Lesson video

Hello, everybody, my name is Ms Butt.

And I'm going to be teaching you today some new vocabulary that I know at the moment that you're learning all about Harriet Tubman.

And I've been reading this book all about her.

And I think that she is the most inspirational and fascinating person.

So I'm really pleased that you're learning all about her.

Now today, we're going to be using some words that you could use to describe Harriet, because I'm hoping that they're going to be useful when you come to write all about her and her life.

I hope you enjoyed today's lesson.

Here's what we're going to do in today's lesson.

First, I'm going to introduce the new vocabulary, one word at a time.

And we're going to be looking at illustrations for each word, which will help us really understand what these words mean.

Then we're going to identify word pairs and synonyms and that's going to help us to again have a deeper understanding of the word and to be able to apply the word in lots of different contexts.

And finally, we're going to apply the new words in sentences.

And our sentences today are going to be all about Harriet Tubman, and therefore they should be useful when you come to write all about her.

Now, at the end of today's lesson, you're going to need to write a sentence yourself.

So you will need to have something to write on, and something to write with the end of the lesson.

Perhaps you would pause the video now and make sure you've got that ready and make sure that you're ready and focus to start your learning.

Okay, let's get started.

So some key vocabulary we're going to be using today are these words here and I would like you to repeat them back to me after I have said them just so I know that we're all engaged.

Synonym, word pair, adjective, noun.

So let's find out what these mean.

A synonym is a word that means exactly or nearly the same as another word.

A word Pair are words that often appear together.

So the word pairs for the word bright would be sun, moon, or light.

An adjective is a describing word and today we're going to be learning three words to describe Harriet Tubman.

And a noun is a person, a place or a thing.

So one thing that we know about Harriet Tubman, and I've read all about her in this fascinating book, is that she was incredibly hard-working.

So I'd like you to just pause for a moment and think of a time when you have worked really hard, a bit like we can see this character here.

Okay, let's take a look at our first hard-working word before we view our word we're going to first of all just focus on the image.

So, what is happening in this picture? Can you see some characters? How would you describe the characters? How do you think this feeling? What story is this picture telling? Can you pause the video and have a think about that now? But it looks to me like this character is being carried by two much smaller characters who look absolutely exhausted.

I can tell you look exhausted from that body language, their facial expressions they're kind of gritting their teeth, and it looks like they're sweating profusely.

The character who's being carried looks like they're having a jolly nice time eating pizza.

They got a platter of food fruit by them.

And they look like just they've got a nice comfy cushion.

And they are shaded from the sun so two very contrasting feelings going on here.

This word is gruelling, gruelling.

Gruelling is an adjective and it means difficult or draining, like the effort of carrying a huge bear.

Now I think we know which characters are being described as gruelling here because the character who's being carried looks very relaxed and like they're having a lovely time, but it looks like a gruelling job carrying that character.

So I'm going to read some words to you now and I'd like you to see if you can identify the synonyms of gruelling.

Now remember, a synonym is a word that means the same thing.

If the words aren't synonyms, that means that word pairs and we'll read those later.

Exhausting, workload, climb, schedule, draining, journey, marathon, demanding, race, training.

Here's the word in a sentence.

The journey was so gruelling that some people did not make it.

Can you pause the video and see if you can identify the three synonyms of gruelling.

So the synonyms are exhausting, draining and demanding We could replace the word gruelling with those words.

For example, the journey was so exhausting that some people did not make it or the journey was so demanding that some people did not make it.

That means the rest of these words are word pairs which I'm going to read to you now.

A gruelling workload, gruelling climb, a gruelling schedule.

So if you were given a schedule of what you were going to do each day and it was a gruelling schedule, what might that look like? Perhaps it might have start really early and finish really late and might have no breaks.

A gruelling journey, a gruelling marathon, a gruelling race and gruelling training so sometimes if you train to do something, it might be a really gruelling process.

So when we learn new words, it's really important that we read them out loud.

So I'd like you to pause the video now and read these word pairs out loud just like I did.

Excellent.

So before we move on, can you tell me what does gruelling mean? Well done, it means difficult or draining.

Let's take a look at our second illustration what is happening in this picture? How would you describe what this character is doing and how they are feeling? Pause the video and have a think about that now.

This looks a bit gruelling this task, this characters happen to do, it looks like they're having to push this enormous boulder, and this colossal boulder up a very step cliff.

And I can tell by then their body language, their facial expressions, the fact that they're sweating or perspiring that they seem extremely tired and this is hard work what they're doing, which is why we can see that this word must be connected to the word gruelling, because you could describe this task as a gruelling one.

But this word is laborious, laborious.

Laborious is an adjective, which means difficult or exhausting, like the job of pushing big, heavy boulders uphill.

You might notice that there's similar to the word labour.

If you said that I've been labouring on the fields all day, you'd be working so that you can see the connection to this word laborious, but if something's laborious, it's difficult or exhausting.

Let's take a look at some words that could be synonyms of laborious.

Chore, difficult, paperwork, slow, process, job, task, duty, efforts, exhausting and undertaking.

And undertaking is just something that you've taken on to do so if you had a laborious undertaking, it might be something you've agreed to do and then you find out it's actually extremely hard work.

Here's the word in a sentence.

These laborious expeditions were incredibly dangerous, as well as tiring.

Can you pause the video now and see if you can identify the synonyms of laborious.

So, the synonyms are, difficult, slow, and exhausting.

And that means the rest of these words are word pairs, which I'll read to you now.

A laborious chore, laborious paperwork, a laborious process, laborious job, a laborious undertaking, a laborious task laborious duty and laborious effort.

Could you now, pause the video and read these word pairs out loud.

Well done.

So before we move on, what does laborious mean? Well done, it means difficult or exhausting.

Okay, let's take a look at our final illustration.

What's happening in this picture? How would you describe this character? How do you think they're feeling? Pause the video and have a think about that now.

Well again, I can see that one character looks like they're having a very nice relaxing time with their feet up on a very comfy looking armchair.

Whiles the poor giraffe character is carrying them and looks absolutely exhausted, and back is all bent over and again from their kind of crooked neck and their facial expression.

It looks like they're finding this very difficult task.

This word is backbreaking, backbreaking.

This is an adjective that means exhausting or crushing.

Lifting something so heavy, it feels like your back will break.

Backbreaking is a compound word.

That's because it's made up of two words back and breaking.

Other examples of compound words are, keyboard, tablecloth, notebook, and football.

Let's take a look at some words that could be synonyms of backbreaking.

Tiring, work, effort, pace, task, operation, burden, chore, exhausting, job and crushing.

A burden is a heavy load.

Here's the word in a sentence.

At only six years old, Harriet began the backbreaking task of taking care of a baby.

Now, of course, taking care of a baby would not usually described as a back breaking task.

But if you were only six years old, it probably would be because she was only very small herself.

But she's having to carry around a baby and do all these things for it it probably would have been a very difficult task.

So can you pause the video now and try to identify the synonyms of backbreaking.

So the synonyms are tiring, exhausting and crushing.

And that means the rest of the words are word pairs, which I'll read now.

Backbreaking work, backbreaking effort, a backbreaking pace.

The pace is how quickly you might go.

So if you are doing an activity at a backbreaking pace it's like you're having to do it so quickly that it's almost as if it's exhausting almost if it feels like you're back going to break.

A backbreaking task, a backbreaking burden, remember a burden is like a heavy load.

And it could be an actual physical heavy load.

But it also just could be, if you've got a burden like, a huge responsibility could be described as a burden.

So it doesn't necessarily have to be like a heavy load and like a massive something.

It could be more sort of metaphorical than that.

A backbreaking chore, a backbreaking job, and a backbreaking operation.

Could you now pause the video and read these word pairs aloud, just because that's the way that this word is going to stick in your memory.

Excellent, well done.

So we have that three new words.

And these words all describe someone who works extremely hard.

Can you remember what each word is? Pause the video and tell me now.

Okay, so the first image shows gruelling.

The second image shows laborious, and the third image was backbreaking.

I'd now like you to come up with your own definition for each word.

It doesn't need to be exactly the same as the definition that I read to you earlier.

But it's really important that we try to explain things in our own words, because that's another way that's going to help us to understand and just to remember the meaning.

So imagine that you would speaking somebody who's never heard any of these words before, they haven't got a clue what they mean and they can't see these lovely pictures like you can see.

How would you explain what this means? So how would you say really means.

So can you pause the video now and try to explain each word in your own words.

Excellent, well done.

So here were the definitions just to remind you you can see how you got on.

Gruelling was difficult or draining, laborious is difficult or exhausting, and backbreaking is exhausting or crushing.

And you can see from those definitions how similar these three words are.

These three words really are synonyms of each other because they all describe hard-working.

Now we know that Harriet was extremely hard-working.

So as these words are so similar, probably any of these words would be able to fit in these sentences.

But I'd like you to listen to me read you these sentences and have a think about which word you would like to fit in each one.

Here's the first sentence.

From the age of 13, Harriet works on the cotton plantation, which was mm work that included a lot of physical labour.

Pause the video and decide which adjective you think would work best in this sentence.

Okay, well, that's a bit of a clue if it includes lots of physical labour working on the cotton plantation, I think the word backbreaking would work really well there, probably for a lot of time, you have to be sort of hunched over and it would probably be quite uncomfortable and very exhausting.

However, as I said earlier, because these words are so similar, any of those adjectives could fit in this sentence.

Now, this sentence could be a good sentence that you could use in your writing.

Will notice that it's got a relative clause in it.

That's the part that the clause that starts with which, so we could say From the age of 13, Harriet works on the cotton plantation.

We could end the sentence there.

That means that's the main clause in our sentence.

But then we're adding some relative information about this work on the cotton plantation, which was backbreaking work that included a lot of physical labour.

It's a way of expanding our ideas and giving as much detail as possible.

Here's the second sentence.

These were often mm journeys, because slave masters would be out looking to those fleeing to freedom.

So we know that Harriet helped a lot of slaves to escape, but they had to go on very long journeys.

So how might we describe these journeys? Could you pause the video and have a think about that now? So I've gone for gruelling journeys, but again, any of these words could fit.

And finally, at night slaves would begin the mm journey from station to station hiding in the woods until they reach safety in the Northern states of America, or even Canada.

Which word would you put in this sentence? So again, I've gone for laborious but any of them could work.

This is a very long sentence.

It starts off with the time conjunction, at night saying when it's something would happen.

And then it's saying that they would begin the journey hiding in the woods again, getting a bit of extra information there until they reach safety in the Northern states of America or even Canada.

So I'd like you now to have a go at writing your own sentence.

And I'd like you to include in your sentence, either the word gruelling, laborious or backbreaking.

If you wants to be really ambitious, you can even write three sentences and include each word in each sentence.

But that's up to you.

Now, it can be difficult to just come up with a sentence on the spot.

So here are some sentence scaffolds that you can use if you like.

You could start your sentence with, four years, Harriet and that could give us a nice start of your point.

Or you could use this sentence scaffold.

After completing her mm journey, so you could fit one of those adjectives in their, after completing her gruelling journey.

After completing her laborious journey, she and then what did she do next? This is an example of a complex sentence because the first part before the, is a subordinating clause starting with the subordinating conjunction after.

After completing had laborious journey, she so the second part would be the main clause.

So what would she do after she completed her journey, what happens next.

Perhaps you can draw on your knowledge of your unit so far, and you could finish either of those two sentences.

Or you can come up with your own sentences completely up to you.

The important thing is to try and use one of the new words that we have learned today.

Pause the video and have a go at writing your sentence now.

Excellent, well done.

You've worked so hard in today's lesson, and you should be really proud of yourselves that you've learned three such ambitious and impressive words.

I think that these words will be really helpful when you come to your writing about Harriet Tubman, but I also think they'll be useful to use in lots of different contexts.

So thank you for watching today.

And if you want to share any of your sentences that you've written, you can ask the parent or carer and you can upload them on Twitter because we always love seeing what you're up to.

Thank you for watching and I'll see you soon.

Bye.