Lesson video

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

In today's lesson, we're going to be answering inference based questions on "The Suitcase Kid" by Jacqueline Wilson.

If you haven't watched lesson one or two, then pause this video and go back to lesson one and start there.

This book focuses on family relationships, and it also focuses on divorce.

So if this is something that might make you feel uncomfortable, pause the video and ask an adult to watch the video with you.

If you happen to carry on then let's get started.

We're going to start today's lesson by recapping the text.

It's always important that we start with this just so that we're familiar again with what we're talking about the story.

If you haven't watched lesson one and two, then you to stop this video and go back and watch them now.

Then we're going to do a vocabulary check.

It's always good to do this before we start reading or before you do any questions because if you come across a word that you're unsure of in a question or in the text that you're reading, this is a strategy to help you.

Then then we're going to look at some inference questions.

If you're not sure what that means then don't worry 'cause we'll be explaining this today.

And then we're going to do some reflecting on the text as a whole.

In the lesson, you will need an exercise book or paper, a pencil or a pen, and bring your brain too and you'll see lots of thinking today.

If there's anything around you that might distract you like your phone or a TV is on, now's a good time to pause the video and move them away or turn the TV off.

I have my phone right at the back of this room, otherwise end up looking at it and it really distracts me.

So pause the video now and go and do that.

Okay, when you're ready, let's get started.

We're going to start today by recapping the text.

The text that we're looking at is "The Suitcase Kid" by Jacqueline Wilson.

And we're focusing on chapter one of that book.

So let's see what you can remember.

I'm going to read you the questions and then I want you to have a go at answering them.

You can say them out loud, you don't have to write your answers down.

So who are the characters? Perhaps, who are the characters in the picture here? And is there anyone I forgotten? And what is happening to them in the picture? So what's happening to them in the picture? So can you pause the video now and answer both those questions.

Well done, so let's remind ourselves who the characters are.

The main character who is 10 years old and is the one sitting on the suitcase or who we know is the suitcase kid is Andy, her parents called her Andrea.

And the other two characters we can see in this picture are both her parents.

And what's happening to them is her parents are splitting up and they are making Andy decide who to live with.

And so in the opening chapter, she has to decide whether she lives with her mother or her father.

They visit a counsellor to go and help them to make this big decision.

Andy also has a toy mascot, and that is called Radish.

Okay, so she is called Radish and she's a little Sylvanian rabbit and she's really important to Andy.

Now we're going to do a vocabulary check.

This is it always important, like I said before, because it helps us to make sure we know how to work an unfamiliar word if you come across them in the middle of a reading.

We shouldn't just skim over them, because then we will never learn them or we might lose the sense of the sentence.

So it's important that we pause and have a go at trying to break them up.

So there was words that I came across in my reading of "The Suitcase Kid", and it came from this extract here.

But I had to let this lady paw her about and undo her frock and turn her upside down in a very rude sort of way.

So this is Andy talking about Radish and the lady is the counsellor.

So I had to let this lady paw her about and undo her frock and turn upside down in a very rude sort of way.

So I want to start by working at the word class and I find out that this is a verb because it's something a lady is doing.

So I know it's a verb, and that's going to help me straight away.

Then I'm going to have a go at replacing the word.

So, but I had to let this lady, maybe move her about, and undo her frock and turn her upside down.

To check that that's correct, perhaps I can see that later, she undoes her frock and she turns her upside down so they are both movements.

So I had to let this lady move her about and undo her frock and turn her upside down.

Now the fact that she says this very rude sort of way might suggest that Andy doesn't like this movement.

So perhaps it's a bit of an overbearing movement, should we find out what it means? All right, to paw so it means to touch or handle something a bit clumsy or a bit invasive, you're kind of touching it all over, like the paw of an animal, that's when I've heard that word before and perhaps it's the same as you.

Now if I didn't get the exact meaning, that's okay, because I could still have worked out roughly what was happening, and then that helps me to understand what's going on in the text.

So I'm going to use this strategy today.

Whenever I come across a word that's unfamiliar, and I want you to do the same.

So if you come across a word you don't know, perhaps a word that you read in the question or whether you read in the extracts I show you, I want you to pause the video and go back to this strategy.

We're now going to have a go at doing some inference questions.

Now, inference questions, or where you have to search for hidden clues in the text.

The answer isn't always in front of you, you have to look for the clue and bring what you know about something to text to answer it to your pre-existing knowledge.

And to answer them, you start by underlining the key words in the question, because this helps you to know what you're looking for.

Am I looking for a feeling? Am I looking for an action? Am I looking for a personality trait? Am I looking for a reason why someone does something? Then you skim and scan the text for key information.

So then it's about locating where in the text this might be, so you have to look closely and quickly to find that information.

And then once you find it, you search for the hidden clues in the text.

Now, this requires you to read above where you found information and below it.

You cannot just read one sentence , often you have to read around it to help you.

And so we're going to use this strategy today to answer inference questions.

So I've got my first question for you today.

Now, inference questions often refer to how someone is feeling in a text.

So I'm going to read the extract, then I read the question, and then we pause the video and you can have a go at answering it.

She had some little dolls in her office, the she is the counsellor and this is Andy talking.

She had some little dolls in her office, a mummy doll and a daddy doll and a whole set of children dolls in different sizes.

She wanted me to play with them.

I poked the mummy doll and the daddy doll in the stomach and I said, I didn't like playing with silly old dolls.

My question, which word best describes how Andy is feeling? Angry, sad, confused or bored.

Now in the test is not going to tell you exactly how Andy is feeling.

So you have to read her body language.

You have to read what she says and how she's acting and her reaction to things.

So we're looking for clues in how Andy reacts to help us tell how she's feeling or how she might, just describe things as well.

So pause the video and see if you can have a guess how Andy is feeling.

And then press play when you're ready to resume.

Well done, I wonder how you got on, shall we check? So I thought the word that best describes how Andy is feeling is angry, and I'm going to show you why.

I wonder if you got it correct as well.

The reason I think she is angry is because how she's describing things is in quite in an angry way.

So she says, "I didn't like playing with silly old dolls." So by describing them as silly, it shows she doesn't like them and she's a bit cross.

And then she also, we know that she pokes the mummy doll.

Now that's quite an aggressive action.

So by poking the mummy doll, it shows she doesn't really want to do it.

And she's getting more and more cross with the counsellor.

So for these two reasons, I said the best word that describes how Andy is feeding is angry.

Okay, shall we do another question? Question two, again, I'm going to read it to you and then we're going to have a go on answering the question.

"Oh, what's a dear little toy", this is the counsellor speaking again.

"Do you let me have a look", she said in that silly voice grown up always use when they're trying to get you to like them.

"She's not a toy, she's a mascot", I said, I didn't want to show her Radish at all.

" She's mine and she's private." But I had to let this lady paw her about, we know that paw means to kind of touch her clumsy a bit and undo her frock, a frock is a dress, and turn her upside down in a very rude sort of way.

"What's Bunny's names?", she asked.

You'd have thought I was two years old, not 10.

I just shrugged and shook my head.

So which word best describes what Andy thinks of the counsellor? Now you can pick two words this time, I said, which words best describe what Andy thinks of the counsellor? So I'm going to give you a big clue.

There are two words there to pick.

Now, there are quite tricky words too so you can pick from friendly, rude, patronising, kind and helpful.

Now, there's a word that I think some of us might not know.

Say the way that you think we might not know.

Yeah, I think some of you might not know what patronising means, say it, patronising, and it's a word in pink here.

But that's not going to stop me from answering the question because what I can do is the process of elimination.

So I've told you there are two words here.

Now most of you will know what helpful looks like, most of you will know someone's is being kind what that looks like and most of you will know if someone's looking friendly or acting friendly, what that might look like and most of you know what someone's like if they are acting rude.

So you can work out which words don't work and then the two you're left with will be your answer.

I think one you'll find quite quickly, and then the two that you're left with will be your answer.

So why don't you have a go at doing it that way? So you're searching for Andy's reactions.

What did she say that tells you what she thinks about the counsellor? 'cause if this one's thinking it and it's a narrator that often saying it or it's often in the narration, so go search for the hidden clues, press pause, have a go at writing down your answer and then press play when you're ready to resume.

Well done, shall we see which two words that I thought show how Andy, what Andy thinks of the counsellor? So the two words that I thought of were rude and patronising.

Now, I knew what rude meant and in the purple here, I know Know that Andy thinks she's rude because she describes her as pawing Radish about in a rude sort of way, so instantly I guessed rude.

Now the one I found hard it was patronising, I didn't really know what it meant.

But I knew that Andy didn't think that the counsellor was being kind, helpful or friendly because she never does she say that she likes her and we know that know that Andy dislikes the counsellor.

So then I guess that it was patronising.

Now, I'm going to tell you what patronising mean.

Patronising is when someone makes you feel younger than you are.

So the counsellor patronises Andy because she acts as if and is two years old.

And Andy says, You really thought I was two years old, not 10.

So she feels like the counsellor is making her feel like she's two years old.

I love the word patronising.

I think it really kind of captures what it means.

She also describes the counsellor as having a silly voice grown ups always use.

So she thinks he's being patronised because she doesn't need a silly babyish voice to be spoken to.

So the two words that best describe what Andy thinks of the counsellor are rude and patronising.

Okay, well done, you're doing really well today, keep up.

So now we're going to have a go and do the next question.

Again, I'm going to read the extract to you, and then you're going to have to think about this question.

Now inference questions can be quite difficult so if you're finding these hard, don't worry, they are hard because you have to really think carefully about what you're reading.

So don't worry if you're finding them hard.

But let's have a go at doing another one so that we improve.

So I read the extract to you now.

"That's Radish", said mum.

"Andrea's had her for years and years.

She's a very important member of our family." "Actually, I bought Radish for Andrea as a silly Saturday present.

I like to give her this a treat every now and then", said dad.

Why do Andy's, this is my question, why do Andy's parents disagree over who bought her and Radish? Why do you think it's important for them to say that they bought Andy Radish? Well, to answer this question, you're going to need to think about what's happening in this chapter, and why that might make Andy's parents feel like they want to be the one who bought Andy Radish.

So pause the video now and have a go trying to answer this question.

Well done, so this is quite a hard type of question because you have to bring your knowledge of the whole book together to answer it.

So we know that both that Andy is having to pick between her mother and her father, and that this is a really difficult choice.

So both parents are trying to convince her to live with them.

And we also know that Radish is really important for Andrea and so they are trying to claim that they bought Radish, Andrea Radish, because they want to show how important they are.

And so I've said the answer is yes, because they both want me to pick them to live with, they' re trying to live with them.

They're trying to be her favourite and show how important they are.

But for Andy, it doesn't really matter because she's finding it really difficult to choose.

So that's how I've answered that question.

I've brought what I knew about the chapter to answer it.

Okay, so this is perhaps our trickiest question so far, well, don't turn off, you can do it.

Let's have a go at doing it together.

So I'm going to read the extract, back to the text first of all.

"So we know what mummy wants and we know what daddy wants but what do you want, Radish?', now the lady, the counsellor is talking to Radish here.

Radish wouldn't say a word.

"I think it's a bit shy", said the lady.

"Maybe it's hard to say anything in front of mummy and daddy." why do you think that Radish, this is my question, why wouldn't Radish say anything in front of mummy and daddy? And who is the counsellor really talking to? Who is it, that Radish isn't saying anything? Is it Radish or is it Andy? So you really have to think carefully here about what you know about Andy and Radish, and also about what you know about what's happening in the chapter.

So pause the video and have a go on answering.

Fantastic, well done.

So let's see what you were able to write.

So I've said that it tell us it's hard to say anything in front of mummy and daddy.

Now do you think the counsellor is actually talking Radish or not? No, the counsellor is using radish to talk to Andy because sometimes it can be really hard when we are making difficult decisions to talk to one to one with someone.

Especially for someone who is aged 10.

And so by talking to Radish, the counsellor thinks she might get Andy to speak because it's kind of detached as Andy from having to make the decision.

But this isn't the case, and Andy finds it really hard to speak in front of her parents because she doesn't want to choose who she to go with, she doesn't want to say it in front of her mum and dad.

So I said my answer is the counsellor is using Radish to talk to Andy.

Andy doesn't want to upset either of her parents by not choosing them so is refusing to speak.

Well done, you've done really well today.

We're going to finish by doing some reflecting.

And this is a question to make you really think, okay? I want you to just think about everything you know about the book and about how Andy is feeling and I want you to tell me where you think Andy is feeling at the end of the chapter and why.

So my question is this, how do you think Andy feels at the of the chapter when she learns she has to live in house A and house B? I want you to place her feelings on the scale, is she really upset or is she happy? So can you write down an answer for me and the press play when you're ready to resume.

Excellent, shall we have a look at what I got? So I said Andy is upset because she wanted to live in Mulberry Cottage with her mum and dad and didn't want them all to split up.

So we know at the end, she doesn't want to live in house A and house B, she only wants to live in house C, which is Mulberry Cottage, so she is really upset.

Congratulation, you've finished today's lesson, you did really well.

Before you go, I would you to just write down three things or say three things that you can tell me about how to answer an inference question.

What do you have to search for in the text and why.

And then I hope you really enjoy the rest of your lessons today and take care.