Hello, everyone, and welcome to your lesson on Understanding Atmosphere.

I'm Miss Sutherland, and I'll be teaching you today.

Our learning outcome for today is to be able to use personification to create an unsettling atmosphere, and our key words for today are: atmosphere, unsettling, bleak, oppressive, and hostile.

We're going to start off by learning how to create atmosphere in dystopian descriptions.

Read the dystopian description below and consider what atmosphere has been created by the writer.

"Amidst the gloom, the weather took on an eerie, almost haunting quality.

The sky, a sullen canvas, brooded over the crumbling city as if harbouring ancient grudges.

Its clouds scowled down, unleashing rain that fell like the tears of a world gone awry.

The buildings, once proud symbols of a booming civilization, now stood as silent witnesses to its decay.

Their doors were etched with scars and memories.

The windows, like watchful eyes, seemed to follow my every move, their panes reflecting a world twisted by neglect." What atmosphere do you think was created in that description? Pause the video and have a think.

True or false: You could describe the atmosphere in the description we just read as unsettling.

Pause the video and have a think.

True.

You could describe the atmosphere in the description we just read as unsettling.

Now justify your answer.

Is that because the writer only describes the weather and buildings, yet it still feels like the speaker is being watched? Or is that because the speaker is all alone, so the reader wants to know what will happen next to them? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said it's because the writer only describes the weather and buildings, yet it still feels like the speaker is being watched.

That creates an eerie and unsettling atmosphere, typical of dystopian description.

Let's do a close read to identify exactly how the writer achieved the unsettling atmosphere.

First of all, let's clarify these words here.

Sullen means bad tempered, and to brood means to think deeply about something that makes you unhappy.

So the sky is bad tempered, and it seems to be thinking deeply about something that is making it unhappy, so it seems to be a grey, angry sky in deep thought about something.

The sky is also harbouring ancient grudges.

That means to hold a grudge for a long time.

So not only is the sky in a bad mood, thinking about something quite deeply, it also seems to have a grudge on the city.

So how might these phrases together make a reader feel, and what concerns may they have for the character in the passage? Pause the video and have a think.

I heard some really good answers there.

Now have a think about this.

Which words and phrases in the first paragraph create a bleak atmosphere? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done.

A lot of those words and phrases contribute to a bleak atmosphere.

Think about the word, gloom, think about the words, sullen and scowled.

Which of the following phrases help create a bleak atmosphere? Select two.

Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said, "amidst the gloom," and, "unleashing rain." Those two phrases contribute to a bleak atmosphere because they relate to a dreary, unsettling atmosphere.

Let's continue looking at how the writer has created an unsettling atmosphere here in the second paragraph.

To decay means to rot or decompose and to etch means to corrode or eat away at the surface of.

So how did these words here, decay, scars and memories, and neglect, create a bleak atmosphere? Pause the video and have a think.

Really great discussions, everyone.

Now I want you to discuss what atmosphere is created by this simile.

"The windows, like watchful eyes, seemed to follow my every move." Pause the video and have a think.

Great discussions.

Which words and phrases then creates an oppressive atmosphere? Pause the video and have a think.

Which of the following phrases does not create an oppressive atmosphere? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said, "Their panes reflecting a twisted world of neglect." The first option, "Like watchful eyes, seemed to follow my every move," creates an oppressive atmosphere because the writer feels as if they're being constantly watched.

Option two, "It's clouds scowled down," also has an oppressive feeling because it feels as if the clouds are vengeful against the character.

However, option C, "Their panes reflecting a twisted world of neglect," probably creates more of a bleak atmosphere than oppressive atmosphere.

Well done if you got that right.

The two pupils below are discussing the atmosphere in the passage we just read.

Aisha says, "The atmosphere is incredibly bleak.

The world seems to lack hope, and this is reflected by the weather." Sofia says, "Even though the speaker is alone, it feels like they are being followed.

This creates an oppressive atmosphere." Which pupil do you agree most with, and why? Pause the video and have a think.

I want you to help the pupils collect evidence to support their arguments by using the table below.

So what you need to do is find quotes that support Aisha's statement, "the atmosphere is incredibly bleak," and find quotes that support Sofia's statement that there is an oppressive atmosphere created in the extract.

Your quotes will be slightly different for each argument.

Pause the video and have a go.

Let's go through some possible answers to this task.

You may have said, "To support the atmosphere is incredibly bleak, 'amidst the gloom brooding over the crumbling city.

'" You may have got the quote, "Tears of a world gone awry," "Silent witnesses to its decay," "Etched with scars and memories," and, "A world twisted by neglect." All of these phrases create a bleak atmosphere because they're referring to something dreary, to something gloomy, to something quite sad and bad-tempered.

Let's look at what quotes you may have got for an oppressive atmosphere.

"As if harbouring an ancient grudge." "Unleashing rain." "Like watchful eyes." "Seemed to follow my every mood." These phrases, on the other hand, seem to give the atmosphere more of a harsh quality, as if the weather is against the character, and as if the character is being oppressed.

We're now going to look at how we can use personification to create atmosphere.

I want you to discuss which of the following creates a more bleak and oppressive atmosphere, and why? Sentence one.

"The clouds scowled down, unleashing rain that fell like the tears of a world gone awry." Sentence two.

"The clouds darkened above.

Rain fell like tears of a world gone awry." Which of the following creates a more bleak and oppressive atmosphere, and why? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said sentence one creates a more bleak and oppressive atmosphere, "The clouds scowled down, unleashing rain that fell like the tears of a world gone awry." Let's go through some possible reasons for that.

The verb, darkened, does create a bleak atmosphere, but why do the verb choices, scowled and unleashing, arguably create a more bleak and oppressive atmosphere? Pause the video and have a think.

Personification has been used in the first sentence.

"The clouds are scowling and they're unleashing rain." It's like they have an intent to do harm on the character.

So personification has been used in sentence one to make an environment feel hostile and unwelcoming.

True or false? Personification can be used to create hostile and unwelcoming settings.

Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said true.

Personification can be used to create hostile and unwelcoming settings.

Is that because, if the setting sounds like it is alive, a reader might feel worried it will attack a character? Or is that because personification of a setting can make it seem like its hostile and unwelcoming state is targeting a specific character? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said it's because personification of a setting can make it seem like its hostile and unwelcoming state is targeting a specific character.

Careful and creative verb choices can improve personification and help create an unsettling atmosphere.

Look at this sentence here.

"The clouds scowled down, unleashing rain that fell like the tears of a world gone awry." I want you to think about, if I replace the verb, unleashing, with any of the verbs below, how would the atmosphere become less bleak and oppressive? Pause the video and have a think.

Selecting the right verb, particularly a powerful or emotive one, can make personification sound particularly unsettling and hostile.

The verb, unleashing, definitely creates the most hostile atmosphere here.

Pouring, dropping, and throwing are more neutral verbs.

Which verb could best replace, follow, in the following sentence to create the most hostile and unnerving atmosphere? "The window panes, like watchful eyes, seemed to follow my every move." Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said, stalk.

"The window panes, like watchful eyes, seemed to stalk my every move." Stalk is a better verb than follow to create a hostile and unnerving atmosphere, because the verb, stalk, makes the window panes again seem like they are against the character.

I now want you to write two short paragraphs of your own dystopian description with an unsettling atmosphere.

The first should describe the weather, the second should describe the buildings.

Your response should include: personification of the weather or buildings, carefully selective emotive verbs, and use of simple compound and complex sentences.

Pause the video and have a go at that task.

I now want you to re-read your work and identify where you have done the following: Where have you used personification? Where have you used carefully selected verbs? And where have you used a range of sentence structures? Pause the video and self-assess.

Let's go through what we've learned today.

Dystopias often have an unsettling, bleak, or oppressive atmosphere.

Personification is a useful tool in creating hostile atmospheres.

And for successful personification, you should select your verb choices carefully.

Well done on all you've done in today's lesson.