Lesson video

Hi everyone.

Thank you so much for making the decision to come and learn with me today.

My name's Ms. Clarke and today, we have a really lovely reading lesson where we will be reading Chapter four of "The Sheep-Pig" by Dick King-Smith.

Now for this lesson it's really, really important that you have a copy of the text, a copy that looks just like mine as well.

So you can see here I've got the 40th anniversary edition 2023 edition of "The Sheet-Pig" by Dick King-Smith.

Can you find your copy of the text that looks just like this? If you don't have it in front of you now, I want you to pause the video and go and find the text.

Pause the video, now go and find it.

Okay, have you got it? Wave it around for me so that I know.

Brilliant.

Now we can get started with our reading.

The learning outcome for today's lesson is I can discuss the plot of "The Sheep-Pig." The plot is what happens in a story.

So let's have a look at our keywords for today's lesson.

My turn, your turn.

You ready? Comprehension, retrieve, inference, discussion.

Great job.

Let's see what these words mean.

Reading comprehension refers to our understanding of the text.

In reading, retrieve means to find information within the text, so you're getting information that's there directly.

Using inference means to draw conclusions from clues within the text, so we have to read between the lines a little bit.

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

Our lesson today is divided into two learning cycles.

So first of all, we are going to be reading and retrieving information and in our second learning cycle we will be inferring and discussing.

Let's get started.

This is a picture of the front cover of "The Sheep-Pig" by Dick King-Smith.

What do we know so far about the story? We know that Farmer Hogget won a piglet at the fair.

The piglet and Farmer Hogget immediately seemed to warm to one another.

The farmer left the piglet in the stables where he met Fly, the sheepdog and her puppies.

Fly was kind to the piglet and wanted to look after him.

And the piglet who they named Babe, wanted to copy everything Fly did, showing a unique obedience for a pig.

If you are obedient, you follow instructions really, really well.

Something that stereotypically, you might not think a pig would do, but this pig seems to be copying everything Fly is doing.

Now you may have read chapter three already or maybe somebody has read it to you, but if not, I'm going to give you a quick summary of chapter three now so that everybody knows what happened.

So in chapter three, Babe grew attached to Fly.

That means Babe grew quite fond of Fly and followed her around quite a lot.

Fly and her puppies showed Babe around the farm and introduced him to all of the other animals.

Fly's puppies were then sold to different farmers who took them away to go and start their own lives as sheepdogs.

So Farmer Hogget and Mrs. Hogget had looked after Fly's puppies for a little bit and Fly had, but then the puppies got sold on.

Babe started to understand the role of a sheepdog 'cause he was listening and learning from Fly and he asked Fly who he began to call mum, if he could become a sheep-pig.

Well that's something we haven't heard before.

I don't think there's any such thing as a sheep-pig, but Babe couldn't understand why he couldn't do the same thing that Fly does and be a sheep-pig.

So Fly agrees to start to teach Babe how to be a sheep-pig and she becomes his mentor.

A mentor is somebody who looks after you and teaches you, guides you to learn new things.

You need to get your book "The Sheet-Pig," and I would like you to read chapter four, up to the break, the break in paragraphs on page 31.

So maybe your teacher is going to read the book to you, maybe somebody at home is going to read the book to you, an older sibling or an adult at home.

Or maybe you're going to read the book yourself with a partner, or on your own.

Either way, I want you to find chapter four in your book, find chapter four and start reading chapter four up to the break in the paragraph on page 31.

Pause the video and do your reading now.

Okay, welcome back everybody.

I hope you enjoyed that part of the story.

So we've just read the beginning of chapter four where Babe has been, has had a bit of an unsuccessful attempt at herding the ducks and he's talking to Fly about being polite to the animals and perhaps that being a way to move them.

But Fly is not that impressed with this idea.

So I have a question for you.

What do you predict is going to happen next? Predict means making a guest using what we know already.

What do you think will happen next? What do you think Babe will try to do? Talk to your partner, pause the video.

Okay, some great predictions there about what you think Babe is going to do.

I heard lots of you say, I predict that Babe is going to be very polite to the animals.

That's clearly something he feels quite strongly about isn't it, being polite? He kept saying, he kept talking about asking them politely.

So perhaps he is going to try that and see if that works in order to get the animals to respond to him.

Okay, let's check your understanding from that part of the chapter that we've just read.

What animal does Babe start his training on? Is it A, sheep, B, ducks or C, dogs? Pause the video and answer now.

Okay, well done to everyone who said ducks, it was.

He didn't go straight into training the sheep, he hasn't met the sheep yet and he hasn't been training the dogs.

They're the ones Fly's the one doing the training for him.

So he was practising herding the ducks, which is also what Fly was teaching her puppies on.

The next part we're going to read Babe encounters his first sheep, Ma, who is lame.

A lame sheep is a sheep that has a hard time walking because of a hurt leg or foot.

So you need your book again.

Can you find your book and read chapter four from where we just got up to, which was the break on page 31 to the break on page 34.

So just a few more pages.

Chapter four, find the break in paragraphs on page 31 and read from there to the break on page 34.

Can you do that now? Pause the video and do your reading.

Okay, let's check your understanding on what you've just read.

What does Ma refer to the sheepdogs as? Ma is the lame sheep who's come into the stables.

What does she call the sheepdogs? Is it A, sheepdogs, B, pigs, or C, wolves? Pause the video and answer now.

Okay, well done everybody, if you said wolves, she does call them wolves.

Wolves are traditionally predators of sheep, so it's not a very nice or positive term to refer to them as.

Okay, another check for understanding, you ready? True or false, Ma's opinion of Babe changes during their short encounter in the stables.

Is that true or is that false? Pause the video and answer now.

Well done if you said that's true, it does change, doesn't it? She's not sure of him at the beginning referring to him as a wolf as well, but then it does change.

So can you justify that answer with either A or B? Ma changes her opinion of Babe and starts to like Babe finding him kind and polite or B, Ma is surprised by Babe.

Pauses the video and answer now.

Absolutely, it's A, Ma changes her opinion of Babe and starts to like Babe finding him kind and polite.

Well done.

Okay, one last bit of reading now for this lesson.

So can you find your book again? Whoever, if somebody's reading to you or if you are reading, I need you now to read from chapter four from the break on page 34, where we got to, to the end of chapter four.

So find your book, find page 34 where we've just read up to you, the little break in paragraphs and read from there to the end of the chapter.

Pause the video and do your reading now.

Okay, great reading everybody.

Well done.

Now I have a question for you to answer with a partner.

What do you think Babe might be thinking at the end of this chapter? So he's had his conversation with Ma and they've had a bit of a chat about the sheepdogs.

What do you think Babe is going to be thinking now? Pause the video and have a chat with your partner.

Okay, some brilliant answers there.

I heard some of you saying, I think that Babe might be thinking that he should try asking the sheep to move politely and he could end up being a real sheep-pig.

Great ideas.

And maybe he's thinking in his head of all the different ways he might try and become a sheep-pig.

He's learning isn't he from Ma, trying to gather the thoughts of the sheep, which will help him to become a good sheep-pig.

Brilliant.

So we're gonna be doing some retrieving, retrieval means finding key details or information in the text and extracting them.

These are some strategies for retrieving information.

One, read the question and underline the keywords.

Two, search for those keywords in the text.

Three, read the sentence where you found those keywords and check, does that answer the question? If it doesn't answer the question, you might need to read the sentence before or after to find the answer.

And you might want to search for a type of word, for example, a pronoun with a capital letter if you're looking for the name of a place for example.

Or you might be looking for an adjective so that can help you with your retrieving.

Let's check your understanding.

Which of the following are strategies for retrieving information? A, identify keywords or phrases in the question, skim and scan the text to locate the required information.

B, read the sentence and check it answers the question.

C, reread the whole chapter to find the answer.

There might be more than one.

So pause the video and have a go now.

Okay, well done.

If you said A and B, you want to read the question and identify those key words and then skim and scan, that means reading quickly, not reading the whole thing again, skimming with your finger, looking for those keywords and read the sentence and check it answers the question.

There's no point just finding the keyword and putting that sentence down.

That doesn't necessarily answer the question.

We need to make sure that whatever we found does answer the question.

We don't want to reread the whole chapter to find the answer that would take too long.

Okay, so it's time for a practise task and you will need your book and open at chapter four.

So the answers to these questions will be somewhere in chapter four.

Discuss the questions with your partner and locate the answers.

One, what does Fly ask Babe to see if he could do to the ducks? Two, what is wrong with Ma? Three, what did Babe dream about? D, what does ma think of the sheepdogs or wolves as she calls them? Okay, all of the answers to these questions are there in chapter four.

So use your retrieval strategies to find the answers.

Looking for those key words in the question.

So good luck, pause the video and off you go.

Okay, great effort everybody.

Let's have a look at some of the answers.

What does Fly ask Babe to see if he could do to the ducks? To bring the ducks back.

Yes, she wanted him to bring the ducks back to where they were.

What is wrong with Ma? She has foot-rot.

What did Babe dream about? Sheep! He dreamt they were not listening to him.

They were all running riot.

Was a bit of a nightmare for him.

And four, what does Ma think of the sheepdogs? She thinks they are all rude.

Well done, if you found that exact word from the text, which tells us what she thought.

Great job everybody.

Let's move on to the second part of our lesson now where we will be inferring information and discussing the story.

Building comprehension means developing our understanding of a text.

We can do this by retrieving key information which we've already done, making inferences from the text and having rich discussions.

Now how do we use the following strategies to help us? So retrieval of key information, we can skim and scan to find information from the text.

If we're retrieving information, it means the information is there in the text.

Inference, we can use clues from the text to draw further conclusions.

So looking for something that maybe wasn't said explicitly, but we can draw up our own ideas and own conclusions based on evidence from the text.

And having rich discussions means talking to others about the meaning of what we have read.

That can really help us to develop our understanding further.

So let's check your understanding.

Can you match the strategy to what it means? Retrieval, inference and discussions using clues from the text to draw for further conclusions.

Talking to others about the meaning of what we have read.

Skimming, and scanning to find information from the text.

Pause the video, match them up now.

Great job everyone, well done.

Retrieval of key information means skimming and scanning to find information from the text, extracting it directly.

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

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

Great job.

So inference means to use clues from within the text to draw conclusions.

It's 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.

And discussing a text with someone else can also help to build our understanding and might make us think about something that we hadn't noticed before.

So what your partner thinks or has noticed might be different to what you think or have noticed.

Let's check your understanding.

What is inference? Is it A, searching for clues within the text 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 answer now.

Well done, everyone.

If you said A, it is searching for clues within the text to draw conclusions.

We do not have to understand exactly what the author is saying without having to think about it.

Sometimes we do need to reread and discuss with others to support our understanding.

We can't always understand exactly what the author means.

And guessing what might happen in the story, that's what we do when we make a prediction.

Okay, so time for another practise task.

And again, this practise task is all based on chapter four.

So you'll need your book with you and chapter four open.

Discuss these questions with your partner.

One, these are inference questions, so you'll need to use clues.

Why were the ducks relieved at the start of chapter four? Relieved means thinking, oh, few like they're, you know, they're feeling a bit better about the situation.

Why were they relieved at the start of chapter four? Why does Fly think that asking politely is not a good idea? Why do you think she thinks that? Why do you think Ma and the sheep call the dogs wolves? Remember to search for clues within the text and ask yourself, what does this clue tell me? So pause the video and discuss these questions with your partner.

Good luck.

Okay, great job everyone.

Let's have a look at some of the answers, what you might have said.

Why were the ducks relieved at the start of chapter four? Well, the start of chapter four, the puppies had left.

So the ducks thought that after the puppies had left, no one would be practising their herding on them.

So Fly had been teaching the puppies how to herd the ducks and the ducks find this quite annoying.

So they thought now the puppies had left, they were relieved that no one will be herding on them.

They didn't expect a piglet to be training.

Why does Fly think that asking politely is not a good idea? Well, she thinks that sheep is stupid and so you have to boss them around.

That's what she says.

Three, why do you think Ma and the sheep call the dogs wolves? Oh, interesting one.

Well, wolves are traditionally seen as predators to sheep.

So they call the dogs wolves as they're threatened by them.

The dogs are not typically very polite to them.

They're barking orders at the sheep, telling them what to do in quite a rude way.

So the sheep think of them as wolves, as a predatory animal.

Well done, if your answers were similar to these.

Great job.

Now lastly, our last strategy today.

We've done retrieval, we've done inference.

Now we're going to be having rich discussions because having rich discussions about a text is beneficial in many ways for building comprehension.

It helps us to clarify and understand things.

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

So why is, let's check your understanding.

Why is discussing a text with others a useful strategy? A, it helps us clarify and understand things.

B, it offers opportunities for hearing different perspectives and analysing the text in greater depth.

C, it helps us to know what others think as it is important to always agree with others.

Which one do you think? A, B or C? Or perhaps two of them.

Pause the video, off you go.

Well done, if you said A, it does help us to clarify and understand things and also it gives us an opportunity to hear different perspectives.

We don't have to know what others think because we have to agree with them.

The beauty of reading books, we're not always going to like the same books as our partner or our teacher, or our sibling.

We all like different things and get different things from reading a book.

So we don't need to always agree with everybody.

Okay, your last set of practise questions today, well done, is again referring to chapter four, you will need the book open in front of you.

Fly thinks that being polite will not be a good idea.

Do you agree? So we know what Fly thinks, now we want to know what you think.

Do you agree with Fly that being polite will not be a good idea? Discuss with your partner using evidence from the text.

So find some evidence in the text to back up your ideas.

Here are some speaking frames that might help you.

I think being polite is a good idea because.

Or maybe I think being polite is not a good idea because.

Pause the video and discuss with your partner now.

Okay, well done.

Lovely, lovely ideas, lots of you agreeing and disagreeing, which is really good to have different opinions.

So some of you said, I think being polite is a good idea because Ma says she would be delighted if someone asked her to move in a kind way.

That's right, when Ma and Babe were having a discussion, Ma said she'd be really delighted, that was the word she used.

If someone asked to move politely, she would want to obey, want to do the right thing.

Some of you might have maybe said, I think being polite is not a good idea because Fly has been a sheepdog for many years and she knows that dogs need a boss sheep around.

That's really good thinking actually 'cause it does say Fly is a very experienced sheepdogs and maybe she's tried being polite and it hasn't worked before.

Maybe she really does know that you have to boss these sheep around.

Excellent, and it doesn't matter if your idea is different to your partners.

That is the joy of having discussions with others about texts.

Brilliant everyone.

So let's look at a summary of our learning today.

We have learned that using a range of strategies helps to build our understanding of a text.

We've learned skimming and scanning for keywords, helps us to retrieve key information.

Searching for clues within the text helps us to infer greater meaning and draw conclusions.

And having rich discussions about the text improves our understanding and offers opportunities for hearing different perspectives.

You've worked really, really hard today, really analysing chapter four and answering lots of different types of questions on chapter four of "The Sheep-Pig." And I've really, really enjoyed learning with you today.

So thank you for coming to join me today and well done for all of your hard work.

Bye.