Hi everyone.

I'm so pleased to see you today.

Thank you for joining me for this reading lesson.

My name is Mr. Charlesworth, and in today's lesson we're going to be exploring the text El Deafo.

It's a fantastic graphic novel.

For this lesson, you're going to need a copy of the text.

It needs to look exactly like this.

Pause the video now whilst you go off and collect your copy.

Great work.

Now we're ready to begin.

Let's get started.

Today's lesson outcome is, "I can develop my own response to El Deafo." The keywords are, my turn, your turn.

Character trait.

Connection.

And recommendation.

Let's try those once more.

Character trait.

Connection.

And recommendation.

Great work.

Let's explore the definitions now.

Character traits are the special qualities that make a character in a story unique and interesting.

How a text relates to a reader, another text, or the wider world, can be called a connection.

A recommendation is a suggestion for a text that is well-suited to a reader's age and their interests.

Don't worry if you're unsure about any of these keywords.

We'll be exploring them throughout the lesson.

In today's lesson, we're going to be developing our responses to El Deafo through rich discussion.

We're going to begin by exploring characters and the relationships between each character, before then having a look at connections that we can make to the text, and recommendations from having read it.

I hope you've got your book ready.

Let's get started by exploring characters and their relationships.

El Deafo is written and created by Cece Bell.

It's a semi-autobiographical story that explore Cece's own experiences growing up with a hearing impairment.

The graphic novel text is a memoir that uses a bunny character to depict Cece's childhood, and her journey towards embracing her hearing aid.

The illustrations play a crucial role in conveying her emotions, experiences, and challenges associated with being deaf.

I wonder, from having read the text, who do you think are the main characters in El Deafo? I could think of at least three or four at the moment.

Perhaps have a think.

Who are the main or significant characters in the story? Pause the video whilst you discuss with your talk partner.

Well done.

There are quite a few characters in the story.

Let's have a look at some examples.

The central character in the text is Cece.

Her family contains her mum, her dad, and older siblings, Ashley and Sarah.

When Cece's in school, she meets Laura, Ginny, Martha, and Mike.

There are lots of other characters in school, but these are the four people that she really interacts with.

Finally, we might consider the character of El Deafo.

Cece has an alter ego called El Deafo, who could be considered an imaginary character or persona.

A persona can be an aspect of someone's character, that can be shown or not shown to another character.

Cece notices throughout the text that she's different from other children.

How would you describe Cece at the beginning of the text, in the middle, and at the end? What character traits and emotions does she exhibit? Well, notice on our keyword.

Perhaps focus on how she is portrayed in both the beginning, the middle, and the end.

Aim for at least three character traits to describe Cece.

You can of course refer to the text whilst you're talking.

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

Great discussion.

There are lots of possible things that you could have talked about here.

Here are four different character traits that I noticed.

Cece feels quite lost, and is described as drifting, in the opening few pages.

She's also shown to be lonely, on page 46.

As we continue reading, Cece's shown to be quite annoyed at being seen to be different.

This is particularly evident on pages 140 and 150.

You might like to pause the video now to have a quick look.

Well done.

Towards the end of the text, we can see that Cece's quite happy.

She makes friends with Martha, and that's shown from page 131 onwards.

Finally, at the end of the text, we can see that Cece feels included.

You can see this on page 228.

I wonder which character traits and emotions you spoke about with your partner.

Were they similar or different to what I noticed? Here's our first check for understanding.

At the beginning of the graphic novel, what does Cece perceive her difference to be? Is it A, her sense of humour? B, her hearing aid? C, her attitude? Or D, her imagination? Which do you think is the correct answer? Pause the video now, whilst you decide.

Great work.

The thing that Cece feels that sets her apart from everyone else and makes her feel different is her hearing aid.

It's important to note here, by the end of the graphic novel, Cece realises that being special and having a difference can be a good thing.

It makes her unique.

And that's what we get by reading the entire story, a journey through different emotions and feelings.

By beginning to recognise the positive aspects of wearing a hearing aid, Cece imagines herself as a superhero.

I'd now like you to reread pages 44 and 45, and pages 81 to 84.

We're introduced to the character of El Deafo here.

Pause the video now, whilst you read those pages.

Great work.

I wonder if you can tell me, where does the name El Deafo come from? How does Cece come up with the name herself? Does she hear or read about it somewhere? Pause the video now whilst you discuss the question with your partner.

Well done.

Let's have a look at a possible answer from Alex.

He says that Cece and her parents watch a programme where a character is called "deafo".

It's intended as an offensive remark.

Cece turns this into a positive aspect of herself, using it in her superhero persona.

That's right.

El Deafo actually does lots of things that Cece's not able to do in real life.

Building on this question, I'd like you now to discuss, why do you think the text is called El Deafo? You could use the sentence stem, "I think.

because.

." in your answer.

Pause the video now, whilst you discuss this question.

Well done.

Let's have a look at two examples.

The first one from Laura says, "I think creating the character of El Deafo makes Cece feel positive, because this leads to her making more friends and feeling good about herself." Sam says, "I think the text might be called El Deafo because Cece learns to embrace her difference.

By the end of the story, Cece is more confident, and sees her disability as an ability that makes her unique." I wonder if your responses were similar or different to these.

Here's our next check for understanding.

True or false.

El Deafo is a fictionalised or imaginary character in the graphic novel.

Is that true or false? Pause the video now, whilst you decide.

Great work.

El Deafo is definitely in Cece's imagination.

Therefore, it's true.

And I'd like you to justify your answer.

Is it because A, El Deafo is imagined by Cece? They embody superhero traits and seek to change situations in which Cece is unable to.

Or B, El Deafo's superpower is super-hearing.

They're named after a remark overheard in a television programme.

Which one of these justifications best fits with the original statement? Pause the video now whilst you decide.

What a tricky decision to make.

Whilst El Deafo's superpower is super-hearing, this doesn't link to her being fictionalised or imaginary.

The first example, example A, shows that El Deafo is imagined by Cece.

They're able to do things in Cece's imagination that she's unable to do herself.

Throughout the text, Cece makes lots of friends.

Some friendships are better than others for her.

I wonder, what do you think of the characters of Laura, Ginny, and Martha? How do they behave towards Cece? Do they have a positive, or a negative influence? Or maybe both? Pause the video now, whilst you discuss the question with your partner.

Well done.

You might have discussed that there are both positive and negative attributes to all of the friends.

That's because they're complex characters.

They don't tend to have fixed character traits.

I wonder if you could tell which is the most positive friend for Cece.

We know she's searching for a true friend throughout the whole graphic novel.

Here's our next check for understanding.

Can you match Cece's friends to how they're portrayed in the text? On the left hand side, we've got Laura, Ginny, and Martha, and on the right hand side, a description of how they're portrayed.

Pause the video now, whilst you match them up.

Great work.

I wonder if you needed to refer to the text.

Some of these, like Laura, were quite straightforward.

I know that Laura is quite bossy and controlling.

She decides what Cece should be doing, which isn't a good character trait at all.

Ginny, on the other hand, speaks really slowly to Cece.

She makes a big deal about her deafness, which isn't something that Cece likes.

Finally, Martha is aware of Cece's deafness.

She treats Cece with respect and kindness.

Well done if you matched all the friends correctly.

We're now going to explore them in a little more depth in the main task.

Finding a true friend is one of Cece's top priorities.

On page 49, Cece makes a table for her friend, Laura.

She does this again on page 69, as El Deafo, for her friend, Ginny.

Pause the video now, whilst you look at these two pages.

Well done.

You'll have noticed in one that she's writing her list, and in the second, it's on a computer.

What I'd like you to do for the main task is to complete the table to show each friend's traits with examples that are good for Cece, and not so good.

I've got an example for Laura.

One of her good comments is that she encourages Cece to join Girl Scouts.

That's shown on page 51.

One of the not so good qualities is that she's very controlling and bossy, which is shown on the page previous, page 50.

Here are some pages to support you, if you need it.

To focus on the friendship with Laura, look at pages 48 to 49, 57 and 60.

To focus on the friendship with Ginny, pages 62, 67 to 69.

And for Martha, look at pages 121 to 123, and page 125.

The friends are featured on lots more of the text.

However, this is just a guide to help you.

Aim to have at least a comment in each of the other sections.

Pause the video now, whilst you complete the task.

Well done.

Let's have a look at some other characteristics that we can put into our table.

For Ginny, one of the good traits is that she's funny.

She has lots of similar interests to Cece.

They even laugh at a few television shows and music records.

A not so good quality about Ginny is that she's quite annoying.

She talks very slowly and loudly to Cece, which she doesn't appreciate.

Unfortunately, Cece doesn't communicate this clearly with Ginny, which means that it bubbles over and affects their friendship.

For Martha, a good character trait is that she's playful.

She enjoys hanging out with Cece.

That's shown on page 141.

A not so good quality about Martha was that she's really worried.

She can't believe she's hurt her friend, and she distances herself from Cece.

I wonder if you had similar or different character traits and notes.

Provided you've got evidence from the text to back up your answers, they'll be great.

Let's now look at connections we can make to the text, as well as a set of recommendations that we can make to each other.

Connections are ways in which you connect personally with a text.

The way that a reader connects might be different to another, based on their own life experiences.

Connections can be made from text to self, text to text, or text to world.

We'll be exploring each of these three now.

Text to self is when the content of the text relates to personal experiences, feelings, or thoughts.

Text to text is when the content of the text relates to another text.

That can include anything you've seen, read, watched, or heard recently.

A text to world connection is when the content relates to events and issues in the real world.

It's important to remember that connections can also relate to patterns that you spot when reading.

I'm now going to explore some of the connections that I make to the text.

When I first read El Deafo, it made me think of a picture book, which is titled "Can Bears Ski?" This is a really empathetic text, that raises awareness of deafness.

It also made me think of the text's author and illustrator.

The author is Raymond Antrobus, who's a deaf poet, and the illustrator is Polly Dunbar, who also has experiences of deafness.

Finally, a real-world connection that I made was to British sign language.

It made me think about how we communicate with other people.

Now it's over to you.

Which connections do you make to the text? I wonder, are they text to self, text to text, or text to world connections? Pause the video now whilst you discuss the two questions with your partner.

Well done.

I wonder which connections you made, and what type of connections were they? Was there more of one than the other? Making connections and recommendations can significantly enhance the reading experience, and broaden our understanding of literature.

To broaden our understanding means to widen our understanding, to have a range of different reading experiences.

Here are some recommendations based on the themes, the form, and connections in El Deafo.

The first text is "Proud to be Deaf: Discover My Community and My Language." This is a really well-researched and -written nonfiction text, which explores what it's like to be deaf.

It will answer lots of your questions, too.

Another text that links to El Deafo for me is "I Am Not a Label." This is a beautifully illustrated nonfiction text, which explores a range of different people's experiences, not just with deafness, but other disabilities too.

Another graphic novel that I really enjoyed that had lots of empathy, is "Roller Girl." This is a fantastic text if you'd like to explore more graphic novels, and strong female protagonists.

The next text linked to a theme within El Deafo.

"I Talk Like A River" is based on Jordan Scott's own experiences, so the authenticity was really important for this text.

It depicts a really caring relationship between a a young boy and his father, as he learns to deal with his stammering.

That's when someone has difficulty with speech.

A great fantasy novel that I'd recommend is "Max and the Millions." If you look closely at the front cover, you'll notice that Max also has a hearing aid.

This novel made me think of El Deafo, because it also explores themes around identity, and school life, whilst also having a really imaginative plot.

Finally, "Show Me A Sign" is a beautiful graphic novel.

It explores what life was like in the early 20th century, for a person growing up in Martha's Vineyard, which is located in the United States.

It widens your experience, and gets you to understand a different perspective, that might be different to your own.

I wonder if you have any recommendations.

We'll be having a go at sharing these later on in the task.

Here's our final check for understanding.

Which text would you recommend for Lucas? Lucas says, "I'd like to find out more about inspirational people with a range of disabilities." Which text is best suited to Lucas's interests? Is it text A, "I Talk Like a River", or text B, "I Am Not A Label"? Pause the video now, whilst you decide.

Well done.

It's likely that Lucas would prefer text B, "I Am Not A Label." I'd like you to explain why.

Why does it make such a good recommendation? Pause the video whilst you discuss.

That's right.

There are lots of different people mentioned in "I Am Not A Label." It's a nonfiction text.

"I Talk Like a River" is a picture book memoir, which focuses on the young boy's experience.

They're both well worth checking out.

In our main task, I'd like you to research one of the recommended texts, and discuss with your partner which one would you like to read, and do you have a text that you would recommend, and why? Here are the texts again, if you'd like to use them to research.

You can of course come up with your own recommendation that links to El Deafo, too.

Pause the video now, whilst you complete the task.

I really hope you enjoyed researching and recommending texts to one another.

Let's have a look at two examples.

The first from Jun says, "I've loved exploring graphic novels, and want to read more texts like El Deafo.

Roller Girl looks great." I really hope you check it out, too.

Sophia says, "I want to read Max and the Millions, because it's a novel that combines fantasy with deafness," which is something that she can relate to.

I wonder if your thoughts were similar or different.

I hope making connections and recommendations makes you want to read more.

In today's lesson, we've been developing responses to El Deafo through rich discussion.

We've learned that character traits can be explored through the text's illustrations, or words used by the characters.

Connections are ways in which you can connect personally with a text.

The way that one reader connects might be different to another, based on their own life experiences.

Connections can be from text to self, text to text, or text to world.

Finally, making connections and recommendations can significantly enhance the reading experience, and broaden the reader's understanding of literature.

I've really enjoyed sharing this fantastic graphic novel with you.

I hope you have enjoyed reading and exploring it too.