Hello and welcome to today's lesson when we are gonna be developing our explanations in our analytical writing.

My name is Mr. Barnsley and I'm so glad you could join me in this lesson in the unit, step into the unknown.

Now, in today's lesson, we are gonna be using this text.

This is the novel by Akala called "The Dark Lady." And we're gonna be using the 2021 Hodder edition of this book.

It's really important that you have your own copy.

So do pause the video and make sure you've got a copy of this book in front of you before you continue with today's lesson.

Okay, let's get started, shall we? Really looking forward to learning with you today.

Okay, let's look at the outcome then for today's lesson.

By the end of the lesson, you will be able to develop your explanations in order to effectively put your ideas across to the reader.

There are five keywords in today's lesson.

They are inference, connotation, topic sentence, personification, and simile.

Should we remind ourselves what these words mean? We might have seen them before, but it's really important that we know exactly what we mean so when we come across 'em in today's lesson, we will be really clear about what we need to do.

So an inference is a guess that you make or an opinion that you form based on the information that you have.

Okay, sometimes filling in the blanks.

So you've got some information, but you need to make a further inference.

You need to use that information and make a sensible and educated guess.

Next word is connotation.

That's a feeling or an idea that is suggested by a word in addition to its basic meaning.

A topic sentence, a reminder, that's the sentence that explains the main focus or the idea of the paragraph you are writing.

Personification is a language device that we might see an author use and we're gonna look at how Akala uses it in his text today.

And that's where a non-human object or thing is given human characteristics.

And again, a simile.

That's a language device.

Again, we'll be looking at how that's used in Akala's work and that might be used to compare two things using words, which is like and as.

So keep an eye out for these when they turn up in today's lesson.

If you need to pause the video for a minute and just note these words down, then you can do.

Otherwise, let's get started.

There are two learning cycles in today's lesson.

Firstly, we're gonna make sure we understand the extract that we're gonna be analysing today.

And then in the second part of today's lesson, we're gonna really make sure we meet that outcome by developing our explanations.

Let's dive in with understanding the extract, shall we? So today you're gonna be writing an analytical paragraph answering this question.

In "The Dark Lady," how does Akala present Henry and Joan's magical room? Let's remind ourselves what this question is asking us to do.

So the how is asking us to focus on methods, okay? And methods could be both language or structure.

And we're gonna think about how those methods give us or create a certain idea or impression to us as a reader.

So reminder, that we're gonna focusing on the writer's intention.

Whenever we're analysing literature, we all should always be thinking of what was the writer trying to do? What was the message that they were trying to put across? And that's what we need to remember as we write our response today.

And of course our focus is on Henry and Joan's magical room.

So think about what ideas are put across to us.

How do we view or interpret the room that we read about in the text? A reminder, you are gonna need your own copy of the 2021 Hodder Children's Books edition of Akala's "The Dark Lady." That's the text that I showed you at the beginning of this lesson.

If you haven't got it in front of you, please do pause the video now and go and grab your copy.

You are gonna need it.

Okay, I hope everyone has a copy of their text.

Now it's over to you to read from the top of page 68 all the way down to the bottom of page 70.

Why don't you pause the video now to give yourself plenty of time to read that section of the text.

Pause the video and press play when you're ready to continue.

Some really great reading going on there.

Well done everybody.

What we're gonna do now is we're gonna analyse the quotations and the techniques that Akala uses to present Henry and Joan's magical room.

So let's look at one quotation together, shall we? The doorway to the magical room is said to have shimmered as it came to life.

What a really interesting adjective.

To shimmer means to shine with a soft, slightly wavering light.

Let's pause for a minute and have a discussion here.

What connotations, what other ideas do we get from that image of a soft, twinkling light? If you've got a partner, you can have this discussion in pairs.

What a great way to share some ideas.

But don't worry if you're working independently, you can just think through this question by yourself.

You can make a couple of notes if you want to or you can just take some thinking time.

Alright, pause the video, have a think about this question and press play when you are ready to continue.

Well done, some really lovely ideas, really thinking about the connotations of that word shimmered.

And you know, when we think of the word shimmered, those twinkling lights, what they mean to you.

So you might have said something like, Sam said.

This suggests something happy, something quite gentle, something very positive.

Or you might have gone even further and said something similar to Sofia who said, for her, the twinkling nature suggests something enchanting and enticing.

Okay, something really that draws your attention to it.

Well done if you said something similar to either of my Oak pupils.

Of course you might have had other ideas and that's fantastic too.

Alright, let's check how we're doing, shall we? True or false? We can infer from Akala's use of language that the room is a beautiful enchanting place.

What do you think? Pause the video, have a think and press play when you're ready to continue.

Great work if you've said true.

Let's justify that then.

Which of the following justifies this idea that Akala's use of language presents the room as a beautiful enchanting place? Is it that Akala uses the word glimmered or is it that Akala used the word shimmered? Pause video, have a think and press play when you're ready to continue.

Really well done if you picked B there.

Akala used the word shimmered.

Great job.

Okay, it's over to you now for our first practise activity in today's lesson.

What you're gonna do is you're gonna complete the table to show the technique that Akala used and you're gonna make some inferences based on the connotations of the word that we're really highlighting.

So the first quotation I want us to think about is the fact that the door is said to become unfastened by itself.

What technique is being used there? And what inferences can we make from the fact that this door unfastens itself? The second quotation we're gonna look at is the use of the word gold, which is actually used more than once to describe the room.

What do we call that technique when something is used more than once? And what can we infer about the fact that this adjective gold is used on more than one occasion? And we also know that the door is compared to a beautiful stitching on a woman's dress.

Can you remember that technique that's used when we make comparisons, a language device where we compare using like or as? And I also want you to think, okay, if we are making that comparison to the stitching on a woman's dress, what does that tell us about the door? Okay, it's time for you now to pause the video and give this a go.

Remember, we're looking for techniques and a really interesting inference based on always the writer's intention.

What do you think the writer is trying to show to us? Alright, over to you now.

Pause the video and press play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

I saw some really great work there.

I really liked the fact that we didn't just race to put down our first inference and sometimes you stopped and thought, hmm, there might be different ways, or different things I could interpret from this or different connotations.

And that's what's so interesting about literature.

That actually some of these images might connote different things to us and we might make different inferences to our partner.

That's really, really interesting.

So I'm gonna share you some things that you might have said, but I just want to remind you that these are not gonna be the only correct answers and that you might have said something slightly different.

And as long as your inferences can be justified using the text, then it's perfectly okay for you to have different ideas to me.

Let's have a look at this first one then, shall we? The door is said to become unfastened by itself.

Well this is an example of personification because a door shouldn't be able to unfasten itself.

That's something a human would do.

What inference could you make there? Well, you could suggest the room has its own consciousness and in some way it's alive, which really adds to this magical, mythical sense of what this room is capable of.

That second quotation, gold is used more than once to describe the room.

Well that's an example of repetition.

Remember repetition is when an idea is repeated.

Why might Akala have used repetition of that adjective, gold? Well, we could say gold is really valuable and beautiful and the repetition of that value and beauty really does indicate how important this room is, is really magnifies the value and beauty of the room.

We also know that the doorway is compared to the beautiful stitching on a woman's dress, using that word like and that means it's a simile.

Well done if you spotted that.

Now one inference you could have made is actually we need to use a simile then we need to make a comparison.

It suggests that this room is potentially so brilliant, it can't be fully comprehended.

So we need to almost compare it to images that we do recognise.

We also know stitching is really intricate and it's being crafted deliberately by someone.

So it could really highlight towards the beauty and ornateness of this room.

Fantastic if you said anything similar, but like I said, do not worry if you had something slightly different.

As long as you can justify your inferences using evidence from the text, then that's really, really impressive too.

All right, then let's move on to the second part of today's lesson where we're gonna be developing our own explanations.

So now that we have an initial analysis of the quotations, we really need to start to consider how to develop our analysis to turn it into an analytical paragraph.

So in order to develop our explanations, we first need an overarching idea about how Akala presents the room.

Therefore we need a topic sentence.

Now you might have shared structures for writing topic sentences before, but as you can see on the screen, here is an effective way of writing a topic sentence.

We always think about the place in the text that we're talking about, is at the beginning, middle, and end.

We always want to make sure we're mentioning the writer because we always want to be focused on their intention and thinking about what they're trying to show us.

Focus on intention.

And we might add, not always, but we could add the method that's being used.

So we could say something about through the use of X/Y.

Let's have a look at how that fits together then as a structure.

At the, insert the place of the text, the, insert the name of the writer, shows us that, insert the writer's intention, through the use of, insert the method that they use.

So I want you to now look back to your table from task A and you can create a topic sentence to answer the question, in "The Dark Lady," how does Akala present Henry and Joan's magical room? If you're working in your exercise book, you might wish to write it down there.

Otherwise you might want to just jot it down on a piece of paper so you can bring it and you can use it later in this learning cycle.

Why don't you pause the video now and look back to your table in task A and I would like you to write a topic sentence for me.

Alright, pause the video, over to you and press play when you're ready to continue.

Really good job.

It was nice to see so many of you using that structure that's on the screen as I think that could be a really helpful way of formulating your topic sentences.

Should we have a look at what Alex said then? Alex wrote his topic sentence such as this.

"At the beginning of 'The Dark Lady,' Akala shows us that the room is beautiful yet mysterious through the use of repetition and a simile." Did you say something similar to Alex? Well done if you did.

If you really liked Alex's and you want to borrow some ideas, now's the time to pause the video and improve your topic sentence.

Otherwise we're gonna continue.

So we have a topic sentence.

"At the beginning of 'The Dark Lady,' Akala is showing us that the room is a beautiful yet mysterious through the use of repetition and a simile." Let's build this topic sentence out, shall we? We need some evidence.

We know we always need to support our topic sentence.

We always support our arguments with some evidence and that's usually a quotation from the text.

So we might want to use gold.

We know it's used more than once to describe the room.

We might also want to talk about how the doorway is said to be like beautiful stitching on a woman's dress.

Now we need to develop our explanation of our evidence in order to present a really convincing argument.

Okay, let's talk through the evidence gold.

We know it's used more than once to describe the room.

Let's talk through this together.

So let's start by reminding ourselves what can we say about this evidence? What are the connotations when we think of the word gold? And what technique is Akala using here? Pause the video.

If you've got a partner, you can discuss with them.

Otherwise you can just think through these questions to yourself.

But let's think about all the things we could say about this evidence.

Pause the video, press play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

Well done if you said something like Aisha, that the gold gives ideas of light and warmth.

Some of you might have said something similar to Sam about linking gold to the idea of precious jewellery.

Or you might have said something similar to Izzy who said that Akala is using repetition.

It's really used to emphasise and potentially kind of double something.

It really wants to draw our attention to the importance of this adjective gold.

Now let's consider how we can explain those ideas to the reader using connectives to show the cause and effect in our thought process.

So for example, Sam says, "Gold is a precious metal often used in jewellery.

Therefore we think of it as something valuable and expensive but also inherently beautiful if people display it as jewellery." Here, Sam has used a connective in order to show that gold as a metal used in jewellery causes us to connect it with the ideas of value and beauty.

They've used the connective therefore, but we could use others such as consequently, so, thus, hence.

All great ways of building on our initial idea.

True or false then? You can use connectives to link ideas.

What do you think? Is that true or is that false? Pause the video, have a think and press play when you're ready to continue.

Well done if you said true, that is of course true.

Let's justify then that, shall we? Is it A, you might use therefore to show the differences between ideas? Or is it B, you might use therefore to show the cause and effect between ideas? What do you think? Pause the video, have a think and press play when you're ready to continue.

Yes, you should have picked B.

Therefore is used to show the cause and the effect between ideas.

Alright, it's now time for another discussion.

How would you explain the idea of gold having connotations of light and warmth and how does that link to the idea of beauty? Why don't you pause, if you've got a partner you can discuss with them.

Otherwise, just think through that question to yourself.

Pause the video, have a think and press play when you're ready to continue.

I heard some lovely ideas.

You know what I love about literature and particularly when we analyse words in detail, is the fact that we might have different interpretations.

So it was great to hear such a variety of ideas.

Aisha said, "As a colour, gold could be used to describe the light of the sun.

Thus, we might think of gold as having connotations of light and warmth just like the sun.

We associate sunlight with beauty because it lights up the world around us." Wonderful ideas there from Aisha linking the idea of gold to light, to warmth and back to beauty.

And she does that using that connective, thus.

Great work.

Now let's consider how we can connect those idea to the technique of repetition.

Repetition can mean that a writer wants to emphasise something, to show the importance or perhaps to show that they want to suggest something is double.

How can we link this to the idea of gold in the room? Pause, have a think and press play when you are ready to continue.

Some really nice ideas there and well done for thinking about repetition because this is actually, repetition is a mixture between language, 'cause we're looking at the repetition of specific words, but it's also a structural technique.

So Izzy says something along the lines of this.

"Perhaps Akala is trying to not only emphasise how important the room is for Henry, but also emphasise how beautiful and valued the room is because he has doubled the amount of gold associated with it." What a great idea.

Well done if you said something similar.

True or false? Akala uses repetition to describe the room.

Is that true or is that false? Have a think, press play when you're ready to continue.

Yes, well done.

That is true.

Let's justify that.

Is it A, the repetition of gold potentially indicates the importance of the room? Or is it B, the repetition of gold potentially indicates the lack of importance of the room? Which of those is the most sensible justification? A or B? Pause the video, have a think, press play when you're ready to continue.

Of course, you should have said A there.

The repetition of gold really does highlight the importance of the room.

Okay, now it's your turn, over to you.

I'd like you to take our second piece of evidence, "The doorway is said to be like beautiful stitching on a woman's dress," and write an explanation on how it shows the room is beautiful and mysterious.

So things to remember.

To specifically link ideas to ideas of beauty and mystery and to reference the technique used.

You might also need to use connectives to link your ideas together.

You might also want to consider that a simile is used.

What might the need for a comparison indicate? You might also want to think about the specific use of that word stitching and what that suggests.

Okay, pause the video.

Time for you to write a really interesting explanation and press play when you're ready to continue.

Alright, great work.

Some really fantastic writing there.

And what I really loved to see was all of those of you who are reading through your work for spelling, punctuation and grammar before you put your pen down at the end.

We're gonna have a moment of reflection now.

We're gonna do that by comparing our work to this answer written by Sam.

Sam said, "Akala specifically draws our attention to the stitching of a dress, which give connotations of beauty and mystery because we associate stitching with something handmade and intricate.

Therefore, it suggests that not only is the room beautiful, but also that someone crafted it, which adds an air of mystery.

More generally, the use of a simile further suggests mystery because it implies that we as the reader need a comparison in order to be able to comprehend and visualise this room." Let's have a look at why Sam's answer is so successful, shall we? Well, they link to the idea in the topic sentence, these ideas around beauty and mystery.

They explain their ideas.

They use a connective to link between ideas and they also reference the use of the technique, the simile.

Why don't you pause for a minute, use the checklist that you can see on screen and see how well you have done with your own explanation.

Press play when you have done that.

Great work today, everyone.

Really impressive to see you developing your analytical paragraphs, not only using great topic sentences and evidence, but now really thinking about how you justify your arguments.

On screen you can see a summary of everything we've covered today.

Do pause the video and take time to read through each of these bullet points carefully, making sure you feel really confident about all the learning.

I really want you to feel you are ready for the next lesson, so if there's anything you've struggled with today, do take the time to go and watch sections of the video again before you move on.

It's been great learning with you today.

I hope to see you in one of our lessons again soon.

Have a great day.

Thank you for joining me.

Goodbye.