Lesson video

- In today's lesson, we're going to analyse a character by answering inference questions based on "The Firework-Maker's Daughter" by Philip Pullman.

The character we're gonna be focusing on today is Lila.

Start today's lesson by introducing the character Lila and thinking about what we already know about her.

So what information do we know already about her? Then we're going to look at some inference questions and we're gonna use these to help us further understanding of her as a character.

And then we're gonna develop our impression of Lila.

So what overall impression does the author Phillip Pullman create in the reader's mind? And then I would like you to reflect on everything that we've done and I'd like you to tell me, or to have a think about, what your own reaction to Lila as a character is.

Do you like her, or do you not? If you haven't watched lesson one, then you must pause this video and you must go and watch lesson one as without it you will not have read the text and it's important you have read the text already so you know what we're talking about.

If you have, then just carry on with the video now.

For this lesson today, you're going to need an exercise book or paper, you're going to need a pencil or a pen, whichever you have with you, and you're going to need to use your brain to help you.

You need to be thinking throughout this lesson, actively engaging with it.

Okay, we're going to start today by thinking about what we already know about Lila as a character and to do that we're just gonna look at the first opening section of "The Firework-Maker's Daughter".

And it starts like this, this is the extract that we're going to think about.

"A thousand miles ago, in a country east of the jungle and south of the mountains, there lived a Firework-Maker called Lalchand and his daughter Lila.

Lalchand's wife had died when Lila was young." I'd like you to pause the video and I'd like you to write down really quickly or say three things that you learn about Lila from this extract.

What three things can you now tell me about Lila? So pause the video and have a go at doing that and then just press play when you're ready.

Okay, let's see what you got.

You might have something different to me and that's okay but these were three of the things that I thought I could work out from this piece of text.

So I found that she lives with her father, her father is a Firework-Maker, and she lives south of the mountains and east of the jungle in an unknown location to the reader.

Like I said, if you had some others that doesn't matter, it's okay.

You might have found out different information to me but these are three facts you can definitely tell from reading this extract.

Okay, now we're going to look at some inference questions.

So inference questions are where you have to look for hidden clues in the text because the answer isn't necessarily obvious.

You have to think about what you know already, and you have to use that to help you answer the different questions.

So in order to do that you must underline the key words in the questions that you're being asked and you must explore those words as well, especially if they are a character trait such as determined or resilient, you must skim and scan the text for key information, this will help you find where your evidence in the text is, and then you must search for hidden clues in the text.

So where can you find out the information? What hidden clues are given to show you how Lila is behaving? And we're gonna answer one big key question.

So we're gonna answer a series of inference questions and they're gonna help us to answer this big question here that we'll come back to at the end of the lesson.

So what impression of Lila does the author create in the reader's mind? Impression just means what picture or what image do you have of Lila.

How does she act? If you were to describe her personality, how would you describe it? And that is all that impression means.

And so we're gonna have a go now at answering some other questions now.

Perhaps, before we even begin, you could just pause for a minute and you could tell me three things you already know.

What impression do you already have of Lila? Okay, well done.

Now we're going to start by answering our first question.

So I'm gonna read the first extract from the text for you.

"The child was a cross little thing, always crying and refusing her food, but Lalchand built a cradle for her in the corner of the workshop, where she could see the sparks play and listen to the fizz and crackle of the gunpowder." In the text it says, Lila "was a cross little thing".

Give evidence to support this statement.

So my question is, How do you know Lila "was a cross little thing"? So if I was to answer this, I would think about what it means to be "a cross little thing".

It means perhaps that you're quite difficult as a child.

So can you find two things here that show us she's "a cross little thing"? And pause the video and then press play when you're ready to resume.

Okay, I wonder how you got on.

So if I was to answer this, I would find and underline "cross little thing" in the text and then I would explain what I meant by that.

So I would say she is "a cross little thing" because she is "always crying and refusing her food", which shows she is not a happy child and is difficult to please.

So "a cross little thing", I look for behaviours that show me she's cross.

How do I know she's a cross baby? She's "always crying and refusing her food".

Now this is quite an easy inference one because there is lots of evidence in the text to help me and I just have to make sure I apply it to the question, but that is helping me to know why she is "a cross little thing".

So now we're gonna look at some inference questions that are perhaps slightly harder than this one.

So this is my next question.

"Once she was out of her cradle, she toddled around the workshop laughing as the fire flared and sparks danced.

Many a time she burnt her little fingers, but Lalchand kissed her better, and soon she was playing again." And I've asked you to find an example in the text that shows Lila is resilient.

Now, in order to do this, you have to think about what someone who is resilient might do.

So how do I know someone is resilient? What do they do if they're resilient? And resilient means you don't give up.

So can you find an example of Lila, in this text, not giving up even if things are difficult or not being phased if something's challenging.

So pause the video and see if you can find that example for me now and then press play when you're ready to resume.

Well done.

I wonder how you got on.

So I've said in my answer that resilient means you never give up, and I said Lila is resilient because when she burnt her fingers, she quickly recovered and started playing again.

We might say a child is resilient if they fall over and hurt themselves and they just get back up.

That would be someone who's resilient, so even when things are difficult or you've hurt yourself, you just get up and carry on.

And so here we can say that Lila is resilient.

Say that word after me.

Resilient.

Okay, we've got another question now.

So question three, I'm gonna read the extract first and then we'll have a go at the question together.

"One day she said, 'Father, if I put some flowers of salt in a Java Light instead of cloud-powder, what would happen?' 'Try it and see,' he said.

So she did.

Instead of burning with a steady glimmer, it sprayed out wicked little sparks, each of which turned a somersault before going out." So true or false? Lila is a keen learner.

Can you give evidence to support your answer? So do you think Lila is a keen learner or not? If someone is a keen learner, they will show interest in what they're doing.

So if you're a keen learner right now, you'd be really enthusiastic about the lesson.

So how do I know that Lila is a keen learner? Can you pause the video, skim and scan the text, to see if you can find evidence to show she is enthusiastic about her work or she is keen to learn, to try new things? So pause the video now and resume when you're ready.

Okay.

I wonder how you got on.

So if I were to look at this text, I would have a go and think, How do I know that Lila is a keen learner? And the way I'd know this is if I was to scan through, I can see that she's experimental, she tries things out.

So she asks if she can put cloud-powder into a firework; that's showing that she's interested.

She's not just copying the fireworks that her father makes, she actually wants to make her own fireworks which shows she's really inspired and interested in her work.

And so for me, this shows that she is a keen learner.

So she added flowers of salt to a Java Light to see what would happen, which shows she is inventive and being inventive is very similar to being a keen learner.

So it was true.

I wonder how you got on with that question.

I'm sure you've done really well.

Okay and finally, we're gonna look at this question.

So I'm gonna read you the text first of all.

"'Do you really want to be a Firework-Maker Lila?' 'Of course I do! It's the only thing I want!' 'I was afraid so,' he said.

'It's my own fault.

What was I thinking of? I should have sent you to my sister Jembavati to bring you up as a dancer.

'" So how do we know Lila is determined? And I want you to find evidence in the text that supports this.

Now to do this, I want you to create a mind map or concept map for the word determined, and this is gonna help me know what determined looked like.

So if someone's determined, they don't give up.

What else do they do? If someone is determined, what else do you know that they do? What other behaviours might they show? So pause the video and I want you to write down as many different things you think show someone is being determined and then press play when you're ready to resume.

I'm going to show you now what I came up with.

So I thought if someone is determined, they don't give up.

You carry on even when things are difficult.

It's a bit like resilient that one, isn't it? If you're resilient, you're often determined, you don't give up.

You don't listen to others if they try and stop you.

So if you're determined, you definitely want to go to the park today, you might not listen to somebody even if they tell you you shouldn't go to the park, so it's almost like being a bit stubborn.

And you work hard to achieve your goals, you just don't give up.

You focus on something if you want to achieve it, you achieve it because you work super, super hard to make sure that you achieve it.

So now I'm gonna think about all these examples of what determined looks like and I'm gonna go back to the question and I'm gonna search for an example like this in the text that shows Lila is determined.

And so if I'm looking through, I can see that she's determined because she firmly says that being a Firework-Maker is the only thing she wants to do, which shows she will do anything to become one.

So it says, "'Do you really want to be a Firework-Maker Lila?'" And she says, "'Of course I do! It's the only thing I want!'" which shows she really wants to become a Firework-Maker and so now I can see that this shows she is determined because she's saying it's the only thing she wants to do, there's nothing else she wants to do and no one will stop her almost, and that's what we find out as we read the book later on.

Nothing does stop her and so this shows me she is determined.

Now we've answered some inference questions on Lila and have some idea of what her character is like, we're now gonna return to this main question and develop what we think our impression of Lila is overall.

So we've got lots of different ideas, now we need to bring everything together, and in order to do this I would like you to create a mind map for Lila.

So when we do a mind map, I want you to think about all the different things that you know about Lila already, but I want you to give me evidence why.

It's best to focus on character traits.

Character traits are words like resilient or determined or enthusiastic or hardworking, so things that someone could use to describe you.

And these can be- mostly these are adjectives.

But instead of just writing the word hardworking, I'd like you to say hardworking because.

So here's my example.

I said she's resilient because even when she gets hurt, she carries on.

And that's me giving evidence of how I know she's resilient.

So I'd like you to pause the video here, and I'd like you to do your own mind map or your own concept map, and then press play when you're ready to resume.

Okay, I'm now going to show you mine.

So these are some ideas.

There are definitely lots and lots of other ideas as well, these are not the only character traits that Lila demonstrates in that opening chapter, these are just some of them.

So I've said she's resilient because even when she gets hurt, she carries on.

I've said she's hard working because she's keen to learn new things and we saw that when she was inventing the different fireworks, and I've said she's determined because she insists she will become a Firework-Maker and that it is the only thing she wants.

Nothing is gonna stop her, so we know she's determined with this one.

I've also said she's quite a stubborn or a cross child because we learn that, in the text, it tells us she was a cross child, she always refused her food.

So I'd like you to shout out now what other words you came up with.

How else did you describe Lila? Ready? Go.

Fantastic.

Great job.

Lots of different ideas.

So now we've got a bigger picture of what Lila is as a character, we're gonna finalise this and bring it together and write a sentence about Lila.

So I want you to write a full sentence and tell me what Lila is like as a character.

You can start by using my scaffold, Lila is mm because.

And I would like you to use evidence in the text to help you.

So pause the video now and complete your task and then press play when you're ready to resume.

Fantastic.

Well done.

Now we're going to spend just a few minutes reflecting.

I always think when we've been introduced to a new character and it's a main character in a book, it's really good to know what we think about this character because often characters determine whether we like or dislike a book overall.

Now I really like this book because I really, really engage with Lila as a character, I really like her as a character, she's someone I want to read about.

But you might not like her as a character and I want to know what you think.

So I would like you now, you can say this one out loud if you'd rather, or you can write it down, I want you to tell me what you like or dislike about her as a character.

Do you like her at all? And perhaps if you did like her, why you would like to meet her.

Perhaps what would you ask her if you were to meet her? I'd love to hear your ideas.

So what would you ask her if you were to meet her? Would she be your friend? I want you to just say out loud or write a sentence telling me what you think of Lila overall, and then pause the video and press play when you're ready to resume.

Okay, congratulations.

You've finished today's lesson.

Before we finish, I'd like you to just tell me three things that you've learned from today's lesson.

It could be three new character traits that you never knew existed, it could be three facts about Lila as a character.

Shout them out to me.

Ready? Go.

Fantastic.

Okay, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your lessons today and take care and a big well done for completing the lesson.