Lesson video

Hello, and welcome back to our lessons on "Animal Farm." In today's lesson we are going to be starting to think about the pigs taking charge, and the things they use in order to do that.

So we will be exploring animalism today.

Old Major suggested lots of things in his first speech, but it wasn't until the pigs came up with animalism that we begin to see big changes on the farm.

And that's what we're going to be looking at today.

So if you can find yourself somewhere quiet to work, or somewhere you can concentrate, that would be wonderful.

And grab yourself a pen or piece of paper.

Make sure that you've got something to write on, something to write with.

And then when you're ready, let's get started.

As always, this is an extra opportunity for you to make sure that you have everything you need.

If you're already ready to go, then we will continue.

If not, and you need a few more minutes, pause the video on this slide, and then press play when you're ready.

So we will begin with a recap of what we know so far, before moving on to look at some new vocabulary and then reading the extract all together.

And finally having a look at some quotations from the extract and exploding those quotations.

So that means picking out the key words or the techniques that Orwell has used and discussing why they're so effective.

And of course your exit quiz at the end so you can reflect on what you have learned in today's lesson.

Today's recap is the question what caused the rebellion to happen sooner than expected? Was it options one, that the cows were angry and chased the farmers away? Option two, the pigs organised the animals to start the rebellion? Option three, the animals were not fed and the farmers started hurting them? Or option four, the farmer had not cut the hedges on the farm? Take your time to read through the options by yourselves, press pause and then press play when you are ready to find out the answer.

How did you do? So the answer was option three.

The animals were not fed, and the farmer started hurting them.

So if you remember the farm was in a really bad way.

The farmers were neglecting the farm itself, and they were also neglecting the animals by completely forgetting to feed them.

The cows had enough, they decided to break into the barn to get their food.

The farmers did not like this, and started hurting the animals.

And remember we discussed that feeling a bit hangry when you're hungry and angry together? We all know how that feels.

That's how the animals felt.

And they lost control, and started attacking the farmers.

That led to the farmers running away, and the animals taking over Manor Farm to become Animal Farm.

So let's move on to today's lesson.

A new vocabulary that you're going to need to know is the word commandment.

Commandment.

Okay, repeat that after me.

Commandment.

Excellent.

So a commandment is a rule to be followed very strictly.

Now you may have heard about these with regards to Christianity, and God giving Moses 10 commandments.

It's most commonly associated with the Bible, but we can use the word commandment to discuss any rule that has to be followed very, very strictly.

The 10 commandments from the Bible have been used as a basis for the law.

So the 10 commandments include things like do not kill, do not steal, et.

cetera.

And they are obviously now the law that everyone must follow.

Commandments must be followed.

The clue is in the name itself.

If you think about the word command, if you are commanded to do something, you are supposed to do it.

It's not something you can discuss.

It's not something you can negotiate.

It's a commandment, so it must be followed.

A commandment is a rule which applies to everyone.

So this is interesting.

Sometimes there are some rules for some people and not for others.

However, a commandment is usually a rule that applies to everybody.

Everyone must follow it.

So, over to you.

Which of these is the correct definition of a commandment? Is it option one, a very strict rule associated with religion? Option two, a suggestion given by God? Option three, a commandment only has to be followed if you are religious? Or option four, a law we are expected to follow? Take your time here, press pause, read through the options yourselves, and then press play when you'd like to find out the answer.

So how did you do with this one? Hopefully you opted for number one.

It is a very strict rule associated with religion.

Number two wouldn't be correct because it's not a suggestion.

If you remember we spoke about the fact that a commandment is, it's a command.

It's something you must do.

It's not just a suggestion.

Number three, not only if you are religious.

A commandment doesn't have to be to do with religion, it's just usually associated with religion.

And then finally a law we are expected to follow.

Very, very close.

So if you did choose option four, that's completely understandable.

However, a commandment isn't a law necessarily.

So if you broke a commandment, likely there will be consequences, but it doesn't necessarily mean you'll go to jail because it's not an actual law.

So be very careful with option one and option four, just double check you've got the right answer.

Massive well done if you've chose option one.

So now we're going to have a look at the extract.

And this part of "Animal Farm" is looking at The Seven Commandments.

And The Seven Commandments are something that the pigs put forward.

If you remember a few lessons ago, we spoke about the rules that the pigs give to the other animals.

And these are the rules that we're talking about, The Seven Commandments.

So this is a quick recap before we delve into the extract together.

After the successful rebellion, the animals celebrated.

They visited the farm house and decided it should not be lived in, but kept as a museum instead.

Top tip, that's going to be very important to remember.

So straight after the rebellion, they all decide that the farm house where the humans lived should never be lived in, and they're just going to keep it as a museum.

So keep that up there because that'll be important in later lessons.

The animals have been working hard, and the pigs are still at the top of the hierarchy.

You'll notice that I've written hierarchy in bold because that's the new vocabulary that we learned last lesson.

The pigs are still at the top of the hierarchy.

Let's start with the extract then.

Snowball, for it was Snowball who was beast at writing, took a brush between the two knuckles of his trotter, painted out Manor Farm from the top bar of the gate and in its place painted Animal Farm.

This was to be the name of the farm from now onwards.

After this, they went back to the farm buildings where Snowball and Napoleon sent for a ladder, which they caused to be set against the end wall of the big barn.

They explained that by their studies of the past three months the pigs had succeeded in reducing the principles of animalism to seven commandments.

So this extract is essentially telling us that Snowball and Napoleon have told the rest of the animals that they've spent lots of time thinking about everything the Old Major has taught them.

And because they're so cleaver, they have managed to reduce or condense or squash down all of those thoughts, and all of the teachings of Old Major into just seven commandments.

So we've got two questions I'd like you to think about here.

Why do you think the pigs have changed the name of the farm? And we have discussed this briefly already.

So why have they changed it from Manor Farm to Animal Farm? And secondly, why would the animals on the farm think the commandments were positive? Why would the animals think that the commandments were a good thing? I'd like you to pause the video here, and spend some time either discussing these questions with people around you, if possible.

If not, spend some thinking time about the two questions.

Why do you think the pigs have changed the name? And why would the animals think the commandments were a positive thing, a good thing? So pause the video, and then press play when you're ready to hear some feedback.

Okay.

So here are some answers that you may have come up with.

Now, we discussed this last lesson, but we will just repeat it.

That naming the farm, or renaming the farm, is a show of control and power.

If something has a name, it will have more power because it makes it real.

So Manor Farm belonged to Farmer Jones, belonged to a human.

Now Animal Farm belongs to the animals.

There's a lot of power in the name.

And in the second question, why would the animals think that these commandments were a positive thing? Well, the pigs say that the commandments have come from their own studies.

The pigs are the most intelligent on the farm, so the animals will believe they're good ideas.

Imagine you're an animal on Animal Farm, you have complete trust in Snowball and Napoleon.

They're the most intelligent animals on the farm, they know exactly what they're doing, and then they come to you and say "We've been studying the past three months, "and we've been thinking really hard about this, "and we've come up with these seven commandments." Of course, as an animal on the farm, you will think that they're going to be brilliant ideas.

You'll think well, they're super intelligent and they've been spending months thinking about this.

So automatically you will assume that they are good ideas.

If you need to pause the video to note down some of these answers, please feel free to do so.

If you've already got these answers down from your own ideas, absolutely brilliant.

Well done, you should be really proud of yourself.

Now let's read this next part of the extract.

These seven commandments would now be inscribed on the wall.

They would form an unalterable law by which all the animals on Animal Farm must live forever after.

With some difficulty, for it is not easy for a pig to balance himself on a ladder, Snowball climbed up and set to work, with Squealer a few rungs below him, holding the paint-pot.

The commandments were written on the tarred wall in great white letters that could be read 30 yards away.

They ran thus.

So this extract gives us a couple of things to think about.

It's telling us that The Seven Commandments will be inscribed on the wall.

And inscribed means written or carved.

Inscribed is a more permanent version of written.

So it's not something that can be got rid of, it's inscribed.

It's etched or carved.

So we're told that the seven commandments form an unalterable law, a law that cannot be changed.

And that the animals must follow forever after.

It's very extreme.

It cannot be changed.

And they have to live by it forever and ever.

So this shows how much power the pigs are trying to get.

I'd like you to think about the following question independently.

Why did Orwell say that The Seven Commandments had been inscribed instead of written? Why do you think he used the verb inscribed instead to the verb written? So pause the video here.

Take some thinking time, note down some ideas, and then press play when you'd like to find out some feedback.

How did you do? What did you all come up with? I'll show you what I've come up with, and then you can either add to the things that you already have, or you can change it if you need to.

So by using the verb inscribe, Orwell makes this sound a lot more permanent.

And then that matches the idea that it's an unalterable law.

It's something that can never be changed, which means it needs to be permanent.

It's not just written.

It can't just be rubbed off.

It's permanent.

It's inscribed.

So pause the video if you need to add to your notes.

If not, let's move on.

Before we read the last chunk of the extract, we need to learn a new word.

And this is quite a challenging concept for us to know.

So the new word is irony.

I'll repeat that for you.

Irony.

Okay just say that nice and loud for me.

Irony.

Excellent.

Irony is when the apparent truth of something goes against the experience of it.

Now that's a very difficult definition to understand in my opinion.

So I've given you a couple of examples.

For example, a butcher being vegetarian, or a policeman's son being a criminal.

So it's something that on the surface, when you first look at it, it's very different to the reality of it.

Another example might be someone who says they are vegetarian, then going to order a Big Mac at McDonald's.

So it's this idea of what you think is true being different to the reality of what is true.

And we're going to see an example of it in "Animal Farm" next.

So here are the seven commandments in "Animal Farm." Number one, whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.

Number two, whatever goes upon four legs or has wings is a friend.

Number three, no animal shall wear clothes.

Number four, no animal shall sleep in a bed.

Number five, no animal shall drink alcohol.

Number six, no animal shall kill any other animal.

And finally, number seven, all animals are equal.

And you can see that I have highlighted number seven because this is where we can see irony.

The animals are all equal.

It tells us that in the seventh commandment, that the animals are all equal.

But, we know that the pigs are at the top of the hierarchy.

They're the people, or sorry, they're the animals that are setting the rules.

They were telling all of the other animals how to act and what to do.

So what we think is reality, that all animals are equal, is actually not reality because the pigs are at the top of the hierarchy.

So that's where we can see irony in "Animal Farm." Again, pause the video here if you need to spend some more time getting your head around that.

You can rewind if you need to, to just have another listen to the definition and the examples.

And make sure that you have written down what you can see on the screen right now.

And then when you're ready, press play to move on.

Okay.

So here are our quotation explosions.

If you have the print out of the extracts, you will need to find the quotations on the screen in your extract.

If you do not have a printout, I would recommend pausing the video and copying down the quotation with plenty of space around it for you to add your annotations.

The question that's guiding our quotation annotation is how do we know the pigs are taking control? So what does Orwell write that makes us understand the pigs are taking control? Now with this quotation, the pigs now revealed that during the past three months they had taught themselves to read and write.

There's a couple of things here that show us the pigs taking control.

Now revealed suggests that the pigs have been keeping secrets.

The verb revealed, they didn't tell the animals, they revealed it.

And when you reveal something it suggests that it was hidden in the first place.

Also using the word now makes it sound like this has been a secret for quite some time, and the pigs are deciding when to reveal it.

So this pigs have now revealed that during the past three months they had taught themselves to read and write.

Now the second half of this quotation shows us that the pigs are taking control because by teaching themselves to read and write they're giving themselves an advantage over the other animals.

If they can read and write really well, they have access to knowledge.

They have the control because they have an advantage over all of the others.

So there are two things that we can take anyway from this quotation about how the pigs are taking control.

Pause the video here if you need to add those ideas.

If not, then let's keep going.

So here's one for you to have a go at by yourselves.

We still have the same question, how do we know the pigs are taking control? But this time I'm going to let you have some time to try and annotate your quotation independently.

The quotation is "These seven commandments "would for an unalterable law by which "all the animals on animal farm must live forever after." I've put in bold the bits that you might want to think about and add notes to.

So pause the video here.

Have a go at annotating the quotation, and then press play when you are ready for some feedback.

Let's see how you did.

As always, if your answers are not exactly the same as what's on the screen, please do not worry.

As long as you've got the ideas that I have included on the screen, that's absolutely great.

So unalterable law.

This suggest that the law cannot be changed.

If it's unalterable the pigs are taking control because they're saying this can never be discussed, it can never be voted on, it can never be changed.

Also, using the noun law suggests that there will be a punishment if it is not followed.

So if the animals do not follow the law it suggests, or it implies that there will be a punishment.

And that's how we know the pigs are controlling the other animals.

The second note that I've added is for the final part of the quotation.

The animals must live by these commandments forever after.

This suggests that the pigs are taking control because there's no choice for the animals.

There's no opportunity for them to have an opinion or to change anything.

And this is lasting forever, therefore showing that the pigs have control over the other animals.

If you need to add some notes to the work that you've done, or if you want to copy down any of the information on the screen, just pause the video and then press play.

And we will move on together.

Another one for you to have a go at independently.

All the animals nodded in complete agreement, and the cleverer ones at once began to learn the commandments by heart.

Take your time, pause the video here, have a go at annotating the quotation, and then press play when you'd like to see how I've annotated mine.

Okay.

Let's see how you did here.

Now I've chosen all the animals in complete agreement to annotate together because I think they suggest something similar.

So all the animals and complete agreement shows that everyone agrees with the pigs.

There's no one who is arguing or asking questions because it's all of the animals in complete agreement.

This tells us that the pigs are taking control because there's no one dissenting.

There's no one disagreeing with them.

And then the second thing that I've highlighted is at once.

So the animals don't look at the commandments and think oh yeah, I'll think about them, I'll read them later.

At once they begin to learn them by heart.

So there's two things that could show the pigs were in control.

Number one, maybe the animals are really keen to start learning them because they trust the pigs completely to know what's best for them.

So they start learning straight away.

Alternatively, they might be afraid.

If they're doing it immediately, with no questions asked, maybe that shows the pigs are in control because the other animals are too scared to not do it.

So there are two different thoughts there.

And you can write down both of the thoughts, and then maybe highlight the one that you agree with the most.

Spend some time thinking about it if you want to, and then choose which idea you think is probably the most accurate.

Okay so now we've done some really great quotation explosions, we're going to take everything that we have spoken about in today's lesson, and complete some sentences.

So we have three bullet points on the screen.

The pigs change the name of the farm because.

When the other animals see the seven commandments.

Although the seventh commandment says all animals are equal.

You need to finish those off.

So pause the video, do your best, use the notes that you've made throughout the lesson, and the press play when you are ready to check your answers.

Good luck.

Okay, let's see what everyone got.

I will read out my examples of the possible answers you could have included, but as long as your answers are similar and they include the same ideas, I'm sure your answers are wonderful as well.

The pigs change the name of the farm because it gives them more power.

So we spoke about naming of things and giving it power, and making it real, making it reality.

So anything similar to that is your answer is brilliant.

When the other animals see the seven commandments, they immediately begin go learn them off by heart.

So hopefully you included something about the reaction of the animals with this sentence.

And then finally, although the seventh commandment says all animals are equal, the pigs are clearly more powerful, which shows Orwell using irony.

If you included irony in that answer, that's incredible, and you should be really, really proud of yourself.

Give yourself a massive pat on the back because that would be a very top answer.

So brilliant work.

If you didn't mention irony, but you did speak about the pigs being more powerful or at the top of the hierarchy, then that is also an excellent answer.

So anything to do with the pigs being more powerful than the other animals would count as a correct answer.

And that's lesson 10 complete.

So in today's lesson we have discovered how the pigs are taking power on the farm.

And we've looked in detail at how Orwell has used language to show that happening to us as readers.

You worked really, really hard this lesson, so if your parent or career would like to share any of your work on Twitter, the hashtag and the Oak National handle is on the screen right now.

Enjoy the rest of your day or evening, and I'm really looking forward to studying lesson 11 together with you soon.

Thank you.