Lesson video

Hi everyone.

My name is Ms. Voyle and I am really excited to be teaching you your reading lesson today where we are going to be building our comprehension of the folk tale "Anansi and the Antelope Baby." For this lesson, you need a copy of "Anansi and the Antelope Baby" from the 2016 Oxford University Press Edition of "Mischief Makers", retold by Tony Bradman.

Pause the video and get your copy of the book now.

Great.

Now, I know you have the book with you.

During this lesson, you'll need to be listening and looking carefully, and there will also be tasks where you need somebody to talk to.

I hope you are feeling excited and ready to learn.

Let's get started.

The learning outcome for today's lesson is, I can answer a range of comprehension questions on "Anansi and the Antelope Baby." Here are our keywords for today's lesson.

Let's practise saying them.

My turn, your turn.

Comprehension.

Retrieve.

Inference.

Discussion.

Great job.

Let's take a look at their definitions.

Comprehension refers to our understanding of the text.

To retrieve means to find information within the text.

Using inference means to draw conclusions from clues within the text.

And discussion is the process of talking about something to exchange ideas.

You'll be building your comprehension using all of these skills.

There are two parts to today's lesson.

In the first part, we will be revisiting the story, and in the second part, we will be building comprehension of the story.

So let's begin with revisiting the story.

"Anansi and the Antelope Baby." What do we know about this story? "Anansi and the Antelope Baby" is a folktale.

Folktales belong to the genre of folklore.

Folklore is a genre in which oral stories are shared and passed down over time.

A folktale does not have one author.

As they're shared orally over time, variations of the story emerge.

This means you might hear different versions of the same story.

What type of character is Anansi? Let's remind ourselves.

Anansi is a smart but mischievous spider who encounters a range of tricky circumstances with other animals.

There are many Anansi folktales, which all tell a story about Anansi's interaction with another animal.

Some of these stories focus on Anansi mischievous elements as a trickster.

Others highlight his cleverness and ability to outsmart evil.

What happens in "Anansi and the Antelope Baby?" Let's remind ourselves.

Anansi spun a web while relaxing in a bush and contemplating which tricks he could play on other animals next.

A fire in the forest headed towards Anansi.

Most of the animals didn't help him, but Antelope rescued him.

Anansi was grateful.

One day, Antelope left her baby by a bush while she went to get food, and hunters spotted them and plotted to catch them.

Anansi saw what was happening and tricked the hunters by spinning a web to hide baby so they wouldn't catch her.

Anansi protected Baby Antelope and when her mother returned, she felt immense gratitude.

A special friendship was forged.

We have now summarised the story.

So let's check your understanding.

Which statement best summarises "Anansi and the Antelope Baby?" A, it tells the story of Anansi escaping danger with the help of Antelope.

B, it tells the story of how Anansi and Antelope offer help and protection to one another.

C, it tells the story of how Anansi tricks the hunters.

Pause the video and select the best summarising statement now.

The answer is B.

It tells the story of how Anansi and Antelope offer help and protection to one another.

A and C are true statements about the story, but they do not summarise the whole story.

B does that for us because it talks about how Anansi and Antelope both help and protect each other.

Well done.

We can identify character traits that both Anansi and Antelope demonstrate through their actions.

Kindness, which means the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.

Respect, a feeling of deep admiration for someone as a result of their abilities, qualities or achievements.

Loyalty, a strong feeling of support or allegiance.

Integrity, the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.

Anansi is not portrayed in this way in all Anansi tales.

However, he demonstrates these admirable qualities really clearly in "Anansi and the Antelope Baby" through his relationship with Antelope.

Let's check your understanding.

True or false.

Anansi demonstrates admirable character traits through his relationship with Antelope and Baby.

Pause the video and select your answer now.

That is true.

Well done.

Can you justify your answer? A, he demonstrates a good sense of humour through the tricks he plays.

O B, he demonstrates traits such as kindness and integrity through the way he treats Antelope.

Pause now and select your answer.

The answer is B.

He demonstrates traits such as kindness and integrity through the way he treats Antelope.

We know that Anansi does play tricks but not on Antelope.

Ever since she saved him from the fire, he shows very different sides of his character to Antelope to repay her for the kindness she showed him.

It's now time for your first task and it is a talk task.

I would like you to retell the story with your partner by summarising the key parts.

Use the following sentence starters to help you.

Anansi spun a we while relaxing in a bush and.

A fire in the forest headed towards Anansi.

One day, Antelope left her baby by a.

Anansi saw what was happening and tricked the hunters by.

Anansi protected Baby Antelope and.

Pause the video and retell the story with your partner now.

Welcome back.

I was really impressed with your retelling of the story.

You all sequenced the events in the story really well and I notice people trying really hard to include key pieces of information or words about the characters.

Let's go over the answers now.

You may have worded some of these slightly differently, and that is okay as long as you still included the key points.

Anansi spun a web while relaxing in a bush and contemplating which tricks he could play on other animals next.

A fire in the forest headed towards Anansi.

Most of the animals didn't help him, but Antelope rescued him.

Anansi was grateful.

One day, Antelope left her baby by a bush while she went to get food, and hunters spotted them and plotted to catch them.

Anansi saw what was happening and tricked the hunters by spinning a web to hide Baby so they wouldn't catch her.

Anansi protected Baby Antelope and when her mother returned, she felt immense gratitude.

A special friendship was forged.

Well done for retelling the story.

You now have a really clear understanding of "Anansi and the Antelope Baby." And so next we will be building our comprehension.

It's now time for the second part of our lesson, building comprehension of the story.

Building comprehension means developing our understanding of a text.

We can do this by retrieving key information, making inferences from the text, and having rich discussion about the text.

How do we retrieve key information from the text? Let's go over some key methods we use.

Skimming over an extract and scanning for keywords can help us find the information we are looking for.

Sometimes the answer is in that sentence that contains the keyword, and sometimes we need to read the sentence before or after to find the answer.

Skimming means to read quickly, and scanning means to search for something specific.

Using inference skills can help us to draw greater conclusions about a text, building our understanding of it.

Inferences are not explicitly written as part of the story.

They are the meaning that we as readers draw from the words in the story.

We do this by searching for clues within the text and asking ourselves, "What does this clue tell me?" And then we can draw meaning.

Having rich discussion about a text is beneficial in many ways for building comprehension.

It helps us clarify and understand things.

Maybe there's a part of the story we didn't understand or a word we didn't know and discussing with others can help us.

It can offer us an opportunity to ask questions and understand these things.

It also offers opportunities for hearing different perspectives and analysing the text in greater depth.

This is the really interesting part because two people can draw different meaning from the same story.

Let's check your understanding.

Match the strategy to what it means.

Our comprehension strategies are retrieval of key information, inference, and rich discussion.

How we use the strategy.

Using clues from the text to draw further conclusions, talking to others about the meaning of what we have read, and skimming and scanning to find information from the text.

Pause the video and match these correctly now.

Let's take a look at the answers.

Retrieval of key information involves skimming and scanning to find information from the text.

We're looking for those keywords that were in the question that was asked and seeing if we can spot those keywords and retrieve our answer.

Inference involves using clues from the text to draw further conclusions.

And rich discussion involves talking to others about the meaning of what we have read.

Well done for showing a great understanding of the different comprehension strategies you are going to be using.

It is time for your first task.

And for this task, you need the book "Mischief Makers" in front of you and ready.

Read pages 28 and 29 of "Mischief Makers" where there is an illustration of animals escaping the fire.

Retrieve the answers to the following questions.

What made Anansi sure that he would never escape the fire? And B, why did none of the animals going past help Anansi? Pause the video and do the task now.

Let's take a look at the answers.

So for A, what made Anansi sure that he would never escape the fire? The answer is he had legs that were little.

He felt that his legs were so little that there would be no way he could escape the fire before it reached him.

For B, why did none of the animals going past help Anansi? They weren't friends with him because of Anansi's trickster ways.

Well done for retrieving these answers.

It's time for a second task.

Read page 31 of "Mischief Makers" where there is an illustration of Anansi and Antelope escaping the fire.

Consider Anansi's words on this page.

Infer how you think he was feeling after he escaped the fire on Antelope's back.

So you need to go to page 31.

You are searching for Anansi's words on this page, and then you do not want to retrieve his words, but you want to think about how his words give you clues about what he might have been feeling after he escaped the fire.

Pause the video and do the task now.

Welcome back.

I am really impressed because I heard some fantastic inferences being drawn.

Let's take a look at some of the answers I heard.

I think he felt relieved because he said the word phew.

That is a very good inference.

Have you ever said the word phew when you felt relieved about something? I know I have.

I think he felt grateful to Antelope because he thanked her.

That is a good inference.

Thanking someone is a sign of gratitude.

I think he felt indebted to Antelope because he said he would always help her if she ever needed it.

Now, I was really impressed by this answer because of the use of the word indebted.

If you are not sure what that means, that's okay.

If you feel indebted to somebody, it means you feel like you owe them something.

So this answer is saying that Anansi felt like he owed Antelope because he said he would always help her if she ever needed it.

That is a really good inference to draw.

Well done for all of your answers.

It's time for your final task.

Read page 32 and 33 of "Mischief Makers" where there is an illustration of the hunters arriving.

Discuss with your partner the different ways that Anansi's actions show a clear fondness for Antelope.

How do we know, through Anansi's actions, that he is really fond of Antelope? Pause the video and discuss with your partner now.

Welcome back.

I am really impressed with how well you searched for clues that showed Anansi's fondness of Antelope.

Let's take a look at some answers I heard.

He watched Antelope as she bounded off.

This makes me think he was in awe of her kindness and felt fond of her.

I loved hearing this inference.

Antelope had just helped him and he could have said thank you and just gone about his day.

But it said that he stared at her as she wandered off.

He clearly felt such admiration and gratitude towards her for what she'd done.

Another answer was, he didn't play tricks on Antelope or Antelope Baby, even when he was being mischievous to other animals.

This definitely demonstrates his fondness because we know that Anansi is a trickster and loves playing tricks on animals.

But if he wasn't doing that to Antelope or her baby, he must have felt very fondly about her.

And he stayed nearby Baby Antelope when he spotted that there were hunters trying to come after them.

He could have just gone about his day.

He wasn't in danger himself.

He was probably too small for the hunters to spot him.

He's a spider after all.

But he put himself in danger's way to protect Baby Antelope because he cared about Antelope.

Well done for your wonderful use of comprehension strategies to build your comprehension of this story.

We've now come to the end of our lesson.

So let's go over a summary together.

"Anansi and the Antelope Baby" tells the story of how Anansi and Antelope help and protect one another.

Anansi demonstrates admirable character traits such as kindness, loyalty, and integrity towards Antelope.

We use a range of strategies to build comprehension of a text.

Skimming and scanning can help us to retrieve key information.

We can use inference to draw conclusions about the text by searching for clues.

Well done for all of your hard work, reading and learning.

I have really enjoyed teaching you this lesson.