Lesson video

Hello, it's Mrs. Smart, welcome back to this English unit, all about the biography of Mary Anning.

In today's lesson, we're going to be focusing on the author's use of language to answer some language questions.

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

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or some lines paper and a pen or pencil to write with.

Try and make sure you're somewhere quiet with no distractions, so that you can really focus on your learning.

Pause the recording and get yourself ready for your lesson today.

In this lesson, we're going to start with an introduction of the text and a recap of what we've already learned about the book and Mary Anning.

We're then going to analyse the language on page four and five, that's the first double page of the book, and then we're going to move on to analyse some of the language on page six and seven.

That's the second double page of the book.

And we'll be answering some language questions throughout.

Here is the book that we're focusing on in this unit, it's called "History VIP Mary Anning" and it's written by Kay Barnham.

What can you remember about Mary Anning and the book? Let's have a go and see.

True or false.

Mary Anning lived in the 20th century.

Put your thumb up if you think it's true, and down if you think it's false.

Off you go, it was false.

Well done if you got that right.

Mary Anning actually lived in the 19th century.

She was born in 1799, which is right at the end of the 18th century, but mainly she was alive in the 19th century.

Well done if you remembered that fact.

Mary Anning sold her fossils to tourists.

Is that true or false? Put your thumb up or down now.

Well done, it was true.

She's sold her fossils to tourists.

So those were the people that came to visit Lyme Regis in this for their summer holiday to make money for her family.

Mary Anning learned to find fossils at school.

Is that true or false? Show me your thumb now.

It was false.

Mary Anning actually didn't go to school very much at all, because her family couldn't afford it.

Her father taught her to find fossils.

He was called Richard Anning.

Well done if you got that right.

Before we read, the first section of the text today, there are a few words that might be a little bit unfamiliar.

I'm just going to go through what they mean so that when you read them, you don't get stuck.

Repeat after me.

Palaeontologist.

Palaeontologist.

A palaeontologist is a scientist who studies the fossilised remains of organisms. And you can see an example of a palaeontologist there, digging underground to try and find some fossils.

The next word is fossil.

Repeats after me.

Fossil.

Fossil.

A fossil is the remains or impression of an animal or plant.

Often animals leave impressions in stones that are then found many, many years later.

Geological society.

Geological society.

The geological society is an organisation which people join to learn about geology and earth sciences.

So, anything to do with the earth and earth formations like rocks, for example, they would learn about.

And this is where, they discussed any new fossil discoveries, and Mary Anning wasn't allowed to join at the first because she was a woman.

This is the section that we're going to be focusing on today.

If you want to, pause the recording and read the whole double page through, you can.

We're just going to focus on this part of this double page now.

I'm going to read through this part.

If you want to pause the recording and read it through yourself, you can, or you might want to pause it after I've read it, and read it through yourself, otherwise you can follow as I read.

Introducing Mary Anning.

If you thought fossil hunters were all top palaeontologists, then think again.

The greatest fossilist the world ever knew according to "The British Journal for the History of Science" was a poor woman who barely went to school.

She was born over two centuries ago, in the small English coastal town of Lyme Regis, where she spent her life discovering fossil treasure.

Her name was Mary Anning.

Here is our first language question.

Why has the author chosen to use the word 'you' in the first sentence? Let's have a look at the first sentence.

If you thought fossil hunters were all top palaeontologists, then think again.

So why has the author to use the word 'you'? Pause the recording and write down your answer now.

I think the author has used 'you', to try and engage the reader.

That means to make the reader interested.

Remember, this is the first double page of my text.

So if I was reading the book, this is probably the first page that I would read.

And if I find it a bit boring, I'm probably going to put it down and read something else.

So, the author really wants to engage the reader and interest the reader, and make sure they read the rest of the book.

It also hooks the reader in, so they then read on.

And it gives it a slightly informal tone.

So although it's a nonfiction information text or biography style of information texts, it's slightly informal.

It feels a little bit like the authors having a chat to you as a reader.

Our next question, is what is the meaning of 'think gain'? That's in the first sentence.

If you thought fossil hunters were all top palaeontologist, then think again.

What does the author mean by 'think again'? Pause the recording and write down your answer now.

I think the author means, that the reader is wrong if they think that fossil hunters were all top palaeontologists.

And if they do think that, they need to think again, they need to think again about their viewpoint, and they need to change their mind because they're wrong.

Not all top palaeontologists.

So not all fossil hunters were top palaeontologists, because we know Mary Anning was a fossil hunter, and she wasn't a top palaeontologist, well, not to start with anyway.

Third question.

Why does the author describe Mary as a 'poor woman who barely went to school'? You can see it in the text, underlined there.

Pause the recording and answer that question now.

I think the author is really trying to exaggerate and make it really clear that Mary had a very, very difficult life.

She refers to her as a poor woman and barely went to school, mean she hardly went to school, she didn't go to school very much at all.

This makes it really clear to the reader, that she did not have very many privileges in her life.

And she actually had quite a difficult life.

Okay, question number four.

Why does the author refer to Mary's fossils as 'treasure'? And you can see that in the penultimate sentence there where it says, she was born over two centuries ago in the small English coastal town of Lyme Regis, where she spent her life discovering fossil treasure.

Why does the author refer to Mary's fossils as 'treasure'? Pause the recording and write your answer now.

Treasure is something that's really valuable.

It can be something that's really expensive, or it might be something that's really important to someone.

Often treasure is hidden and found.

You might've read stories or seen films where treasure is hidden and people have to go on a treasure hunt to find it.

Fossils were really valuable to Mary because they helped her family make money.

Remember they were really poor family, her father didn't make very much money as a carpenter, so this helps supplement their income and give them more money.

And they were also really special to her, as they were treasure to her, even if it didn't matter about the money, because she was really interested in these fossils.

You might have something that's treasure to you, that's actually not very expensive, it's just really important and valuable to you.

Before we read page six and seven, there are a few words that you might not be familiar with.

I'm going to go through them now, so that when you read it, you don't get stuck.

The first one is ammonites.

Repeat after me, ammonites.

Ammonites.

Ammonites are a group of extinct marine molluscs with a ripped spiral form shell.

Marine means they live underwater.

Molluscs are any animal with a shell.

So things like a snail would be a mollusc.

And you can see ribbed, means it's bumpy.

You can see all those lines on the shell, and spiral means it's goes round like so in its shape.

And you can see a picture of it there on the screen.

That is an Ammonite fossil.

The next word is a belemnites.

Belemnites.

That is an extinct mollusc with a bullet shaped internal shell.

So again, this is another animal with a shell, a little bit like a snail, but it's bullet shaped this time and you can see the shape of it on the screen there.

If you want to read the whole double page of page six and seven, you can, we're going to focus on this section now.

I'm going to read this through to you.

If you want to pause the recording and read it through for yourself, you can, or you can do afterwards, otherwise, follow along while I read.

Beside the seaside.

Anning was born and lived in Lyme Regis on the South Coast of England.

At the end of the 18th century, the small seaside town was already famous for the fossils that peppered it's cliffs and beaches, but no one knew what the fossils were, or why they were there.

They were nicknamed curiosities because people were so curious about these strange objects.

Here's your first language question.

Why does the author use the title 'beside the seaside'? Beside the seaside.

Pause the recording and write down your answer now.

There are a few possible answers to this question.

First of all, you might have noticed when I was reading out that it rhymes.

Beside and seaside, sound very similar.

And when something rhymes, it can be quite catchy and memorable, and therefore it might engage the reader and make them more interested in reading the text.

It's also taken from a really well known song that you might've heard before.

Of course the title summarises what the section is about.

So if it's cool beside the seaside, I'm guessing we're going to learn something about something that happened beside the seaside.

And we know that Mary Anning lived beside the seaside, and that's where she found lots of her fossils.

Question two.

What does the word 'peppered' suggest about the fossils? You can see the word in the sentence there.

At the end of the 18th century, the small seaside town was already famous for the fossils that peppered it's cliffs and beaches.

What does peppered mean? Sounds a bit like the word pepper, but it's got ed on the end, so I'm guessing it's a verb.

Pause the recording and write down your answer now.

Pepper, you might know, it's something that you sprinkle on your food.

It gives us a little bit more flavour.

It sort of makes it a little bit spicy in a way.

And pepper is lots and lots of very small black dots.

And when you put it on your food, you don't arrange it neatly in a pattern, it just randomly sprinkles all over your food.

So it's not in any kind of orderly pattern.

This tells me, that the fossils must have just been randomly sprinkled all over Lyme Regis and all over the South coast.

So they weren't in any kind of order.

Our last question for today.

What does the word 'curious' tell us about how people felt about the fossils.

You can see the word 'curious' in the final sentence.

They were nicknamed curiosities because people were so curious about these strange objects.

Read around the sentence to help you answer this question.

Pause the recording and write down your answer now.

Curious means you're very eager to know or to learn something.

So the people were really interested in the fossils and they wanted to know more about them.

I said to read around the word 'curious' because it says, but no one knew what the fossils were or why they were there.

Often we're more curious about something when we don't fully understand it.

They didn't know anything about the fossils.

They wanted to learn more about them.

You can see, also the author refers to them as strange objects.

Strange makes me think that they didn't really know anything about them or understand them.

Congratulations, you have completed your lesson today.

If you would like to please share your work with your parents or carer, I'm sure they would be really interested to hear everything that you have been learning about Mary Anning.

I will see you in our next lesson.

Goodbye.