Hello there, Mr. Barnes here.

Fantastic to see you today.

Thank you so much for joining me.

In today's lesson, we're gonna be looking at Akala's "The Dark Lady." Please make sure you have a copy of this text.

The 2021 Hodder Children's Edition is the copy that you are going to need.

That is Akala's "The Dark Lady." And in today's lesson, I'm really excited 'cause we're gonna do some analytical writing, we're really gonna do some analysis, thinking about some really detailed explanation.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what you can do today.

Let's get started.

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 key words 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'll 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, so 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're 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 such as "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.

So there are two learning cycles in today's lesson.

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

And then, in the second part of today's lesson, we're gonna really make sure we meet the 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? 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 have a.

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.

All right, 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 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 Sophia, who said, for her, "The twinkling nature suggests "something enchanting and enticing." Okay, something really that draws your attention to it.

Well, then, if you said something similar to either of my Oak pupils, of course, you might have had other ideas and that's fantastic too.

All right, 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 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 the 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 are 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 is time for you now to pause your video.

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? All right, over to you now.

Pause the video and press play when you are 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, "there could be 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 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 the 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.

It 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, if 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 to us 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 when 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 XY." Let's have a look at that, how that fits together 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 used.

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 it's gonna be.

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.

All right, pause the video, over to you, and press play when you are 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, and 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, that.

You should have picked B.

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

All right, 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.

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 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.

All right, great work.

Some really fantastic writing there.

And what I really love to see was all of those of you who were reading through your work for spelling, punctuation, 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 top.

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 senses 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 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.