Lesson video

Hello.

My name's Ms. Johnson, and I'm going to be teaching you reading today.

In today's lesson, we're going to analyse the author's use of language, in I Was A Rat.

If you haven't watched, that's in one to four, you should stop this video and go back to lesson one, and make sure you watch those lessons.

If you have, then let's get started.

I'm going to start today's lesson by recapping what we already know about I Was A Rat, by Phillip Pullman.

Then we're going to do a quick strategy check.

Now I'm going to look at some language questions.

So why the author has used particular words, and then we're going to reflect a bit on everything that we've done with what I Was A Rat.

In today's lesson you will need an exercise book or paper, a pen, or a pencil, and your brain.

I really want you to be thinking throughout this lesson today.

If you have any distractions near you, for instance, if you have your phone, or if there is a TV on near you, I suggest you pause the video now, and you move them away.

I've got my phone right here.

I'm going to move it all the way, so I don't get distracted.

So pause the video now and press play when you're ready.

Well done.

When you're ready, let's get started.

So we're going to start today's lesson by recapping I Was A Rat, by Philip Pullman.

I have got some true or false questions for you.

And in a minute, I'll ask you to pause the video, and have a go at answering them.

But first of all, I'm going to read them to you.

So, true or false? The boy acts as if he were a rat.

True or false? The old couple help the boy.

And, true or false? The boy tore the night shirt because he is naughty.

So pause the video and press play when you're ready to resume.

Let's see how you got on.

So the boy acts as if he thought he were a rat is true.

Throughout it he's chewing things.

He's eating like a rat would eat.

So he'd act as if he where a rat.

And the old couple help the boy is also true.

They do try and help the boy.

And the boy tore the night shirt because he is naughty, is false.

Even though that's what Joan thinks.

Bob thinks it's because he, the boy, thinks he is a rat and that's the correct answer.

So it's false.

Well done.

I'm sure you could remember all of those, but don't worry if you can't.

That's why we've recapped them.

Now we're going to do a strategy check.

And this is really important because whenever we come across an unfamiliar word, we should use this strategy to help us.

So whenever we're reading, and there's a word that we don't understand, we should stop ourselves and make sure we use this strategy to try and work it out.

If we don't, if we just scan and skim over that word, then what might happen is we might lose meaning in the text.

Especially if there's quite a few words that we're not sure of.

So I'm going to show you a strategy now.

And I think this is a really useful one to use when you're coming across an unfamiliar word.

So you're going to read, first of all, the word to you.

The word is despair.

Say it, despair.

I'm going to read where it comes from in the book.

She was going to cry out because she feared that something had come in the window and attacked him in the night.

But you were sleeping so peacefully, among all the destruction, that she couldn't bring herself to wake him.

Though she was in despair over the damage.

Now I know from this, that it is a noun.

It's a thing.

She's in despair.

It's a feeling.

But I'm not sure quite what it means.

So what I need to do now, is try and replace it with another word.

I know that she was in, she was perhaps worried over the damage.

What I should do next is read around the word in the context.

And I can see that she's horrified about all the damage that has been done.

She can't even imagine how she's going to repair it all.

So she's shocked.

So I think despair is a really strong feeling.

A really upset and a really strong feeling.

We know she's feeling upset.

And so by looking at that word closely, by reading around the text, I've managed to work out what the meaning is.

And I think today that's exactly what you should do.

If you come across a word that you're not sure of.

Don't worry.

If you don't completely guess them incorrectly, that's fine.

I want to check the meaning now.

Just so that you also learn a new word today.

But despair means a complete loss of, or absence of hope.

So despair means you're extremely upset, and I've got a picture of someone despairing.

When someone despairs, they often put their hands in there, or their head in their hands because they're so upset.

So we know that the old lady, Joan, is really upset by what's happening.

Today, we're going to look at the language questions.

What I mean by language questions is this.

Every author can choose whatever word they like to write their stories with.

And they make purposeful decisions over the words that they choose.

And they do this to create the best meaning in their sentences.

What they really want to show, and create the best picture in your mind as something.

And so Philip Pullman has crafted I Was A Rat, with the words that he's used.

And what we're going to do today, is we're going to look at the language that he's used throughout his book.

In order to do this, we might need to underline the key word at times.

We might need to skim and scan the text for the word.

But we also might need to read around the word and look for the meaning of it, in case we're unsure.

So I'm going to read the question to you, and then I would like you to have, I want to read the action to you.

Then I'll read the question to you.

And then when I tell you to, I'm going to ask you to press pause, and have a go at answering it.

So, this scene comes from when the boy is about to be fed.

So the boy look what looked.

And so Joan tells him that he can a have a wash, but no one's going to eat his food for him.

So if he leaves it, no, eat his food.

The boy looked wonder-struck at this idea.

He watched over his shoulder, as Joan led him to the kitchen sink, and tipped him some water from the kettle.

And while she was washing him, he kept twisting his wet face round to look from both Bob, to the bowl, and back again.

So what I'd like you to do in this one, is I'd like you to copy the word that shows the boy was delighted.

So you're going to have to look through this text.

You're going to have to look at the words that Philip Pullman has used, and think which one do you think shows the boy was delighted.

And I remember delighted is a feeling, or a reaction to something.

So perhaps you're looking as you skim and scan for word that shows a reaction or a feeling.

So pause the video now.

Have a go at writing this.

And press play when you're ready to resume.

Well done.

I'm going to show the answer now.

So the boy looked wonder-struck at this idea.

I said, the word that shows a boy was delighted was wonder-struck.

It means he was almost amazed.

He couldn't believe this idea.

So that's what wonder-struck means.

Say it wonder-struck.

It's a really, really good word.

I really like it.

And you might not have known it.

So this question could have been quite tricky for you.

I'm sure sometimes language questions are tricky.

And sometimes what makes it tricky is we don't know what the word means, because language questions rely on us understanding the meaning.

So, as I told you, you were looking for a feeling or reaction, and that might have helped you, Because you are told the boy looked wonder-struck.

So you know this is his reaction to something.

Even if you didn't understand what wonder-struck meant.

You could work out that that's how we learn what his reaction is.

As you can make any guess that wonder-struck was the correct answer.

Don't worry if you're finding these hard, I think language questions are possibly the hardest type of question is you have to do, but they're also sometimes the most interesting, because I think this is where the author has been so purposeful over their choices.

I love unpicking why the author has chosen to make certain decisions over the words that they've used.

Okay.

Question number two.

Again, don't press pause yet.

I'm going to read you the question and the extract, and then I'll direct you to press pause.

Come and look, she said to old Bob.

And he stood open-mouthed in the doorway.

It looks like a hen-run after a Fox has been in, he said.

And I want you to copy the word that shows old Bob was shocked.

Start off.

Can you show me a shocked face? Ready? In five, four, three, two, one.

Show me your shocked face.

Okay.

So now I know what shocked looks like.

I'm going to have a go at answering this question.

So keep that picture in your mind of what your shocked face like, and have a go at answering this question.

Press pause, and then play when you're ready to resume.

Well done.

I wonder if acting it help out, helped you understand the meaning of some of the words.

What action were you looking for? The action you were looking for was open-mouthed.

So let's act out to check.

Can you open your mouth? And as if you're in shock.

It's almost what we do.

Whenever we're shocked you almost gasp, we breathe in, and we usually open our mouth to make that sound.

So I know now, because I've checked as well, that shocked is the word that I'm looking for.

That's my strategy.

What I would do first is look at the word in the question before I even go near the text, and have a go at acting it out.

Especially when it's an action that somebody is doing to show a feeling.

So that's my top tip for you.

Now, we're going to have a look at a slightly different type of language question.

This language question is looking at a simile.

The authors use similes to compare things in the reader's mind.

By using a simile, they tell you something is like something else.

So her hair was like a lion's mane.

That would tell you exactly what the hair looked like.

You could picture one thing, and then that helps you understand what the other thing looks like.

It's a really clever device that authors use.

It really helps the reader.

It's almost like a tool for the reader.

And so Philip Pullman has used a simile in his writing here.

And I'm going to read you the extract, first of all, and then I'm going to help you to answer this question.

There wasn't a sheet or a blanket that hadn't been torn into strips.

The pillow was burst open and feathers lay like snow over the whole bed.

So the simile is this one, feathers lay like snow over the whole bed.

Now I know that this is a simile because it says the word like.

So it's comparing the feathers to the snow.

So what I want you to think about is why has the author chosen this simile? How does comparing it, the feathers to snow? Does it enhance meaning of the sentence, or does it add to your image in your head of what it should look like? So how does it do that? And what I'd like you to have a go at is to really think about that now, and have a go at trying to make this comparison.

But before you do that, I will tell you a strategy that always helps me.

When you're looking at a similar question, or why the author is used a simile.

The best thing to do is to think, what am I looking at? And what is it being compared to? So the item that we're trying to imagine are feathers, and they're being compared to snow.

Now, before I can tell you what the feathers look like, I have to imagine what the snow looks like, because that's what they're being compared to.

So I'd always start by saying snow is, and imagine what snow is like.

Describe it.

Tell me what snow is like.

So snow is mm.

So the author is saying the feathers are also, mm.

So to answer this question, you're going to do two things.

The first thing you're going to do is imagine what snow looks like.

The second thing you're going to do is then think about how the feathers, imagine a feather in a pillow, how the feathers might look on the bed.

So pause the video now, and have a go at answering this one.

Well done.

Shall we see what I came up with as an answer? This is a particularly tricky question.

So well done for giving it a go.

That's great.

So, as I said before, I've started by describing what snow is like.

So when I thought of snow, I thought snow covers everything that it falls on.

When there's snow, you can't see what's underneath it.

Can you? It just completely covers the ground.

You can't see, even sometimes it there's a car underneath except for the shape of the car under the snow.

So I said the snow completely covers anything it falls on.

And I know the colour of snow is white.

Then I thought about feathers.

So when feathers burst, they are also white.

Feathers tend to be white in a pillow.

So for that reason, they're similar.

Snow is white, feathers are white.

But I think the author is trying to do something else.

I think the fact that snow covers it, with him, is what he's trying to convey here.

I think snow completely covers anything it falls on and is white.

So the author is saying, the feathers also completely cover the whole bed in white.

This shows is just the extent of the destruction that the boy has caused in the bedroom.

The whole bed is covered in a layer of white, and that is the feathers.

And so this layer reminds us of the snow.

And it's a really clever device because what Phillip Pullman has done here, is he's completely created that picture in my mind.

Whenever we read, we're constantly thinking of images in our head.

We all have our own idea and imagine a setting.

We imagine the character in our head.

It's a really clever thing I think about reading.

It's thanks to Philip Pullman, that we're able to construct and build that image in our head.

All thanks to the author of the book that we are reading.

And so by looking at the language, we get to see that art and how they've done that.

So well done.

So now we're going to spend a little bit of time reflecting.

And this is my next question.

I'm going to read you first of all, the section, and we're looking at the speech.

So in this, we're looking at how the people are speaking.

So that's also language.

Rats don't have page-boy uniforms, she said.

Nor they don't speak either.

He could have learned to speak by listening through the walls.

And he could have found the uniform on a washing line, Bob said.

You depend on it, that's what happened.

He's a wild boy, and he was brung up by rats.

What I'd like you to do, is in a minute, I you to pause video, and whenever you do that, I want you to think about, how do the characters speak? Is it how you speak? Is it similar or different? Is it how the narrator speaks? Why do you think Philip Pullman chose to do this? And what does it add to the story? So looking at the sections that they are saying out loud.

Pause the video and have a go.

Can you see anything that's a bit different about it? Off you go.

Well done.

Let's look at it closely together.

So if you look closely, you might have wondered what the Joan meant when she said nor they don't speak.

Because we would probably say they, they also don't speak.

Not, nor they don't speak.

It was also interesting.

And I didn't really know the phrase you depend on it.

I don't know if you found that one a bit tricky, but when I was reading, it's not a phrase that I've heard before.

And Bob also say he was brung up by rats.

Now I would probably say he was brought up by rats, or if it was written, it would be, he was brought up by rats.

So what has Philip Pullman doing here? What he's doing is he is showing the speech as how the characters would speak.

And that's what a lot of authors do.

When characters speak, it's different, to when they write or what the narrator would be saying.

It's usually a different language.

And we use the conversational, the colloquial terms. So we use things like nor.

We use things like brung up, and it's how characters speak.

This gives me a clue to where they're from.

It also helps me understand what era they live in, but it also builds their character.

It distinguishes between the narration and the character speaking, and it builds that image of them in our heads.

And so lots of authors do this, when they're writing.

They make sure the speech of the characters matches their personality.

Matches where they live.

Matches the era that they live in.

And it's really effective.

So, that brings us to the end of the Philip Pullman unit on I Was A Rat.

I really hope you've enjoyed the opening chapters.

I'm sorry I'm not going to share with you what happens, but what I really hope you do, is I really hope you read on to find out.

I hope I've inspired you to pick up this book, and go and buy it, and continue to read it.

Because it's so fantastic.

You can get it in the library, if you can't buy it.

It's a really excellent book.

So we really hope you go and find out what happens to Roger and Bob and Joan in this story.

There's lots of twists and it goes on a journey that I don't even think you could imagine right now.

So I hope that you enjoy reading the rest of this book.

But for now, congratulations, you completed your lesson today.

Well, before you go, I have one more request.

I would like you to write down two things you've enjoyed about I Was A Rat.

Is it the characters? Is it the story so far? The peculiar idea that a boy could be a rat.

So write down those two things for me now, and then press play when you're ready to resume.

Well done.

I really hope you've enjoyed today's lesson and I hope the rest of your lessons together today go well as well, and take care.