Hello, everyone.

How are you doing? I hope you're feeling pretty good today.

My name's Ms. Afzal.

I am feeling really quite good because we're going to be exploring an adaptation of a classic Victorian novel.

Do you know many classic Victorian novels or novelists? I wonder, have you heard of Charles Dickens? Today we're going to be looking at an adaptation of Dickens' novel "Oliver Twist," and it's been adapted by Geraldine McCaughrean.

So let's pause here for a moment while you go and get your copy of the adaptation of "Oliver Twist." All right, so you've got your copy of the adaptation of "Oliver Twist." Hopefully you've got lots of curiosity, maybe some ideas, and hopefully plenty of enthusiasm.

Let's begin our lesson.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can understand the context of "Oliver Twist." There are a number of keywords in today's lesson.

Let's go through them one at a time, my turn, your turn.

Adaptation, workhouse, injustice, impression.

Fantastic.

I heard those loud and clear.

Let's find out more about these keywords.

An adaptation is when an original story has been changed to fit into a different form or format.

A workhouse in Victorian society was a harsh place where poor people, including children, had to work hard in exchange for food and shelter.

Injustice is when people don't get the same rights, opportunities, or treatment as others, even though they should.

An impression refers to initial feelings about a person, place, or thing gained from reading a text.

Let's make sure we look out for these words.

Let's listen for them.

Let's think about them.

Let's be curious about them.

In our lesson today, introducing the context of "Oliver Twist," we'll be looking at two things in particular, first of all, we're learning about Charles Dickens and Victorian England.

Next we'll be considering our first impressions of the text.

So let's begin, Charles Dickens and Victorian England.

"Oliver Twist" is adapted by Geraldine McCaughrean and illustrated by Jeff Anderson.

"Oliver Twist" is an illustrated chapter book, is based on Charles Dickens' original novel of the same name, first published in 1837.

So here we can see a copy of the adaptation that we'll be looking at today.

"Oliver Twist" is considered a children's literature classic.

It tells the story of an orphan boy named Oliver who endures a series of hardships and mistreatment in the workhouse and on the streets of London.

The novel explores themes of poverty, crime, and a search for identity and belonging.

So much to explore in this novel.

Charles Dickens was born in 1812, died in 1870, was a famous English writer who lived during the Victorian era, which was a period of great social and economic change in England.

So there's a lot of change in living conditions and also in economics and poverty and how well off people were.

Dickens had a difficult childhood.

His father was imprisoned for debt, and young Charles had to work in a factory to support his family.

His father had debt, which means that he owed money and he wasn't able to pay off that money.

These early experiences influence his writing and made him care about social justice.

And social justice is a noun.

It means making sure everyone is treated fairly and has equal opportunities in society.

And then we can see an illustration of Charles Dickens, perhaps deep in thought, maybe thinking about social justice or thinking about ideas for one of his novels.

Check for understanding, true or false? "Charles Dickens' own experiences influenced his writing." Pause the video while he decide if this is true or false.

Well done if you selected true, absolutely.

His experiences greatly, greatly influenced his writing and his novels.

And now I'd like you to justify your answer.

A, "Dickens used his novels to try to influence society and make positive changes for those less fortunate." Or B, "'Oliver Twist' contains themes of identity and belonging." So pause the video while you decide which of these statements justifies your answer.

Well done if you selected A.

While it's true that "Oliver Twist" does contain themes of identity and belonging, it's not a direct justification for your answer as the first statement is.

Well done if you chose that one.

Here are some facts about Charles Dickens.

Dickens was born in 1812 in Portsmouth, England and died in 1870 in Higham.

He wrote many famous novels including "Oliver Twist," that we'll be looking at an adaptational, "A Christmas Carol," and "Great Expectations." Several of these have been adapted in recent years, and we can see on the right there a couple of adaptations of "A Christmas Carol" and one of "Great Expectations," And then another book which is "What's so Special about Dickens," where you can find out more about him.

Dickens loved writing stories and often published them in newspapers, entertaining lots of people with his exciting characters and adventures.

My favourite Dickens novels is the "Pickwick Papers." It's actually his first novel, and it was serialised in newspaper, so it used to come out regularly in newspaper over a period of about, I think it was 20 months.

So it was something that people over a long period of time, and I really loved it too when I read it.

"Oliver Twist" is set in London and portrays the harsh realities of urban life for the poor and vulnerable.

During the Victorian times, things changed quickly because lots of factories were being built and more people were moving to cities to work in them.

This led to significant social problems such as poverty, people not having enough money, not enough food to eat, inequality and child labour, so children going out to work from a young age.

Poverty, it's the state of being extremely poor.

And if you look carefully at this image, the top image, you can see some people living in the slums, in the London slums where it's very dark and dirty and not very well cared for at all.

Check for understanding.

Match the following information about Charles Dickens' life with the year that they occurred.

So we've got he died in Higham, England, published "Oliver Twist," and born in Portsmouth, England.

And the years we have are 1812, 1870, and 1837.

So pause the video while he connected the events from Dickens' life with the dates that they occurred.

Okay, did you make the connection? He died in 1870.

He published "Oliver Twist" in 1837, and he was born in Portsmouth, England in 1812.

Well done if you made those connections.

Before starting the story, Geraldine McCaughrean includes a short biography about Charles Dickens.

Let you now to read about the author which is on page three.

After that, I'd like you to answer the following question: "How do you think Dickens was able to have an impact on the worst injustices?" So an injustice is when something is not just, it's not fair.

So pause the video now while you read about the author on page three, and then answer the question, "How do you think Dickens was able to have an impact on the worst injustices?" And I'll see you when you're finished.

Okay, it's good to be back with you.

And now that you've read that section and talked with someone nearby, I wonder what answers you came up with.

Let's see what Alex has to say.

"In the text, it mentions that Parliament was able to pass laws to bring to an end some of the unfairness and inequality.

Perhaps by having so many readers, Dickens could influence them through his writing." Yeah, that's a really good point, Alex.

Dickens was so popular and so many people were reading his writing and which was really focusing so much upon he's terrible situations, social injustice.

So yeah, I think that really could have had an impact.

I wonder if you came up with a similar answer to Alex's.

Before we focus on the text itself, we can consider additional questions we'd like to know or ask about the author.

So we can focus on Charles Dickens' early life, his education, his influences, what influenced him to write and to write on these particular topics, his writing style themes that he covered, and recognition that he had for his work.

Can you think of a question that you would like to ask about Charles Dickens? And it could be something to do with one of these bullet points on the screen, or maybe it's something else.

So take a moment to think about the question that you would like to ask about Charles Dickens, and share it with someone nearby.

Pause the video here.

Okay, it's great to be back with you.

I'm really curious.

I'm wondering what do you want to know? What do you wanna ask about Charles Dickens? Let's see what Laura wants to ask.

"I wonder what motivated Charles Dickens to write 'Oliver Twist.

'" Yeah, really interesting question, that one, Laura.

Yeah, and I'm wondering if it has something to do with his own early life, actually.

And I was wondering myself, I was wondering about his writing style.

How did he develop his writing style? I thought that would be really interesting to know.

I wonder what you were interested to find out.

Check for understanding, true or false? "When researching about an author's life, readers can only ask questions about their influences." Pause the video while you decide if this is true or false.

Well done if you selected false.

And now I'd like you to justify your answer.

Choose from these two statements.

So A, "If an author is no longer alive, readers are unable to find much information on them." Or B, "Readers can ask questions about a wide variety of topics, including an author's early life, education, and writing style." So pause a video while you decide which is the best justification for your answer.

Well done if you selected B.

Absolutely.

There are so many things that we can ask about.

It's not only their influences, but in fact their early life, their education, their writing style, themes.

They covered so many other things.

Well done if you selected this statement.

Okay, it's time for your task now.

So referring to what we found out so far, what do you want to find out about Charles Dickens? What questions would you like to find out the answers to? Write down three questions.

And these could be linked to his early life, his education, influences, writing style, themes or recognition, or indeed something else.

Maybe there's something else that you are really interested to ask questions about.

And here can be your sentence starter.

So you might be starting with why, how, what, can, where or are there? So pause the video now, and take some time to reflect upon some questions, three questions, in fact, that you would like to find out the answers to find out more about Charles Dickens.

It's good to see you again.

What were your questions? What did you come up with? Let's have a look at some of your questions.

So "Why was Dickens' father in debt? Did he have a lot of bills to pay?" Really interesting.

"How did Charles Dickens like to write?" Yeah, I was wondering about that.

Yeah, I was wondering like where did he sit to write, and did he sit at a desk or did he write at home? Did he go somewhere else to write? I was quite interested in that.

"What is his most famous novel?" Oh good one.

It's got so many, goodness.

"How do authors and illustrators adapt one of Dickens' texts?" Oh, very good question.

"Where did he find inspiration for his stories?" Fantastic.

And "Which magazines did Charles publish himself?" Oh, very interesting.

"Outside of England, where is Dickens most well known?" And fantastic questions here.

And perhaps you can research some of the answers to these questions to deepen your understanding and engagement with the text.

So I really hope you enjoyed considering those questions, sharing them with others, and also hearing from other people about their questions.

I love that.

I loved hearing these ideas.

Okay, now we are onto the next part of our lesson, first impressions.

An adaptation is when an original story has been changed to fit into a different form or format.

In this case, Charles Dickens's original novel has been condensed, that means it's been shortened into an illustrated chapter book.

Adapting a text can mean changing some parts of the story, such as adding new scenes or characters based on the target audience and new format.

In this version of "Oliver Twist," the author and illustrator have been able to make creative choices while keeping the main plot, characters and setting the same.

Readers can find out what changes were made by reading the original source material and comparing it to the adaptation.

Well, that would be a really interesting thing to do, wouldn't it, to read the original "Oliver Twist" alongside this adaptation.

In chapter one, Oliver is born in a workhouse.

His mother passes away after giving birth to him.

Read chapter one, pages four to nine.

And then I'd like you to answer this question.

What tells you that Oliver's mother was living under challenging circumstances? And refer to pages five and six.

So pause the video here while you read chapter one and consider this question.

I wonder what you reflected on.

Let's see what Lucas has to say.

"Oliver's mother gives birth in a workhouse.

This was a place for the very poor.

It is described similar to a prison.

She has collapsed before entering and has no strength left." Oh yeah, it was really, really heartbreaking reading that part of the text.

Great, great answer there, Lucas.

Oliver's childhood is not a happy one.

He's treated cruelly by the people caring for him.

On his ninth birthday, he's asked to return to the workhouse to start working.

Refer to pages seven and eight.

Did the Board of Governors treat boys like Oliver well? How do you know? So pause the video now while you refer to those pages, and then answer this question about whether the boys were treated well by the Board of Governors.

Okay, let's do what Sophia has to say about this one.

"The people who ran the workhouse cut rations.

Every person living there only received one bowl of gruel each day." Yeah, that's a really fantastic justification for the fact that, yeah, they were not treated well at all, had barely anything to eat.

And gruel, that's a noun, is a thin liquid food of oatmeal boiled in milk or water.

And that's it, just one bowl of that each day.

Check for understanding, true or false? "Oliver's mother was rich and was able to afford good healthcare." Pause the video while you decide if this is true or false.

Well done if you selected false.

And now I'd like you to justify your answer.

Either A, "Oliver's mother dies after giving birth to him in a workhouse.

She does not mention her name and cannot afford to look after him." Or B, "Oliver is an orphan.

His name is chosen by Mr. Bumble the Beadle before he's placed into the care of Mrs. Mann." Pause the video while you decide on which is the most appropriate justification for your answer.

Well done if you selected A.

So although both statements are true, A is the one that directly justifies your answer.

And now it's time for your task.

Based on what we've read and discussed, I'd like you to create a mind map with your initial thoughts and questions that you have about the text.

So really sharing those initial impressions.

So you may like to start with things like, "I wonder if," or "I think that," maybe "I noticed" or "I'm intrigued about." Or perhaps "I believe." Maybe you're thinking about the future.

"What's gonna come? I predict that." So pause the video here while you create your mind map all about your initial impressions, thoughts and questions about the text, and I'll see you when you're finished.

Okay, look at these mind maps.

These are looking great.

Let's see what you filled them with.

"I think that Oliver did not have a nice upbringing." Yeah, absolutely.

You could say that again.

It was very challenging.

"I'm intrigued about Oliver's surname." Yes, interesting.

Really interesting point.

"I noticed that food was rationed.

Did it cost a lot to feed everyone in Victorian society?" And "I wonder what Oliver's mother said to the old woman." Yeah, really good noticing there, that small point.

Perhaps we'll find out some of the answers and confirm your initial thoughts as we continue exploring the text in future lessons.

So well done for creating these mind maps.

They're so, so full of observations and queries and thoughts and predictions.

Really great job, everyone.

In our introducing the context of "Oliver Twist," we've covered the following.

"Oliver Twist" is an illustrated chapter book.

It's based on Charles Dickens' original novel of the same name, first published in 1837.

Charles Dickens, 1812 to 1870, was a famous English writer who lived during the Victorian era.

Dickens' early experiences influenced his writing and made him care about injustice.

Workhouses in Victorian times housed and employed the poor, providing minimal food and shelter in exchange for work.

An adaptation is when an original story has been changed to fit into a different form or format.

And let's say well done everyone for joining in with this lesson.

I really enjoyed hearing about your initial impressions and seeing those mind maps.

And I'm really looking forward to us exploring this text together in future lessons.

Bye for now.