Lesson video

Hello there.

How are you today? I hope you're feeling really very good, indeed.

I'm feeling great.

My name is Ms. Afzal, and we're about to explore a little more about one of my favourite ever books, "The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark", by Jill Tomlinson.

Let's pause for a moment while you go and get your copy of the book.

I'll wait here.

Okay you're back.

You've got your book, you've got hopefully lots of ideas, lots of excitement, great listening skills, and you're all ready to go.

Let's begin our lesson.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can explore the key themes in the story and give a personal response.

We have got some key words for today's lesson, let's go through them, my turn, your turn.

Personal response, theme, curiosity, courage.

Fantastic.

Oh, I love hearing those words and I'm excited for us to explore them in the lesson today.

So our lesson has two parts to it, first of all, we'll be looking at our personal responses and then we'll be discussing themes.

Let's begin with responses.

So here is our fantastic text, "The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark".

Look at that cute little owl there.

And what do we know about this text? Well the story is about a baby barn owl called Plop who fears the dark.

Plop's mother wants Plop to learn to like the dark, so she sends him down from their tree to discover more.

Plop meets various different characters who all teach him something positive about the dark.

Let's summarise chapters four, five, six and seven.

Plop met a young girl who told him that nighttime is necessary because Santa comes out at night.

Plop met a lady who drew Plop in her journal.

She described darkness as fascinating and taught Plop about other amazing nocturnal animals.

Plop met a man who was looking into the sky through a telescope.

He told Plop that nighttime is wonderful and taught Plop about the different stars and constellations.

And lastly, Plop met a cat who told Plop that darkness is beautiful.

They went up to a rooftop to look down at the village at night, and Plop was amazed by the beauty of the night.

Plop went home and told his mom that he thought nighttime was super.

And for the first time ever, he joined his parents to go hunting at night.

He was no longer scared of the dark.

Check for understanding.

Match the character to the word they used to describe the dark.

So we've got the young girl, the lady with the drawing pad, the man with the telescope and Orion the cat.

And the words that they used to describe the dark were beautiful, wonderful, necessary and fascinating.

So pause the video while you match the characters to the words.

Okay did you match the young girl with the word necessary? The lady with the drawing pad thought the dark was fascinating.

The man with the telescope said it was wonderful.

And Orion the cat thought it was beautiful.

I wonder what you think, what word you'd use to describe the dark.

Which leads on nicely to us discussing the story and giving a personal response.

Here's one of our keywords, let's go through that again.

Personal response.

Wonderful.

Liked your response there.

So a personal response is what you think, what you think and how you feel about the story and whether you liked it or not.

A personal response is personal to you, it's your feelings and your thoughts and they might be different to your partners, and that's absolutely fine.

You are unique and so are your reading experiences, and that's really something to be valued.

Check for understanding.

True or false.

How we think or feel about a story should always be the same as everybody else.

Pause the video while you decide if this is true or false.

Well done if you selected false.

Yeah absolutely, we're all unique, we could all have our own ways of thinking and feeling about a story.

Now that we've read the whole story, we're going to discuss our own thoughts and our feelings about the text.

I'd like you to answer these questions with a partner.

What did you like or dislike about the book? Which chapter do you think described the dark the best and why? What word would you use to describe the dark to someone who was scared and why? Here's some sentence starters you could use.

So I enjoyed, or maybe if there's something you didn't like, you could say, I did not like the part when.

You could say, my favourite chapter was.

And you could say, I would describe the dark as, and give your reasoning because.

So pause the video here and off you go to complete this task, answering the questions with your partner, hear it and (indistinct), and remember to use these sentence starters.

Enjoy sharing your personal responses.

It's good to be back with you and I'm so curious, how did you get on with this discussion, sharing your responses? What did you tell your partner? Did you tell your partner what you enjoyed about the story? Did you share anything that you didn't like? What about which chapter did you like the best, did you both like the same chapter the best? And did you describe the dark using one word? Oh, I wonder what that word was.

And now we are onto the next part of our lesson where we'll be discussing themes.

The theme in the story is the big idea or lesson that the author wants you to explore and understand through reading the story.

So let's say that word again because it's one of our key words, theme.

Fantastic, good to hear that.

Examples of themes you might notice in stories are.

I wonder if you can think, actually, I wonder if you can think of any before I show you some.

What are some key themes? Have a think.

Let's see if any of these ones come up.

Friendship, I wonder if you had that one.

Good versus evil, that one comes up a lot.

Courage.

Oh, here's another one of our key words.

Let's say that, courage.

Fantastic.

We'll be learning more about that.

Family.

Differences, yeah.

Curiosity.

Oh, another key word.

Let's go, curiosity.

Fantastic.

Great to hear that.

Discovery.

Greed.

Oh, some really interesting themes there.

I know I definitely like reading stories that have some of those themes in them.

Readers can interpret themes and they're importance differently.

And that's because we're all different, so we bring who we are to a story when we're reading it, and so we'll interpret themes in different ways.

"The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark", shares important messages through exploring the following themes.

Courage, and courage is a noun, and this means the ability to do something that frightens you.

Curiosity, it's another noun, and that's a strong desire to know or to learn something.

So I'd like you now to discuss what other themes could be found in the story.

So I've shared two with you, so we've got courage, we've got curiosity.

And as we know, Plop shows both courage and curiosity in this story.

So pause the video now while you reflect on what other themes there could be in this story.

So let's hear some of the ideas you came up with.

Growth.

Oh, good one.

What else? Learning.

Yeah, so much learning and growth for Plop.

The beauty of the natural world.

Oh, I love that one.

Collaboration, something's coming together, friendships.

Independence, doing your own thing.

Family, so important.

Overcoming fear, yeah.

And adaptations, nocturnal animals.

Fantastic.

Oh my goodness, I can't believe how many themes we've come up with, we've literally filled the whole board.

That is wonderful.

And it just shows us what a rich text this one is, "The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark".

And how Jill Tomlinson has covered so much within this book.

Check for understanding.

Match the theme to the correct definition.

So here are our themes, courage and curiosity and the definitions.

A strong desire to know or learn something.

The ability to do something that frightens you.

So pause the video while you match the theme to the correct definition.

Okay did you get this? Courage is the ability to do something that frightens you.

And curiosity is a strong desire to know or learn something.

I wonder if you have lots of courage and curiosity.

Now onto our next task, and this is a discussion task, I would like you to discuss with your partner.

First of all, how does Plop show courage in the story? And then how does Plops curiosity help him to overcome his fears? Some sentence starters for you, Plop shows courage by, and then give your examples.

And another sentence starter, Plops curiosity helps him to, and you can finish that sentence.

So pause the video now, turn to your partner, discuss these two questions and your answers, enjoy sharing, enjoy listening, and I'll see you when you're finished.

Well it's interesting, we're talking about curiosity and I'm feeling so full of curiosity to know how you got on with your discussion.

What came up for you? What did you share? Let's see what Alex has to say.

"Plop shows courage by facing his fears about the dark.

Instead of staying in his tree, he shows bravery by going to learn about the dark, and in the end, he finds enjoyment in the unknown." That was a wonderful answer.

Thank you for sharing that, Alex.

And what does Sophia think? "Plops curiosity helps him to learn about the dark.

Through his encounters with the other characters, he learns lots of positive things about the dark and then he's able to overcome his fear." Oh my goodness, amazing.

Loved hearing that.

Thank you, Sophia.

And now the next part of our discussion, I would like you to share the following with your partner.

Can you think of a time when you have shown courage or overcome a fear? And then next, has Plops curiosity inspired you to learn more about something? Oh my goodness, I am so excited that you're going to have this discussion about courage, about curiosity, your own, your own courage and curiosity.

And here are some sentence starters for you, you could say, I showed courage when.

Or you could say, I'm gonna be more curious about.

So pause the video now, turn to your partner and share with them whatever you feel comfortable sharing about when you've shown courage, when you overcame a fear, and what are you inspired to learn more about, to be more curious about.

Enjoy your discussion.

Pause the video now and I'll see you when you're finished.

It's good to be back with you.

I hope you enjoyed sharing about when you've been courageous, when you overcame fear and what you're curious about.

And maybe you've inspired each other, so maybe there's something you want to learn more about, and now maybe you even want to learn about the thing that your partner shared with you.

Let's see what Aisha would like to shared with us.

"I shared courage when I presented my learning in assembly.

I was feeling very nervous but I faced my fears and I felt really happy after." Oh, that's a fantastic one, Aisha.

I feel the same, I've had that where I've had to talk in front of a lot of people and I've felt quite nervous, but after I did it, I felt really, really great.

It's so good to face your fears.

Yeah that's a brilliant one.

All right, what else? We got Izzy, okay.

So Izzy is gonna be more curious about how to play football.

"I never play because I don't know how to do it, but if I learn, then maybe I will become a good player." That is a great one, Izzy.

I think you've got it in you.

Fantastic.

Start with that curiosity, and absolutely you will, with that curiosity and that focus, you will learn.

You're gonna be a great player.

So thanks for sharing everyone and joining in with this.

It was a wonderful, wonderful discussion.

And I encourage you to keep being courageous, keep going, be courageous, overcome your fears, and never stop being curious.

Keep, keep going, keep learning, keep being inspired to learn more.

That's what life's all about.

In our lesson today we've covered the following, Plop is a young barn owl who is initially scared of the dark, but gradually learns to appreciate and embrace the nighttime.

Plop meets lots of characters who all help him in overcoming his fear of the dark and discovering the beauty of the night.

A personal response is what you think and how you feel about the story.

The theme in a story is the big idea or lesson that the author wants you to explore and understand through reading the story.

"The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark", explores the themes of curiosity and courage.

It was so, so brilliant to be with you today, especially I love those discussions around curiosity and courage and your personal responses.

And just keep going, keep going with it, keep being curious, keep being courageous, keep sharing your personal responses.

And I'll see you at the next lesson.

Bye for now.