Lesson video

Hello everyone.

My name is Mrs. Riley, and I'm here today to do some reading with you.

In our lesson today, we're focusing on a book called "The Children of Lir".

So the first thing we need to do is make sure we all have a copy of this book to hand.

I would like you now to get the 2011 Oxford University Press edition of this book, which is written by Maire Buonocore and Isabelle Arsenault.

Could you pause the video now and make sure you have a copy of the book in front of you? Well done.

Now I know we all have a copy of the book.

We are ready to start our reading lesson.

The outcome of today's lesson is to develop a personal response to the text.

These are our key words for our lesson today.

That means these are the words that are really important.

The first key word is inference.

My turn, your turn.

Inference.

Well done.

Inference means to draw conclusions from clues within a text.

So sometimes in a text, an answer is there for us very plainly and obviously.

For example, if on the first page of a text, it said, "Once upon a time, a little girl called Emily woke up on a sunny day." And if the question was, "What kind of day was it?", we could see it was sunny, but other times we might have to draw conclusions from clues.

It might, for example, say to you, "How was this little girl Emily feeling?" And we would have to use clues from the text.

For example, if it said, "She leapt out of bed," that might be a clue that she was excited about something.

So I really love inference because it's a bit like being a detective.

We have to hunt for clues to draw conclusions.

The next word is personal.

My turn, your turn.

Personal.

Now personal just means something that belongs to you.

The next key word is opinion.

My turn, your turn.

Opinion.

An opinion is a personal, so something that belongs to me, view about something.

So I might have an opinion, it's my own view, it just belongs to me, but it might be different from your opinion.

And finally, we have points of view.

My turn, your turn.

Points of view.

Well done.

And this means a particular attitude towards something.

So in our lesson today, we have two learning cycles.

In our first learning cycle, we are going to make sure that we understand the story, "The Children of Lir".

And in the second learning cycle, we are going to express our opinions, so our personal views about the story.

But let's start off by understanding the story.

So what do we know already about the story, "The Children of Lir"? Let's just recap.

We know that it is a traditional tale.

We know it's fictional, it's made up, it's not real.

We know it's split into chapters, and it has illustrations, which are the pictures.

We know the main characters in the book are King Lir, his four children and the evil Queen.

We know that one of the key themes in the story is jealousy.

And we know that the moral of the story, which is the lesson it teaches us, is to be resilient, to overcome challenges, to keep trying even when things are difficult.

So let's recap the story now of "The Children of Lir".

The first thing that happens is that the Queen was jealous of King Lir's love for his four children.

King Lir left to fight in a war and the Queen cast a spell that turned the children into swans.

When King Lir returned, the swans sung their story to him, and the King was furious with the Queen and banished her.

That means he sent her away.

King Lir got the wand and threw it into the sea, which created a storm that separated the swans from each other for a while.

Many years later, the four swans, that we know the four children, returned to the lake.

And the news of a wedding broke the evil Queen's spell at last so the swans changed back finally into humans.

So let's check if you are listening.

True or false? When the children are turned into swans, they give up on their lives and they all go separate ways.

They all go off by themselves.

True or false? Pause the video now.

Well done.

It's false.

They don't go off separately.

They stick together, don't they? So now we know what happens in the story, we can develop our understanding of the text, and we can answer questions to demonstrate, which means to show off, our understanding.

Sometimes the answer is in the text and we can just look back in the book to help us a bit like when I said in the made-up story about the girl that woke up on a sunny day.

What was the weather like? We can look, oh, it was sunny.

I can see the word here sunny.

And I can also see in the picture.

Other times we have to be detectives and look for clues.

But let's first of all just focus on these slightly easier questions where we can look back in the book to help us find an answer.

So I would like you to discuss the answer to these questions.

So each one I'll read to you, pause the video after I've read it, discuss the answer with your partner.

So are you ready for question one? How many children does King Lir have? You might need to look at the book to check.

Pause the video and discuss the answer now.

Okay, well done.

He's got four children.

The next question is, what curse does the Queen place on King Lir's children? Pause the video now.

Well done.

She turns them into swans, doesn't she? And finally, how does the King find out what happened to his children? Pause the video now and discuss with your partner.

That's right.

That his children, who are turned into swans, have to sing him their sad tale.

And that's how he finds out what happened to them because they sing it to tell him because they can't speak but they can sing.

So let's just check if you are listening.

How does the King find out what happened to his children? A, the Queen admits the truth to him; B, a hermit tells him what he saw the Queen do; or C, the swans sing to him and explain what happened.

Pause the video and choose your answer now.

Well done.

The correct answer is C.

The King finds out what happened because the swans sing to him and explain.

Now look at this question: How do you think the Queen felt when King Lir found out what she had done? Hmm, how did the Queen feel when King Lir found out what she had done? Now sometimes the exact answer cannot be found in the text, and we need to use our inference skills, remember, that's like when we're a detective, to help work it out.

We have to look for clues.

If I turned that page when King Lir found out and confronted the Queen, unfortunately it doesn't say to me the Queen felt confused and sad.

If it did, then I would know that was the answer.

She felt confused and sad, but it doesn't tell me how she felt.

So we need to look for clues to try and help us to just decide what our answer will be.

Now, inference means using clues from the text to draw conclusions.

It's like being a detective, figuring out something that isn't directly said in a story by using clues and what we already know.

So let's look at pages 20 and 21 for clues in the text to help us answer the question.

So the question is, how do you think the Queen felt when King Lir found out what she had done? So I would like you to pause the video, turn to pages 20 and 21 and look for clues to answer the question of how does the Queen feel? Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

So you might have said the Queen tells a lie, doesn't she? She says that the children have gone off to stay with someone.

And I think she does this because she's anxious, which means she's a bit worried, about what the King will think of her.

You might have said, oh, I can see here the word screamed.

The Queen screamed at the King.

And this shows me that she's angry that her secret has been discovered.

You might have also said, oh, I see the word softly.

And when she speaks softly, this shows me that she's feeling ashamed and guilty about what she's done as she admits the truth.

So she has lots of different feelings, doesn't she, on these two pages? And we have decided how she's feeling based on those clues.

So all of these clues can then help us to answer the question, how do you think she felt when King Lir found out what she'd done? And our answer might be this, because we've looked at those clues.

I think the Queen felt a mixture of emotions.

I think she felt anxious about the King's reaction and what might happen next.

She was cross that her plan had been ruined, and she probably regretted her actions as now, rather than loving her more, the King despised her.

So that incredible answer that we've come up with was not just written from the text, we had to look for clues to help us work out that answer.

So let's check your understanding.

What do you think the swans felt when they saw the castle ruins? Now again, it doesn't say in the book, when the swans saw the castle ruins, they felt, hmm.

So we have to be detectives.

We have to use our inference skills to look for clues and help us to identify the answer.

So your options are A, the swans felt happy remembering their childhood; B, the swans felt sad their once beautiful home was now in ruins and their father was no longer there; and C is the swans felt confused and thought it was a different castle rather than their own.

Pause the video and use clues from the text to help identify the correct answer.

Well done.

The correct answer is the swans felt sad their once beautiful home was now in ruins and their father was no longer there.

Well done for being detectives and looking for clues to help you identify the correct answer.

Now, some questions might require us to give us a personal response.

This means that every answer might be slightly different because we're all different, aren't we? We're all different people.

So we're all going to have different personal responses.

Have a look at this question.

If you were the Queen and you felt jealous of the King's love for his children, what would you have done? Now again, this answer isn't written in the book.

And actually here, it's not even really asking us to look at the book for clues to find out how somebody else was feeling.

I want to know what you think.

What's your personal response to this question? And we're all gonna have different answers because we're all different.

So I would like you now to think about this question carefully.

If you were the Queen and you felt jealous of the King's love for his children, what would you have done? Would you have done something different to what she did? I'd like you to pause the video and discuss this with your partner.

And here's a sentence scaffold.

If I was the Queen, I would have, mm.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

I heard so many different answers, which is great because we all have different personal responses.

So here are some possible answers.

If I was the Queen, I would've talked to the King to let him know how I was feeling.

Maybe we could have spent more time together.

Here's another answer.

If I was the Queen, I would've made a big effort to be friends with the children so that I would feel part of the family and not feel jealous.

And here's another answer.

If I was the Queen, I would've spoken to my friends and asked for their advice about what to do in my situation.

All of these are different answers because they're all personal responses and we all have different opinions.

So for your task now, I would like you to discuss the following questions with a partner.

So we're not writing anything down, we're just having a discussion.

Where necessary, use clues from the text and illustrations to give your answers.

So some of these questions, you might be able to put your finger on the exact part of where it tells you the answer.

And some of these questions you might have to be a detective and look for a clue to help you decide what your answer's going to be.

Let me read the questions to you.

Number one, which country is the story set in? So do you think that's going to be one where you can put your finger on the answer where it tells us the answer, or one where you'll have to find clues to work it out? Hmm.

I wonder.

Question two, why does the Queen pretend to like the children? Question three, what do you know about the children's relationship with each other based on what happens in the story? Question four, how was the Queen's spell finally broken? Question five, can you think of a time when you had to work together with your siblings, they're your brothers and sisters, if you have any, or your friends to overcome a challenge? And what did you learn from this or that experience? So five questions there.

You are going to be discussing them with a partner, and you are going to be using the text and the illustrations to help you to come up with your answers.

Good luck.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

That was really quite tricky.

There are a lot of questions there, and you did so well.

Let's look at the answers.

Now, some of the answers, there's only one answer.

For example, the first one is, which country is the story set in? The story is set in Ireland.

There's only one answer there because it tells us in the book it's set in Ireland.

Question two, why did the Queen pretend to like the children? Now here, there might have been a few different ways of phrasing this because this was one of the questions you had to look for clues and come up with your own answer.

So the Queen wanted the King to think that she cared for the children, or you might have said the Queen wanted the King to think that she liked the children.

Or you might have said the Queen didn't want the King to be suspicious that she was going to do something to the children.

So there's different ways of coming up with they're all right answers.

That all of those answers, you had to use clues in the text.

Question three, what do you know about the children's relationship with each other based on what happens in the story? Again here, there's nothing that tells us this answer, but we can look for clues.

And the clues are that they stick together the whole way through the story and grow old together.

So we might have said the children have a strong bond and deep love for each other because they support each other and stay together for hundreds of years.

Question four, how was the Queen's spell finally broken? It was broken when a wedding happened between a prince and a princess of two different kingdoms, that answer was in the book.

And question five was interesting because it was, can you think of a time when you had to work together with your siblings or friends to overcome a challenge? And what did you learn from that experience? Now hopefully for this question, you all had different answers because this was asking about your personal opinion, your personal view.

For example, you might have said, my friends and I worked together to clean up the playground after a big storm.

I learned that teamwork gets the job done quicker and makes it more fun.

But like I say, for that answer, there wasn't a wrong or a right answer 'cause I was just asking you your personal opinion.

We're now gonna look at the second learning cycle: expressing an opinion.

Now, an opinion is a personal view about someone, something or somewhere.

When we share our opinions, we share our point of view.

We're all entitled to have an opinion, but it is important to remember that our opinion might not be the same as someone else's opinion.

For example, I might like strawberry ice cream the best, and you might like chocolate ice cream and that's okay.

It's fine that we have different opinions.

It's not up to me to say, "I am right and you are wrong.

Strawberry ice cream's better than chocolate ice cream." It's up to me to just say, "Oh, I like strawberry and you like chocolate.

We're different.

We have different opinions." So identify, which means spot, which of the following is an opinion? A, I play tennis on Wednesday afternoons.

B, did you watch the big tennis match on the weekend? C, tennis is a really fun sport.

Pause the video and decide which of these is an opinion.

Well done.

It's C.

This is an opinion because I might think tennis is a really fun sport, but you might think tennis is a bit boring and that's okay.

We all have different opinions.

It's important to respect someone else's opinion and accept that you might think differently to someone else.

For example, if you said to me, "I think tennis is a bit boring," I need to just respect, that's what you think, and it's okay that you think differently to me.

It's okay not to like something or to disagree with someone else's opinion.

However, it's important to explain why you have that opinion and to say it in a respectful way.

I'm not gonna say, "Well, I think you are silly because tennis is really fun, and you are silly if you don't think it's fun too." But instead I might say, "Oh, that's interesting that you don't like tennis.

Can you tell me what it is that you don't like about it?" If you then told me and explained why you didn't like tennis, that would be justifying your opinion.

You are explaining to me why you have a certain opinion.

So I'm going to now tell you which was my favourite part of "The Children of Lir".

And I'm going to use the word because in my sentence to explain why.

Now remember, this is just my opinion.

So my favourite part was when the swans heard that there would be a wedding because I felt excited that they would finally be reunited as children again.

That's my favourite parts, my personal opinion.

Now I'd like you to say, which would your favourite part of the story was? You are going to use a sentence and use because in your sentence to explain why.

So you are going to say, "My favourite part was, mm, because mm." Pause the video now.

Oh, well done.

I heard so many different answers, and well done for explaining your opinion.

So now I'm going to tell you which was my least favourite part of "The Children of Lir".

And I'm gonna again use the word because to explain why.

So let me think, what was my least favourite? The bit I didn't like.

Well, my least favourite part was when the swans were separated in the storm because I thought it seemed unfair that they had already been through their own scary experience and now they would have to go through another scary experience.

I didn't really like that part.

Now you are going to say which your least favourite part of the story was.

And you're going to use the word because to explain why.

For example, "My least favourite part was, mm, because, mm." Pause the video now.

Well done.

I heard loads of amazing answers.

And again, you all explained why you felt that way using that word because.

So you can form an overall opinion of a story.

And this is your personal response to the book.

Here are some things you might like to think about.

Do you like or dislike the characters? Did you enjoy the storyline? What happened in the story? What did you think about the illustrations, the pictures in the book? Were you able to understand the story? What did you think of the ending of the story? And would you recommend this book to a friend? So we could answer these questions about any book that we were reading.

We could think about if we like it.

Do we like the characters? What's our best part? Would we recommend it? These are all things that we can think about whatever book we are reading.

It's our personal response, and it's our own opinion.

So it might be very different to someone else's.

So they're your second task.

I would like you to think about what is your opinion of the story of "The Children of Lir"? And I'd like you to explain your opinion to your partner.

And then you are going to listen to your partner's opinion.

And remember, we are going to be respectful because it's okay if their opinion is different to yours, because we all have different opinions, different views on things.

We're not going to say, "I'm right and you are wrong." We're just going to explain why we feel that way.

Remember, the things you can discuss are, do you like or dislike the characters? Do you enjoy the storyline? What happened in the story? What did you think of the illustrations? Did you understand the story? What did you think of the ending? And would you recommend the book to a friend? So pause the video now and discuss these answers and remember to always explain why.

For example, I liked some of the characters because, or I loved the illustrations because, okay? Pause the video now and good luck.

Well done.

Wow, I heard some amazing discussions there.

And again, I loved the fact that all of you had different opinions, and you were all being very respectful of each other's opinions.

So here are some examples of the opinions you might have shared.

I thought "The Children of Lir" was a very exciting story from the first chapter.

I knew the Queen was going to do something terrible, and I liked the children were very brave and stuck together throughout.

Maybe you might have said, I thought "The Children of Lir" was interesting and also very sad.

Although the swans changed back into humans at the end, they were so old that they laid down together and died.

So those were just two opinions you might have shared, but there were so many opinions because we obviously all have different feelings and different responses to a book.

So let's summarise now what we've learned today.

Looking for clues in the text and illustrations can help us to answer questions.

Inference skills can help to develop a deeper understanding of a text.

An opinion is a view about something, somewhere or someone that is personal.

It's your own.

One's personal opinion can differ from someone else's, like I like strawberry ice cream and you like chocolate.

Opinions should be able to be justified or explained in a respectful way.

So well done for all your hard work today.

Hopefully you can take what we've learned today and apply it in your independent reading.

Perhaps you might, for example, when you finish a book, you might tell your friend about the book and you might tell 'em what you thought about it.

For example, I loved this book because, and explain your opinion, and then you might say if you would recommend it or not.

So that might be a little activity you could do as the week progresses, depending on what book you are reading at the moment.

Well done for all your hard work today, and I'll hopefully see you some more reading another time.