Hi there, I'm Mr. Buckingham and I'm so glad you decided to join me for today's lesson.

Today, we're going to continue reading Elle McNicoll's brilliant book, "A Kind of Spark", and we'll see if we can compare some different events in the book and make some connections to other books we might have read.

I'm really excited to read on and I'm sure you are too, so let's get going.

Today's lesson is called making comparisons and it comes from my unit called "A Kind of Spark" reading.

By the end of today's lesson, we'll be able to compare Addie's experiences at different places in the book "A Kind of Spark" and compare characters between different texts.

Now, for this lesson, you will need to have access to the 2020 (indistinct) edition of "A Kind of Spark" written by Elle McNicoll and illustrated by Kay Wilson.

And we're going to start reading today from the start of chapter 15.

So, if you haven't yet read to the end of chapter 14, then you might wish to pause the video now and do that before you continue.

If you're ready, let's make a start.

Here are our key words for today's lesson.

My turn, your turn.

Justify, language choices, and compare.

Well done.

So, if we justify an answer, we're giving an explanation or evidence to support our view.

Language choices are the conscious decisions an author makes to use certain words to have a certain effect or convey a certain meaning to the reader.

And when we compare, we're identifying similarities and differences between two things, ideas, concepts, or texts.

Here's our lesson outline for today.

We're gonna start off by comparing events that happen within the text, and then we're going to compare between different texts.

Now, hopefully you've already read to the end of chapter 14, and in chapters 11 to 14, we will have read the following events.

Addie and Audrey continue to bond, although Addie is upset that Audrey says she prefers dolphins to sharks.

And Addie and Keedie attend another village meeting, but they're again, unsuccessful in getting a plaque for the executed women.

And Addie and Audrey go into the woods together and they meet old Miriam Jensen at her house, and Addie thinks she may be autistic too.

Addie is then in the bookshop and this was a crucial event when Emily's dad enters and asks for some younger level books for Emily.

Emily then sees Addie and runs out of the bookshop.

And Keedie says to Addie that she'll need to tell the village why the memorial is so important to her personally if she's to win her campaign to memorialise the witches in the village.

So, what's your prediction for what happened next in the chapters to come based on what we've seen in chapters 11 to 14? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done, good ideas.

Maybe you said some things like this.

I think Addie will write a story to show the village how the story of the witches is personal to her, which will convince people.

Maybe you said, I think Emily would be nicer to Addie now because of what she saw.

She won't want to risk Addie telling everyone what happened.

Or maybe you said, I can tell something is up with Keedie and I think that's going to be revealed soon.

Maybe she's got in trouble at university or maybe something's happened with Bonnie that she won't share with Addie.

So, we've got some different predictions there for different characters and how their plot lines could develop now.

So, let's find out.

So, in this lesson, we're going to start reading from chapter 15 and here's some vocabulary we're going to encounter in this chapter.

We'll see the word relish.

If you relish something, you really enjoy it.

A malevolent person is evil.

That's a great word, which is a synonym of evil, malevolent.

Then, we've got the word violated.

So, if you have something precious or sacred and it's damaged or intruded upon, we could say it has been violated.

Now, we know the word transparent means see through like a window, but if your expression is transparent on your face, that means your feelings are obvious.

Just like it's easy to see through a window, it's easy to see what you're feeling if your expression is transparent.

If someone is tried, then they're put before a court, which decides if they're innocent or guilty.

And if you're mortified, you're completely shocked and embarrassed by what you see.

So, I'd like you now to read chapter 15.

Now, this is a very dramatic chapter, so take your time and really think carefully about what you're reading.

Pause the video and have a read.

Well done.

So, what are your first thoughts and reactions about what has happened there in chapter 15 with those very dramatic events? Pause the video and think about your first impressions.

Well done.

Really good job.

Let's share some of those first impressions.

Maybe you said something like this.

I couldn't believe Miss Murphy only punished Addie for what happened.

Hurting people is wrong, but what Emily did and said was appalling.

And that's true, isn't it? Addie has been punished.

Emily, it appears, has had nothing done whatsoever as a consequence for what she said and did.

Now, this one.

I was disappointed in Mr. Allison.

He could have stood up to Miss Murphy and got the truth from Audrey, but he just let her have her own way.

And we saw, didn't we? He tried to say something to Miss Murphy, but she could have brushed him aside and doesn't appear like he's done nothing thing else there.

What about this one? I understand Addie's reaction.

I think she could have handled it until Emily mentioned Keedie.

Sometimes, it's when the people insult the ones we love that it's hard to stay in control.

And that is what appeared to tip Addie over the edge, isn't it? When Emily started to insult Keedie as well.

And it said in the book that she couldn't even remember the words that Emily had used, because she was so overwhelmed by the situation.

Really well done for your ideas there too.

Now, for each of these characters, Jenna, Audrey, and Miss Murphy, can you describe how you think they behaved in this chapter and justify your answer.

So, how did they behave and what's your justification for saying that? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done.

Good job.

Maybe for Jenna, you said this.

Jenna wasn't the main cause of this incident.

That was Emily, wasn't it? But she just stood by and let it happen and she seemed ashamed of what's happened, but she did absolutely nothing to help.

So, we were quite disappointed in Jenna's behaviour here.

What about Audrey? You might say, I was proud of Audrey.

She tried to stop them and she tried her best to comfort Addie in that really difficult situation.

I wish she tried to explain everything to Mr. Allison, though.

So, maybe she could have pushed a bit harder at the end of the chapter to get the truth to come across.

And what about Miss Murphy? Well, we could say what she did was just wrong.

She refused to listen to Audrey and just accepted Emily's story.

It's like she wanted any excuse to punish Addie.

It did seem, didn't, as if Miss Murphy just did no investigation of the situation whatsoever and just accepted Emily's side of this story, which is not what we'd expect to happen in school.

Now, let's try and do something really challenging and try to understand Emily's perspective.

Why do you think Emily behaves in this way? Pause the video and have a careful think.

Well done.

Good deep thinking.

So, if you said this, she wants to make Addie scared to tell anyone about what happened in the bookshop.

She must find school hard too if reading is difficult for her and she might be jealous of Addie.

So, it seems like Emily might be a bit frustrated and upset about what happened in the bookshop.

She feels like the truth has come out that she's not a good reader and she's worried maybe that Addie might go and tell people about that.

So, she's trying to almost punish Addie in advance so that she feels like she's too scared to tell anyone about what she saw in the bookshop.

But Addie has made no suggestion at all that she's going to tell anyone about that either, has she? Maybe you said this.

From the way Emily's dad was speaking in the bookshop, it's obvious Emily doesn't have the loving family that Addie does.

And I think she's taking her resentment to that out on Addie.

So, Alex might be right here, won't he? It didn't feel like Emily's dad was very kind towards Emily, so she might not have very much at home to make her feel good about herself and she's taking that out on Addie at school, unfortunately.

Now, remember we're trying to explain Emily's behaviour here, but we're not trying to excuse it.

We're not saying these are good reasons, but they might be the reasons all the same, good or bad, for what she did.

Really well done for your mature thinking there.

So, in this chapter, we can see Addie's whole body reacting to the situation with Emily.

We see that her voice sounds distant, she cries, she sounds hoarse, she struggles to breathe, she struggles to see, and she feels like she's floating above the ground.

So, why do you think Elle McNicoll describes so many physical effects here of something that mostly is verbal, isn't it, for Emily? So, why are there so many physical effects being described at this point? Pause the video and have a chat to the person next to you or have a think on your own.

Well done.

Good thinking.

Maybe you said this.

I think she's trying to show that Addie is not in total control of what she's doing.

She's so overwhelmed in her whole body by this situation and it's not just an emotion she's feeling.

It's like it's inside every single part of her body.

So, it really is showing us that feeling of being overwhelmed by what you're feeling, overwhelmed by the situation, which is what leads Addie to do something that she wouldn't normally do.

Something which is out of character, which is to hit Emily.

Really well done for your ideas.

Now, we also see some other really interesting language choices from the author in this chapter.

For instance, we see this.

After Emily says that she has a disease, Addie describes the silence in the room as loud.

That's an odd expression, isn't it? An interesting language choice.

What does Addie mean by this? What does she mean by the silence in the room being loud? Pause the video and chat to the person next to you or have a think on your own.

Well done.

Good idea.

So, Laura said this.

She means that she's hearing loud and clear that no one is going to stand up for her.

The silence is sending a message to her that she's on her own and that message is loud.

And you might have heard authors using the expression the silence was deafening.

And it's the same idea, isn't it? It's the silence that communicates a lot.

In this case, the silence is communicating to Addie that she's all alone in this situation, that no one is going to stand up for her.

Really well done for your ideas there.

Now, elsewhere in this chapter, Addie explains that Nina and Keedie are non-identical twins, with Keedie having the rounder face while Nina's is more chiselled.

Why do you think the author has made this language choice to describe Keedie and Nina's faces in this way? Might there be something underneath that that they're trying to communicate to us? And what would it be? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done.

Good thinking.

Maybe you says something like this.

Jun says, I think she's doing what authors often do, which is making a character's appearance match their personality.

We know that Keedie has a softer, more loving personality towards Addie anyway, whereas Nina is a bit more stern and a bit less caring towards her.

So, their different faces match these different personalities, a softer face for Keedie 'cause of a softer personality, and a harder face for Nina.

Chiselled suggests like made from rock, doesn't it? So, a harder face to match a slightly harder personality.

And we see author do this a lot.

So, watch out for it in books you read in the future.

Really well done.

Now, we're gonna do our first task for this lesson.

We are going to compare this situation with Emily with the one at the start of the book where Miss Murphy rips up Addie's story.

So, we're just going to be speaking out loud for this task.

I want you to think about the following aspects of the two situations.

What has happened to Addie, how she reacted to it, and how other people acted in that situation as well.

So, in each respect, was this situation better or worse for Addie than the one at the start of the book? Was what happened to her better or worse? Was how she reacted better or worse? And was how other people acted better or worse? For example, was how she reacted worse the second time or was it worse the first time? And you can refer back to the book, pages one to two, for the first situation, and chapter 15 for the second one, to help you to compare these two situations.

Remember, comparing means finding similarities and differences.

So, which one was better in each of these three respects? Pause the video and have a careful think and say it out loud to the people around you.

Well done.

Really good thinking.

So, let's start by comparing what happened to Addie, the things that were done to her.

Andeep says, the second situation was much worse.

Although in the first situation, she'd been proud of that shark story, it wasn't a precious possession.

The thesaurus, which had been given to her by Keedie, was one of her treasured things.

And also in the first situation, Miss Murphy called her lazy, which is upsetting, but the words that Emily used were far worse and more personal.

They were about her autism.

And Emily insulted Keedie as well, which was what tipped Addie you over the edge.

So, insulting a family member is often something which we find very upsetting.

So, Andeep is saying in terms of what happened to Addie, the second situation was much worse.

Maybe you agreed.

What about in terms of how Addie reacted? Let's see.

I've written, Addie's reaction in the second situation was understandable, but it was much worse.

In the first situation, she hardly reacts at all, she reads at the thesaurus to calm down.

In the second situation, she jumps on Emily and hits her.

And like we said before, she was feeling a physical reaction to everything that had been happening.

So, it was like she wasn't in control of her body anymore.

And in the first situation, she also had the advantage that she could go to the library to calm down soon after it happened.

Whereas in the second situation, she was kept in the classroom, kind of just brooding it over.

And she says how sorry she is at the end, doesn't she, as well.

So, again, we're saying the second situation was worse in this respect in terms of how Addie reacted.

So, what about in terms of how other people acted? Let's see what Aisha said.

She said, I actually think the second situation was better for Addie in this respect.

The first time, Jenna was just whispering to Emily as it happened and no one was bothering to comfort her.

But this time around, Audrey did her best to stand up for her and to comfort her after it happened.

And also, it was Mr. Allison who appeared and who got her off of Emily.

And I think Addie would've appreciated that.

Miss Murphy's reaction in the second situation was exactly what I expected.

So, this time, Aisha is saying the second situation was slightly better, because now, she has an ally, doesn't she? Someone on her side, which is Audrey.

So, slight improvement in that respect.

Really good comparisons being made there.

Well done.

So, we've compared two different situations within the text.

Now, we're going to have a go at comparing between texts, but first of all, we're going to read the next part of the story.

So, we're going to read chapter 16 now, and we're going to see some vocabulary that looks like this.

We'll see the word silkily.

If you speak silkily, you speak smoothly.

If you show remorse, you show you're sorry for what you've done.

An ableist person discriminates against people who have learning difficulties or disabilities.

If you're provoked, someone deliberately annoyed or upset you, making you do something wrong.

And if something is defaced, its surface is damaged.

So, I'd like you to read just to the end of page 149 now.

Pause the video and have a read.

Well done.

Good reading.

So, we've got now the meeting happening between Miss Murphy and Addie to start with, and then her sister's arriving later on.

So, as Miss Murphy is talking to Addie at the start of this chapter, Addie's head is swirling with thoughts.

So, what might those thoughts be? I want you to look back in the chapter to help you and answer in role as Addie, giving some of your thoughts that you're experiencing as Miss Murphy speaks to you alone at the start of that chapter.

Pause the video and have a think what Addie might be thinking.

Well done.

Good ideas.

Maybe you came up with some like this.

I can feel how much Miss Murphy hates me.

She thinks I'm lazy and a cheat, but I'm not.

How dare she insult Keedie and my parents? Am I really a demon? Is Miss Murphy right? Am I badly behaved? I'm trying my best.

I hate myself for not managing to stay in control.

I'm so sorry, Emily.

So, all of those thoughts and feelings might be swirling around in Addie's head.

This is a very overwhelming situation she's in.

Well done for capturing that in your ideas.

Nice one.

Now, when Keedie comes in and Miss Murphy talks to her, Keedie is clearly very angry.

She doesn't yet know the full story, does she? So, why is she so angry at Miss Murphy? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done.

Good job.

So, maybe she's remembering how Miss Murphy treated her at school and she says that Miss Murphy invented things about her and she's suggesting that Miss Murphy is a bully.

So, that's part of what making her feel so angry.

Also, Keedie knows about what Miss Murphy did to Addie's story, which remember, Nina doesn't know.

And she can tell from Miss Murphy's face that she still dislikes Keedie after all this time.

So, Keedie's got this burning resentment of Miss Murphy from her time in her class.

But she also knows that Miss Murphy has continued to behave in this way towards Addie.

So, she feels very strongly and very angry about that.

Really well done.

Now, it seems like Nina has a range of feelings and thoughts at this point.

So, now, I'd like you to try and answer in role as Nina.

What might you be thinking right now? I wonder how many different thoughts you can come up with that might be running through Nina's head in this moment.

Pause the video and have a think.

Well done.

Really good ideas.

Maybe she's thinking this.

A suspension? What on earth is happening? This is so out of character.

I know Addie can be difficult sometimes, but what's going on? Or maybe she's thinking this.

I wish Keedie would stop winding Miss Murphy up.

We've got enough to deal with without the two of them at each other's throats.

Or maybe she's thinking this.

I can't believe that Addie would ever hit anyone.

There must be some kind of explanation.

What a mess.

I wish mom and dad were here.

Nina's in a difficult situation too, isn't she? Because she's had to come into school and act almost as if she's Addie's parent, when in fact, she's just her sister.

So, she's taking on this adult responsibility just like Keedie is as well.

And she's trying to make sure the situation doesn't get out of hand.

So, she's got all these thoughts running through her head.

Really good ideas.

Well done.

Okay, we need to find out what happens in the rest of this meeting.

So, pause the video and read the rest of chapter 16.

Wow, pretty dramatic events.

So, what are your first thoughts and reactions in response to what we've just read at the end of chapter 16? Pause the video and have a chat to the person next to you or have a think on your own.

Well done.

Good ideas.

Maybe you said this.

I'm so glad to see Audrey and Mr. Allison stand up for what's right.

And I hope there are some consequences for Miss Murphy and for Emily as well.

Or maybe you said this.

I'm so relieved for Addie.

If she'd been suspended, that could have been really bad for her.

I don't think the school did a good job of investigating the situation.

I think I'd agree there.

I'm sure in our schools, that would never happen.

We'd have a much more detailed investigation of something serious like this to make sure that it was dealt with fairly.

Really well done for your thoughts there.

Now, Miss Murphy says that there are no excuses for violence.

And she's trying to explain, isn't she, why she didn't tell the family about the thesaurus being damaged or about what Emily said.

But Keedie responds to say that what happened to Addie explains the violence.

So, what's the difference between explaining something and excusing it? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done.

Really good thinking.

So, if you excuse something, you're saying it's okay, aren't you, that it was understandable and that it shouldn't have any consequences attached to it.

For instance, your teacher would excuse you from being laid back from play.

If you're being treated from an injury, you wouldn't expect to be punished for that.

It wouldn't be fair.

But if you explain something, you're not saying it's necessarily okay, but you're just saying that it had a cause, something happened to make it happen.

So, in Addie's case, the fact that she hit Emily might not be excusable, but it can be explained easily.

She was provoked, wasn't she, by what Emily said and what she did.

So, Keedie is saying we are not excusing it.

We are explaining why this situation occurred.

Really one done for explaining that so clearly.

So, do you agree with Sophia and can you justify your view? She says, I didn't think Nina would react like this.

I was so shocked by how she spoke at the end of that chapter.

Pause the video and decide.

Good ideas.

Maybe you said something like this.

I could really sense how strong her love for Addie is and how much she cares for her.

She doesn't always show it, but it's there.

So, we saw at the end of the chapter, Nina fiercely defending Addie when she realised how unjust, how unfair Miss Murphy was being.

Maybe you said this.

Keedie has strong emotions a lot of the time, but Nina showing emotion was a shock for us as a reader.

And it's like if you have a quiet, calm teacher who suddenly says something stern, you sit up and take notice because it's unusual for them.

And that was what happened with Nina here, wasn't it? We're not used to seeing her being passionate and loud and aggressive, but that is what she did here because she was defending her sister, who it's clear she cares for a great deal.

Really well done for ideas there.

Now, it's always interesting as well as to compare events inside a book to compare ideas and characters we've seen in one book with those in other texts that we read.

So, we might notice some similarities.

For instance, if you've read the novel, "Can You See Me" by Libby Scott, that is about an autistic girl called Tally who's sometimes misunderstood by others and who's struggling to hold on to her old friendships.

That is very similar in some respects to what we see in "A Kind of Spark".

We might also notice differences between books which have similar themes or similar characters.

So, for instance, if you've read "The London Eye Mystery" by Siobhan O'Dowd, the protagonist, the main character, Ted, has Asperger syndrome, which is a form of autism.

So, that's a similarity with "A Kind of Spark".

But in that book, Ted's Asperger syndrome is part of what helps him to solve the mystery in the book.

So, that's a slight difference to what we're seeing in this book, although it might be the case that Addie's autism is part of what helps her to be so determined in pursuing the memorial in this story.

So, that might be a similarity there as well.

So, can you think of any more books that might have similarities and differences which are linked to "A Kind of Spark" in some way? Pause the video and have a chat.

Well done.

Great ideas.

So, let's do our final task for this lesson.

We're going to compare Miss Murphy to other fictional teachers in other texts we may have read.

And we're just gonna do this out loud.

So, I want you to think of some fictional teachers in books and stories that you know.

And you might even know some books that have made be made into films that you could choose as well.

I want you to choose one teacher and say why they're similar to Miss Murphy and how they're similar.

And then, choose another fictional teacher and say why they're different to Miss Murphy and how.

And I want you to be able to justify your choices to the class out loud.

So, pause the video, choose your teachers, and then explain how they're similar and different to Miss Murphy out loud.

Have a go.

Well done, really good job.

So, here's some examples of who you might have thought of as your fictional teachers who are similar and different to Miss Murphy.

I said, I think Miss Murphy is very different from Professor McGonagall in the "Harry Potter" books by JK Rowling.

Professor McGonagall is strict, but she's strict in a way which is fair and understandable, which makes people safer.

And that's the opposite of Miss Murphy.

And in those books, Professor McGonagall is very respected, isn't she? People actually do like her even though she's very strict.

They know where they stand and she keeps people safe and she keeps people doing the right thing.

On the other hand, I think Miss Murphy is quite similar to Ms. Hardbroom from "The Worst Witch" series by Jill Murphy.

Because Ms. Hardbroom sometimes insults the protagonist, Mildred Hubble, to her face just like Miss Murphy does to Addie.

However, she's sometimes nice too, which Miss Murphy never really is to Addie.

So, there's some similarities there, but some differences.

I'm sure you were able to think of some great examples too.

Well done.

So, let's summarise our learning in this lesson.

We saw that in this part of the book, Addie has been the victim of terrible behaviours from Emily, which Miss Murphy blames her for before Audrey and Mr. Allison intervened.

We saw that we can compare characters and actions within a text and we can compare text with others we've read.

And doing this sometimes helps us to understand more about the text we are reading.

And we saw that when we give a view, we often need to justify our opinion using an explanation or evidence from the text.

Really well done for your effort in this lesson.

I'd love to see you again in your future lesson.

If you'd like to join me in the next lesson, please make sure you've read up to the end of chapter 18 by then.

I hope to see you there.

Goodbye.