Lesson video

Welcome to today's English lesson.

I'm Mrs Crompton.

Our focus today is to look at approaches to unseen non-fiction texts.

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 begin with, let's just establish what we will be focusing on as we approach our unseen non-fiction material.

Through the course of these lessons we will be understanding how to summarise the main event, how to comment on the writer's thoughts and feelings, how to consider the writer's perspective, and then also the writer's methods.

Finally, within our reading, we're going to look at how a text can often not just a literal interpretation, but offer us picture big ideas.

These are the ideas where we start to learn something about ourselves as human beings, and about society, and perhaps the four conflicts.

Man versus man, man versus self, man versus nature, or man versus society will be brought up within our reading.

Okay.

Let's begin.

To start with, what I would like you to do is to pause the video, and to answer the question, what thoughts and feelings do you have when you look at this image? And the image is of Lake Victoria in East Africa.

Pause the video, resume when you're ready.

And again, I'd like you to pause once more, and this time I would you to tell me what thoughts and feelings you have now.

So look at the new image, and add you're further thoughts and feelings.

Pause the video, resume when you're ready.

And welcome back.

So, let's find out a little bit about the text that we are going to be working with.

We are looking at non-fiction materials, so this is of an experience that our writer Christopher Ondaatje had when he travelled to the source of the Nile.

Who is he? Well he is a Canadian-English businessman and adventurer.

And, I quite like this detail, a bob-sledding Olympian for Canada.

So there's an interesting extra sideline that he's got going on there.

In this book what we see is his journey as he traces the source of the Nile, the longest river in the world.

So this is something that lots of previous explorers have attempted to do.

What Ondaatje does is it's not that he doesn't know where the source of the Nile is, but what he's going to do is to retrace the footsteps, going back to Lake Victoria, and what he's looking at this whole exploration of the origins of mankind as he does so.

Let's begin the reading of the extract then.

So the extract has been split into three sections for you.

Along the bottom of the screen, when you look at a section of the extract you will see prompt questions, so what's is happening? How does Ondaatje feel? Okay? So prompt questions are provided to help you activate your ideas.

They will help you think about certain aspects of that particular section of the text, and just nudge you along in the right direction.

What I want you to do is to record your responses on lined paper.

And the instructions will be given as to whether or not you need to provide supporting evidence or comment on anything else as you go.

Once you've done that we will pause, and then, as we resume the video I will review an answer with you, and you will have the opportunity to self assess against that answer, and to then refine your response.

Put in any additional ideas to make your response even stronger.

As you go through the process you will become more confident in adding the extra detail, and I hope you also that your initial responses will become more extended.

Okay, let's make a start then.

So what we're going to do is to consider what we learn first.

We are going to track the key events and reactions.

And what I want you to notice in this first part is, what's happening? How does Ondaatje feel? And I would like you to make sure that you've got some evidence to support your ideas.

Ideally I would like to see that written up as a paragraph, however starting point is to make sure you have that evidence.

Off we go.

Control is now over with you.

Work through the slides until you come to the pause prompt, write your response, and then resume, and I'll be waiting for you with the review.

Welcome back! So, let's have a little look at what we could have written.

And what I've done is put my response on the screen for you here as a review.

And I've picked out my two pieces of key evidence in pink, because these are the ones that really capture his feelings and his focus as he's on this trip.

Ondaatje is camping by the side of Lake Victoria.

He is experiencing sights and sounds that he may never have done before, and he describes the location as an idyllic spot.

So really nice, brief quotation there, that sums up his overall emotion towards this location.

He seems both exhilarated and in awe of his surroundings.

So I've used that word awe very deliberately.

He seems quite overwhelmed by the whole thing.

And why is that? Because he is contemplating the role this mighty lake had played in the great explorations of the past.

And then I've tried to explain that as an explorer on a mission he feels a sense of being part of history.

So as a response, we have a got a concise selection of evidence and explanation within the answer.

Pause the video now, and make any adjustments to your response.

Now to help you do that I'll just go back and leave the screen on for you, and let you take control from here.

Pause as you need to.

And what I would like you to do is either with a green pen, or another colour, adjust what you've already written, or you might actually want to take this down as a model paragraph.

It's really helpful for you to see what you're trying to aim for.

So take the time now, pause, resume when you're ready.

Okay, now we're going to look at what we learn next.

And now we're going to concentrate on how his feelings are developing.

And I'll just show you the initial instruction.

What's happening now? Are his feelings similar or different? So there's your focus, okay? So same process.

Work through.

You've now got an idea through the model answer of how to write it up.

So set yourself the challenge of giving a more detailed explanation in your writeup.

Make sure you're selecting evidence to support your ideas.

And as an extra challenge, think about any of that evidence, that might be quite rich in nature.

And you want to zoom in and talk about the effect of a specific word or detail.

Okay, control is over with you.

And welcome back.

So let's have a look at another review.

Same process.

We will work through, then I will give you control.

There's a change in tone as Ondaatje leaves camping by the side of Lake Victoria, and take a ferry to the city of Mwanza.

He's moving from a natural environment to a built-up one.

So I thought it was really important, and it is really important for you also to make a point of noticing anything where there is a switch in feeling, or emotion, or attitude.

And then, if you can, try and identify why that might be.

And what I've noticed is that he felt very in tune with the natural environment, but seems a little bit anxious as he goes to the more industrialised, built-up area of Mwanza.

He seems overwhelmed and anxious about the process.

The ferry was packed with buses, petrol tanks, vans, land cruisers, jeeps, fuel tanker, cars, and people.

The listing, so I've put the technique in here, because I thought that was quite a dramatic list.

The listing used to describe his surroundings creates a feeling of claustrophobia.

However, he is still in awe of the culture and community as he stops to notice the vibrancy of their clothing.

Notice how I'm not making a sweeping statement about the fact that he hates it here.

There are shades of meaning, and this is where we need to read really carefully.

They favoured brilliantly coloured clothing: shirts, T-shirts, dresses of red, violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, and orange.

And we've got that list again, but this time it's the sense of the overwhelming beauty.

Ondaatje himself, however, does seem to be out of place and struggling.

Whereas before he described his location as idyllic, he now tells us it is as hot as hell.

So I've directly addressed the prompt of similar and different.

And from idyllic we've gone to as hot as hell.

So now again, we're going to pause the video, so you can refine your response, and I am going to give you control of the review paragraph.

As soon as you're ready, you have made your amendments, resume, and we will look at the final part of our extract.

Now, before we go into this final part of the extract, I would like us to extend our thinking.

So what we're going to do is to consider, as we come to the close of the extract, what we are learning about human nature and mankind.

So with big picture thinking we want to think about the messages we're getting about society.

Is it a man versus man conflict, a man versus nature conflict, a man versus himself conflict, or man versus society? Keep that at the back of your mind as we are reading through the final part of the extract.

Remembering of course, this isn't a complete text, this is a portion of a text, but we have to create this identity of the end.

This is all we've got, this all we've got to work with.

And as an unseen piece, we now need to think about the connection between start and end, mkay? Right, let's have a little look together.

How does the extract conclude? Track the events and consider how the end of the extract concludes.

What are Ondaatje's feelings now? And what do you learn about human nature from the passage? Okay? Control is over to you.

Follow the prompts, write your response.

I'll be waiting with the review.

Welcome back then.

So let's have a look.

As the extract comes to a close we see Ondaatje travelling across the lake, experiencing the breeze in his face, and wondering at how the floating mass of metal and people could stay afloat, but it does.

Although he is still concerned about the apparent fragility of the craft, he seems to be able to take in his surroundings again, and concentrates on the route the ferry is taking.

Ondaatje comments on the crowd twice in this final extract: they are initially the floating mass, which is then echoed by the teeming mass at the end.

This final image creates a feeling of circularity.

As one crowd disembarks, another one starts their journey.

Despite the obstacles that Ondaatje perceived, man does not acknowledge defeat; the ferry itself is a symbol of man's ingenuity.

So this where I've taken it to a bigger picture sort of idea.

I've dug a bit deeper with my interpretation.

He doesn't think it can float, but yet it does, because man can do this.

Man can overcome obstacles.

Moving on.

What was a position of vulnerability, as suggested by the verb floating is transformed by the word teeming, which suggests an image of abundance and power.

So I've now done word level analysis on the two different verbs, because that was what was changed.

They're no longer a floating mass, now they're a teeming mass.

And actually teeming means that it's almost overwhelming the location.

This final image seems to suggest man has conquered nature.

Look at my cautionary language there.

Seems to suggest.

However, it is interesting to note that earlier we were given the image of man and nature again, through the one detail Ondaatje points out to us, the bevvy of fishing boats.

So I've looked really carefully here, and there's only one thing that he actually bothers to comment on, and that's the boats.

Here, we again see man and nature, but through the use of the word bevvy we are given an image of beauty and harmony rather than domination or conflict.

So by zooming in on that detail I've thought about how the two parts connect.

Is it man versus nature, or actually is it potentially when man works in harmony with nature we can achieve beautiful things.

And the imagery of the fishing boat is man in a very natural state still.

Still a bit wary of the ferries.

So that is my final interpretation.

You might not agree.

It's a way of working through, and that's why the cautionary language is there.

It seems, it is possible.

And that's where reading for meaning is all about looking at the patterns, looking at the detail, and on picking it to see what you can think of.

I think Ondaatje ultimately prefers Lake Victoria.

Prefers the simplicity of the fishing, rather than the mass consumption of the ferry boats, and I think that's what he's really talking about.

Okay, so final opportunity to review and refine.

I will go back to the beginning of the review sections, leave that control with you, add in extra details, and ideas.

Over to you.

Thank you for your focus today everyone.

All that remains for me to say is don't forget to complete the exit quiz, and enjoy the rest of your learning today.