Lesson video

Hi everyone, and welcome to today's lesson.

Today we are beginning a brand new unit, and I really hope you enjoy it.

In today's lesson, you will be developing your understanding of the authorial context, plot and themes of "Front Desk".

In our lesson today, here are some key words we will use - protagonist, immigrant, motel, plot, theme.

The protagonist is the main character in a story.

An immigrant is a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.

A motel is a hotel designed mainly for motorists.

They usually have rooms with parking directly outside.

The plot is the series of events that make up a story and a theme is a central idea that the author intends the audience to engage deeply with.

Today we're going to be understanding the context of "Front Desk".

Firstly, we are going to be learning about the author.

Then we're going to move on to learning about some of the key plot and themes in "Front Desk".

"Front Desk" is a fictional novel written by Kelly Yang.

The protagonist, that means the main character, is Mia Tang, a 10-year-old Chinese American immigrant girl, who manages the front desk of a motel while her parents clean the rooms. Kelly Yang based Mia's experiences on her own family's experiences of immigration when she was a child.

"Front Desk" was published in 2018 and has won many awards.

It has been described as "one of the 30 most influential children's books "of all time" by BookRiot.

Fill in the missing words.

This fictional novel is written by award-winning author, hmm, the hmm of the story is Mia Tang.

Pause the video while you complete your task.

Well done everyone.

Let's read this through together.

This fictional novel is written by award-winning author, Kelly Yang.

The protagonist of the story is Mia Tang.

Remember, the protagonist is the main character of the story.

An immigrant is a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.

Kelly, our author, immigrated to America from China at the age of six.

She grew up in Southern California.

Here we've got a picture of a world map.

Here's China.

Kelly Yang, when she was six years old, immigrated from China to America.

She grew up in Southern California.

This is California on the map of the United States.

This is where she grew up.

In California, Kelly and her parents lived in three different motels.

A motel is a hotel designed mainly for motorists.

They usually have rooms with parking directly outside.

Kelly overcame poverty and attended college and Harvard Law School.

She eventually gave up law to pursue her passion as a writing teacher.

She worked as a teacher for 13 years before becoming a journalist and later, a children's fiction writer.

So it's really clear that she had a passion for writing her whole life.

Here are some similarities between the author and the protagonist.

Remember, our author is Kelly Yang.

Our protagonist, our main character is Mia Tang.

So Kelly Yang immigrated to the United States from China at the age of six.

She lived in three different motels.

She overcame poverty in her life.

She had a passion or has a passion for writing.

She helps other people through teaching and writing.

Mia Tang is our protagonist and the main character of "Front Desk".

She immigrated to the U.

S.

from China at the age of 10.

She lived and worked on the front desk of the Calivista Motel, which is where her parents worked.

She loves writing and wants to be a writer when she grows up.

She helps her parents raise money to buy the motel and overcome poverty.

From looking at these two comparisons, we can see lots of elements of Kelly's early life in the life of Mia Tang, her main character.

Now it's time for your first task.

Why do you think Kelly Yang decided to reflect so many of her own personal experiences in "Front Desk"? Consider the experiences and the challenges that Kelly may have faced as an immigrant and why she may have wanted to share these through Mia's story.

You could use this sentence scaffold to help you.

Let's read it through together.

I think that Kelly Yang reflected many of her own experiences in "Front Desk" because.

Pause the video while you complete your task.

Great work everyone.

Here are some answers that you may have come up with after your discussions.

I think that Kelly Yang reflected many of her own experiences in "Front Desk" because she wanted to appeal to readers who may have lived similar experiences.

We know that representation is so important.

She wanted to raise awareness of the prejudice and challenges often faced by immigrants.

Remember, an immigrant is a person who moves to a foreign country to live there permanently.

She wanted to show how resilience and community can help overcome challenging situations.

Those are three potential ideas you might have had when discussing this question.

You might have also come up with lots of other ideas.

Well done everyone.

Now that we have learned a little bit about the author, we are going to move on to exploring the plot and some themes in "Front Desk".

Here is a brief summary of the plot.

Remember, the plot is the events that make up the story.

Let's read these through together.

Every day, Mia supports her parents by running the front desk at the Calivista Motel.

Mia joins Dale Elementary School.

It is her fifth school since arriving in America.

So we can infer that Mia has done lots of moving and adapting to life in the States already.

Mia begins to understand that life is different for her compared to many of her classmates.

She notices people who are prejudiced against others.

Prejudice is when somebody makes a judgement about another person without getting to know them first.

Mia notices a writing competition where the prize is to own your very own motel.

She sets her sights on winning it.

Mia does not win the competition, but she works hard to support her parents and the weeklies.

The weeklies are the people who stay at the motel every week and they live there permanently.

Through her writing, she ends up securing enough investment for her family to buy the motel from the owner, Mr. Yao.

This is a huge moment for me as family because it gives them financial security and means that they're able to have a better life.

Now, put the following events from "Front Desk" in chronological order and use the text to support you.

Remember, chronological order means the order in which these events happened.

Pause the video while you complete your task.

Well done everybody.

If you spotted that number one was that Mia's parents find a job advert for a motel, the Calivista.

They apply and the owner immediately accepts their offer.

Second, Uncle Ming, who is a family friend, arrives at the motel.

He is fleeing from loan sharks, having borrowed money that he cannot pay back.

Third, Hank, a weekly, remember in this story, a weekly is a person that lives permanently at the motel.

Hank, a weekly, is accused of stealing a guest's car.

He is fired from his job.

And finally, number four, learning that the motel where they live is up for sale, Mia asks her mother to see if their family in China could help.

Great work everyone.

One of the reasons for "Front Desk"'s popularity is that it examines key themes throughout the story.

Remember, a theme is a central idea that the author wants the reader to engage with.

Can you think of an example of themes that we might encounter in a text? Pause the video while you decide.

You may want to discuss this question with a partner.

Great work, everyone.

Here are some examples of themes.

My turn and then your turn.

Bravery, prejudice, friendship, resilience, betrayal.

You might have thought of lots more ideas as well.

There are loads and loads.

There are almost endless possibilities of themes that a text might encounter or explore.

These are just a few of them.

Now it's time for your task.

Identify one key theme explored in "Front Desk" and explain how this theme is illustrated in the story.

You can use this sentence scaffold to help you.

One theme explored in "Front Desk" is hmm.

I think this because in the story, hmm.

Here's where we would stretch that point.

So I want you to see if you can identify a theme and then explain how that theme is woven through the story by kelly Yang.

You might need to refer to the text and to dip into certain chapters to answer this question.

Well done everyone.

Now pause the video while you complete your task.

Well done everyone.

So here is an example of an answer that you might have come up with, but remember, this will probably be different to what you have come up with because there are lots of different themes in "Front Desk".

Let's read a model answer and consider how it's structured and then you can compare that with your own answer.

Let's read this together.

One theme explored in "Front Desk" is resilience.

I think this because in the story, Mia remains resilient when learning to write in English despite it not being her first language.

She continues to work hard and develop her writing skills when trying to win the essay-writing competition.

You might also have chosen resilience as a key theme, or you might have chosen others such as community or friendship or honesty.

Take a moment to reread your answer and decide: Have you clearly explained where's the evidence in the text that shows that this theme is a key part of the story? Take a moment now to reread your writing and double check.

Well done everyone.

Great work, everybody.

That now brings us to the end of our lesson, which is the first lesson in our brand-new unit.

Today we have been understanding the context of "Front Desk".

"Front Desk" is a children's fictional text written by Kelly Yang.

There are many parallels between the life of Mia, the story's protagonist, and that of Kelly Yang, the author.

"Front Desk" explores many themes such as resilience, friendship, immigration, courage, and community.

I hope you enjoyed learning about the context of "Front Desk".

We're going to be using this text to help us inspire some writing in this unit.

Great work, everyone.