Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

How are you today?

I hope you're feeling good.

My name is Ms. Afzal.

I'll be your teacher for this lesson.

I'm feeling very pleased about that because we have an interesting topic ahead.

We are looking at malevolent characters.

Hope that sounds interesting to you.

In particular, we'll be crafting physical descriptions for malevolent characters.

That's the title of our lesson.

It comes from the unit of work, Malevolent characters fiction writing.

So if you're feeling brave, ready to face these malevolent characters, if you have energy, focus, and enthusiasm for this lesson, we'll begin our learning now.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can effectively craft a physical description of a malevolent character.

I hope that sounds interesting to you.

Let's dive into our lesson.

We have some keywords in our lesson, and I'd like us to go through them one at a time, saying them out loud.

My turn, your turn.

Inference.

Show not tell.

Unyielding.

Disheveled.

Implied.

Good to hear those keywords out loud.

Let's find out what they mean.

Inference, this is a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning.

Show not tell.

A method used by writers which focuses on allowing your reader to infer information instead of simply telling them directly.

Unyielding, doesn't give in to pressure.

Disheveled, untidy, disorganized.

Implied, suggested, but not directly expressed.

So these are keywords, inference, show not tell, unyielding, disheveled, and implied.

Pause here and share with someone.

Had you heard of any of these words before?

Did you already know the meanings of any of these keywords?

Thanks for sharing about this.

So let's look out and listen out for these keywords.

Let's think carefully about them.

They'll be coming up in our lesson today.

Today's lesson is called Crafting Physical Description for Malevolent Characters.

And it has two learning cycles, effective physical description and inference to show not tell.

Let's begin by exploring effective physical description.

Physical description of a character might primarily tell us.

Pause here while you finish this sentence.

What do you think a physical description of a character might primarily tell us?

Thanks for sharing.

I wonder if you came up with these ideas.

A physical description of a character might primarily tell us what they look like, what they're wearing, their body language, their facial expressions.

And now I'd like you to discuss why is physical description of a character important.

Pause here while you have this discussion.

Why is physical description of a character important?

Thanks for having that discussion.

You might have said it can offer a first impression to the reader.

It helps us visualize the character.

It might give us clues about their personality.

Now, I'd like you to have a look at the two examples of character description below and afterwards to discuss which you think is the better description.

So first of all, A.

"Her eyes were like cold, glinting steel, cutting through the dim room with her piercing gaze.

A cruel smile curled on her lips and her gaunt face was framed by shadowy, disheveled hair.

" And B, "She had dark brown eyes and long dark hair.

She had a frown on her face and she was hunched over.

Her clothes were always black and she looked mean.

" So, which do you think is the better description?

Pause here while you have this discussion.

Thanks for having that discussion.

I wonder if you decided that example A is the better example.

It focuses on the physical description as well as hints at the character's personality.

Example B is very simple and lists the physical aspects of the character without giving the reader much of a sense of the character's personality.

So let's take a closer look at how this description gives us an insight into this character.

Let's read it again.

"Her eyes were like cold, glinting steel, cutting through the dim room with a piercing gaze.

A cruel smile curled on her lips and her gaunt face was framed by shadowy, disheveled hair.

" So we have a simile to describe the quality of her eyes, not just the color.

They were like cold, glinting steel.

The smile is cruel.

This adjective has been used to describe intent and contrast that with smile, which often we might think of as something warm and lovely.

And the adjectives gaunt and disheveled hint that she's perhaps unwell.

So we can see when we take a closer look, how this description gives us an insight into the character.

Let's have a check for understanding.

Effective physical description of a character allows the reader to, choose from the selection.

A, visualize the character better.

B, list the character's physical appearance.

C, make links to the character's personality.

Pause here while you choose.

What does effective physical description of a character allow the reader to do?

Well done if you selected A and C.

Indeed, effective physical description of a character allows the reader to visualize the character better and make links to the character's personality.

And now it's time for your first task.

I would like you to write two example sentences describing the physical features of a character of your choice.

I'd like you to discuss your ideas and then complete the table to experiment with character description.

You could consider describing a quality associated with the feature and consider your careful adjective selection to hint at personality.

So you might like to describe the physical features of the eyes or facial expression, and then give an example sentence, which describes a quality associated with a feature and has careful adjective selection to hint at personality.

Enjoy your task and I'll see you when you're finished.

It's good to be back with you.

How did you get on with that task?

You may have had something like this, physical feature eyes, and here's the example sentence.

"His eyes were hard and unyielding, like dark, polished stones.

" And facial expression.

"The scar on his cheek cut through the tension on his face while his mouth twisted into a tight, unsmiling line.

" I really like these examples.

Pause here and share with someone.

How have these examples described a quality associated with the feature or selected an adjective carefully to hint at personality?

Thanks for sharing.

Perhaps you talked about the adjective unyielding for the eyes, showing us that they don't give into pressure.

Perhaps you talked about the unsmiling line of the mouth, hinting at something sinister.

And now check your own writing.

Did you consider the qualities you wanted to highlight in your character, for example, hard, dark, and the adjectives used to describe the physical features of your character, e.

g tight, unsmiling.

Pause here while you review your task.

Thanks for having a go at this task.

And now we're onto our next learning cycle, inference to show not tell.

When we infer, we're making an educated conclusion about something based on information we have.

So let's explore this little.

First of all, take a look at this picture.

What can you see in this picture?

Pause here and share with someone.

Thanks for sharing what you can see.

Perhaps you said, a man in sportswear on the road.

He's running through a red banner, his arms are raised.

And now let's change that word from see to what can you infer about what's happening?

Pause here and share with someone, what can you infer about what's happening?

Thanks for sharing what you inferred.

Perhaps you said he's been in a race of some kind.

He's first to cross the finish line and running through the banner.

He's excited, emotional.

Inference works on implied meanings.

This means that the reader has to work a little harder to draw their own conclusions about what they've read.

Show not tell works in a similar way.

This is when writers use implied meanings and offer hints about a character without telling the reader this information directly.

One way to use show not tell in physical descriptions is to consider the emotion of a character and then show that through a physical description.

So first of all, take a good look at this image and then discuss what is the emotion being shown in this image.

Pause here and share with someone, what emotion is being shown in this image.

Thanks for sharing.

You might have said sad, alone, hopeless.

And next I'd like you to discuss how would we show this emotion?

How might you describe this emotion showing up in the body?

Pause here while you discuss this.

Thanks for discussing how you would show this emotion.

You might have said, eyes closed, head lowered, face covered, sighing.

So we could turn this information into a paragraph like this.

"She buried her face in her hands, her shoulders sagging under an invisible weight.

A deep, shuddering sigh escaped her, her breath coming out in a slow, resigned exhale.

The frown was etched deeply on her brow and her fingers were gripping her hair as if trying to hold onto her dwindling patience.

" Pause here and share with someone in what ways do you think this is an effective example of show not tell?

Thanks for sharing.

Let's take a look at this paragraph in a little more detail.

So she buried her face in her hands.

By starting with this, I'm beginning to show a negative emotion right from the start.

With shoulders sagging under an invisible weight, I'm developing this emotion to show that she might be feeling pressured by something.

And the next, a deep shuddering sigh escaped her.

Giving the character this action reinforces that she might be feeling frustrated, as we often sigh when we're frustrated or annoyed.

"The frown was etched deeply on her brow and gripping her hair.

" With this final description of her frown and the act of her gripping her hair, built to emphasize that she is irritated.

So we can see in just this one paragraph just how much show not tell we were able to include.

Let's have a check for understanding, true or false.

Inference works on implied meaning, which means readers are told information directly.

Pause here while you decide, is this statement true or false?

Well done if you selected false.

And now I'd like you to say a little more about your answer.

Pause here while you do this.

Perhaps you said something like this.

Inference does work on implied meanings, but this means that readers are not told information directly.

Instead, they work to fill in the gaps the text leaves them with.

And now it's time for your next task.

Consider your discussions and complete a table from Task A.

And write a short description which shows not tells the reader about your character.

Consider, what emotion or intent is being shown.

How you will show this emotion.

How you will include implied meaning so that the reader infers the information.

So pause here while you consider your discussions and you complete a table from Task A, and then write a short description which shows not tells the reader about your character.

Enjoy your task and I'll see you when you're finished.

It's good to be back with you.

So how did you get on with writing that short description?

I'd like you to swap your work with a partner.

As you're reading your partner's work, consider.

Is it clear what the emotion behind a description is?

Has your partner described physical details to show this emotion?

Are there examples of where your partner has shown you something about a character, but not directly told you?

So pause here while you consider your partner's work.

Thanks for doing that.

And now I'd like you to give your partner a what went well and an even better if for this piece of work.

Pause here while you do this.

Well done for having a go at this task, and hopefully you can take on the feedback that you received from your partner.

In our lesson, crafting physical description for malevolent characters, we've covered the following.

Physical descriptions of characters shouldn't just be a list of what they look like or the clothes they are wearing.

Physical descriptions of characters should use carefully chosen vocabulary to allow the reader to infer information.

Linking physical description to a character's personality can make descriptions more effective.

Show not tell works on implied meanings.

Well done everyone for joining in with this lesson.

I thought it was so interesting to explore physical descriptions for malevolent characters.

There are certainly a few of them around in literature, and hopefully through this lesson, you will be able to write your own characters and infer about their personality through your physical description.

I really enjoyed teaching you and I hope you enjoyed this lesson too.

I look forward to seeing you at another lesson soon.

Bye for now.