Lesson video

Hi, my name is Miss Madden.

I love reading.

And I'm really excited because in today's lesson, we get to talk all about reading and do something that I love, which is recommend books.

Not only are we going to recommend books, but we're going to think about some of our favourite characters in books that we read.

So let's get started.

In today's lesson, we will begin by discussing what reading for pleasure means.

Then we will have a little discussion about what empathy is.

Then I will share some recommended reads with you.

You can have a think about any books that you would recommend.

Then we will explore some character traits, and finally describe a favourite pact.

In today's lesson you will need an exercise book or some paper, a pencil or pen to write with, and of course your brain and your memory to think about books and characters that you've loved.

So press pause and get these things ready now.

Fantastic.

I hope you're in a nice, quiet place away from any distractions and ready to learn.

So, we're going to start off by thinking about reading for pleasure.

What is reading for pleasure? If you've done one of the previous reading for pleasure lessons, maybe you'll remember, perhaps this isn't something that you've heard of before.

Press pause and see if you can explain it out loud.

Well done.

When we talk about reading for pleasure, we just mean the reading that we do that is really enjoyable for us.

The reading that makes us happy, that we want to do.

Is not what you're told to read, is not when you're researching something reading for information, is reading because we have chosen to do this reading and the reading that makes us happy.

That could be reading nonfiction.

It could be reading fiction.

It could be reading blogs.

It could be reading anything that you choose.

That's what we mean when we talk about reading for pleasure.

I want to spend a little moment thinking about empathy now.

Have you heard the word empathy? Do you know what it means? Can you please pause and try and explain it in words if you can? Okay, let's see what you said.

So, empathy is our ability to understand and share someone else's feelings.

Empathy is a really important skill in life to make us a good friend, to make us a good family member, and to make us a good global citizen.

Now, empathy isn't, we don't have a set amount of empathy, we can actually grow our empathy.

And did you know that books help us to grow our empathy? They help us see things from another person's point of view.

Sometimes we can think of empathy as made up of three elements.

The first is feelings where we resonate with another person's emotions.

The second is thinking, where we use reason and our imagination to work out how someone else is feeling.

And the third, and this is a really important one, is acting, where we are inspired to help others having experienced how they are feeling.

So if you see someone else who's fallen over in the street? If you have empathy, you might realise that that was an unpleasant experience.

So you might act and come over to them and say, "Are you okay? "Can I help you?" That's an example of how empathy is important.

So I want to tell you about one text, which helped me develop my empathy.

This book is called El Deafo.

And it's a graphic novel that was written by Cece Bell.

I loved this book, perhaps you've read it or heard about it.

I love this book, because it showed me the experience that the main character, the main protagonist Cece had when she was at school.

And it was quite daunting for her going to school because Cece was deaf.

She had hearing impairment which meant that she couldn't hear everything that was going on.

And it meant that school was quite a scary and challenging place to be.

And this graphic novel portrayed that so effectively, and showed with really brilliant illustrations what that experience was like for her.

That really helped me to empathise with her situation, and to understand what school must have been like for her better.

I wonder if you'd like to read this book.

Can you think of a book that helped you develop your empathy, that helped you think about what life is like for someone else? Can you say it out loud? Fantastic.

Okay, now's a really exciting part of the lesson when I get to share with you some recommended reads.

Here are my reading recommendations.

My first reading recommendation is another graphic novel.

This graphic novel is called Roller Girl, and it's by someone called Victoria Jamieson.

I absolutely adored this graphic novel.

It's set in America, and it's about a heroine Astrid, and how she becomes a fantastic roller derby skater.

At the start of the story, Astrid has has a best friend called Nicole, and they do everything together.

And then the summer holidays start and Astrid is really excited because she thinks that her and Nicole are both going to go and join a roller derby summer camp, and they'll go every day and learn how to skate and the roller derby.

But then she finds out that Nicole her best friend has actually chosen to do a different kind of camp.

So she has to start on this adventure alone.

This becomes the hottest summer of Astrid's life.

She has to learn a top new skill, and be so independent.

I'm going to tell you a little bit more about her later when we look at character descriptions.

But this is an incredibly inspiring and powerful book that I think everyone would enjoy.

My next recommendation is a book written by Atinuke.

Atinuke might have written some other books that you know for example, "The Anna Hibiscus stories," or more recently, a fantastic nonfiction book called Africa, Amazing Africa.

Now, this is the first short chapter book that I read by Atinuke, and it's called Number One Car Spotter.

The main character is called Number One.

He's the number one car spotter in his village.

But also the number one car spotter in the world.

This makes him great at spotting and also solving all kinds of problems for his villege.

It's really fun and funny to read.

Number One is a brilliant character.

He is smart and resourceful.

Another reason I love reading this story is because it's set in an unfamiliar setting.

It's not set in, I live in London in a city.

It's not set in a city.

It's set in an African village, and I really enjoyed reading a story that was set somewhere that I was not familiar with.

I really recommend this book.

My final recommendation is a really funny book.

Do you like funny stories? This book is called "You're a Bad man, Mr. Gum." And it's written by an author called Andy Stanton, who I can tell you is a very funny person, and a very funny author.

Mr. Gum is a horror.

He hates children.

He hates animals, he hates anything.

And this book is all about him and an angry fairy who lives in his bathtub.

There are several other characters in this book, including Polly who fools Mr. Gum at every turn.

Mr. Gum is a horrible character, but he is also very funny.

So if you enjoy laughing when you read a book, then this book is for you.

So I wonder, of the three books I've recommended, which do you think you'd like to read? Perhaps you'd like to read them all.

Can you press pause and point to the book you would like to read the most.

I think that's a fantastic choice.

And now, if you are going to recommend a book to me, or to a friend, what book would you recommend? And why? Can you say it aloud? Fantastic.

Okay, we're going to have a little think about character traits now.

Character traits are an aspect of someone's personality.

And we often talk about character traits to help us explain what a character in a book is like.

And it helps us when we want to give book recommendations.

So I'm going to teach you two new words, perhaps know them already, that is going to help us describe our characters, and as an example of a character trait.

So here's an image from Mrs. White Smith.

Have a little look.

Can you see what's going on? Press pause.

Okay, it's quite a funny image, isn't it? What do you think's going on? Platypus looks like he's working really hard on that running machine.

Really desperate to get that delicious-looking hamburger.

All the word that this image is describing is the word determined.

You say it, determined.

Well done.

This is a very determined character.

Now determined is an adjective.

And it means driven or single-minded, working extra hard to get what you want.

I wonder if you have guessed which of my characters from the books I recommended, might be determined.

I'm going to tell you a little bit more about this word.

So the word is determined.

Now we're going to have a look at the definition driven or single-minded.

Working hard to get what you want.

Then we've got some synonyms. So synonyms are words that mean the same or similar.

Driven or purposeful.

And then here below we've got some word pairs.

These are words that commonly go together with this word.

And that makes sense together.

We could have a determined effort, a determined expression.

Show me a determined expression.

Very good.

A determined opponent.

Opponent is the person you're against.

Might be a bit scary if you've got a determined opponent.

So first character trait, determined, should we try another? Okay, let's have a look at the picture.

What do you think is happening? Press pause and say it out loud.

Well done.

This word is devious.

Devious.

Devious is another adjective and it means cheating or sly.

Like someone busy making evil plans.

Can you show me someone making evil plans? Well done.

So we've said the word, and we've said the definition, or synonyms are cunning and sly.

Those are words that means similar.

Let's have a look at our word pairs.

You could have a devious villain, a devious plot, a devious criminal.

Those are just some of the ways that you could use the adjective.

So these are two words that are character traits.

What other character traits are there? You could have a character, he was determined.

You could have a character, he was devious.

Can you think of any more? Press pause and write them down.

Well done.

I wonder if we got any the same.

Here are my ideas.

You could have someone who is brave, independent, gentle, unique, that means one of a kind.

You could have a character who is cautious, a bit nervous and cautious.

Don't fight if they don't listen to the rules.

Someone who's very calm.

Or a character who's observant, that means they really notice things.

There are many more character traits than these.

These are just some of the adjectives that we could use to describe a character.

It can be really helpful when we're recommending a book, or talking about a character that we love to use these kinds of adjectives to describe our characters.

So now, we're going to describe a favourite character.

First of all, I'll show you two of my examples.

And then it will be your opportunity to describe one of your favourite characters.

Set.

And we start off with an example from Roller Girl because I told you, I love this book.

Here, I've got my description.

You can pause and read it yourself.

And then I will read it to you.

Press pause.

Okay, now I'm going to read it to you.

I like the character Astrid from Roller Girl because she is so determined and resilient.

Even though she finds skating so hard to begin with, she does not give up.

In addition, I like the way she overcomes the disagreements she has with her friends, because it shows that it is normal to have friendship issues and shows the reader that they can be resolved.

Did you like my character description? I hope so.

I hope it encouraged you to read the book.

Let's have a look at a few of the things that made my character description effective.

I've highlighted some aspects to point out to you.

Can you see I used the word because? That's good, because I explain my point of view.

I've extended my sentence with a because to explain why I think something.

Did you notice that I use the word determined? One of our character traits.

And they're at the bottom, can you see I've highlighted "shows the reader?" When we are writing a character description, it can be useful to talk about the reader because we're saying why you, the reader, might like this character and might like this book.

Okay, I'm going to show you one more example.

This time.

It's from Mr. Gun.

Funny book.

Here's my description.

You can press pause and read it fast then I will read it to you.

Okay, Mr Gum, is very devious.

He reminds me of Roald Dahl's character, Mr. Twit, because he is so grumpy and hates children.

Although he is an evil character, who plots and schemes, he is always foiled, that means beating, by Polly and Friday O' Leary.

For this reason, I find him a really funny character.

It's strange to like someone mean, but I like him as a character, even though he's mean because he's so funny.

Let's have a look at a few things I put in my description that made it effective.

Did you see I use my character trait word, previous.

so I described my character with a character trait.

I also wrote "reminds me." When you're recommending a text or a character from a book to someone else, it can be helpful to make links to other stories and texts because it helps the person you're talking to imagine.

A lot of people have read Roald Dahl's "The Twits" ad so it's a useful way to compare.

And can you see I've used my conjunction, because, so I've extended my sentence with a reason.

Those are some of the ways that you can make your character descriptions a bit more effective.

But the main point is to try and entice someone to read the book that you would like to recommend through describing your main character.

Now, it's your turn.

It's your turn to describe a favourite character.

There's no right or wrong.

It's your choice.

I want you to write a sequence of sentences, just like I showed you describing your favourite character, trying to persuade someone to read the book that you love.

It could be a character that you admire.

It could be a character you love to hate.

It could be a character who taught you something like Astrid taught me about resilience.

It could be a character who makes you laugh.

When you're writing your character description, don't forget to write your ideas in full sentences with a capital letter, and a full stop.

This might help you.

I like the character, because full stop.

I can't wait to hear your ideas.

Now press pause and write your character description.

Well done.

I hope you show this character description to a parent or a carer or a friend.

In today's lesson, we have discussed reading for pleasure.

We've thought about what empathy is.

Do you remember what it was? Understanding someone else's emotions.

We've shared some recommended reads, I shared three with you.

Hopefully you've thought about some bits that you would like to recommend.

We've explored character traits, and we've used these traits to help describe a favourite character.

I can't wait to go and do some more reading now.

I hope you can't too.

Congratulations.

You have completed your lesson.

Happy reading.