hinting? Have a think back to what words and phrases, we often use, when we are showing vagueness and hinting.

Pause the video now and see if you can find any vagueness and hinting.

So I thought that there was lots of vagueness and hinting in this, suddenly down below something caught his eye.

Did the writer say what it was? No.

They just said something.

That leads us as the readers thinking, what did he see? What caught his eye? A flickering light, a blood flash of orange and red, a trail of smoke.

We're hinting with all those things, with all those clues.

We are hinting with those clues that it might be fire, but we haven't said that it was fire yet.

We're hinting at it.

He suddenly realised what was happening.

Again, the writer hasn't said what's happening.

They've just said, "He knows what's happening." But as the readers, we don't know what's happening yet.

So that really builds that mystery.

He knew he had to do something.

Again, the readers don't know what he's going to do, but the Eagle God knows he's got to do something.

There we have that mystery again.

Okay, now that we've thought really carefully about how to read as a writer and we've started to really unpack and analyse a piece of text.

You get to think about, the story in your own way.

With your pencil, I would like you to answer these questions and explain your answers.

The first question says, what does the middle of the story make you think or feel? The next question says, which character do you think shows the most determination? Is the middle part exciting enough? What makes it exciting? And is there any way the middle part could have added more mystery to build anticipation? Pause your video now, while you've write down the answers to those questions, Okay, for your challenged task, I want you to really think about how you could create something new and different for the story.

If you could change the middle, what would you change? Again, with your pencil, write down the answer.

This could be a paragraph or it could be a few sentences.

It's up to you.

Okay, I want to know how you, did with retrieving and picking out all those really important parts from our toolkit and reading as a writer.

I can't wait to see what things from our toolkit you are going to include in your storytelling.

Don't forget to share your work with Oak National.

If you would like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work, on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

I'll see you next time, bye bye.