Lesson video

Hello everyone and welcome to your lesson on making predictions about Sherlock Holmes.

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

Our learning outcome for today is to be able to make predictions about characters using clues from the text.

So we'll be looking at some clues about Sherlock Holmes and we'll make some predictions about who we think he might be.

Our key words for today are protagonist.

Occupation.

Predict.

Era.

And meticulous.

I'll just give you five seconds to have a read of the definitions and note any down that you want to.

Great, I hope these words will be really helpful in your learning today.

So in today's lesson, we are going to firstly look at some clues about Sherlock Holmes and we're gonna make some predictions about who he might be.

In the second part of the lesson, we'll be writing about these predictions.

So we'll be translating our ideas to a written paragraph.

So let's start off with using clues to make predictions.

So here are some clues about Sherlock Holmes, who is the protagonist of Arthur Conan Doyle's detective stories that we will be reading.

After you have inspected each clue, I want you to discuss what you have learned about Sherlock Holmes.

So let's begin with the first clue.

This is a quote from the Sherlock Holmes stories, Working as Sherlock did, rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of wealth.

I'm gonna help you with this one 'cause here is what I predict based on that quote.

This clue tells me that Sherlock did not work for money, he works because he loved his job.

As we can see in the quote, He worked for the love of his art, so the love of his job, rather than the acquirement of wealth, which means getting more money.

So Sherlock did not work for money, he worked because he loved his job.

And what does that tell me about him? That tells me that, well, I think based on that, that he's a passionate man and dedicated to his job.

It shows he really loves his job and that's why he does it, so he must be passionate, in my opinion.

So let's move on to the next clue.

What is Sherlock doing in this picture? What object is he holding and what might it tell you? Pause the video and discuss those questions.

I heard some great ideas.

You may have said Sherlock Holmes is holding a magnifying glass and he looks like he's looking at an object through the magnifying glass.

Perhaps he is inspecting something.

Let's move on to the next clue.

"I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his professional investigations and in admiring the rapid deductions always founded on a logical basis." That is what one of Sherlock Holmes' good friends says about him in one of the stories.

So discuss these questions now.

What is an investigation? A deduction is a conclusion that is reached, what kind of investigations do you think he did if he had to make rapid deductions or conclusions? And what kind of man was he if he was admired? Pause the video and discuss those questions.

I heard some really great ideas, let's move on to the next clue.

He unravelled the problems which were submitted to him.

What does unravel mean? What type of problems do you think people come to him with and do you think they were easy to solve? Why or why not? Pause the video and have a think.

You may have said that to unravel means to unpick something and that based on that, the problems people come to him with perhaps, are not easy to solve because they require details unpicking or unravelling before an answer can be produced.

Well done.

Great discussions everyone.

I've really enjoyed hearing about your predictions Based on the clues, which word does not describe Sherlock Holmes accurately? Pause the video and have a think.

Careless does not describe Sherlock Holmes accurately.

We have no evidence that he's careless, but we do have evidence that he's passionate because he loves his job, and we do have evidence that he's observant.

We've seen him use a magnifying glass, we've heard that he makes rapid deductions and he unravels problems. So therefore, we can predict that he would be observant.

Careless we have no evidence for.

Well done if you got that right.

Based on evidence, what is not a likely occupation of Sherlock Holmes? In other words, what job do you not think that Sherlock does based on what we've seen? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said artist, we don't have any evidence that Sherlock Holmes is an artist, we have a lot more evidence to suggest that he may be a detective or a police officer.

Since he is involved in investigations, I now want you to create a mind map of your predictions about Sherlock Holmes.

Include ideas such as what you think his occupation might be, what era you think he lives in, and what personality traits he has.

Pause the video and create your mind map.

Let's go through what you may have included on your mind map.

So on my mind map, the first thing I have is passionate and I've got a little quote to support that as well.

So I've said passionate because he works for the love of his art rather than acquirement of wealth.

The next thing on my mind map is detective.

I think his occupation might be a detective and I think that because he solves investigations and unravels complex problems brought to him, I think that sounds like something a detective might do.

They investigate crimes, and crimes are essentially really complex problems that no one else can solve.

Therefore, I think he may be a detective.

And lastly, I've put observant and that's because he uses a magnifying glass and torch to examine fine details on objects.

Your mind map might not look exactly the same as mine, but that's okay.

We all have our own ideas about who Sherlock Holmes is.

Very well done.

We're now going to move on to the part of the lesson where we write about our predictions.

I'm going to talk you through how to write a thoughtful prediction about Sherlock Holmes.

Remember, a prediction is an educated guess based on all the available evidence that we have.

So the first step, state your prediction.

Make sure you use tentative language such as think, perhaps, and could.

Tentative language is all about expressing possibility rather than certainty.

So that might look a bit like I predict that the character Sherlock Holmes could be.

And then you state what you think about him.

Step number two, use a conjunction to justify your prediction.

You can use a conjunction such as the word because to explain why you think that.

The next step is give a second piece of evidence to strengthen your prediction, for example, more evidence to prove this is.

And finally, provide a different way the evidence could be interpreted because a prediction is not fact or truth.

Therefore, someone else might have a different opinion, and you should acknowledge that in your answer.

For example, alternatively, the evidence could demonstrate.

What might someone else think about that piece of evidence that you didn't necessarily think of at first? So that's how we will write our thoughtful predictions about Sherlock Holmes, using those four steps on the board there.

Let's take a look at this in action.

These two pupils have tried to write a thoughtful prediction about Sherlock Holmes.

Let's read what each of them have come up with.

Sam says, "I think Sherlock Holmes is a police officer because he looks very professional and takes his job very seriously." Alex has said, "I think Sherlock Holmes is a detective 'cause he uses a magnifying glass most likely to inspect evidence in crimes.

More evidence to prove this is that he is said to partake in investigations, suggesting he's trying to solve cases." Pause the video and discuss the question, which pupil successfully makes a thoughtful prediction about Sherlock Holmes? You may have said that Alex's prediction is more thoughtful.

I now want you to think about what does Alex include in his prediction that Sam is missing? Pause the video and have a think.

If we inspect Alex's prediction, we can see he's given a specific clue in his prediction to justify his prediction.

He has also explained the significance of this clue, and that's shown when he says that "I think Sherlock Holmes is a detective because he uses a magnifying glass," and he also tells us how that links with being a detective.

He said that "A magnifying glass is most likely to inspect evidence in crimes." Alex also provides a second piece of evidence to support his prediction and again, expands on the significance of this.

So Alex's second piece of evidence is that Sherlock Holmes partakes in investigations.

And again, Alex links this to why that suggests he's a detective and Alex explains that investigations suggest he's trying to solve cases or crimes, therefore, he may be a detective.

Sam on the other hand, doesn't use specific clues necessarily.

He's just said that Sherlock Holmes looks professional and takes his job seriously.

But we have no specific concrete evidence for that.

Sam could have explained how he knows that Sherlock Holmes takes his job seriously and how he knows that Sherlock Holmes looks professional by citing small pieces of evidence from the beginning slide to support his statements.

What is not important to include when writing up your prediction? Pause the video and have a think.

It is not important to include the character's correct occupation when writing up your prediction.

The reason for this is that you are writing up a prediction, you don't know the character's correct occupation, you are just making an educated guess about it.

So you don't need to be correct about anything.

Just write what you think may be the case.

You do need evidence to support your prediction, you do need to explain the significance of the evidence, and you do need conjunctions to justify your prediction By including evidence and explanation of the significance of the evidence and conjunctions to justify your prediction, you will create a thoughtful prediction, a prediction based on really meaningful evidence and really meaningful insight.

So let's begin writing up our thoughtful predictions about Sherlock Holmes.

Use the sentence starters below to help you.

I think the character of Sherlock Holmes is likely to be, because, more evidence to prove this is, and alternatively, the evidence could demonstrate.

You also have have some keywords on the right hand side of the slide there to help you too.

And they are protagonist, predict, era, occupation and meticulous.

See if you can tick off all of those keywords there.

Pause the video and begin writing your prediction.

Let's go through what you may have written.

"I predict that Sherlock Holmes, the protagonist of Conan Doyle's detective stories, could be a meticulous detective because he is pictured with a magnifying glass, closely inspecting what looks like some evidence.

The evidence may be from a crime investigation that he's trying to solve.

This is further supported by the fact that people come to him with problems which he unravels.

This suggests that people may rely on him to solve their cases and he does so by unpicking each detail very carefully.

Alternatively, Sherlock Holmes could be a chemist who enjoys helping people solve crimes as a hobby, since he's also pictured conducting a chemical experiment." I've actually seen a bit of further evidence of Sherlock Holmes conducting that experiment that you may not have seen.

And ultimately your answer, your prediction will be completely different to mine depending on what clues you've focused on and what predictions you've made.

Let's unpick my answer a bit further so you can see where you were successful too, and where you may need to improve next time.

So I've started off with my prediction about Sherlock Holmes.

I've said I think that he is a meticulous detective, so a detective that pays close attention to detail.

I've then used a conjunction to justify my prediction.

I've said, "I think he's a meticulous detective because," that's my conjunction, "He is pictured with a magnifying glass, closely inspecting what looks like some evidence and this evidence may be from a crime investigation." Next, I've given a second piece of evidence to strengthen my prediction.

My second piece of evidence is that, "People come to him with problems and he unravels them." So I think the problems may be crime cases and he must unpick each detail carefully, hence the word unravel.

I've then ended with an alternative explanation for that evidence.

I provided a different way the evidence could be interpreted.

I've said that, perhaps someone that's seen him conduct a chemical experiment, which I have, may think that he's a chemist.

Very well done on your writing today, let's go through what we've learned.

Using clues to predict is a key skill in helping us understand more about a character.

Predicting could mean using images or quotes as clues, to help us make inferences about a character.

You should use tentative language, evidence, conjunctions, and alternative ideas when writing about your predictions.

And lastly, your prediction will be stronger if you provide two pieces of evidence.

Amazing work in today's lesson, everyone.

I look forward to seeing you next time.