Lesson video

I'm Miss Howell.

Welcome to today's English lesson.

You'll need a pen and a piece of paper.

Take a moment to clear yourself of any distractions and make sure that you have everything you need at hand for our learning today.

Our lesson today, will continue our exploration of The Tell-Tale Heart and in particular, focus on your skills of analysing structure.

Please take a moment to get down your title, Analysing structure in the Tell-Tale Heart pausing here to get that down now.

Now, please write down your keyword for the lesson which is sagacious and the definition.

Pausing here to get that down now.

Reminder that structure in its most basic form is about how the text fits together.

And how as you move through a piece of writing your understanding grows and develops as you gain more and more knowledge as you read.

Think about it like a four-part jigsaw puzzle.

When we look at the structure of the text, we need to break it down into what we learn about, first, what we learn about with what happens next, then, and finally, in the last part of the text, what we now understand.

Your knowledge of the text should piece together as you read it a bit like a jigsaw.

Sometimes we only truly understand the text at the end, when we understand how all the pieces fit together, and we understand the full picture of what we've read.

So the first part of the text you read is like having some piece of the puzzle.

You need to say what you understand in this first piece, what you've learned by having this first piece of information.

Then in the next part of the text, it is the next piece of the jigsaw.

You need to show how your understanding of the story has grown now that you have two pieces of the puzzle.

Think about what you now understand or have learned now that you did not know before.

Then, as you move through the text, you now have the third piece of the jigsaw.

Again, you need to show how your understanding of what you're reading has grown.

Think about what you understand or have learned now that you did not know about before.

Finally, you now have all the pieces to the puzzle.

Now you understand the full big picture of what is going on.

Once the final piece has been added, you need to show what you understand about the full text.

We are going to read our extract for today's lesson.

The extract has been split into four sections; first, next, then, finally.

So we've got those different pieces of the jigsaw.

I've provided you with prompt questions to help you think about what is happening in each of the piece of text that you are reading.

I'd like you to record your responses on your lined paper.

Answer in full sentences, and try to support your answers with quotations from the extract.

You will also need a different coloured pen or a pencil to self assess and check your progress.

The text we're about to read contains reference to violence and death.

For some people this will be a sensitive topic, if that applies to you, you may want to do the rest of this lesson with a trusted adult nearby who can support.

So we are about to read the text and we're going to think about structurally what we are learning with each piece of the puzzle we are given.

If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body.

First of all, I dismembered the corpse.

I cut off the head and the arms and the legs.

I then took up three planks from the floor in the chamber and deposited all between scantings.

I then replaced the board so cleverly, so cunningly that no human eye, not even his, could have detected anything wrong.

There was nothing to wash out, no stain of any kind, no blood-spot whatever.

I had been too wary for that.

A tub had caught all, ha ha.

When I've made an end of these labours, it was four o'clock, still dark at midnight.

As the bell sounded the hour there came a.

Pause here to answer the question.

Knocking at the door, I went down to open it with a light heart, for what had I now to fear? There entered three men who introduced themselves as officers of the police.

A shriek had been heard by a neighbour during the night.

Suspicion of foul play had been aroused.

Information had been lodged at the police office, and they, the officers, had been deputed to search the premises.

I smiled, for what had I to fear.

I bade the gentleman welcome.

The shriek, I said, was my own in a dream.

The old man I mentioned, was absent in the country.

I took my visitors all over the house.

I bade them search, search well.

I lead them at length to his chamber.

I showed them his treasures, secure, undisturbed.

Pause here to answer the question.

In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I brought chairs into the room and desired them here to rest from their fatigues, while I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim.

The officers were satisfied.

My manner had convinced them.

I was singularly at ease.

They sat, and while I answered them cheerily, they chatted of familiar things.

But, ere long, I felt myself getting pale and wish them gone.

My head ached and I fancied a ringing in my ears.

The ringing became more distinct, it continued and became more distinct, I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling, but it continued and gain definitiveness, until, at length, I found that the noise was not within my ears.

Pause here to answer the question.

No doubt I now grew very pale, but I talked more fluently and with a heightened voice.

Yet the sound increased and what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sound, much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton.

I gasped for breath, and yet the officers heard it not.

I talked more quickly, more vividly, but the noise steadily increased.

I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key, and with violent gesticulations but the noise steadily increased.

Why would they not be gone? I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observation of the men, but the noise steadily increased.

Oh God! What could I do? I foamed, I raved, I swore.

I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased.

It grew louder, louder, louder.

And still the men chatted pleasantly and smiled.

Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God? No, no.

They heard, they suspected, they knew, they were making a mockery of my horror.

This I thought and this I think.

But anything was better than this agony.

Anything was more tolerable than this division.

I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer.

I felt that I must scream or die.

And now again, hark, louder, louder, louder, louder.

Villains! I shrieked, dissemble no more.

I admit the deed, tear up the planks, here, here.

It is the beating of his hideous heart.

Pause here and answer the question.

Now, we will review your answers.

Remember, just to edit, refine your response as should you need to in your different coloured pen as I take you through the answers to each of the questions.

So hopefully, you have spotted that first, we learn the narrator tries to conceal the body by chopping it up into pieces as he dismembered the corpse and placed it under the floorboards of the house.

Secondly, the police officers then have called upon the house, as a shriek had been heard by a neighbour.

They had come to search the premises.

The narrator then tries to cover his tracks by telling them the shriek was in a dream and that his neighbour was away.

Thirdly, then the narrator in his audacity sits the policeman in the room where he has dismembered the body.

However, this ease the narrator feels starts to ebb away and is replaced with a fixation on the ringing he can hear Finally at the end, we now understand the narrator in his seeming madness, believes that he can hear the beating of the old man's hideous heart, and assumes the policeman can too.

So in desperation to end his agony, the narrator reveals his crime and uplifts the floorboards to disclose the body of the old man.

So now that we understand how the text fits together, we can add in some additional subject terminology and make our analysis of structure more advanced.

Here is a reminder of the structural techniques that we have focused on.

I will take you through and remind you of what each of these techniques are and what they mean.

If you would like to make a note of these to support you with analysing the text, please pause the video to allow you to do that should you need to.

We will remember be looking at these techniques later in the lesson.

So it could be a good idea to ensure that you have got down the notes on each of these techniques, particularly, if they are unfamiliar to you.

So, firstly, we have looked at character introduction.

So what do you learn about characters with how the writer introduces you to them? Setting, where as a reader are you placed? Inside? Outside? And how might this setting add to the tone? Foreshadowing, so what does the writer hint at that could happen later in the text? Shifts: So this is where the text shifts potentially tone or it could shift focus or topic or location.

So where does the writer focus your attention? And in conjunction with that, what is the time? Does that change as you move through the text? And if so, it's important to always state how that changes.

And then we've also been thinking about repetition of an idea.

Do any particular ideas repeat throughout text.

And why might the writer want to emphasise such an idea? In a moment, you will reread the text and make a note of which structural features you can spot.

I would like you to make your notes, including the following: The structural device that you have spotted in that part of the extract, what you learn, what you understand because of the use of that device, and a quotation to support your idea.

An example of what I'm looking for can be found on this slide.

So as you can see, you need to firstly identify the technique.

So I've done that in that first bullet point, which is the focus on the old man, what the narrator believes he is thinking.

I've said what I've learned that the old man is trying to reassure himself, so as not to be afraid.

And I supported that with a quotation.

So this is how I would like you to make your notes.

So, pause here to reread the section of text and then as has been modelled to you, note down the structural feature, what you learn and a quotation.

Complete the same for this section of text, pausing here.

Now, complete the same task as this section of text, pausing here.

Complete the same for this section of text, pausing here.

And finally, complete the same task for the last section of text, pausing here.

Now, we will review your answers.

As we go through the answers you could have had, please note down in a different colour anything that you are learning as I'm taking you through these answers, and write down anything that is different to what you were able to do in the independent tasks.

You will be writing up your answer.

So it would be really useful if you had these techniques and the feedback that I'm going through to support you with that write-up.

Please pause the lesson as and when you need to to allow yourselves to take down that feedback.

So up first, the focus is on the narrator and his actions furiously dismembering the body.

We learn from this, the narrator believes he will evade capture for his crime, the quotation that supports; so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human could have detected anything wrong.

Next, we then have the character introduction of the police.

And we learned despite their arrival, the narrator remain assured that he will sagaciously evade suspicion and quotation to support, what had I now to fear.

Then we have a tonal shift from the narrator feeling assured to feeling panicked.

And this shift increases the tension for the reader, as they begin to wonder whether the narrator will indeed be caught as he loses his previous calm composure.

And my quotation; singularly at ease to talked more freely.

Then finally, the focus shifts to the repetition of the idea of the noise, the narrator believes he can hear.

This emphasises the narrator's insanity that he would hallucinate in this way and that it would drive him to reveal his crime.

And my quotation to support is louder, louder, louder, louder.

So you are now going to write up your analysis.

When we write about structural analysis, you need to first state what the technique is the writer has used.

Then embed a quotation that supports it, then you need to explain specifically what the particular technique that you learned about the text you have read.

A top tip here is to avoid general statements.

that could apply to any text.

So, for example, if you just said that the character introduction makes you learn more about the character, that doesn't really, it's not very specific about exactly what you learn about that particular character in that particular text.

So we want to try and avoid any such statements in our response.

Remember, we have already looked at what is happening in each part of the text.

So that should help you.

And on this slide is a model of how I would like you to write up your analysis.

So I've taken that first structural techniques that we've already looked at.

So at first, the writer focuses on the narrator and his actions as he is furiously dismembering the body.

The narrator believes that he has done this so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human could have detected anything wrong.

Therefore, we learn that the narrator believes he will evade capture for his crime and he's arrogantly self-assured that he has committed the perfect murder.

So you can see here that your first sentence needs to be specific about what the technique is.

The second sentence then embeds the quotation, and the final sentence explores what you have learned as a reader because of that structural technique.

So please try and incorporate those three different stages in your write-up.

If you would like to, here are some sentence frames to support your write-up, you need to explore all of the structural techniques we have explored in the feedback so that you are analysing the whole section of text that we looked at today.

I did the first section for you in the model.

So just continue from there.

It's up to you whether you prefer to use the model as support or the sentence frames.

Remember to ensure that you're effective, really specific to the particular text, and avoid making any of those kind of general comments that don't really mean anything.

Pause here to complete your class now.

Now, we will review your answers.

Please edit, refine your answer based on the model.

Remember, our key focus was to explain really specifically what the effect of the structural technique is.

So check your own against the model to see if you have achieved this.

Remember, just pause the video at this point either when you need to to allow yourself to take down any feedback that you might want to add to your own work.

So we look at next part of the text.

The writer uses a character introduction of the police, which raises the tension as the reader wonders whether the narrator will be caught.

However, the narrator believes he has nothing to fear.

As such, the reader learns that the narrator remains assured that he will sagaciously evade suspicion.

Then the writer creates a tonal shift from the narrator being sure to panicked.

The narrator moves from being singularly at ease to talking more freely as the panic he feels increases.

This shift increases the tension for the reader, as they begin to wonder whether the narrator will indeed be caught as he loses his previous calm composure.

Finally, the writer shifts the focus on the repetition of the idea of the noise, the narrator believes he can hear as the sanity of the narrator unravels.

He believes he can hear the old man's heartbeat becoming louder, louder, louder.

Therefore, this emphasises the narrator's madness as it is clear that it is his hallucination, imagining he can hear the heartbeat which leads him to ultimately disclose his crime.

Once you have finished refining, editing your work with the feedback, we have reached the end of our lesson.

I hope you have enjoyed your learning today and thank you for your focus.