Lesson video

Hello everyone, my name's Mrs. Riley and I'm here today to do this reading lesson with you based on a book called "The Children of Lir".

So the most important thing before we start is to get to that book and have it in our hands.

So you'll need a copy of the 2011 Oxford University Press edition of "The Children of Lir," written by Maire Buonocore and Isabelle Arsenault.

Could you pause the video now and make sure you have a copy of that book and then press play again and we can start our lesson.

Amazing.

Well done.

Now we all have a copy of the book.

We are ready to start learning.

The outcome of this lesson is to read part of a traditional tale.

These are our keywords in our lesson today.

The first keyword is chapter.

My turn.

Your turn.

Are you ready? Chapter.

Well done.

A chapter is one of the parts that a fictional book is divided into.

So if you wrote a long book, rather than just having the whole thing in one go, the author decides to break it up into parts that are called chapters.

And that way, you might read chapter one and then you might pause, put a bookmark and you might have a pause and then the next night you might read chapter two.

So a chapter is a part of a fictional book.

The next keyword is strategies.

My turn.

Your Turn.

Strategies.

Well done.

Strategies are techniques used to support in achieving a purpose.

So today we'll be using different strategies to help us to read different words.

The next word is decode.

My turn.

Your turn.

Decode.

Well done.

Decode means to translate written symbols into words.

We're looking at written symbols and we're translating them into words.

Okay, well done.

Really good joining in.

So let's look at what our lesson is going to look like.

There are two learning cycles today.

In the first learning cycle, we are going to be reading the story and in the second learning cycle, we are focusing on our reading strategies, those techniques to help us to read.

So first of all, let's read part of the story.

So a reminder that "The Children of Lir" is a traditional tale.

What kind of tale is it? A? That's right.

A traditional one.

Traditional tales share many of the same features.

They have fictional, which means made up characters, settings and events.

For example, you might have a fairy godmother in a castle on the clouds whose casting magic spells.

These are all made up so they are all fictional.

There might be magical elements to a traditional tale.

There might be talking animals.

There might be heroes and villains.

They're like the goodies and the baddies in a story.

There might be a theme which is a central or a key idea to the story.

For example, a the key idea in "Snow White" is jealousy.

So I would like you now to look through the book, "The Children of Lir," which you've got at hand and see if you can identify any of these features.

You don't need to read the story.

That would take you too long at this stage.

Right now we are just looking through at the illustrations and seeing if we can spot any of these features.

For example, you might say, oh, I can spot a swan talking, so there's talking animals.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

I heard some brilliant discussions there.

So when we look at a front cover of a book, before reading the book, we can use the, hmm, and the, hmm, to help us make a prediction about the story.

A prediction is a guess, but it's not just a random guess.

It's a guess that we can make by using what we know.

So we can look at the front of a book and what two things can we look at to help us make a prediction? A, the title.

Could that help us to make a prediction? B, the name of the illustrator, the person who drew the pictures.

Could that help us make a prediction? Or C, the illustrations, which are the pictures.

Could that help us make a prediction? There might be more than one answer.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

So before reading the book, we can use the title and the illustrations to help us make a prediction.

The title of the book is "The Children of Lir." That might give us a clue what the story is about and we can also look at the picture on the front, the illustration to help us make a prediction.

"The Children of Lir" is divided into short chapters.

Remember, they are sections of the story.

Each chapter tells a part of the story.

Chapter one is the beginning of the story.

It's the part that comes first.

At the beginning of traditional tales, we are often introduced to the main characters and the setting.

So for example, in the story of Cinderella, in the beginning we are introduced to Cinderella and we know that she lives in a house with her stepsisters and stepmother.

So we're introduced to the characters and the setting.

Words that always start with capital letters are proper nouns.

These words don't necessarily have a meaning since they are the name of specific people, places, or things.

So if you see a word that starts with a capital letter, especially if it's not the beginning of a sentence, if it's in the middle of a sentence, you might make a sensible guess that that is a proper noun.

It's the name of a person.

For example, it might be King Lir or it might be the name of a place, for example, Ireland.

So let's read and listen to chapter one.

I would like you to look out for the main characters.

So who are the main characters and the setting, where is this story taking part? Pause the video now while you listen to chapter one.

Okay, well done.

So let's see if you are listening carefully.

Where is the story set? A, Ireland.

B, Scotland.

C, Wales.

Pause the video while you think about your answer.

Well done.

The correct answer is Ireland.

You'll notice all of those words have a capital letter at the beginning.

They are proper nouns because they are names of places or countries.

Okay, another check for understanding.

Which of these characters are introduced in the first chapter of "The Children of Lir?" King Arthur, Cinderella, the Queen, King Lir, Plop and King Leah's children.

In the first chapter, which of these characters are introduced? Pause the video now.

Well done.

The characters that are introduced are King Lir, the Queen and King Lir's Children.

Each chapter has a title which gives you a clue about what is going to happen next in the story.

I would like you to look at the title of chapter two.

I would also like you to have a look at the illustration.

What do you think is going to happen in this chapter based on the title and the illustration? Pause the video, look at the title and the illustration now and have a chat with your partner.

Okay, well done.

I heard some of you saying that the illustration showed the King reading a letter and that the children looked a little bit worried while he was reading the letter and that made you wonder if the King has heard some bad news.

So looking for clues in the title and illustrations can help us to read and understand the story more easily.

So the title and the illustrations are really helpful.

Let's read and listen to chapter two.

I'd like you to pause the video now while you listen to chapter two, and then I'm going to ask you some questions to check you are listening really carefully.

Pause the video now.

Well done.

Okay, so is it true or false? The King left to rule another kingdom.

Pause the video.

Is this true or false? Well done.

It's false.

He didn't leave to rule another kingdom.

Why did the children turn into swans? A, to fly alongside their father in battle.

B, because they ate a poisonous apple at the picnic.

Or C, the evil Queen cast a spell on them.

Pause the video and think about your answer.

Well done.

The correct answer is the evil Queen cast a spell on them.

So the father, King Lir has had a letter and he's had to go off to fight in a battle and the children have been left with the Queen and she has cast a spell on them which has turned them into swans.

The middle of a traditional tale is often where there is a problem.

Look at the title of chapter three.

What do you think the problem might be in this chapter? Pause the video and have a discussion.

Okay, well done.

Let's now read and listen to chapter three to see if you are right in your predictions.

Pause the video now while you listen to chapter three.

Okay, let's check you are listening carefully.

What is the problem in this story? Is it A, that the spell made the swans forget about their father? Is it B, the spell, not the smell, the spell meant the swans could never go home? Or is it C, the spell meant the swans became evil? And here's a little hint to help you.

Looking back through the book will help you if you cannot remember.

Pause the video and think about your answer now.

Well done.

The correct answer is B.

The spell meant the swans could never go home.

Is it true or false? The swans were not able to speak but they could sing.

True or false.

Pause the video now.

Well done.

It is true.

They cannot speak but they can sing.

Okay, it's time for your first task.

I would like you to reflect, that means kind of look back on the first three chapters that you've just listened to.

I would like you to think about what you liked.

So what did you really enjoy about those chapters and why? What did you dislike? Was there anything that you didn't enjoy and why? And puzzles, so anything that you found a bit surprising or a bit confusing.

And there's some sentence scaffolds there to help you so you might say, "I enjoyed," and then you might say which part you enjoyed and why "I didn't enjoy," and which parts you found surprising or confusing.

So you might say, I found it strange that, and then finish your sentence.

So you are not writing, you are just speaking perhaps with your partner about what you enjoyed, what you didn't like and what you found puzzling or confusing.

Pause the video while you complete this task.

Well done.

Here are some opinions you might have shared.

You might have said, I enjoyed that the brothers and sisters stuck together and found a way to communicate with their father through singing.

You might have said, I didn't enjoy it when the Queen pretended to be kind to the children in front of the King, but when he wasn't there she was cruel.

I didn't like that bit either.

You might have said, I don't understand why the swans can't just fly home and live with the King there? It might have been something you were puzzled about.

Well done for completing that task.

So now we've thought a little bit about the story.

We've read the first three chapters.

We are now going to think about using reading strategies.

Rereading a text is important for developing fluency and understanding.

If we reread something, it means we're reading it again.

Reading fluency refers to the ability to read a text accurately, smoothly, and with appropriate expression.

So that means we're reading the right words and we are reading them smoothly and with expression.

We're not reading each word like a robot.

We're trying to use expression in our voices.

We will learn some of the different strategies for developing both fluency, so how we read something smoothly and understanding, so how we understand words that are a bit unfamiliar for us.

So first we focus on decoding unfamiliar words.

Here are some strategies to decode words that we are unfamiliar with.

So if we see a word that we haven't seen before and we're not sure what that word is, these are strategies to help us.

Number one, look carefully at the word.

Number two, check if it's a common exception word that we need to read on site.

Those are the words that we can't really sound out, but we just have to try to learn them.

See if you can spot digraphs, trigraphs and split digraphs.

If it is a longer word, chop the syllables up.

Blend the sounds together.

So all of these are strategies to help us decode words we are unfamiliar with.

And finally, if we sound out any words in a sentence, reread it back fluently to check.

So if you've read a sentence and you've got to a word in the middle and you've had to sound it out and blend it back together, then go back to the beginning of the sentence and reread it back with the word in to check it makes sense.

So first we must decode words.

Phonics strategies are the most helpful way to decode unfamiliar words.

We all learn phonics at school and we learn phonics to help us to read.

So it's really important when we are reading a story that we use all those amazing things that we have learned in phonics.

So let's read and say the following three words from the book.

So here are three words that we might decode.

So we've got the word there, try, fight, fight, time, time.

All three of these words contain the same sound.

Have a think what it is.

Have a look, there might be a clue that it's in a different colour, the same sounds, and see if you can hold it on your chest.

And if you know after 1, 2, 3, shout out the sound to me.

1, 2, 3.

Oh, I've heard lots of you saying, I.

You're right.

Let's sound button and say these words again and hopefully hear that I sound.

Try.

Fight.

Time.

Time.

So you were right.

It is the sound I.

Now I would like you to pause the video and with your partner discuss if you can spot a trigraph and a split digraph.

Pause the video while you do that now.

Okay, well done.

Hopefully you spotted the trigraph is the I in fight because I-G-H, those three letters make that one sound, I.

And you might have also spotted the split digraph, the two letters that are split up to make the I sound in time.

There's I split E.

So the, hmm, separates, splits up the I and the E to make the sound, I.

Okay, I would like you to identify, that means spot or look for a digraph in each of the following words.

And here's a hint.

A digraph is two letters that represent one sound.

So your options are you've got A, the word, King, B, splash and C, beaks.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

Hopefully you spotted the digraph ng in King.

The N and the G make the ng sound.

In splash we've got splash so the S and the H make the sh sound.

And in C, we've got beaks.

Beaks.

So the E and the A, those two letters make that one sound E.

Well done for completing that activity.

So once we have decoded, we can then make sure we understand what we've read because it's not enough just to decode a word and know what it says if we don't actually understand what that word means.

So here are some strategies to understand words that we are unfamiliar with.

Check you have decoded it correctly.

Search for a word within a word.

Read to the end of the sentence to see if any other words in the sentence give us clues about the meaning.

If it has a capital letter in the middle of a sentence, it will be a proper noun.

So we know it's a specific name of something somewhere or someone.

For example in King Lir, it might be the name King Lir or it might be the country, Ireland.

One way to try to understand unfamiliar words is finding a word within a word.

Let's decode the following three words.

We're gonna look at the first one.

And you will point at it.

It begins with a D.

If you like, you can join in with me.

Are you ready? Disappear.

Disappear.

And the next one, fireside.

Fireside.

Frightened.

Frightened.

Words are frequently adapted using prefixes which are letters at the beginning of the word and suffixes, which are letters that come at the end of the word, which can change their word class.

The meaning of an unfamiliar word may be linked to the root word within it.

So let's look for a word within a word to help us to make sense of these three words we've looked at.

So we might have sounded out that word and know that it says disappear, but we might not know what that word means.

But you might see in that word is the word appear.

Now if something appears, it becomes visible.

We can suddenly see it.

And this is a prefix which kind of means the opposite of whatever follows.

So if something appears, it becomes visible.

If something disappears, it's suddenly no longer visible, that you can't see it again.

The next one, fireside, you might have sounded out that word and know it says fireside, but that doesn't help you if you don't know what it means.

But you might think, oh, I can see the word fire.

And if you know the word, fire, and then you might also see the word, side, you might say, okay, well I know a fire and I know side means it's by something so fireside must mean being by a fire.

In the third word, we might see the word fright.

And if we know that fright is meaning scared, then we know that frightened has a similar meaning to being scared.

So this is a useful strategy.

Look for a word within a word to help us understand what it means.

Okay, could you match these words to the words they can be found within? So the words are fourteen, together and laughter.

And then the words that are found within them are to, laugh and four.

Pause the video while you match these up now.

Okay, well done.

So the word four is in the word fourteen.

The word to is in the word together and laugh is in the word laughter.

So if you saw the word laughter and you didn't know what that word means, you might see, well, I can see the word laugh is in there, so this word must be similar to the word laugh.

Now another strategy to understand an unfamiliar word, a word we're not sure what it means is reading to the end of the sentence to see if anything in the sentence can help us.

So let's look at the following model sentence to see what this looks like in action.

"When he realised what she had done to his children, the King was seething with anger." Now perhaps you might say, I don't know what the word seething means.

So if you could see, there is the word seething.

We are going to cover up the unfamiliar word and see if we can use the context of the rest of the sentence to help us figure out the meaning.

"When he realised what she had done to his children, the King was, hmm, with anger.

Now anger makes me think seething means angry.

So I've used the rest of the sentence to help me to understand what the word seething means.

After you have decoded unfamiliar words, it's important to read the sentence again fluently to check your understanding.

This will allow you to understand the context words have been used in and make sense of the overall sentence.

Let's take a look at the following model sentence.

"She raised her misshapen wand and murmured a spell." Now let's just imagine for a second that first of all, I wasn't sure when I got to that word.

So she, and I might have to sound it out, she raised.

She raised.

Then I get to this word, this next one here.

Now, I'm not sure if I wasn't sure what that word was, I can spot the word shape inside it, in the word.

So its misshapen.

Misshapen.

And then imagine, I wasn't sure what that word meant so I'm gonna cover it up.

And now I'm going to just have a think.

So first of all, in that word misshapen, shape is in the word and mis means not so it must mean it's a wonky wand.

And now I can think about the sentence as a whole to try and work out what this word murmured means.

She raised her misshapen or wonky wand and, hmm, a spell.

A spell is something that's spoken so murmured must mean a type of speaKing.

So we can see in that sentence how I'm using all my strategies.

I sounded out the word raised.

Raised.

I found a word in that unfamiliar word, misshapen, the word shape.

And 'cause I wasn't familiar with the word murmured, I covered it up and read the rest of the sentence to work out its meaning.

And now I'm just gonna go back and try to read that sentence fluently.

"She raised her misshapen wand and murmured a spell." So now it's your turn to read.

I would like you to read chapter one out loud.

Which words did you use your phonic strategies to decode? Then I would like you to read chapter two out loud.

Were there any words within words that helped you make sense of words? Then I'd like you to read chapter three out loud.

Were there any words that you covered up and read to the end of the sentence to help you understand it? So we're doing two things here.

We are reading chapters one, two, and three, and then we're kind of stopping and reflecting to see if we've used any of these strategies to help us with our reading.

So could you pause the video now while you complete this task? Okay, well done.

Amazing reading.

And I was so happy to see you using some of those strategies we've just spoken about.

So for example, when you read chapter one out loud, you might have used your phonics strategies to decode the words mighty, instruments or weave.

So for example, you might have gone mighty.

Mighty.

You might, when you have read chapter two, have found the word wood in woodland or hunch in the word hunched or King in the word kingdoms. So you might have found a word in a word to help you make sense of it.

And you might in chapter three, have not known what the word sorrow meant.

So if you covered up the word sorrow and read the rest of the sentence you might have then decided it meant sadness.

So three really helpful strategies and I hope you enjoyed reading those chapters of this book.

So let's summarise what we've today.

We have learned that "The Children of Lir" is divided into short chapters and has a beginning, a middle, and an end like all traditional tales.

Sounding out using phonic strategies is our most helpful way to decode unfamiliar words.

Searching for a word within a word is a useful strategy to decode and understand words.

Read to the end of the sentence to help decide the meaning of an unfamiliar word.

Rereading a sentence fluently after decoding helps to make sense of what has been read.

So perhaps after this lesson, when you are reading independently, you can use some of these strategies.

Remember, when we are reading, it's not just about decoding and knowing what the words sound like and how to say them, but it's also about understanding what each word means.

And now we've got strategies to firstly, help us to read a word, but also to help us to understand what that means.

So I really hope you can use some of these skills in your independent reading.

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