Lesson video

Welcome back to our lessons on animal farm.

We are now on lesson nine so we're really getting to the good parts of the story.

This lesson is one of my favourites because we're going to look at the rebellion itself and what causes the animals to finally take that last step and rebel against the farmers.

So make sure you've got a comfortable and quiet space to work and you've printed off any of the downloadable resources, if you can.

And if not that you've got a pen and paper to work with and then when you're ready and you're comfortable let's get started to find out more about the rebellion on animal farm.

As always.

Here is another opportunity for you to make sure that you are prepared for the lesson.

So if you need to pause the video here and get yourself comfortable, press play, when you're ready.

If you're already prepared, then let's get started on looking at the rebellion on animal farm.

As always, we begin with a recap before moving on to looking at the extract and then some comprehension questions.

So really making sure that we understand exactly what's going on.

And then we'll think about the allegory We haven't spoken about it for a while.

So we're going to start to make some connections between animal farm and the Russian revolution, and finally your lovely exit quiz, where you get to show off everything that you know.

So for a recap question today, we're going to go back to a few lessons ago.

And the question is which real life character from the Russian revolution does Farmer Jones represent.

So Farmer Jones is the tyrant in charge before the revolution.

So does he represent Stalin, a communist, George Orwell or Tsar Nichols the second? take your time with this one pause the video and then press play when you're ready.

Excellent work there, the correct answer was option for Tsar Nicolas the second.

Both farmer Jones and Tsar Nicolas the second are tyrants.

And, they are controlling everyone before a revolution happens.

So option one, Stalin, he's the person in control after the revolution.

Option two a communist, farmer Jones would certainly not be a communist because he did not believe in equality.

And option three is George Orwell, the writer.

So he is not represented in the story at all.

And that leaves us with Tsar Nicholas the second representing farmer Jones, both of them being the tyrant before the revolution.

So let's get straight into the extract today.

After Old Major died the pigs continue to share his teachings.

And last lesson we spoke about the pigs, sharing the teachings under the name of animalism.

As well as that, Snowbelt, snowball sorry, taught the animals, how to read and write, and they prepared for a future rebellion.

So there's a lot going on on the farm before the rebellion Snowball is educating animals and they're all preparing for something that they hope is going to happen soon.

Here's the extract.

Now, as it turned out, the rebellion was achieved much earlier and more easily than anyone had expected.

In past years, Mr. Jones, although a hard master, had been a capable farmer, but top late, he had fallen on evil days.

He had become much disheartened after losing money in a lawsuit, and had taken to drinking more than was good for him.

For whole days at a time, he would lounge in his Windsor chair in the kitchen, reading the newspapers, drinking and occasionally feeding Moses on crusts of bread soaked in beer.

His men were idle and dishonest, the fields were full of weeds, The buildings wanted roofing, the hedges when neglected and the animals were underfed.

So in this extract we're given a picture of the farm before the rebellion.

So the state of the farm before the rebellion is what is being described to us in this extract.

So what I would like you to do, is answer these questions in full sentences.

What kind of man had Farmer Jones become lately? What did farmer Jones do during the day, and what state was the farming? So there're three questions for you to answer.

If you have printed off the downloadable resource you'll have the extract to help you answer them.

If you haven't rewind this video so that you have the extract on the screen to answer the questions.

Press pause, have a go at all three questions and then press play when you're ready.

Okay.

So question number one.

What kind of man had Farmer Jones become lately? Now a quotation that you might've picked up on to answer this, 'but of late, he had fallen on evil days'.

Now the adjective evil tells us that Farmer Jones is not behaving well.

So what kind of man has he become lately? Not a very good one.

He is becoming evil and he starting to do evil things.

What did Farmer Jones do during the day?.

So this was your second question.

And the quotation that I found for this, 'For whole days at a time, he would lounge in his Windsor chair in the kitchen, reading the newspapers, drinking and occasionally feeding Moses.

' So this tells us exactly what he does but we're going to dive a little bit deeper.

For whole days at a time.

All well has chosen to describe it in that way because he wants to emphasise that farmer Jones, does it all of the time.

For whole days, he does this.

He would lounge in his chair.

Lounge suggests some kind of laziness.

You're not sitting in it, you're lounging in it which suggests you're kind of sloppy and lazy and don't care very much.

The next thing I underlined was drinking.

Showing that Farmer Jones is enjoying luxuries, drinking alcohol is expensive and it's something you don't need to do.

So it's a luxury and Farmer Jones is enjoying doing that while the animals have nothing at all.

And then finally, he's occasionally feeding Moses.

Moses is the black bird, and the fact that he is occasionally feeding him rather than all the time, shows us that he doesn't really care very much.

He's just doing it occasionally when he can be bothered.

So he doesn't really have any care for the animals on his farm.

So that's the answer for number two.

And then finally, what state was the farming? So the extract had parts of it which specifically told us what state the farm was in.

And that's where I've got my quotation from, 'the fields were full of weeds, the buildings wanted roofing, the hedges were neglected and the animals were underfed.

' So, if the fields are full of weeds, that suggests to us that there's not that much time spent looking after the farm.

If a farmer were taking care of his land he would make sure it was weeded appropriately.

The second thing I've underlined is neglected.

This is a really powerful adjective that Orwell has chosen to use.

If something is neglected, it suggests that no one cares.

And so if the hedges are neglected, this is telling us that no one cares about the farm.

No one wants to spend any time making it better.

And then finally the animals were underfed.

This is a motive language being used by Orwell.

We feel sorry for the animals.

They aren't being fed enough.

So the farm is messy, it's neglected, and the animals aren't even being fed properly.

So now you've got an answer to all three of those showing that you really understand the extract.

I want you to complete the sentence on the screen.

The rebellion happened sooner than expected because, Napoleon and snowball forced the animals to rebel, because Farmer Jones was not looking after the animals, because farmer Jones had stopped caring about the farm, or because squealer persuaded the animals to rebel.

So what reason or reasons are there for the rebellion happening sooner than expected? Pause the video here, select the option or options that you think are correct and then press play when you're ready.

So there were two correct answers here.

I tried to give you a bit of a hint by smiling when I said all options.

So hopefully you picked up on that, Farmer James was not looking after the animals, and Farmer James had stopped caring about the farm.

So there are two reasons it happens sooner than expected.

Napoleon and snowball were preparing for a rebellion but they did not start it.

And they didn't force the animals to do anything.

Similarly, squealer, a brilliant talker and amazing at persuading people to do things.

But we haven't seen that happen yet.

That has not happened before the rebellion.

So the rebellion happened sooner than expected because Farmer Jones had neglected the farm, and not fed the animals.

So let's read the next part of the extract together.

June came and the hay was almost ready for cutting.

On Midsummer's Eve, which was a Saturday, Mr. Jones went into Willingdon and got so drunk at the red lion that he did not come back till midday on Sunday.

The men had milked the cows in the early morning and then had gone out rabbiting without bothering to feed the animals.

When Mr. Jones got back, he immediately went to sleep on the drawing room sofa with the news of the world over his face, so that when evening came the animals were still unfed.

So this is painting a picture of what the situation is like on the farm over a weekend.

So no one who worked on the farm had fed the animals that day.

Based on the extract, we've just read.

Is that true or is it false? Write it down or shout it at the screen for me no one who worked on the farm had fed the animals that day true or false? Okay, Let's have a look at the answer.

That is true.

No one had fed the animals, Farmer Jones hadn't but neither had any of the other men on the farm.

So the animals on the farm are starving.

At this point, they haven't been fed at all.

And we know that from the very last line, 'the animals were still on fed'.

Let's read this part together, at last, they could stand it no longer.

One of the cows broke in the door to the store-shed with her horn and all the animals began to help themselves from the bins.

It was just then that Mr. Jones woke up.

The next moment he and his Four men were in the store shed with whips in their hands and lashing out in all directions.

This was more than the hungry animals could bear.

With one accord though, nothing of the kind had been planned beforehand, they flung themselves upon their tormentors Jones and his men suddenly found themselves being butted and kicked from all sides.

So this is telling us about how the animals reacted when, they had not been fed.

They broke in to a shed to help themselves to feed because they were starving.

Mr. Jones and his men started beating the animals because they'd broken into a shed and the animals because they were so hungry couldn't bear it anymore and started attacking the men back.

So the cows broke into the store shed because they wanted to start the rebellion.

Is that true or false? Did the cows break into the store shed because they wanted to start a rebellion.

Let's see if you're right.

That is false.

The cows did not want to start through rebellion.

In fact, the cows could not help themselves.

They were so hungry.

They had to find food from somewhere.

And that's the reason they broke into the store shed.

The animals turned on the farmers because they were so hungry.

Is this statement true or false? This one is a hundred percent true.

The only reason the animals turned on the farmers, and started attacking back was because they were so hungry and angry.

I'm sure a lot of you can relate to this.

I know I can, if I'm really really hungry, and then I get angry, I'm not very nice.

So we can imagine how the animals must have been feeling.

And here's our evidence, 'at last they could stand it no longer.

' So that's the reason the cows broke in.

And 'this was more than the hungry animals could bear' showing that when they started being hit and lashed with the whips, it was too much.

They were hungry and now they're being hurt, and they had to react.

And so they did.

So let's read the final part of the extract together.

The situation was quite out of their control.

After only a moment or two, they gave up trying to defend themselves and took to their heels.

A minute later, all five of them were in full flight down the cart-track that led to the main road, with the animals, pursuing them in triumph.

And so, almost before they knew what was happening the rebellion had been successfully carried through Jones was expelled and the Manor Farm was theirs.

So this extract is showing us how the animals lost control.

Really.

They started attacking the men and the men couldn't fight back.

So they ran away.

And then by look, they did not plan it, but the animals all of a sudden found themselves with animal farm or Manor farm at this point, all to themselves by complete accident Almost before they knew what was happening the rebellion had been successfully carried through.

So at this point, never rebellion has happened.

Now, the key thing for us to know through this is that almost before they knew what was happening, suggest to us that, the animals did not planned for this rebellion.

And we need to remember this, no one planned for the cows to break into the store shed, no one gathered the animals together and said, okay on this day, at this time we will rebel.

This was something that happened just because the opportunity arose.

It was a complete accident A happy accident you might say.

So for the animals, it was definitely a happy accident a complete surprise, but something they were pleased about.

Now there's some new vocabulary that we need to be aware of before we can move on.

And the new word is overthrow.

Overthrow, say that nice and loud for me Overthrow brilliant and overthrow means removing from power using force or violence.

So Tsar Nicolas the second, was overthrown in the 1917 Russian revolution.

He was in power and he was removed from power by the Russian revolution where force and violence was used.

Farmer Jones was overthrown by the animals in Orwell's animal farm.

So the animals removed Farmer Jones from his position on the farm, using violence and got rid of him.

Now the final activity for this lesson is a chance for you to show off everything, you know and you are being asked to create sentences using the information that I've given you.

All of your sentences need to begin with in animal farm.

And I have given you an example for the first one.

So you can see next to the first bullet point there are three chunks with a slash in between.

So you've got Farmer Jones, tyrant, overthrown.

The sentence that I've created based on that information is underneath in bold in 'Animal Farm', Farmer Jones is a tyrant who is overthrown by the animals.

So you're using the information in the bullet points and you're starting each sentence within animal farm.

You use the first one as a model to help you press pause here, try your best and then press play when you're ready for some feedback.

Good luck.

Okay.

Let's have a look at some possible answers.

It's important that we recognise that these are possible answers.

So they may not be exactly the same as what you have.

In 'Animal Farm' Farmer Jones represents Tsar Nicolas the second, in the allegory of the Russian revolution.

If you have something about how Farmer Jones and Tsar Nicolas, the second uh, they're meant to be the same in the allegory then you've done wonderfully and that is correct.

The second sentence in animal farm the animals represent the unhappy Russian people in the allegory of the Russian revolution.

So again, you're comparing some characters from the story with real life people.

So anything about how the animals and the unhappy Russian people are the same in the allegory will be a wonderful answer.

And then finally, this one is a little bit more challenging.

So a possible answer is in 'Animal Farm'.

Farmer Jones is a weak leader.

So there is an opportunity for animalism to grow.

This one was quite tricky but hopefully you understood that Farmer Jones was weak because he was lazy and he drank a lot and he wasn't doing his job properly.

And because he wasn't doing his job properly.

That's how there was an opportunity for the animals to start listening to the pigs, and for animalism to become a thing.

If all of the animals were really happy then animalism couldn't exist because they'd say, we are not, our lives are great.

We don't need any other ideas, but actually because they were unhappy and their lives, weren't very good.

They wanted any other things to, to hold on to any other ideas would be better than their lives at the moment.

And that's exactly what happened with the Russian revolution as well.

So the allegory of animal farm and the Russian revolution is really, really clear, when we understand how the rebellion started.

You've done some incredible work today.

We've done a lot of reading of extracts, and we've also come up with some brilliant sentences at the end.

So give yourselves a massive pat on the back you've worked really well.

Our next lesson together will be lesson 10, which is amazing.

So please join me for our next lesson and until then finish off the quiz for this lesson just to see how much you remember and get ready to learn more about animal farm, next time we work together Well done and see you soon.