Lesson video

Hi everybody.

I'm Ms. Gardner.

Welcome to the first lesson from our new unit, "Jabberwocky" narrative Writing.

I'm really looking forward to this unit.

"Jabberwocky" is one of my favourite poems, so I really hope that you enjoy it too.

So thank you so much for joining the lesson and let's get started.

In today's lesson, the first lesson of our unit, "Jabberwocky" narrative writing.

We are going to be reading the poem for the first time and discussing it and making sure we understand the plot.

So your learning outcome is, I can understand the plot of "Jabberwocky." So let's start by looking at the key words.

We're going to do my turn, your turn.

So I'll say the word first and then you will say it either back to the screen or to your partner or whoever you're with.

Narrative poem.

Nonsense.

Stanza.

Summarise.

Let's have a look at what these mean.

A narrative poem is a type of poem that tells a story.

Nonsense is spoken or written words that have no meaning or make no sense.

A stanza is a part of a poem consisting of two or more lines.

They are arranged together as a unit.

And to summarise is to briefly recollect the main points in a piece of writing.

So there are two sections of our lesson today.

In the first, we'll be reading "Jabberwocky," and in the second we'll be summarising "Jabberwocky." So let's start with reading "Jabberwocky." So "Jabberwocky" is a narrative poem.

It was written by an author called Lewis Carroll in 1871, and it was included in his very famous book, which you might have heard of, called "Alice Drew through Looking Glass." So let's just have a look at a timeline so we can try and understand when "Jabberwocky" was written.

So the present day is 2024.

From 1837 to 1901 was an era called the Victorian Era.

Then there was some other key events, like 1914 to 1918 was World War I and 1939 to 1945 was World War II.

Of course there were lots more that has happened around the world in these years, but these are just some really important periods of history.

"Jabberwocky" was written in 1871, so in the Victorian era, so a really long time ago.

The fact that it's still being read today and enjoyed today shows that it is a classic text.

It's one that has really stood the test of time.

So "Jabberwocky" is a narrative poem set in a mythical forest.

The poem tells the story of a young boy who was warned about the fearsome creature called the Jabberwock by his father.

So the boy sets out to slay the creature with his sword.

He goes on a quest to find the creature and to behead it.

Despite its nonsensical nature.

So there's lots of words, when we're gonna read it, which don't make sense.

Despite that, the poem is still structured with a clear narrative structure, an opening, a buildup, a climax, and a resolution.

So throughout the rest of the unit, we are going to write a narrative version of this poem.

We're going to write a opening, a buildup, a climax, and a resolution.

"Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem.

Nonsense means spoken or written words that have no meaning or make no sense.

Lots of words in "Jabberwocky" don't make sense.

They are made up by Lewis Carroll and they actually seem quite silly.

But even though there are lots of nonsense words, there are still enough real words for the reader to get a sense of what has happened.

So checking for understanding.

True or false, "Jabberwocky" is a poem that tells a story.

Pause the video now.

That is true.

Can you use A or B to justify your answer? A, "Jabberwocky" is a narrative poem.

Despite its nonsensical nature, the poem has a clear narrative structure.

Or B, "Jabberwocky" tells a story of a young boy and a mythical creature.

Pause a video now.

That's right, that is A, "Jabberwocky" is a narrative poem, so it tells the story and it has a clear narrative structure.

Well done.

So here is some important vocabulary that appears in the poem.

So I want to make sure we understand the definitions of these now before we read the poem.

We'll do my turn, your turn.

Slay or slain.

This means to kill something in a violent way.

Chortled.

That's when you laugh in a gleeful way.

You're happy.

Foe.

That's an enemy or an opponent.

Burbled.

That's to make continuous murmuring noise with your mouth.

So just checking for understanding.

Can you match the word to its definition? Your four words are slay or slain, chortled, foe, and burled.

And then your four definitions are an enemy or opponent, made a continuous murmuring noise, laughed in a gleeful way, and to kill in a violent way.

So draw lines from the word to their definition.

Pause the video now.

Okay, so slay/slain was to kill in a violent way.

Chortled, laughed in a gleeful way.

Foe, an enemy or opponent.

And burled, made a continuous murmuring noise.

Well done.

So we are now going to read the poem, and we're going to read the poem two stanzas at a time.

So we're going to chunk it up.

Speaking in a clear and engaging tone is really important when you're reading the poem aloud.

So I'm going to read the stanza first and then you're gonna have a go at reading it out loud too.

As you're reading, I want you to look out for any nonsense words.

So these will be words that you don't recognise.

Can you work out what the nonsense words might mean? Don't worry if you don't, but have a go at trying to understand what the poem is, what is happening in the poem.

So let's read the first two stanzas.

I'll read them first and then you're going to have a go at reading them.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!" Okay.

Now it's your turn to read this out loud.

Make sure you're using a loud, and confident, and engaging tone.

Pause video now.

Well done, everybody.

Could you see any nonsense words? There were quite a lot in these first two stanzas.

Brillig, slithy toves, gyre, gimble, wabe, mimsy, borogoves Jabberwock, Jubjub, frumious Bandersnatch.

All of these are nonsense words.

Don't worry if you don't really understand what's happening just yet.

We're going to go through it properly in the next section of the lesson.

So now let's read the next two stanzas.

Again, I'll read out loud first, and then you're going to have a go at reading it too.

He took his vorpal sword in hand; Long time the manxome foe he sought.

So rested he by the Tumtum tree And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! Okay, it's now time for you to read the stanzas out loud.

So the pause video now and make sure you're using a loud and engaging voice to read it, to read the poem aloud.

Pause the video now and off you go.

Well done, everybody.

Could you see any nonsense words in these two stanzas? They're are a bit less than the first two, but there were definitely some.

Vorpal, manxome, Tumtum.

That's the name of the tree.

Uffish.

Jabberwock, that's the name of the creature.

Whiffling, tulgey wood.

So lots of nonsense words there.

I wonder what you thought they mean.

If you want to, you can pause the video now and discuss this with whoever you're with.

Okay, let's read now the next two stanzas.

Again, I'll read it first and then you're going to have a go at reading it out loud.

One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" He chortled in his joy.

Okay, so there's some speech in there as well in the second stanza to be thinking about.

So make sure when you're reading out loud, the speech, you're using a slightly different voice or trying to emphasise the fact that it is spoken words, the father speaking.

So pause video now and off you go.

Well done, everybody.

Welcome back.

Could you see any nonsense words in these stanzas? I saw snicker-snack, galumphing.

Again, Jabberwock, the name of the creature.

Beamish, frabjous, callooh, callay.

Lots of nonsense words.

I wonder if you can try and understand what they might mean in these sentences.

I thought, for example, frabjous, a frabjous day, it was almost a bit like fabulous because the boy slaughtered the Jabberwock.

The father is very happy so he's saying a frabjous day, a fabulous day.

But you can now pause the video and have a go at discussing these nonsense words with your partner or whoever you're with.

Okay, let's read the final stanza.

And I wonder if you can notice something about this final stanza.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

Pause the video now, have a go at reading the final stanza aloud as well.

Okay, so hopefully you notice that the final stanza is exactly the same as the opening stanza.

It's kind of repeating itself.

And again, there were lots of nonsense words.

Brillig, slithy toves, gyre and gimble, mimsy, borogoves, so lots.

Don't worry if you're feeling a little bit confused about what's happening in the poem 'cause there are lots of nonsense words to try and make sense of.

We're going to go through these in a lot more detail in the next section of the lesson, but I really hope you enjoyed reading it out loud as much as I did.

So it's time for task A.

You need to sort the nonsense words and real words from the poem.

So your options are blade, manxome, flame, galumphing, frabjous, chortled, uffish, slain.

So pause the video now and off you go with task A.

Well done, everybody.

Welcome back.

Okay, so the nonsense words from the poem were manxome, galumphing, frabjous, and uffish.

When you just see them like this, they don't make sense at all, do they? But in the poem, they do make more sense.

I'm gonna look at that in more detail in a bit.

And then the real words were blade, the blade of the sword, the flame, chortled, laughing gleefully, and slain, so killing in a violent way.

Well done, everybody.

Great job with task A.

Okay, it is time for the second section of the lesson where we are going to be summarising "Jabberwocky." So because there are so many nonsense words in "Jabberwocky," it's really important that we explore it in detail so that we can really understand the plot.

We need to summarise each stanza before we can sequence the key moments in chronological order.

The nonsense words don't have a specific meaning, but they do mimic the sounds and rhythms of English, the English language.

So they do feel quite familiar and it means that we can get an understanding of what is happening.

We can read them alongside the real words to understand the plot.

So let's have a look at stanza one.

Stanza one introduces the setting, so the location of the poem, and it sets the whimsical tone of fantasy.

This is a fantasy poem.

This is not a real wood.

It's a mythical enchanted wood.

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

So in this stanza, we can see that strange and unknown things or creatures move around and make noises in different ways.

These creatures in this wood belongs to a different world.

It's a very mythical place.

This is this magical mythical place where strange creatures exist.

Stanza two introduces the characters.

The father, the elderly man in the poem is warning his son about the dangerous creatures.

The Jabberwock, the Jubjub bird, and the Bandersnatch So he says, "Beware," that means be careful, be aware of it, "of the Jabberwock." It's a really dangerous creature because it has jaws that can bite you and claws that can catch.

It says "Beware the Jubjub bird." So again, be careful of that.

And shun, avoid that frumious Bandersnatch.

We don't know what frumious means.

It's a nonsense word, but we can assume that it means maybe dangerous or threatening.

So checking for understanding, true or false.

The Jabberwock is a friendly creature.

Pause the video now.

That is false.

Can you use A or B to justify your answer? A, the son is told to beware the Jabberwock because it has sharp jaws that bite and claws that catch.

or B, the Jabberwock is a scary creature.

Pause the video now.

That's right, that is A, the Jabberwock has these sharp jaws and claws.

So it is this dangerous creature to be careful of.

Well done.

Now stanza three introduces the boy or the young man.

The boy in stanza three begins his perilous, his dangerous journey to find the Jabberwock.

And he rests in the woods whilst he waits.

So he took his vorpal sword in hand.

Vorpal means fatal.

Long time the manxome foe he sought.

So he spent a long time looking for this Jabberwock.

He couldn't find it so he rested by the Tumtum tree and stood awhile in thought.

So he stood waiting and resting thoughtfully thinking about it because he couldn't find it.

So check for understanding.

What does the boy do when he cannot find the Jabberwock? A, returns to his father, B, rests on a Tumtum tree, C, climbs a tree, or D, throws away his sword.

Pause the video now.

That's right, it is B.

He rests on the Tumtum tree, lost in thought.

Well done.

So stanza four introduces the Jabberwock, the creature that the boy is looking for.

As the boy rests, the Jabberwock sneaks up on the boy from the woods, and he's making a murmuring noise.

And as an uffish thought he stood, the Jabberwock with eyes of flame.

So he's got these ferocious-looking eyes.

Came whistling through the tulgey wood.

So he appeared.

The Jabberwock appeared from the depths of the wood, and burbled as it came, making these noises from its mouth.

Then, in stanza five, the boy slays the Jabberwock.

So the boy beheads, so takes off the Jabberwock's head with his sword.

Then he leaves the wood with the head in his hands.

Let's have a look.

One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! So the blade, the sword killed the creature.

He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back.

So he carried the head back with him as he left the woods.

He went galumphing back.

Imagining him kind of running back out of the woods carrying the Jabberwock's head.

So checking for understanding.

True or false, the boy used his sword to behead the Jabberwock.

Pause the video now.

That is true.

Can you use A or B to justify your answer? A, the boy removed the Jabberwock's head with his sword and carried it away with him, or B, the boy defeated the Jabberwock in a fight.

Pause the video now.

That's right, it is A.

He beheads the Jabberwock and then carries, leaves the word carrying the head.

Well done.

So in stanza six, the boy returns to his father.

And the father is delighted that his son has defeated that evil creature.

So let's have a look.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?" Have you killed the Jabberwock? "Come to my arms, my beamish boy!" He embraces his son, he hugs his son because he's so happy.

"O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" He chortled in his joy.

So his father is delighted.

He is so happy.

He's saying what a wonderful day it is, hooray, that his son has defeated the Jabberwock.

So check for understanding.

How does the boy's father react when he finds out he killed the Jabberwock? A, he embraces his son in delight.

B, he tells his son off.

C, he chortles in joy.

Or D, he starts to cry.

Pause the video now.

That's right.

A, he embraces his son.

He hugs his son and he chortles.

He laughs in joy.

Great job.

Well done.

So here is a summary now of the five key moments of the "Jabberwocky." And it's really important we understand that the key moments and the order that they happen in, because we are going to be writing our own narrative version of this poem.

So it's important we understand exactly the order of the events.

So firstly, a young boy's father warns him about this dangerous creature, the Jabberwock.

Two, the boy goes looking in the woods for the Jabberwock, but he rests as he cannot find it.

Three, as the boy is resting on a tree, the Jabberwock sneaks up on the boy.

Four, the boy beheads the Jabberwock in a vicious fight.

Five, the boy returns home to his delighted father.

With the Jabberwock's head in his hand.

And the summary gives the most basic information.

So when we write our narrative of the "Jabberwocky," we're going to use lots more detailed description to describe the story.

So it's time for task B.

You need to order these statements from the summary in chronological order.

So you have the five statements, and you need to order them numbers, one, two, three, four, and five Let's pause the video now and off you go.

Well done, everybody.

Welcome back.

Let's go through these.

Number one, a young boy's father warns him about this dangerous creature, the Jabberwock.

Two, the boy goes looking in the woods for the Jabberwock, but he rests.

He cannot find it.

Three, as the boy is resting on a tree, the Jabberwock sneaks up on the boy.

Four, the boy beheads the Jabberwock in a vicious fight.

And finally, five, the boy returns home to his delighted father with the Jabberwock's head in his hand.

Great job, everybody.

Well done.

Okay, here is a summary of everything we've learned today.

"Jabberwocky" was written in 1871 by Lewis Carroll, and included in his book, "Alice Through the Looking Glass." "Jabberwocky" is a narrative poem that tells the story of a young man defeating a dangerous creature, the Jabberwock.

"Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem.

Lots of the words are not real and do not make sense.

Speaking in a clear and engaging tone is important when reading the poem aloud, and summarising the verses helps the reader to be able to order the key moments chronologically.

Great job, everybody.

Well done today.