Lesson video

Hello, my name is Ms. Madden, and I'm really looking forward to talking about reading with you today.

Let's get started.

In this lesson, we will begin by discussing reading for pleasure.

Then, we will revise what empathy and genre mean.

After that, I will share my recommended reads and you will think of your own.

Then we will explore character traits and finally will be an opportunity for you to describe a favourite character.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or some paper to write on.

A pencil or pen, whatever you like to write with.

And you'll need your brain for remembering and reflecting about the books that you enjoy.

Press pause, and get those things now.

Great.

So, what is reading for pleasure? If you watched a previous reading for pleasure lesson you might remember what we discussed.

Press pause and say what you think it is now.

Okay, so reading for pleasure is the reading that we mean when we're reading for the pure enjoyment of it, not reading because a teacher or a parent says you must do this.

Or because you've got a set task you have to do to research something in particular.

Not great kinds of reading.

This is the reading that we do because we want to.

Where we choose the books that really appeal to us.

Why is this important? It's so important because it helps develop our vocabulary.

It helps to develop our imaginations.

It helps to develop our empathy.

Do you remember what empathy is? Yes.

We're going to remind ourselves of what empathy and genres are now.

Now, what is empathy? If you think you know, can you press pause and say it aloud now.

Empathy is our ability to understand and share someone else's feelings.

Is that similar to what you thought? What has empathy got to do with reading? Well, do you remember, that when we read it can really help us to develop our empathy.

Often if we're reading fiction about someone else's life we imagine what life must be like for them, and it helps to develop our ability to share someone else's feelings.

What is a genre? Can you remember? Press pause and say it aloud now.

Yes, genre is a French word that we use to describe a style or category of art, music or literature.

So often we talk about genre when we're giving book recommendations because we say this is a mystery story.

Or this is a science fiction story.

Today, we're going to be focusing on fiction because we're going to be thinking about characters.

My favourite time.

Time for recommended reads.

Here, are three books, and one collection of books.

Two books, and one collection of books that I think you will really enjoy.

My first recommendation is a new book, a piece of fiction called "Can You See Me?" And it's written by Libby Scott and Rebecca Westcott.

What's really exciting is one of the co-writers is a young person with autism.

And she actually included writing based on her own life experiences in this book.

And this is a book about a young girl called Tally, who's moving to a new school, and her experiences of trying to fit in to this school when actually she has some thing, some aspects of her autism that make that quite difficult for her.

So, it's a really moving story that's about a transition, a life-transition moving from one school to another, that lots of you will be going through at some time.

And it really helped me to empathise and imagine what that must've been like for Tally.

It's written in a really brilliant and open way.

Tally's a really reflective character, who is able to explain what her experiences are like.

My next recommendation is a series of graphic novels.

The first one is called "Zeus" and these come from the series called "Olympians" by George O'Connor.

Now, these are really brilliant and very, very popular.

Everyone who I've ever recommended them to loves these books.

So perhaps you know about the Greek gods, the mythology of the ancient Greeks and know some of these stories.

These are brilliantly retold graphic novels that draw together lots of the key stories related to each one of these gods.

There's also really interesting footnotes from the author to explain some of the information behind the stories, as well as an explanation of some of the research that he did at the end.

They're fantastic.

The other thing I really like about these books is that at the front of the book, it has a fabulous family tree to help you remember how all the gods are related to each other, because it can be quite confusing.

So when I'm reading them, I love to go back to that family tree and have a look.

Now, my third recommendation is a fabulous book called "Cloud Busting" by Malorie Blackman.

This is another brilliant story, and it's a quite big, it's quite unusual, because it's written in the form of verse, through poetry.

So I was quite surprised when I first read it.

I thought maybe I'd find it difficult to read but I didn't at all, because the subject matter was so interesting.

I wonder if you'd like to read any of these books.

Can you point to the book that you think you'd most like to read? Fantastic.

So, what are your recommended reads? What books would you like to recommend to someone else that you have loved? Can you pause and write them down? Great.

Now we're going to think about character traits.

What do I mean by the term character traits? Well, when we talk about this, I mean a character trait is describing an aspect of a character's personality, or how they behave.

What character traits are there? Well, you might describe a character as kind, or you might describe a character as brave, these kinds of adjectives.

Can you think of other ways that you might describe a character? Press pause and write down as many as you can think of.

Here, are some of my ideas.

A character could be brave.

A character could be independent, that means they think for themselves.

A character could be gentle or determined.

They don't give up.

A character could be cautious or defiant.

That means they don't necessarily listen to other people.

They do what they think.

A character could be calm or observant.

That might be important in a mystery story where a character needs to notice lots of different things.

So these are some character traits.

Often, we talk about character traits, these adjectives.

You can be brave, it's a describing word.

But we can also turn these character traits into their noun form.

So someone is brave, but you could talk about there bravery.

Someone is independent, but you could talk about there independence.

Or character could be determined, but you talk about their determination.

So when we're describing characters and using character traits to help us, we might use an adjective form or a noun form.

And you might notice that when we turn the adjective into the noun, we often add a suffix.

And so that suffix could be -ery or -ness, -ence, or -ation.

You might remember that from some of your spelling learning, Okay, now again to have a chance to write about a favourite character in full sentences using our character traits.

So think back to those recommendations that you just wrote down.

If you didn't have a piece of fiction written there can you think of a piece of fiction with a character that you liked and admired, or perhaps you didn't like that you could write about.

Then, I want you to do this.

I like the character, whoever you've chosen.

August, that's August from "Wonder".

I like the character August because he is smart and resilient.

So I want you to write a sentence stating your character that you like and describing them with a character trait.

I like the character August because he's smart and resilient.

Here is another example.

I like the character, Alex.

This is Alex from the "Alex Rider" novels by Anthony Horowitz.

I like the character Alex, because he is daring and defiant.

Now it's your turn.

Can you write a first sentence about a character using a character trait.

Press pause, off you go.

Well done.

So now we've written the character trait.

We need to do a little bit more.

We need to explain that character trait.

So, with my first example about August, I said he was resilient.

Do you remember? He demonstrates this resilience, there's my noun form.

He demonstrates this resilience when he perseveres at school despite the knock backs he faces.

Here's another example of Alex Rider.

He demonstrates this defiance when he chooses to ignore a direct from his superior.

So, could you now write your second sentence where you explain that character trait? You show how your character demonstrates this character trait.

Press pause, off you go.

Okay, now we've warmed ourselves up.

We've thought about character traits and we've practised writing two sentences.

You are ready to describe a favourite character.

Perhaps you will choose the one that you've just written two sentences for, or perhaps you'll choose a new character.

I'm going to show you an example of a short character description.

This is a character description of our character from the book "Cloud Busting".

You can read this first, press pause and read it first, and then I will read it to you.

So press pause, off you go.

Now I will read it to you.

I dislike the character Sam from the book "Cloud Busting".

He is both narrow-minded and untrustworthy.

He demonstrates this narrow-mindedness as he resists being friends with Davey just because Davey does not have the same interests as the other children.

He is untrustworthy because when he finds out that Davey is allergic to peanuts he tells the school bully, who then gives Davey crisps, which have been mixed with peanuts.

So you can see here that I've chosen a character that isn't very nice to describe.

I want to point out a few things from my description to help you.

First of all, can you see that I've used inverted commas around the title of the book "Cloud Busting".

That's a convention that we use when we're writing the title of something.

We use inverted commas.

Next, you can see that I've highlighted the character traits I've used.

He is both narrow-minded and untrustworthy.

So I've included some character traits.

Then, I've shown how he demonstrates these character traits.

"He demonstrates this." So that's something that you can include.

And finally, I've given another explanation of the character trait, lower down.

"He is untrustworthy because." I've extended my sentence with this conjunction "because" to give an explanation.

So I've made my point about the character trait.

And then I explained it with evidence to make that a richer and more complete character description.

So now it's your turn.

You can describe a favourite character.

It could be a character you admire.

It could be a character you love to hate or just hate, perhaps a villain from a story you've read.

It could be a character who taught you something.

Or it could be a character who makes you laugh.

You decide, and then, you might be able to share your character description with someone.

So, press pause and write your character description now.

Fantastic.

In this lesson, we started by thinking about reading for pleasure.

We revised those terms empathy and genre.

I shared my recommended reads with you.

Then we explored what character traits are and how to write about character traits.

And finally, you described a favourite character.

Well done.

Congratulations! You have completed your lesson.

Happy reading!.