Lesson video

Hi, everyone.

My name is Miss Voyle, and welcome to today's reading lesson, where we are going to be building our comprehension of "The Legend of Mulan" through having rich discussions.

For this lesson, you need a copy of the 2014 Oxford University Press edition of "Mulan", written by Michaela Morgan.

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 have rich discussions to infer meaning from "Mulan".

Here are our key words for today's lesson.

Let's practise saying them.

My turn, your turn.

Inference.

Discussion.

Retrieve.

Great job, let's take a look at their definitions.

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

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

In reading, retrieve means to find information within the text.

There are two parts to today's lesson.

In the first part, we will be revisiting the story and you'll be asking questions about it.

And in the second part, you'll be having rich discussions to infer meaning.

So let's begin with revisiting the story and asking questions.

"The Legend of Mulan".

This is the story that you have read.

Let's remind ourselves a bit about it.

"The Legend of Mulan" first originated in China over a thousand years ago.

Michaela Morgan is the author of this version of "Mulan" and Steve Dorado is the illustrator.

"Mulan" tells the story of a young girl, who disguises herself as a boy in order to fight in the army.

I am now going to summarise the key events from "Mulan" in my own words.

Mulan expressed worry to her family because the country faced attack and a man from every family was required to join the war.

Mulan decided that her father and brother were not fit to fight, and that she must join the army in order to protect them.

Mulan developed a plan to disguise herself as a boy in order to become a soldier, and she gathered everything she needed.

Mulan travelled to the army base and struggled with training while living afraid the other soldiers would discover her identity.

Mulan remained committed to her quest and became a fine warrior and leader, who fought for her country for 10 years.

As a reward for winning the war, Mulan chose freedom and returned home to her family.

She revealed her identity as a girl to her soldiers, and they were in awe of her.

Let's check your understanding.

True or false.

Mulan defied expectations of her in order to fight for her country and protect her family.

Pause the video and select your answer.

That is true, well done.

Now it's time to justify.

A, Mulan focused on her weaving, even though her parents didn't want her to.

Or B, girls were not allowed to be soldiers and Mulan disguised herself as a boy, so her father or brother didn't have to fight.

Pause the video and select the correct justification.

The answer is B, well done.

Girls were not allowed to be soldiers and Mulan disguised herself as a boy, so that her father and brother didn't have to fight.

She defied expectations of what she was meant to do as a girl in order to fight for her country and protect her family.

Inference means to use clues from within the text to draw conclusions.

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

Inferring meaning can help us to build our understanding of the story.

It can help us discover the hidden messages that the author has planted, and answer our own questions we have about the text.

We can look for clues in the text and in the illustrations.

Let's check your understanding.

What is inference? A, searching for clues within the text and the illustrations to draw conclusions.

B, understanding exactly what the author is saying without having to think about it.

Or C, guessing what might happen in the story.

Pause the video and select your answer.

The answer is A, well done.

Inference involves searching for clues within the text and the illustrations to draw your own conclusions about deeper meaning.

True or false.

Inference skills can help me answer my own questions about a text.

Pause the video and select your answer.

That is true, well done.

Now can you justify your answer? A, I will always find the answer to my questions in the text.

Or B, I can use clues in the text and the illustrations to make inferences that answer my questions.

Pause the video and select the correct justification.

The answer is B, well done.

You can answer your own questions about a text by using your inference skills, and you do this by searching for clues in the text and the illustrations.

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

What questions do you have about "The Legend of Mulan"? You might want to know why a character said or did something, how a specific character was feeling at a certain moment, why the author used certain words or illustrations.

Let's take a look at some examples of questions that you might ask about the story of "Mulan".

Why was a man from every family required to fight in the war? Or how did Mulan's family feel when they finally welcomed her home? Pause the video now and discuss with your partner whether have any questions you would like to uncover the answer to.

Welcome back, I loved listening to your discussions.

You were so inquisitive and you had lots of questions about the story.

Let's take a look at a couple of examples.

Aisha asked, "Why did Mulan's family so strongly disapprove of her plan to disguise herself as a boy and become a soldier?" That's a great question, and we might find clues within the words that her parents said that could help us understand the answer to this.

Lucas asked, "How did Mulan feel about revealing her true identity as a girl at the end of the story?" This is a wonderful question to try and unpick a character's feelings, and we might even find clues to answer this within the illustrations of Mulan.

Well done for developing questions about the story of Mulan.

It's now time for the second part of our lesson, where you will be having rich discussions to infer meaning.

Building comprehension means developing our understanding of a text.

We can answer questions we have about a text and uncover deeper meaning by doing the following things.

Having rich discussions, making inferences from the text, and retrieving key information.

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

It helps us clarify and understand things, and it offers opportunities for hearing different perspectives, and analysing the text in greater depth.

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, which means you cannot find an inference in the words that the author has written.

Inferences are the meaning that we, as the reader, draw from words within the story.

We do this by searching for clues within the text.

And asking ourselves, "What does this clue tell me?" How do we retrieve key information from the text? 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.

And sometimes, we need to read the sentence before or after.

Skimming means to read quickly.

Scanning means to search for something specific.

The information we retrieve can be used as evidence to support inferences.

Let's check your understanding.

Match the strategy to how we use the strategy.

The comprehension strategies are rich discussions, inference, and retrieval of key information.

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

Pause the video and match the comprehension strategy to how it is used now.

Let's take a look at the answers.

Rich discussions involves talking to others about the meaning of what we have read.

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

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

Well done for showing a great understanding of these different comprehension strategies.

We can use inference and rich discussion to discover a character's feelings or emotions, and a character's intentions or motives.

We can search for the following clues in the text and the illustrations.

A character's actions, a character's experiences, and a character's words.

Read pages four and five of "Mulan" and consider the illustrations on these pages.

Then consider the following question, how is Mulan feeling at this point in the story? Pause the video now to search for the clues within these pages to consider the answer to this question.

Welcome back.

Let's take a look at the clues you might have spotted on these pages and what you could have inferred from them.

You may have picked out some of the following clues.

She sighs a lot.

She looks very sad in the illustrations.

She recalls the sign she saw about the war to her family.

Using these clues, we can infer that Mulan is experiencing difficult emotions, such as worry, sadness, or fear.

Let's check your understanding.

What can we infer from the clues on pages four and five about how Mulan was feeling? A, she was feeling positive emotions, like excitement and joy.

B, she was feeling difficult emotions, like worry, sadness, and fear.

Or C, she was feeling pretty normal and balanced in her emotions.

Pause the video and select your answer now.

The answer is B, well done.

An appropriate inference from the clues on pages four and five would be that Mulan was feeling difficult emotions, like worry, sadness, and fear.

It is time for a task and it is a talk task.

Discuss the following questions to infer deeper meaning.

Read pages 10, 11, and 12, and retrieve evidence to support your answer.

The question is, how did Mulan's different family members feel about her plan? Your sentence starters are, I think Mulan's younger brother felt, because.

I think Mulan's mother felt, because.

And I think Mulan's father felt, because.

Because is the key subordinating conjunction you need to use to ensure you provide evidence from the text to support your inference.

Remember that we can search for the following clues in the text and the illustrations.

A character's actions, experiences, and words.

Pause the video to discuss this question with your partner now.

Welcome back.

I really enjoyed listening to your discussions.

You were great at searching for clues within the text and illustrations to uncover how the different family members felt.

Let's take a look at what I heard.

Aisha said, "I think Mulan's brother felt amused that Mulan thought she was capable because it said he laughed and he called her silly and crazy." This is a great inference about how Mulan's brother felt based on his reactions and the things he said to Mulan.

Lucas said, "I think Mulan's mother felt worried and scared because it said she fretted and she said the army was no place for a girl.

It also shows her crying." This inference is based off the words that the mother spoke in the story, and the way she looked in the illustrations.

June said, "I think Mulan's father felt helpless, but scared for her because he was too unwell to protest too much, but he said it was dangerous." This inference spots the clues that Mulan's father did not want her to go, but also that he didn't have the strength to really fight her on it.

Well done for discussing and inferring how Mulan's different family members felt about her plan.

It's now time for your last task.

Discuss the following question to infer deeper meaning.

Read pages 10, 11, and 12, and retrieve evidence to support your answer.

The question is, how do you think Mulan felt when she returned home and revealed her true identity to her soldiers? Your sentence starter is, I think Mulan felt, because.

Remember that we can search for the following clues in the text and the illustrations.

A character's actions, experiences, and words.

Pause the video to discuss this question with your partner now.

Welcome back.

This was such an interesting question to listen to your discussions about because the text does not explicitly state how Mulan feels at this point at all.

But there are lots of clues that you can unpick within the illustrations and the text.

Let's take a look at two wonderful inferences I heard.

June said, "I think Mulan felt relieved and comforted to be home because it describes her using her old belongings.

And it shows her looking content and peaceful brushing out her long hair." And Izzy said, "I think Mulan felt proud to reveal her true identity as a girl to her soldiers because she says her name proudly, and the illustration shows her smiling and standing confidently." Both of these inferences draw clues from the text and the illustrations to support their answers.

Well done for having rich discussions to infer meaning.

We've now come to the end of our lesson, so let's go over a summary together.

"Mulan" tells the story of a young girl, who disguises herself as a boy in order to fight in the army.

Asking questions and having rich discussions builds our understanding and allows us to hear different perspectives.

Searching for clues within a text can help us infer greater meaning.

We can retrieve evidence from the text to help us justify our inferences.

And a character's actions, experiences, and words can be analysed to infer greater meaning.

Well done for your hard work in today's lesson, I have really enjoyed teaching you.