Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to lesson 11 of "Animal Farm".

Now, in previous lessons, we have started to look at the way the pigs are taking charge, and they've given the other animals the Seven Commandments.

Snowball and Napoleon are clearly the two people in charge on the farm.

However, in this lesson, we're going to start to explore how much Snowball and Napoleon disagree, and, in particular, the different approaches they have to education on the farm.

So, when you're ready, please make sure you found somewhere quiet, and somewhere you can concentrate, and get yourself something to write with, something to write on, and we'll get started.

Here's just the extra opportunity for you to make sure that you've got your pen or pencil and paper or exercise book before we get started, so, if needed, pause the video, and get settled, but if you're ready, then let's start the lesson together now.

We'll do our recap, to begin with, before moving on to looking at the new vocabulary, this lesson, and then reading about Snowball, and Snowball's approach to education on the farm, before starting to look at Napoleon, and the way that he differs to Snowball, and finally, your exit quiz, for you to show off all of your learning from today's lesson.

So, for our recap today, the question is, who is taking control of the farm? Is it, option one, Farmer Jones, option two, the pigs, option three, the animals, or option four, humans.

I think you guys can do this one pretty quickly, but do pause the video, if you need to, to read the answers, take your time, select the correct answer, and then press play when you're ready to find out how you've done.

So, hopefully everyone selected option two.

The pigs are taking control of the farm.

Farmer Jones has gone, the rebellion got rid of him.

The animals might think they have some control, but the pigs are the ones that are setting all of the rules.

And finally, option four.

Humans are nowhere to be seen on the farm at all.

So, it's definitely option two, the pigs.

So, I thought this might be a good opportunity for us to recap the story so far.

After the rebellion, the pigs took charge, and the Seven Commandments were given to the animals.

That year, the harvest was finished in two days less time than usual, and it was the biggest harvest the farm had ever seen.

This is very important for us to know.

Imagine that you are an animal on the farm, and the first year the humans have been chased away, and it's the pigs that are controlling the farm, in that first year, your harvest is amazing.

You finish earlier, and yet you get more food out of it.

So, the animals are going to be pretty happy at this point, and that's what we need to remember, moving forward.

New vocabulary for us to know, for this lesson, is the word manipulate, manipulate.

Say that nice and loudly after me, manipulate.

Okay, excellent.

So, manipulate means to control or influence in a skilled way.

Now, that second half of this definition is very important.

Manipulating is not simply controlling or influencing someone.

it's being able to control someone, or influence them, in a skilled way.

Manipulation, or when you manipulate someone, is a very clever thing to do.

So, here are some examples of that word being used.

The company manipulated their workers to accept less money.

So, this would be a company controlling or influencing their workers, but in a very skilled way.

It's not obvious, it has to be, almost, a hidden way.

So, the company manipulated, they skillfully controlled, their workers, to accept less money.

Governments sometimes manipulate societies.

So, governments aren't going to be very honest about whether they're controlling us.

They're not going to say, yeah, do you know what, we're telling you exactly what to do all the time, but sometimes what they might do is control or influence their society in a very skilled way, in a clever way.

They manipulate people.

And then, finally, manipulation requires intelligence.

So, everything that I've been repeating over and over again is that manipulation is something that requires skill, it requires intelligence.

It's a clever thing to do.

So, manipulate means having control over someone.

Is that true or false? I want you to think really carefully about that.

Does manipulate mean having control over someone? Pause the video, and write down, or shout at the screen, true or false.

And then, when you're ready, we'll find out the answer.

So, the answer is false.

Manipulate does not mean having control over someone.

Now, that's because manipulate means controlling or influencing in a skilled way.

It doesn't mean you control everything someone does.

It means that you control them with skill.

You're clever about it.

Manipulate means using skill to control or influence others.

I think this one might be less tricky.

So, shout the answer at the screen now, true or false, manipulate means using skill to control or influence others, true or false.

Excellent, that is 100% true.

That is a lovely definition of manipulate.

So, hopefully you can all give yourself a big thumbs up for that one.

Now, let's move on to the extract, and reading the following extracts will help you to understand why we needed to learn that new piece of vocabulary today.

So, just to give you a little bit of background, before we delve into reading the actual extract.

Snowball and Napoleon are the two pigs in charge on the farm.

They're the pigs who came up with the commandments, and who gave instructions for the very successful harvest on the farm.

So, at this point, the animals are going to be trusting them.

They are leading together, but have very different ideas about Animalism.

Snowball has organised reading and writing classes for all animals, whereas Napoleon thinks it's best to educate the young.

So, this is where they differ on education.

Snowball wants it for all animals, and he's organised classes for them.

He's gone about it in a very organised, very planned way.

Napoleon, on the other hand, thinks it's best to only educate the young, and we're going to explore that now.

So, I'll read out this extract for you.

The reading and writing classes, however, were a great success.

By the autumn, almost every animal on the farm was literate in some degree.

As for the pigs, they could already read and write perfectly.

The dogs learned to read fairly well, but were not interested in reading anything except the Seven Commandments.

So, what I'd like you to do now, you have two options.

If you have printed out the downloadable resource, then you can highlight the parts of this extract exactly where I have highlighted in blue.

If you haven't got the downloadable resource, I would recommend writing out the quotations that I have highlighted in blue, and leaving plenty of space around them for you to make notes.

There are two questions on the screen.

So, I want you to think about how this would make the animals feel about Snowball.

If almost every animal on the farm was literate, that means could read and write, to some degree, so, could read and write to some kind of level, how would the animals feel about Snowball if he was responsible for that? And then, the second question, the pigs could already read and write perfectly.

What does this suggest about the connection between education and hierarchy? So, I've given you a reminder of what hierarchy means at the bottom of the screen.

So, it's when we organise people based on their importance or responsibility.

So, if the pigs are at the top of the hierarchy, and they are the animals that can already read and write perfectly, what is that connection, do you think, between where you are in a hierarchy and how much education you have? So, I would like you to pause the video here, take as much time as you need to to think about these questions, and answer the questions, either on your extract, or on your page that you're working on at the moment.

Press play when you're ready for some feedback, and to compare your answers to the examples that I've given.

Good luck.

Okay, so, here are some possible answers for what you may have written.

Now, Snowball is the person, or, sorry, the pig, in charge of reading and writing.

So, Snowball is the one responsible for all of the animals being able to read and write to some level.

So, I think that would make the animals think that Snowball cares about them, and that he's making their lives better.

They know that the pigs can read and write, and here is Snowball teaching them all how to do it.

He cares about them.

He's treating them the same as the pigs are treated.

He wants them all to be equal.

That's how the animals would see him.

For the second question, that link between being educated and how high up you are in the hierarchy.

I think this suggests that the more educated someone is, the higher up in the hierarchy they will be.

And that then results in them having more power.

So, Orwell, by writing this, is clearly sending a message to readers, that with a better education, or with more education, you are more likely to become someone who has lots of power.

So, education is power.

That's what Orwell is suggesting here.

If you need to add to your notes, pause the video to do so.

If you've already got all of this stuff down, absolutely brilliant work, and we will move on together now.

You now have a second piece of new vocabulary, so, I hope you are thinking hard today.

This one's a little bit shorter than the work we did on manipulate.

So, this one is just a really quick overview.

And the new word is maxim, maxim.

A maxim is a short, memorable statement.

So, it's a short statement, something that you can remember, and it expresses an accepted truth or statement.

So, it's something short and memorable that expresses, really nicely, something that everyone assumes to be true.

And we're going to have a look at one here.

None of the other animals on the farm could get further than the letter A.

It was also found that the stupider animals, such as the sheep, hens, and ducks, were unable to learn the Seven Commandments by heart.

After much thought, Snowball declared that the Seven Commandments could, in effect, be reduced to a single maxim, namely, "Four legs good, two legs bad".

This, he said, contained the essential principle of Animalism.

Whoever had thoroughly grasped it would be safe from human influences.

So, the maxim that we're talking about is "Four legs good, two legs bad".

That essentially means that it's a short statement that summarises everything that the Seven Commandments say.

And Snowball decides to teach the stupider animals, so, the animals who struggle to learn to read and write, Snowball says, okay, well, I'll tell you to say "Four legs good, two legs bad", because that's basically what the Seven Commandments mean anyway.

So, as we did before, there are a few questions on the screen.

Again, if you have the extract printed out, please highlight the parts that I've highlighted.

If you haven't got the extract, just copy out the quotations that I have highlighted on the screen, with plenty of space around them.

The first question is, does Snowball actually care about the animals? So, does he give them this single maxim because he cares about them, or does he simply want them to know the rules? And then, finally, when Snowball says that anyone who knows this will be safe from humans, how is he manipulating the animals here? So, have a look back in your notes for what manipulated means.

Take your time, pause the video, have a go at the questions, and then press play when you're ready to go through the answers.

Okay, so, let's have a look at the answers all together.

The first question was whether the Snowball was concerned about the animals, or whether he's concerned about them knowing the rules.

And my answer for this was that Snowball is only concerned about them understanding what Animalism is.

He doesn't care whether they're educated.

Now, the reason I've said this is because, if Snowball genuinely wanted them to be equal, and to be able to read and write, he would work harder, and spend much more time helping the sheep, and the hens, and the ducks.

But instead he just says, well, it doesn't really matter if you can read and write.

What matters is that you know what the rules are, and that you know what Animalism is.

So, he just gives them something to memorise.

He doesn't work hard at making sure they're equal, and that they have power, because they're educated.

He just says, oh, don't mind worry, just memorise this.

So, he's more bothered about Animalism than he is about the animals.

The second question, how does Snowball manipulate them? Well, Snowball is making the animals think that they need Animalism to keep them safe from danger.

Because, in this line, he's arguing that if you don't understand Animalism, then you will not be safe.

So, it's almost like a threat, and he's making them believe that Animalism will keep them safe.

It's a way of controlling them, and of influencing them, but he's doing it in a really clever way, because the animals will think, oh, Snowball's looking after us.

So, that's great, Snowball's lovely, he's making sure we're safe.

When, actually, Snowball is threatening them with danger to make sure they learn what the rules are.

So, that's how Snowball is manipulating the animals.

If you need to pause here, to note down those things, then please feel free to do so.

If you've already got those answers, then we will move on.

So, the next extract.

The birds did not understand Snowball's long words, but they accepted his explanation, and all the humbler animals set to work to learn the new maxim by heart.

"Four legs good, two legs bad" was inscribed on the end wall of the barn, above the Seven Commandments, and in bigger letters.

When they had once got it by heart, the sheep developed a great liking for this maxim, and often, as they lay in the field, they would all start bleating, "Four legs good, two legs bad, four legs good, two legs bad", and keep it up for hours on end, never growing tired of it.

So, again, I've just taken a smaller part of this extract, the bits that I think are really important.

There are questions for you to answer.

So, the first one is, how does this quotation show the relationship between manipulation and education? So, the birds don't understand what Snowball was saying.

They don't understand all of the long fancy words, so they just accept his explanation.

So, because they're not educated, they just accept what they're told.

So, what does that suggest about manipulation and education? And then, finally, I want you to think about why the maxim, "Four legs good, two legs bad", why is that written in even bigger letters than the commandments? Why is that being treated as more important, do you think? Take your time, pause the video, spend some time thinking, and noting down your ideas, and then press play when you're ready.

Okay, let's see how we did here.

Now, for the first question, I think it's important for us to recognise that Orwell is suggesting that those who are uneducated, or who don't have much of an education, will be easier to manipulate.

So, someone who doesn't have much of an education will be much easier to manipulate.

And that's because they don't understand everything.

So, what that means is that, when they're told something, if they don't understand it fully, they just believe it, and they just go with it, because they don't have the power to find out for themselves.

And this is really closely related to our life today, with social media, and lots of fake news going around.

For people who cannot read or write as well as other people, fake news is a lot more dangerous, because people can't figure out what's true and what's not.

And that's exactly what's happening on "Animal Farm".

That's exactly what Orwell was warning us, that if you do not have a good education, you might be easier to manipulate, and that's the message he's giving us.

For the second question, the maxim is easy for all of the animals to understand.

So, what that means is they need to have the maxim as the biggest thing on the wall, because every animal can access that, every animal can read that.

And as long as every animal can read that, they will all believe the same thing.

And the thing they believe in is what the pigs want them to believe.

And so, it's really easy for the pigs to manipulate them, because all animals will believe this one thing: "Four legs good, two legs bad".

We're going to we'll move on to the next part, but if you need to add any notes, and read through my answers on the screen, please do take your time and pause the video, because these two questions were quite tricky, so, you might want to spend some more time thinking, or discussing, these questions, and adding notes to your extract.

If you're ready, or when you're ready, let's move on to the next part of the lesson.

So, this next part is moving on to Napoleon.

So far, we have spoken about Snowball, and now we're moving on to Napoleon.

We've done loads of reading, we've learned new vocabulary, you're doing really, really well, so just stick with me for the last chunk of the lesson, to learn about Snowball.

Sorry, to learn about Napoleon.

Napoleon took no interest in Snowball's committees.

He said that the education of the young was more important than anything that could be done for those who were already grown up.

It happened that Jessie and Bluebell had both whelped soon after the hay harvest, giving birth, between them, to nine sturdy puppies.

As soon as they were weaned, Napoleon took them away from their mothers, saying that he would make himself responsible for their education.

He took them up into a loft which could only be reached by a ladder from the harness room, and there, kept them in such seclusion that the rest of the farm soon forgot their existence.

So, this is interesting.

Napoleon had nothing to do with teaching the animals to read and write.

And, actually, what he did instead was waited for the two dogs to give birth, and they had nine puppies.

As soon as those puppies were born, Napoleon took them away, and kept them secluded.

So, he kept them separate to everyone else on the farm.

And he believed that educating the young was the most important.

But not only was he just educating them, Napoleon was the only other animal they ever saw.

So, he was keeping them very, very close, and not exposing them to anything else except himself.

So, I would like you to make sure you're taking notes about this extract, because you're going to need it for the next activity.

So, pause the video here, and all of the bits that I've highlighted in blue, you need to make sure you either have written down, or you've highlighted on your own extract, because they are absolutely crucial for the next activity.

So, pause the video here, and either make sure you've highlighted those important points, or written down those important points on your piece of paper.

And when you've got them all written down, press play, and we will use them for the next activity.

So, here we have some gap fill exercises.

There are five words that you need to fill in, based on the information that you've just been given.

I've given you the first letter for each gap to help you along.

So, pause the video here, write down the words in the gaps.

If you've got the downloadable resource, you'll just have to write in the gap.

And if you haven't, it's up to you whether you would like to copy out the entire piece of writing, and then underline the words that you've included, or if you'd just like to write down the single words, it's completely up to you.

So, pause the video, have a go this activity, and then press play when you're ready for the answers.

Good luck! How did you all do? I'll read it out for you, and then, every time I get to the word that you should have filled in, I will raise my voice a little bit, and just emphasise the word.

Napoleon did not think that all animals should be educated.

Instead, he believed the education of the young was most important.

When nine puppies were born on the farm, he took them away from their mothers.

The puppies were kept in seclusion.

Napoleon has kept the puppies away from everyone else, so it is easier to manipulate them.

So, if you got five out of five on this, give yourself a massive smile, pat on the back, thumbs up, really, really well done, that's incredible.

If you didn't get five out of five, I'm sure you did really, really well.

If you didn't get any of them, I would recommend rewinding the video, and just rereading it, making some notes, and having another go.

So, just before we finish for today's lesson, I wanted to just emphasise the point that we need to understand about Napoleon.

The reason that he has kept the puppies away from everyone else, is because it means it's easier to manipulate them.

If he wants to control them, and influence them, and make them do exactly what he wanted them to do, he needs to do that from a young age, and he also needs to make sure there's no influence from anyone else.

And that's why he keeps them secluded, because Napoleon is the only one they are ever exposed to.

So, everything they know will come from Napoleon, and they will believe everything Napoleon says.

So, he's been very clever, and it sounds like he's planning for the future, but we will definitely find that out in our future lessons.

So, just to finish off, why does Napoleon want to keep the puppies secluded from the rest of the farm? Does he want to keep the puppy safe? Is it because he doesn't want Snowball to teach them anything? Is it because he wants to manipulate the puppies completely, or is it because he thinks the puppies are dangerous? Pause the video, select the correct option, and then press play when you're ready.

Excellent, option three is correct.

Napoleon wants to manipulate the puppies completely, and that's why he wants to keep them secluded from the rest of the farm.

You have done some very, very challenging work today.

You've worked really, really hard, and should be super proud of yourselves, I know I am.

Our next lesson together will be lesson 12, so, we really get into the juicy parts of the book, and I can't wait to work with you on it.

If you'd like to, or your parent or carer would like to share your work on Twitter, then the hashtag and the Twitter handle is on the screen now, and I will see you soon for our next lesson.

Well done today.