Hello everyone.

How are you today? I hope you are really feeling good.

My name's Ms. Afzal.

I'm feeling great because we get to continue our exploration of "Blackberry Blue" by Jamila Gavin.

Pause the video here while you fetch your copy of the text.

All right, you're back.

You have your text.

Today we're gonna get into some rich discussions, which I love, so I hope you're ready with your listening, and speaking, and sharing skills.

Let's get into our discussion.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can answer a range of comprehension questions on "Blackberry Blue." We have some keywords in our lesson today.

Let's go through them, my turn, your turn.

Inference.

Evidence.

Impression.

Fantastic.

Great to hear those loud and clear.

Let's find out what these keywords mean.

Inference means to use clues from within the text to draw conclusions.

Evidence is the information from a text that can support or justify our reasoning.

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

Let's be on the lookout for these keywords.

Let's listen out for them.

Let's think carefully about them.

They will be occurring in our lesson.

Here's the outline for our lesson today.

Building comprehension of "Blackberry Blue" through rich discussions.

First of all, we'll be reading "Blackberry Blue," and then we'll be using evidence to develop inferences.

Let's get into it.

Reading "Blackberry Blue".

Here is our text.

"Blackberry Blue" is a collection of fairytales written by Jamila Gavin with illustrations by Richard Collingridge.

Here's a fantastic front cover of the book.

The text contains six stories, with characters from various backgrounds and cultures, reflecting the diversity of the world.

Each tale contains magical elements and fantastical occurrences, adding to the enchantment of the storytelling.

Characters are identifiable as good or evil depending on their actions and how they're described.

They share some similarities with characters from traditional fairytales.

Here's a recap of what has happened in the text so far.

Alone, without the woodcutter and his wife, Blackberry Blue reconnects with her mother, who tells her to return in the spring.

Blackberry Blue's mother creates a dress made of flowers and materials from the wood for her daughter to wear to the spring ball.

She instructs her to return when dawn breaks, otherwise the flowers will wilt and die.

After cooking and baking all day, Blackberry Blue attends the ball.

Prince Wolf dances with her all evening to spite his brother.

Blackberry Blue runs away leaving only a trail of petals leading to the bramble bush.

Summer comes and the events repeat.

This time as Prince Just follows the petals, he is attacked by a wolf.

Blackberry Blue scares off the wolf and looks after Prince Just until he is rescued.

What a lot has occurred so far in this text.

Wow.

Whatever will happen next? Check for understanding, true or false.

Prince Just was not able to dance with Blackberry Blue.

Pause the video while he decide if this is true or false.

Well done If you selected true.

Now I'd like you to justify your answer.

Here are two statements.

At the spring and summer balls, Prince Wolf takes all the dances with Blackberry Blue to spite his brother.

A wolf attacks Prince Just in the wood.

The wolf is surprised as a brambly cloak comes down on its back.

It howls in pain before fleeing.

Pause the video while you decide which of these statements justifies your earlier answer.

Well done if you selected the first statement.

Both of these statements are true, however, it's the first one that is more of a justification for your earlier answer.

Before we continue reading, let's have a look at some words that we'll encounter in the next section of text.

Seething.

To be filled with intense emotion, usually anger or resentment.

And we can see here in the image, Armie was afraid of the seething customer.

This customer looks extremely angry, seething with emotion.

Ailing means experiencing illness or poor health.

Remedy is something that cures or alleviates a problem or ailment.

Listless means lacking in energy or enthusiasm.

And curative is having the ability to heal or restore health.

Fantastic words, there.

We rejoin the story as Prince Just falls ill.

Rumours and gossips suggest it is as a result of the new queen.

Read from page 21 to the end of page 26 up to the word "dead." And then I'd like you to refer to page 22.

What does Blackberry Blue think is happening to the Prince, and what does she do to help? Pause the video here while you read page 21 to 26.

Refer to page 22, and share your answers to these two questions with someone nearby.

I'll see you when you're finished.

Okay, so you have done a reading.

You have answered these questions.

What did you come up with? Let's see what Izzy has to say.

Blackberry Blue thinks that the queen is putting poison into the soup.

She asks the prince to not drink the soup and to instead eat her blackberry pies, which she has added curative herbs to.

Oh, there's that word "curative." Means it can aid healing.

Well done, Izzy.

Great answer.

I love how you've been referring to the text for your evidence.

With his son unwell, the King is convinced by the Queen to still have the autumn ball.

She hopes that her son, Prince Wolf, will find a wife at the next ball.

I'd like you now to refer to page 24 and answer these questions.

Why does the music stop and everyone stop dancing? Why might this be surprising? So pause the video here, refer to page 24, and share your answer to these questions with someone nearby.

Okay, so what was going on there? Why did the music stop? What was so surprising? Let's see what Andeep has to say.

Everything stops because Prince Just has just shown up at the side of his father, cured of his sickness.

This might be surprising as everyone thought he was dying.

Thank you for that answer, Andeep.

I wonder if you had something similar.

Check for understanding.

Which creature does the Queen transform into? Refer to page 25 for support.

Falcon, crow, raven, or eagle.

Pause the video while you decide which creature the Queen transforms into.

Well done if you selected raven.

Ravens symbolise wisdom, mystery, and death in various cultures, often representing the transition between life and the afterlife.

They're also associated with protection, communication, and magic, serving as symbols of intelligence and spiritual guidance.

I wonder, have you ever seen a raven? Very interesting creatures.

Check for understanding.

Who kills the raven Queen? And refer to page 26 for support.

Is it Prince Just, Blackberry Blue, the King? Pause the video while you refer to page 26 and answer the question, "Who kills the raven Queen?" Well done if you selected Prince Just.

And now it's time for your first task.

I'd like you to match the character to their actions in the climax of Blackberry Blue.

And if you refer to pages 21 to 26, that will support you.

So here we have the characters, the new Queen, King, Blackberry Blue, Prince Wolf, and Prince Just.

And here are their actions.

Orders his guards to take the Queen away.

Adds something to Prince Just's soup which makes him weaker and weaker.

Takes Blackberry Blue in a vice-like, which means very strong, hold and dances with her.

Recovers from being poisoned.

Attacks the raven.

Adds curative herbs into blackberry pies to help Prince Just.

So pause the video now while you match up the characters to their actions in the climax of "Blackberry Blue." It's good to be back together with you.

Which characters and actions did you match together? Let's have a look.

The new Queen adds something to Prince Just's soup, which makes him weaker and weaker.

The King orders his guards to take the Queen away.

Blackberry Blue is responsible for those curative herbs going into the blackberry pies to help Prince Just.

Prince Wolf holds Blackberry Blue in a vice-like grip, vice-like hold.

And Prince Just recovers from being poisoned and attacks the raven.

Well done if you connected these characters to their actions.

And now it's time for the next part of our lesson, using evidence to develop inferences.

When answering questions about a text, we use a range of reading strategies.

We were retrieve information by skimming and scanning the text to search for keywords.

Readers can read around the text to support understanding, and we can infer by using clues within the text to draw conclusions.

So there's one of our keywords, infer or inference, all about using clues to help us draw conclusions, and form impressions of people, places, or things.

An impression is a reader's initial feelings about a person, place, or thing.

That's one of our key words.

We can look for clues in the text and illustrations.

Inference is sometimes referred to as reading between the lines, using the context of the text to support our understanding.

Evidence from the text can be used to develop our answers.

Evidence, one of our keywords, that's information from the text that can help to support justify our reasoning.

And to locate the correct evidence, it's important to do all of these things.

Read carefully.

What is the main idea or details that you need to locate? Skimming and scanning can be helpful for finding specific details.

Look for specific information.

Search for details within the text that directly relate to the topic or question.

Check the context.

Is the information you're using to support your answer accurate? Is it in the same context? Evidence should be concise and justify the point that we are trying to make in relation to the question.

Check for understanding.

Which of the following can be useful strategies to locate evidence to support an answer.

Including all the information we can find on a topic.

Adding information that supports our answer, even if it's not in the same context.

Looking for specific information directly related to the question.

Checking the context of the text you are reading.

Pause video while you decide which of the following are useful strategies to locate evidence to support an answer.

Well done if you selected the last two statements.

So, looking for specific information directly related to the question, and checking the context of the text you're reading.

Here's a question for you.

Can you list two impressions that readers might get of Blackberry Blue from reading pages 21 to 26.

And here's our keyword, impression.

Remember, an impression is the initial feeling that we may get about a person, place, or thing within the text.

When answering questions with evidence, we need to locate the information we require.

And remember, evidence is the information that can help us support or justify our reasoning.

The pages that will help us are pages 22 and 24.

Here Blackberry Blue is helping Prince Just.

Then she's forced by Prince Wolf to dance with him.

When listing more than one impression, ideally we want to focus on two different points.

So pause the video here while you list two impressions that readers might get of Blackberry Blue from reading pages 21 to 26.

Next we need to identify information that is relevant to our answer.

We can see that Blackberry Blue is concerned about Prince Just's health.

She cares for him by baking pies to try and make him better.

When Prince Wolf forces her to dance with him, Blackberry Blue does not have much power.

She might feel she has to do as he says.

Let's have a look at some impressions.

I get the impression that Blackberry Blue is very caring.

She puts ingredients into her pies which act as a remedy to the Queen's poison.

When Blackberry Blue is forced to dance with Prince Wolf, she might feel powerless.

Prince Wolf is royalty, so it might be seen as disrespectful to not dance with him.

Yeah, fantastic.

Great to see those two impressions of Blackberry Blue as been very caring, and also of her feeling powerless.

Check for understanding.

An impression always has to be positive.

Pause the video while you decide if this is true or false.

Well done if you selected false.

Now I'd like you to justify your answer.

Impressions are not always based on evidence in the text.

They can also be influenced by a reader's personal experience.

Impressions can be both positive and negative, as people, places, and things are not always positive.

Pause the video while you decide which of these statements justifies your earlier answer.

Well done if you selected the second statement.

Yes indeed, impressions can be both positive and negative.

And now it's time for your task.

I'd like you to answer the following questions using pages 21 to 26 to support.

List two different impressions you get of the new Queen, and what evidence can you find that supports this? So, pause the video here while you refer to those pages and then answer these two questions.

Give us two different impressions you get of the new Queen, and what evidence can you find that supports this? Okay, you are back.

Well done, everyone, for completing this task.

Let's find out some of the impressions of the new Queen.

The new queen is convincing.

Yeah, that means that we believe her.

She's believable.

And the new queen is unkind.

And where's our evidence? The new Queen persuades the King that putting on the autumn ball is a positive thing to do.

It will make her son, Prince Wolf, happy.

So there's our evidence for the new Queen being convincing.

How is she unkind? She's secretly poisoning Prince Just, adding something to his soup that he eats every evening.

Yes, very unkind.

Great use of evidence there to support your impressions.

Well done.

If your impression can be justified with evidence from the text, it is likely a good impression.

Now for the next part of your task.

Do you think Blackberry Blue will live happily ever after? Yes, no, or maybe? And please explain your choice fully using evidence from the text.

Pause the video while you have a go at this task.

Okay, let's see what we have here.

Yes, we think that Blackberry Blue will live happily ever after.

Hmm.

But where's the evidence for it? Let's find out.

I think that with the evil Queen dead, and Prince Wolf facing prison, justice will prevail and Blackberry Blue will find happiness.

Prince Just will find out that it was Blackberry Blue that helped him, and will ask for her hand in marriage.

Finally, I believe that Blackberry Blue will head back to the woods to talk with her mother who has helped her throughout.

This is a sign that everything is going to be okay again for Blackberry Blue.

Really like that.

Very fully explained answer with great use of evidence to support your reasoning and justification.

In our lesson today, building comprehension of Blackberry Blue through rich discussions, we have covered the following.

Readers can infer by using clues from within the text to draw conclusions.

Evidence from the text can be used to develop answers to questions and support reasoning.

Evidence should be concise and justify the point that readers are trying to make in relation to the question.

An impression of a person, place, or thing can be formed by a reader's initial feelings from reading the text, or from prior experience.

Well done, everyone, for joining in with this lesson.

I've loved all of the inference, for sharing your evidence, giving that strong backup for your reasoning, supporting your justifications.

And great to hear about your impressions.

And my impression of you is that you've worked very hard this lesson and I'm really looking forward to seeing you at the next one.

Bye for now.