Lesson video

I'm Mrs Crompton.

Welcome to today's English lesson.

It's week five, lesson four.

And our focus today is writing skills and the use of symbolism in our work.

You will need a pen and paper.

Take a moment to make sure you've cleared any distractions away, and have everything you need to hand.

To start with then, let's be clear about what we mean by symbolism.

Symbolism is the use of an image, and that image is there to help create meaning and emotion in a story.

Where an image is repeated throughout a text, it's called a motif.

Let's use an example from one of the texts we've studied.

So, little passage from "Samphire" by Patrick O'Brian for us here sheer, sheer the white Cliff rising, straight up from the sea.

So far that the riding waves were nothing but ripples on a huge calm.

Now the cliffs they go on to be absolutely central to the narrative, and they are equally a symbol, they are a symbol of the state of Molly and Lacey's relationship, the fact that it is now on an edge, and the dynamic shifts within the narrative.

So the white cliff becomes a symbol of the relationship itself.

Now, over to you.

So what I'm going to ask you to do is to pick up this idea of a symbol for relationship, it seems to suit the kind of reading we've been doing the work we've been doing.

So we'll focus on a relationship.

You're going to see a series of images and when you see them, I would like you to record the image on your piece of paper, as well as then your thoughts about that particular symbol.

What type of relationship could it represent? Is it a couple? Is it a relationship between a parent and child? Or is it a family member relationship? Think about the properties of each of the items and the potential connotations there might offer.

You might want to switch between one relationship and another depending on what the symbol makes you think of.

Or you might want to try every single one as representing a relationship and track the way that different symbols suggest different elements to a relationship, suggest different dynamics within the relationship et cetera.

Let's just have a little look at the symbols and then I will hand over control of the screen to you.

So we have a kite, quite a bright kite.

But I've deliberately selected an image where you can still see the string attached.

And I think that's quite an important element to consider.

Within your connotations and properties.

We then have an oak tree the next image along is the inside of a kaleidoscope.

So the kaleidoscope is the telescope like toy that you might have had as a child.

And when you twist it around, different patterns form and different shapes are created.

We've then got a painter's palette in the bottom left hand corner, and then finally, a rope that is fraying and is at some sort of tension and breaking point there.

Okay, so we've got five images for you to explore.

You're going to think about what relationship they might represent and you can alter the relationship depending on what the Image suggests to you, I want you to think about the properties, the physical properties, the literal properties, and then also potential connotations.

So I hand control over to you.

Take your time, enjoy working through thinking about it creatively and imaginatively.

And when you are ready to join me again, press resume on your video.

Welcome back.

So you've got few ideas down now, let's do something a little bit further with those ideas and develop and refine them.

Now what I'm going to show you now is a response written by a year 10 student.

And in this response, they have taken one of those symbols the symbol of the kaleidoscope.

So as I read through this response with you, I would like you to track the following four elements so on your piece of paper, you need to write your prompts down.

So number one, how has the symbol of the kaleidoscope been used? And number two, what do you learn about the relationship? Try name what type of relationship it is anything else you find out any factual information.

Number three, what emotions are communicated.

Either between the presentation of the relationship or actually how you're feeling as a reader responding.

And then finally, any other design choices that you find effective.

So by that there could be things that this person has used within their writing you know that's a really fantastic idea.

I really like the effect there.

That isn't something I've tried before.

It's a brilliant opportunity also for you to peer assess because this is another year 10 student, peer assess, and to take on board some of the ideas that they've used in your own work.

Okay, are we ready? Let's have a look together.

Kaleidoscope, you were my escape.

My release, my distraction, your beauty made me forget the ugliness of the rest of the world.

I saw right through you, saw all your shapes and breathtaking intricacies.

I knew I'd always come back to you.

And there'd be another infinity for me to explore.

Every time, a new colour.

A new shape.

A new world for me to get lost in.

Perhaps I didn't want to be found.

Perhaps that's all you ever were, a game of hide and seek that neither of us would win.

After all, nobody can truly hide from reality.

Mother would always pull me back.

You were such a beautiful lie.

To think, to even imagine that those endless possibilities that you promised me were just plastic and mirrors.

Just a plain reflection of your former self.

Like I said, You lied.

After all, there are only so many ways I could twist and turn you around before even your most exquisite infinities, collapsed.

In truth, I was bored I have to be responsible now.

I don't have time for children's games.

Sometimes I think that just one look would be enough to escape into you again.

But I know your shapes would collapse in on themselves once more in a futile attempt to amuse me.

It's sad, isn't it? In the end, we all have to let go of our past and those fond memories.

Don't worry.

You won't be missed.

It seems as though life has caught up to this game of ours.

Who am I kidding? It seems as though I still want to play.

Do you? So at this point, if you just pause, have a little look through any notes that you've made and what did you think about that relationship I think the most interesting thing for me is.

The Kaleidoscope was just used as a title and a springboard and it's there in the background, you can see the details that relate to the kaleidoscope, but it's never explicitly mentioned again.

But you get this image of this quite difficult relationship where truths aren't being told and shapes keep shifting, or relationship keeps shifting, so you can see how that idea has been played out.

So it's just an example for you to use to further fuel some of your own ideas.

And what I would now like you to do is to take all of this information on board, think about where we're at and design your own writing.

First of all, you're going to review the images and think about the type of relationship you want to represent.

So I want you now to sift through the five images and settle on one.

And I would just like you to draught out your ideas for a response.

You're going to get a planning grid to support you in this I'll just skip forward a little bit and show you and in your planning grid lets think about who the characters are.

What the relationship is.

what events happening or what emotion it is that you want to communicate.

The symbol that you're going to use and the connotations and the emotion that you want to communicate and the impact on the reader that you want to achieve.

Okay, So, now you're going back through your symbols.

Eliminating four, settling on one, and planning through how you could use that in a piece of writing.

Control of the screen is over to you.

When you've worked through that activity, I'll be waiting for you at the other side.

And Welcome back.

So our final reflection on the use of symbolism is to just go back through the process itself, symbolism helps create meaning and emotion in a story.

Does your use of symbolism do this? That's the first point, I'd like you to think about how effective has your piece of writing or your plan being in achieving that particular function of actually creating additional meaning and emotion.

And then I think the other thing that I really want to say is that, symbols are something that you can explore and play around with.

But they're another little bit of armour in your toolkit for creative writing.

I'd like to share a story with you about the paints palette.

So that wasn't an original idea of mine of a symbol to share with somebody.

It came from another year 10 student, who wrote a piece for me about a relationship.

And I'd actually given them a stimulus image of a refugee.

So we were doing some work on refugees and looking at people feeling quite displaced as we were working through our anthology poetry.

And, the student is this image of the paint palette.

And, when I gave feedback, the comment from her was "Miss I've had that in my mind for a long time, and I've been waiting for an opportunity to use it." And that's what I want you to be able to do, I want you to have certain things that are in your mind, that are ideas that are bubbling away that you would like to use, and you'll be able to select at a relevant time.

So the final part of today's session is for you to think about some other images that you could use.

And I'd like you to generate between three and five symbols of your own and match them according to different genres and themes.

Because if we're going to be flexible, we want to be able to use them for different purposes.

Let me just remind you that we've experienced the image of the road and the windows so those two symbols have occurred in our writing.

And the symbol of the road, for example, is a common symbol in literature to represent an idea of a journey and therefore is really suited to quest style narratives.

Similarly, I've just seen the image of a tree, the image of an oak tree.

And I wonder if any of you did this is often linked with an idea of a family of roots have been established.

And then you can talk about how that is fractured.

Particularly with our Oak Academy, you know that the whole idea that the whole thing of the air con is this idea of growth from that point.

That's where our name comes from.

Symbols are all around us, symbols are vital to us.

And I would like you as your final reflection point, to try and come up with some of your own only symbols, and I really hope you're able to use them in your writing in the future.

Take your time of this final task jot down your ideas I'll be waiting for you when you're ready to resume the video.

To finish the learning for today, you have your recap quiz to complete.

All that remains for me to say is thank you for your focus and enjoy the rest of your learning today.