Lesson video

Hello everyone.

My name's Mrs. Riley, and today we are going to do some reading together.

In our lesson today, we will be studying the book, "The Children of Lir." So before we start, could everyone pause the video and make sure that you have a copy of this book to hand.

You'll need a copy of the 2011 Oxford University Press edition written by Maire Buonocore and Isabelle Arsenault.

So pause the video now while you make sure you have your book.

Okay, amazing.

Now I know we all have the book ready, we can start our lesson.

The outcome of today's lesson is to use different strategies to read with expression.

These are the key words in our lesson today.

So these are the really important words.

The first word is expression, my turn, your turn.

Expression.

And now even louder.

Expression.

Well done.

Expression is reading with feelings and emotion to bring the story to life.

If you imagine a robot reading a story in a very boring way, they are not reading with expression.

So we are going to be trying to read in the opposite way to how a robot would read with lots of expression.

The next word is adjective.

My turn, your turn.

Adjective.

An adjective is a word that describes a noun.

For example, we might describe this book as the enjoyable book.

The word enjoyable is an adjective to describe the noun which is book.

The next word is verb.

My turn, your turn.

Verb.

A verb is a doing or being word.

For example, if I did a yawn, because that's something I'm doing, it's an action, I yawned.

Yawned would be the verb.

A being word would be something like, I am yawning, I'm tired.

Or the birds are singing, "am" or "are" or "were" are all being words.

The next word is adverb.

My turn, your turn.

Adverb.

An adverb is a word that describes a verb.

There's a bit of a clue in the name, adverb.

It's like it's adding information to a verb.

For example, I could say I yawned sleepily, sleepily would be the adverb.

It's saying how I yawned.

Okay.

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

First, we're going to practise reading the story with expression, the opposite to how a robot would read.

And then we are going to look at using our reading strategies.

So let's get started with reading the story with expression.

Now "The Children of Lir" is a traditional tale.

What can you remember about the story? Can you pause the video and have a discussion with the person next to you about what you can remember about this story? Pause the video now.

Oh, well done.

I heard so many ideas then.

So in chapter one, we are introduced to King Lir and his four children and their jealous stepmother, the queen.

The queen practises magical spells in secret and thinks about a plan to make the children disappear.

In chapter two, King Lir has to leave his family and go to war.

Oh no, poor him.

The queen takes the children for a picnic but when they are playing, she casts a spell that changes them into swans.

The queen leaves them on their own.

In chapter three, the children realise they cannot talk anymore, but they can communicate by singing.

King Lir returns, the queen lies to him but eventually he sees the swans and they sing him their sad story.

Let's see if you are listening carefully.

Could you put these events from the story in order? A, King Lir had to leave his ham family behind and go to war.

B, the queen was jealous of King Lir's four children.

And C, the evil queen used her magic to turn the children into swans.

So you need to decide which of these goes first, second, and third in our story.

Pause the video now.

Amazing.

Well done.

So hopefully you got that the first thing to happen is that the queen is jealous of King Lir's four children.

She's jealous because she thinks he loves them more than her.

The second thing to happen is that King Lir had to leave his family behind and go to war.

And the third thing thing to happen is that the evil queen uses her magic to turn the children into swans.

So I'm going to reread chapter one.

I will use reading strategies to help me.

I might need to use phonic strategies to decode unfamiliar words.

I might need to look for words within words to help me understand new words.

I might need to cover up an unfamiliar word, so a word that I don't understand what it means and read to the end of the sentence and use the context of the sentence to help me figure out the meaning of that word that I've covered up.

So pause the video now and listen to chapter one.

Well done.

Now that we've read chapter one, we are going to reread chapter two.

Again, could you pause the video? Well done.

I'm wondering if you used any of these strategies to help you.

Did anyone perhaps put your hand up if you used phonic strategies to decode? Oh, I can see some of you did.

Hands up if any of you found a word within a word.

Oh, I can see a few hands.

Hands up if you covered up a word and read the rest of the sentence to help you figure out what that word meant.

Oh, I can see lots of hands there.

Well done.

So today we are now going to focus on reading with expression.

When we read with expression, we use our voices to show how the characters are feeling and what is happening in the story.

To read with expression, first you need to be able to decode the words and then you can understand what you are reading and what to express.

If I read a book in a language that I didn't understand, I wouldn't know what expression to use because I wouldn't know what the words meant.

So we have to understand what we're reading so we know how the characters are feeling and if it's a scary part of the story or a happy part of the story.

So we know that so we can make our voice match what is happening in the story.

If you understand the words, this will help you to know what expression to use.

Let's use another traditional tale as an example.

First, I will read these words without expression.

So I'm gonna be reading like a robot.

Okay, so I think you can probably tell that this is from the "Three Little Pigs." So here's the wolf.

So imagine if I was reading the story to you and I open up my book and I say, "Little pig, little pig, let me come in." And then I'm carry on reading and the pig say, "Not by the hair, our chinny, chin, chin." And I carry on reading and I say, "Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down." Hmm.

Now, I dunno, was that very exciting to listen to? No, it wasn't, was it? To read with expression, we need to understand the words we are reading.

Now, if the wolf is saying, "Little pig, little pig, let me come in," I think he's feeling a bit sneaky, a bit mischievous.

And then when the piggies say, "Not by the hair on my chinny, chin, chin," I think they're feeling scared, but they're trying to be brave.

So they're feeling scared, they're trying to make out they're feeling really brave.

And when he says, "Then I'll huff and I'll puff, I'll blow your house in," I think he's feeling a bit irritated and angry now.

So now I've thought about how they're feeling and I understand the words.

I'm gonna try and read it again with expression this time.

Okay, here we go.

So imagine again, I'm reading you the story.

"Little pig, little pig, let me come in!" "Not by the hair of my chinny, chin, chin!" "Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in!" Now was it a bit more interesting to listen to that time? Well, hopefully, I'm seeing some thumbs up.

That's because that time I was thinking about how the characters were feeling and I was using expression in my voice.

And that's what you are going to practise doing today.

Punctuation can also give us a clue how to say something.

We can see all of those sentences there end in an exclamation mark.

And that often shows strong emotion.

So true or false.

To read with expression, you need to understand what you are reading.

Pause the video now.

Well done.

It's true, we have to understand what we're reading to use expression.

Rereading words that you have read before gives you a chance to concentrate on reading with expression.

Using different types of voice and different tones makes reading aloud more interesting for those who are listening.

So I try to use a different voice for the wolf and for the pig to try and make it a bit more interesting for you.

So now, I'm going to reread chapter three.

And this time when I reread it, I'm going to focus on reading with expression.

So pause the video now while you listen to chapter three and hopefully this time, notice all the expression in your teacher's voice.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

So certain words in the story gave me clues about what sort of expression to use.

For example, excited, an adjective that describes how someone is feeling.

So when I saw that word excited, I read the words quickly to show the swan's excitement.

There was the word "yelled." This is a verb that tells you how someone says or does something.

So when I saw that word "yelled," I read the words in a loud, angry voice to show the king's rage.

Softly.

This is an adverb.

It describes how someone does something.

So because I saw that word "softly," I read those words gently and quietly to show the queen's sadness.

So when we understand key words, adjectives like "excited," verbs like "yelled" or adverbs like "softly," they give us really nice clues as to how we should be reading that part of the story.

So which word classes can give you a clue to help you add expression when reading? A, nouns.

So that might be, for example, King Lir, or it might be castle, or it might be wand.

B, an adjective, those describing words.

C, adverbs.

Those words that tell you how a verb is done.

And D, a joining word.

So pause the video while you think about which of these word classes give us a clue to read with expression when reading.

Pause the video now.

Well done.

The words that can give us clues are adjectives and adverbs.

Nouns like "castle" or "wand" don't tell us how to read something and neither dojo words like "and" or "but." So it's time for your task now.

You are going to have a chance to practise this skill of reading with expression.

So with a partner, you are going to reread the last two pages of chapter three.

So you are just looking at those two pages, pages 20 and 21.

So perhaps, first of all, just make sure you are on page 20 and 21.

Gonna give you five seconds to do that.

5, 4, 3, 2, and 1.

Well done.

Hopefully you are all on pages 20 and 21.

And you are going to decide who will read, who's going to be King Lir and who's going to be the Queen.

Now, one of you is going to also have to read out the rest of the story, so the kind of narrative part.

So perhaps you might say, okay, partner A could read the whole thing and the parts that King Lir says, partner B could just read the bits that the Queen says.

So decide who's going to be A, who's going to be King Lir and read the extra bits as well.

And partner B who's going to be reading the parts that the Queen says.

And look out for those clues which are going to help you to read with expression.

Remember, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and punctuation, especially those exclamation marks which will show strong emotion.

So good luck reading this with expression.

I can't wait to hear your beautiful reading.

Remember your reading with a partner.

Pause the video and good luck.

Wow, well done.

That was incredible reading and I heard some beautiful expression in your voices.

Well done.

I liked hearing the different voices you used for the King and for the Queen.

So did you both read with expression and which of these gave you a clue about how to add expression to your reading? For example, perhaps you saw the verb "shouted" or the verb "screamed" and that gave you a clue how the king and queen was speaking.

Or perhaps you saw the adverbs "softly" and that gave you a clue how the queen was speaking in that part.

Okay, so we are gonna switch our attention now from reading with expression to using our reading strategies.

So reading fluency refers to the ability to read a text accurately, so saying the right words, smoothly, so not stumbling on our words, but reading smoothly, and with appropriate, there's our keyword expression.

In order to read fluently, first we need to be able to decode the words on the page.

That's step one to reading fluently.

We have to be able to decode words.

So first we focus on decoding unfamiliar words.

Words that we aren't sure about.

So here are some strategies to decode words that we are unfamiliar with, words that we perhaps haven't read before or that we are not sure what they mean.

So we're gonna first look at the word.

We're going to check if it's a common exception word that we need to read on site that we can't decode.

We just have to know what that word means.

We're going to try to spot digraphs, trigraphs or split digraphs.

If it's a longer word, we chop the syllables up.

We blend the sounds together.

If we sound out any words in a sentence, we read it back fluently to check.

So if we've read a sentence and there was one word in the middle that we had to sound it out, once we figured out what that word means, we're gonna go back and read the whole sentence hopefully now fluently 'cause now we know what that word means.

So first we must decode words.

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

All that Learning we do in phonics, isn't just for nothing, it's to help us to read.

So when we read, we need to use all the amazing things we've learned about in phonics.

Let's sound button these words to help us read them.

D-E-S-T-R-O-Y-E-D Destroyed.

Ooh, that was interesting because the letter e is actually making more of an it sound, destroyed in this word.

The next one, R-U-I-N-S.

Ruins.

And finally, W-H-E-A-T.

Wheat.

Now a digraph is two letters that represent one sound.

For example, in the word wheat, we've got two digraphs, W and H.

Those two letters make one sound, wh and the E and the A make one sound, e.

Now that we have decoded these words, do you understand their meaning? Have a discussion with the partner next to you and discuss for each of these words, destroyed, ruins, and wheat if you know what they mean.

Pause the video now.

Well done.

They were quite hard to define, weren't they, those words? Hopefully you discussed that to destroy something is to damage it or ruin it.

Ruins are something that have been destroyed and wheat is a type of grain that you might pick from the fields or that the farmers might get from the fields that are ground to make flour.

But what's important? So there's two things here.

We have to first be able to read the words by decoding them, but we also have to understand the meaning because otherwise, like I said, it's like reading a different language.

So there's two important things, reading the words by decoding and also understanding the meaning of them.

So could you identify a digraph in each of the following words? A, stormy, B, strong and C, grew.

And there's a little hint there, a digraph is two letters that represents one sound.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

In A, stormy, the O and the R, those two letters make the sound O.

In strong, the N and the G makes the sound ng.

In grew, the E and the W makes the sound ooh.

A useful strategy for decoding longer words is chopping them up into smaller chunks.

Look at the following word and you'll see it.

Okay, so this is quite a long word.

So first let's chop it into smaller chunks.

Oh, okay, I've split it into two chunks.

Now let's decode each chunk in turn.

T-R-A-N-S, trans.

F-O-R-M-E-D, formed.

Finally, let's push the chunks together to say the whole word.

Trans formed.

Transformed.

I'd now like you to do the same thing and chop this word into smaller chunks to help decode it.

So there's your word, I'm not going to read it to you.

I'd like you to chop it up, maybe into two sections and read each section and then put it back together to say the whole word.

Do this with a partner.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

Hopefully you split that words into light and ning.

And when you put it together, you get the word lightning.

Once we have decoded, we can then make sure we understand what we have read.

Here are some strategies to understand words that we are unfamiliar with, those words that if we're not sure what they mean.

First check you have decoded it correctly because perhaps we've made a mistake and we just need to reread it again.

Search for a word within the word.

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

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

So we know it is a specific name of something, someone or somewhere.

For example, it might be a name like King Lir or it might be a place like Ireland.

Let's read this word.

Hmm, this word is hermit.

It may be that we need to use a different strategy to support our understanding.

So maybe we read this word, we were able to decode it, but then we said, I know that word is hermit, but I dunno what it means.

So remember we could try to read to the end of the sentence to help us to understand what that word means.

Another useful thing we can do is look at the illustration and that might give us a clue.

So looking at the picture.

I would like you now to look at page 27 of "The Children of Lir" and I'd like you to look at the picture and read that page to see if you can work out what the word hermit means.

Which strategy is the most useful to work this out? So pause the video now and read page 27 and look at the picture to work out what hermit means.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

Well, I'm sure most of you discovered there that actually when we read the page, it didn't give us much clue about what a hermit was.

But if we look at the picture, we can see that the hermit or that we can see there is a man who seems to be living all by himself in a little house by a lake.

And a hermit is actually just a person who lives by themselves perhaps in solitude.

So we, in that example, looking at the illustration, helped us to work out the meaning of this word.

So is this true or false? If you can decode a word, it means you definitely understand it.

True or false? Pause the video now.

Well done.

It's false.

We can decode words, but not understand them and therefore we have to use different strategies like looking at the illustrations to help us.

Now I will read chapter four.

If I need to, I will use the following strategies to help me.

Phonic strategies to decode unfamiliar words.

If the unfamiliar word is longer, I might chop it up and decode it.

I might read to the end of the sentence and use the context to help me work out what a word means if I'm unsure.

I might look at the illustration or the picture for clues to help my understanding.

If I stop to decode a word, I will then reread the whole sentence to check my understanding and to check it makes sense.

So could you pause the video now and listen to me reading chapter four? Well done.

So let's check you were listening.

What happened when King Lir threw the Queen's wand into the sea? A, it turned into a black swan.

B, the spell broke and the swans turned back into children.

Or C, it caused a terrifying storm.

Pause the video while you think about your answer.

Okay, well done.

The correct answer is C.

When King Lir threw the Queen's wand into the sea, it caused a terrifying storm.

So it's now time for your final task in today's lesson.

You are now going to read chapter five.

What chapter are you going to read? That's right, chapter five.

Use the following strategies to help you if needed.

Use your phonics strategies to help you decode unfamiliar words.

If it's a long word, you can chop it up and decode it.

If you are unsure what it means, reads to the end of the sentence to help you give meaning to the unfamiliar word.

Look at the illustrations for clues.

So I want you to first read chapter five, and then I want you to answer these questions to demonstrate, which means to show off your understanding.

Question one is, what was the hermit doing when the children came to the lake? Question two is why were the swans happy to hear the news of a wedding.

And question three is, what happened to the children when the spell was finally broken? So you are going to be reading now either independently or with a partner, and then thinking about those questions.

Pause the video now and good luck.

Well done.

I heard some beautiful reading there and well done for remembering to read with expression.

So I'm wondering, did you come across any unfamiliar words in chapter five? Perhaps you came across the word "delicate," which means something that is fragile or weak.

Maybe you came across kingdoms, which is a country ruled by a king or a queen.

Maybe you came across the adverb keenly, which means in an enthusiastic manner.

Perhaps you saw those unfamiliar words and you were able to use the pictures or the rest of the sentence to help you figure out what they meant.

Or perhaps you saw a word inside a word, for example, king in kingdoms or keen in keenly.

I wonder which reading strategy you found the most helpful.

Maybe it was chopping the words into smaller chunks to read them because this helps you to understand them.

Here are some examples of answers to those questions you answered.

So question one, maybe you said When the children came to the lake, the hermit was playing a flute.

Question two.

The swans were happy to hear the news for a wedding because they knew that the spell the queen had cast on them would be broken.

And question three, when the spell was finally broken, the swans turned back into humans and laid down next to each other before falling asleep.

But they were much older, weren't they? Because years had passed since the spell had been put on them.

Okay, well done.

That was amazing reading.

And well done for answering those questions.

So we are now going to summarise what we've leaned today.

We've leaned that adjectives describe how someone is feeling and they can help us to read with expression.

We've leaned that adverbs can give clues about how a character says or does something.

Taking note of punctuation like an exclamation mark, allows us to read with expression and work out meanings.

Using different type of voice and different tones makes reading aloud more interesting for those who are listening.

You must decode and understand the words to be able to add expression.

Thank you so much for working so hard this lesson.

I hope you are enjoying reading "The Children of Lir." And I hope this week when you read, maybe independently, you could practise reading out loud with expression.

And perhaps also, you might be able to practise some of those strategies that we practise today.

See you for some more leaning another time.