Lesson video

Hi, everyone, and welcome to today's lesson.

My name is Ms. Mullins, and today we're going to be starting a brand new unit based on the text, "How to Train Your Dragon." By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to understand the authorial, geographical, and historical context of "How to Train Your Dragon." Here are some key words we're going to be using: context, fiction, narrative, book series.

Context is the factors outside a text that influence it, such as the historical period, setting, and society at the time.

Fiction refers to a text that is based on imagination.

A narrative is a story.

A book series is a sequence of books that are grouped together as part of the same collection.

Today we're going to be understanding the context of "How to Train Your Dragon." We're going to begin by learning about the author and then we're going to move on to learning about the geographical and historical context.

"How to Train Your Dragon" is a fictional narrative.

In this book series, there are 12 books.

Three films have also been made based on the "How to Train Your Dragon" books.

In today's lesson, we will be considering the context of this series.

Context is the factors outside of text that influence it, such as the historical period, setting, and society at the time.

We can also learn more about a text by understanding more about the author.

Cressida Cowell is the author and illustrator who wrote the "How to Train Your Dragon" series.

She's also written many other children's stories and was the Waterstone's Children's Laureate a couple of years ago.

Here are some of her other books: "Emily Brown," "How to Be a Viking," and "The Wizards of Once." You might have already encountered these other books by Cressida Cowell.

Match the terms to their definitions and pause the video while you do that.

An author is the person who writes a text.

The illustrator is the person who draws or creates pictures for a text.

A book series is a sequence of books that are grouped together as part of the same collection.

And a narrative is a story.

Look at the front cover of "How to Train Your Dragon." Use your inference skills to infer what the narrative will be about.

You could use this sentence scaffold: "I think that the story will be about.

." Pause the video while you complete your task.

Great work, everyone.

Here are some things that you might have inferred from looking at the front cover.

You might think that the story will be about dragons, Vikings, the boy on the front cover, and possibly fighting.

We're going to find out more about what happens in this story in the subsequent lessons through our unit.

What a great start.

Now that we've learned a little bit about the author, we are going to learn more about the geographical and historical context of "How to Train Your Dragon." Context is the factors outside a text that influence it, such as the historical period, setting, and society at the time.

Learning about the geographical and historical context of "How to Train Your Dragon" will help you understand the plot and characters more deeply.

The geographical context refers to where the text is set, whilst the historical context refers to when it was set.

True or false? The geographical context refers to when the text was set.

Pause the video while you decide.

Well done, if you spotted that this is false.

Now, pause the video while you decide how to justify your answer.

Great work if you spotted that the geographical context refers to where the text was set.

The historical context refers to when it was set.

Cressida Cowell was inspired to write "How to Train Your Dragon" based on a remote island in Scotland, where she went on holiday with her family as a child.

If we look at this map of the world, we can see all of the different continents.

I wonder whether you know where Scotland is.

Which continent? Well done if you spotted that Scotland is part of the United Kingdom, which is part of the continent of Europe.

Here is a map of the UK.

Scotland is a country in the UK that has many small islands off its coast.

Here we can see Scotland and we can see all of those little small islands off the mainland of Scotland.

Scotland is a country in which continent? Pause the video while you decide.

Well spotted.

Scotland is a country in Europe.

These Scottish islands inspired the fictional setting, the Isle of Berk, of "How to Train Your Dragon." So Cressida Cowell visited islands like these ones when she was a child going on holiday.

Cressida Cowell is an English author and illustrator, but her family took her on holiday to these Scottish islands when she was a child.

These islands formed the basis of her inspiration for the setting of "How to Train Your Dragon," which is called the Isle of Berk.

The Isle of Berk is a fictional island but based on these Scottish islands, which are real.

"How to Train Your Dragon" is set in a fictional Viking world.

Vikings were fierce warriors and explorers who lived in Scandinavia over 1,000 years ago.

They sailed the seas in longships, raiding villages and towns along the coastlines of Europe.

The map here shows where Vikings came from, so Norway and Sweden and Denmark, and the routes that they travelled along to different countries.

They went and they raided these villages and towns and coastlines in different countries, and they also settled in some parts of Europe.

We can see that on the map, which is indicated with blue.

Vikings were skilled craftsmen and traders known for their intricate metal work and beautiful ships.

They also had rich mythology, beliefs and stories of epic adventures that inspired their culture.

I wonder whether you can think of any cultural stories from your own culture that's rich in mythology and belief and storytelling.

Here is an example of a Viking longship.

You might notice that it has an animal's head at the front of it.

Vikings believed that dragons were powerful, mythical creatures.

Here we've got an illustration of a Viking.

They revered dragons for their magical powers and ferocity.

Revered means that Vikings thought highly of dragons for their magical powers and ferocity.

They modelled dragon heads on their longships as symbols of power.

Here's a different image of a Viking longship.

We can see at the front of it, it has a dragon's head.

These were intended to scare off their enemies and also as they arrived to raid the coastlines and villages, they would scare off the people who lived there.

Now it's time for your task.

If you were to have your own dragon, what would it look like? What magical powers would it have? What would its personality be like? On the screen, you can see what your sheet needs to look like.

Along the top, you need to give your dragon a name.

Then, decide what its magical powers.

And finally, what's its personality like? Is your dragon an aggressive dragon, a powerful, fierce dragon? Is your dragon a very small, timid dragon? Is your dragon a cheeky dragon that misbehaves, or is your dragon very obedient and well-behaved? Then, draw and label your own dragon.

Has it got horns? What do its wings look like? What colour is it? What type of scales does it have? Does it have long, sharp claws or little small, almost paw-like feet? Take the time to decide.

You might want to draught a few different pictures of your dragon before you decide on your final illustration.

Pause the video while you complete your task.

Well done, everyone.

Take a moment to review your pictures of your dragon.

Did you include a drawing? What is your dragon's name? What magical powers does it have? And what's its personality like? Great work, everyone.

Great work, everyone.

That now brings us to the end of our first lesson of this unit.

Today, we've been understanding the context of "How to Train Your Dragon." The context is the factors outside a text that influence it, such as the historical period, setting, and society at the time.

Understanding the context of a text can help us understand the plot and characters in greater depth.

Cressida Cowell is the author and illustrator of the "How to Train Your Dragon" series.

This series is set on the Isle of Berk, which was inspired by Cowell's childhood holidays to the Scottish islands.

This series is set in a fictional Viking community.

We're going to be learning much more about key characters and the plot of the "How to Train Your Dragon" series as we move through our units.

Well done.

I hope you really, really enjoyed our first lesson.

I'm looking forward to seeing you again soon.