Lesson video

Hi, everybody, I'm Ms. Gardner.

Welcome to the next lesson from our unit, "'The Happy Prince': reading and narrative writing." I really hope you enjoyed the first lesson where we got to read "The Happy Prince." And I'm looking forward to today's lesson where we are going to be exploring the characters and the themes in a little bit more detail.

So let's get started.

In today's lesson from our unit, "'The Happy Prince': reading and narrative writing," we are going to be exploring and discussing the characters and themes in a little bit more detail.

So your learning outcome is, I can discuss the moral and the character's emotions in "The Happy Prince." So let's start by looking at the keywords.

We'll do my turn, your turn.

Character trait.

Moral.

Emotions.

Let's have a look at what these mean.

A character trait is a part of your personality, belief system and behaviour.

Emotions are strong feelings that result from a person's circumstances, mood or relationship with others.

And a moral is a lesson that can be learnt from a story or experience.

So there are two sections of our lesson today.

In the first, we'll be identifying the moral of the story.

And in the second, we'll be understanding the characters.

So let's start by identifying the moral of "The Happy Prince." So first, let's just recap what we know already about the story.

"The Happy Prince" was originally written by Oscar Wilde in 1888.

Oscar Wilde was a famous Irish author, poet and playwright who was very popular in the 19th century.

The Happy Prince is a classic text that children have read and enjoyed for many generations.

A moral is a key feature of "The Happy Prince." Oscar Wilde explored themes relating to character and compassion in order to teach important morals.

He wanted the reader to learn a lesson from his stories.

The definition of a moral is a lesson that can be learnt from a story or experience.

And there is a lesson that we can learn from reading "The Happy Prince." We can draw conclusions about a moral based on themes that emerge through the characters' actions.

So essentially, we can understand what the moral of the story is by looking closely at how the characters behave.

The following character traits are key themes within "The Happy Prince." Selflessness.

We'll do my turn, your turn here.

Selflessness.

Selflessness is a noun, and it is the quality of caring more about what other people need and want than about what you yourself need and want.

So that is a character trait of one of the characters in "The Happy Prince." Kindness.

Kindness.

Again, a noun, and this is the quality of being friendly, generous and considerate.

So considering other people's feelings.

And then finally, compassion.

Compassion.

This is the concern for the suffering or misfortune of others.

So these three character traits are all ones that belong to the characters in "The Happy Prince." And by exploring how these character traits appear in the story, we can then draw conclusions to infer and to understand what the moral of the story is.

So checking for understanding, true or false? Exploring character traits within a story can help me infer the moral of the story.

Pause the video now.

That is true.

Can you use A or B to justify your answer? A, there is always one good character that we learn a lesson from.

Or B, considering the traits of different characters and their impact can teach us important lessons.

Pause the video now.

That is B.

When we look at the character traits of the characters and their actions, that can help us to understand what the moral of the story is.

Well done.

So let's now consider these character traits in further detail.

First, you're going to refer to the text as a whole, and I want you to discuss with your partner, or whoever you're with, how does the prince show selflessness? So that is the quality of worrying and caring more about what other people need and want than what you yourself need and want.

So how does the prince show selflessness? Pause the video now and discuss this with your partner.

Okay, here are some possible responses.

I wonder if you all sounded similar to this.

The prince sacrifices his own comfort and beauty to help the suffering citizens of his city.

So by that, they mean the prince doesn't care about his own eyes, his jewels, his gold leaves.

That's not important to him.

What's more important is that the other people, the people who are suffering in the city, can use them.

So that's showing selflessness.

And the prince's behaviour shows that we don't need to keep lots of expensive things for ourselves.

So again, showing selflessness in that behaviour.

Well done.

So now let's refer to the next character trait.

Again, you will refer to the text as a whole.

And now I want you to discuss with your partner, how did the prince and the bird show kindness in the story? Pause the video now.

Okay, here are a couple of possible responses.

Again, don't worry if yours aren't exactly the same, but hopefully they were along the same lines.

The prince is very kind to the seamstress who is worried about her son.

And the prince and the bird are very generous and they put others before themselves.

Both of these show the character trait of kindness.

Okay, well done.

So again, referring to the cat text as a whole.

Now, discuss with your partner, how did the prince and the bird show compassion? So how do they show that they care about the suffering of others? Pause the video now and discuss this question with your partner.

Okay, here are some possible responses.

The bird is very concerned about the prince when he's crying at the beginning.

And also, the prince is very compassionate now he is able to see all the suffering of the people in the city.

So both of these just showing examples of compassion in the story, both from the bird and the prince.

So it's time for task A.

Now we have discussed the character traits of the main characters, I want you to now consider what you think the moral of the story is.

Remember, a moral is a lesson that can be learnt from a story.

So you can use these sentence starters to help you.

I think the moral of the story is.

Or, I think the story teaches an important lesson about.

Or, I learnt that.

So pause the video now and say what you think is the moral of "The Happy Prince." Off you go.

Okay, well done, everybody.

Welcome back.

Here are some possible responses to this question.

What do you think the moral of the story is? Again, don't worry if your answers aren't exactly the same, but I wonder if yours were along the same lines.

I think the moral of the story is that we should help the poor and suffering people in our communities.

I think the story teaches an important lesson about sacrificing our own comfort and happiness for others.

And I learnt that showing compassion to those in need is very important.

Remember, your interpretation of the moral may vary.

It might be different to your partners or to other people in the class, and that's okay.

The moral of the story is meant to be quite individual.

It is time for the second section of our lesson where we are understanding the characters and their emotions.

So understanding the characters' emotions is important when writing a narrative text.

Expressing the thoughts and the emotions of a character helps the reader to understand the characters better.

And what's important to remember is that the characters' emotions change throughout the narrative.

We need, as writers, to identify their key emotions at the key points of the story and how they expressed them, how they showed, how they were feeling.

So let's just review the story first.

The first key moment was this.

A magnificent statue of a prince overlooked a city.

One day, a bird flew into the city and he perched at a statue's feet.

Then number two.

The statue became very upset as he saw the people in the city suffering.

He asked the bird to help him.

Then three.

The statue was especially worried about a seamstress who couldn't afford to help her sick son.

The prince gave a ruby from his sword to the bird to bring to her.

Then four.

The bird and the statue continued to help other people who were poor and suffering until the prince had no more jewels or gold leaves to give.

Then five.

Winter arrived and the bird was too weak to survive.

The prince was so devastated by the bird's death that his metallic heart broke in two.

And then finally, number six.

The statue's heart was tossed into a furnace with the bird's body.

Then, God asked the bird and prince to look after the city's people together and they were happily reunited after death.

So let's just check our understanding of the chronology of the key moments, so the order in which they come in.

You need to put the first three key moments in chronological order, from one to three.

So here are your three key moments and you need to number them one, two, and three.

So, the statue became very upset as he saw the people in the city suffering.

He asked the bird to help him.

The statue was especially worried about a seamstress who couldn't afford to help her sick son.

The prince gave a ruby from his sword to the bird to bring to her.

And, a magnificent statue of a prince overlooked a city.

One day a bird flew into the city and he perched on the statue's feet.

So numbering one to three.

Pause the video now.

So let's go through it.

Number one was the moment of the statue overlooking the city.

Number two, the statue was becoming very upset and he asked the bird to help him.

And then number three, he was especially worried about that seamstress so he gave the ruby from his sword to the bird.

Okay, now you need to put the next three key moments in chronological order, this time from four to six.

And those moments are, the statue's heart was tossed into a furnace with the bird's body.

Then, God asked the bird and prince to look after the city's people together and they were happily reunited in death.

The bird and the statute continued to help other people who were poor and suffering until the prince had no more jewels or gold leaves to give.

And finally, winter arrived and the bird was too weak to survive.

The prince was so devastated by the bird's death that his metallic heart broke in two.

So numbering these key moments from four to six.

Pause the video now.

Okay, so number four.

The bird and the statue were helping more and more people until the statue had no more jewels left on him.

Five, winter arrived and the bird became really, really weak and unwell, and eventually he died and the prince died as well, his heart broke in two.

And then finally, the statue's heart and the bird's body was tossed into that really hot burning furnace.

And then God asked the bird and the prince to look after the city and after death.

Okay, well done, everybody.

Okay, so now let's consider these characters' emotions in further detail.

In a moment, you're going to pause the video and you're going to re-read the text from the additional materials.

And you're going to re-read from the beginning of the story up to "Little bird, will you take my red jewel to her?" And as you are reading, I want you to be thinking about the characters' emotions at this point in the story.

So pause the video now and off you go reading up to that point.

Off you go.

Okay, so now I want you to discuss with your partner, how are the characters feeling at this point of the story? And also, how do you know? What did they do? What did they say? How did they act? How did they show those feelings? Pause the video now.

Okay, welcome back.

Here are some possible responses to that question.

The prince feels upset about what he's seen in the city because it says his "eyes were full of tears." Or, the bird feels worried about the prince because it says he asked "gently" why the prince was crying.

So he's showing.

It's showing there that the bird was worried.

So you can see here, both of these responses explain the characters' emotions and also how they know that from the text.

Okay, well done.

Now, I want you to refer to the story as a whole.

And I want you to think about how are the prince and the bird feeling when they are helping the poor people in the city? How do you know this? Pause the video now.

Okay, so here are some possible responses.

The prince feels determined to carry on helping as many people as he can even if it means he suffers.

But also, the bird is concerned about the prince as it says, "I cannot take out your other eye.

You will not be able to see." But we know in response to that, the prince was really determined to help and he didn't mind about his own eye.

He was happy to sacrifice his own eye because he was so determined to help as many people as he can.

Well done.

So now I want you to re-read from "Then, the snow came" to the end of the text.

And as you're reading this, I want you to be thinking about the characters' emotions again.

How have the characters' emotions changed? Pause the video now.

Okay, so now think about this question with your partner.

How are the princes and the bird feeling at the end of the story? And how do you know? Pause the video now and discuss this with your partner.

So here are some possible responses.

The prince is so devastated that the bird is dying that his "heart shattered into pieces." And the bird is devoted to the prince because even though he is so cold and frail, he would not leave the prince's side.

So showing there in the second answer that the bird is really loyal and devoted and really, really cares about the prince.

In fact, they both really, really care about each other.

You can see that so clearly at the end of the story.

Okay, well done.

So at the very end of the story, the bird and the prince are reunited.

It says, "You have brought the right things," God said.

"This little bird will sing forever in my garden and the Happy Prince will stand in my city of gold." So now, I want you to think about how are the prince and the bird feeling at the end of the story when they are reunited in God's garden? Pause the video now.

Okay, here are some possible responses.

They are overjoyed to be together again.

Overjoyed means really happy.

And they are at peace and happy to be reunited.

So it's a really positive and happy ending to the story.

We know that religion is a theme that ran through Oscar Wilde's books.

And this ending is a religious idea that there is life after death and that they can be happily reunited because they have done so much good and helped so many people when they were alive.

And this is another reminder of the moral of the story to be to help those in need.

So here is a graph showing the prince's emotions during the story.

You can see here on the graph that throughout the story his emotions change.

What events do you think might be happening at the four points shown on the graph? So you can see that point one, the emotion line is going down.

So it's probably quite a negative emotion.

And then number two, it's going up, something positive is happening.

Then three, down again, so negative.

And then four, up.

So think about what those four key moments in the story might be.

Pause the video now.

Okay, so number one, this could be the prince becoming more and more concerned about the suffering in the city.

You see him being really sad, crying, at this point in the story.

Number two, this could show the determination he feels to help others and the pride that this makes them feel.

So this is much more positive emotion.

Then three, this could be the prince's devastation at the bird dying.

And then four, again going up, so more positive.

This could be the joy he feels when they are reunited after death.

So, at which point in the graph might the prince be feeling each emotion then? So you've got four emotions on the screen, devastated, concerned, overjoyed, and determined.

At which point in the story can you number them? Pause the video now and off you go.

Okay, so devastated, that was number three, when he realised the bird was dying.

Concerned, number one, when he saw the suffering in the city.

Overjoyed, number four, when they're reunited after death.

And then determined, number two, when they're determined to help as many people as they can.

So you can see this graph just shows really quick clearly how the emotions change throughout the story.

Well done.

It is time for task B.

You need to complete these sentences with a partner by describing the emotions of the characters.

So you're going to say these sentences out loud to explain how the characters were feeling.

One, when the prince sees the suffering in the city, he feels.

And you can continue that sentence.

Two, as he sees he is able to do something to help, the prince feels or acts.

Three, as the bird took its last breath, the prince.

And then finally, four, when they were reunited in God's garden.

And you can complete that sentence.

So pause the video now and use these sentence scaffolds to help you explain the characters' emotions.

Off you go.

Okay, well done, everybody.

Welcome back.

Let's go through some possible responses.

Don't worry if yours weren't exactly the same, but hopefully you managed to explain the characters' emotions as well.

One, when the prince sees the suffering in the city, he feels very concerned about those in need and guilty that he had never noticed it before.

Two, as he sees he is able to do something to help, the prince becomes more determined to do whatever he can to make their lives better even if it means he suffers.

Three, as the bird took its last breath, the prince was so devastated that it broke his heart.

And four, when they were reunited in God's garden, the prince and the bird were overjoyed to be together again.

Great job, everybody.

Well done.

Here is the summary of everything we've learnt today.

Different character traits appear in the story and we use these to draw conclusions to infer a moral from the story.

A moral is a lesson that can be learnt from a story and reader's interpretations of the moral may differ.

The characters' emotions change throughout the narrative.

And expressing the thoughts and emotions of a character helps the reader to understand the character better.

Well done everybody today.

Great job.