Lesson video

Hello, it's Mrs. Smart.

Welcome back to the fourth lesson in this English unit, all about a biography of Mary Anning.

In today's lesson, we're going to be exploring some of the author's use of language and answering some language questions together.

Right, let's get started then.

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

Try and make sure that you've got no distractions so that you can fully focus on your learning.

Pause the recording and get yourself ready.

In today's lesson, we're going to start with an introduction of the text and a recap of what we've already learned so far in this unit.

We're then going to analyse some of the author's language and answer some questions.

And lastly, we'll finish with some find and copy questions.

Here is the book that we are focusing on in this unit.

It's called, History VIP Mary Anning, and it's written by Kay Barnham.

Let's see how much you can remember about this book and about Mary Anning and her life.

I have got a few multiple choice questions to recap what we have already learnt.

First question, what is a palaeontologist? A dinosaur, a tool, a type of scientist, or an animal? Point to the answer that you think is correct? In three, two, one point.

Of course it's a type of scientist.

Well done, if you remember that.

Remember Mary Anning was a palaeontologist.

What is a fossil? Is it a type of dinosaur that lived underwater, the remains or impression of an animal or plant, a type of plant, or an old person? Point to the answer that you think is correct? In three, two, one point.

It is the remains or impression of an animal or plant.

Remember a palaeontologist is this type of scientist that studies fossils.

Well done if you remembered that.

Who taught Mary to find fossils? Was it a teacher at school? Did she teach herself from a book? Was it her brother or was it her father? Point to the answer that you think is correct? Three, two, one, point.

It was her father.

Can you remember his name? Yes, he was called Richard Anning and he taught Mary how to find fossils in the town that they lived in, called Lyme Regis, in Dorset.

Before we read the section of the text, there are a few words that you might not be familiar with.

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

The first one is tuberculosis.

Can you say that for me? It's quite a tricky word.

Tuberculosis.

Let's try again tuberculosis.

Well done, tuberculosis is a type of infection that affects the lungs.

You can see an image of your lungs there.

Your lungs are in your chest, and they help you to breathe.

Century, can you say that for me? Century, century.

A century is a period of 100 years.

You can have a look at the timeline on the screen, which shows you some of the centuries that have already occurred in history.

We are currently in the 21st century and Mary Anning lived in the, can you remember? Yes, she lived in the 19th century.

She was actually born in 1799 that you can see is right at the end of the 18th century.

But most of her life was in the 19th century.

So she lived around two centuries ago, or 200 years ago.

Next word is debt.

Debt, debt.

And although there's a B in that word, we don't pronounce the B.

It's as if the word was just D-E-T debt.

A debt is a sum of money that is owed.

So if someone lends you some money, you then owe them that money back.

You need to give it back to someone.

We're going to focus on this double page of the book now.

This is page 10 and 11.

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

We're going to focus on this little section.

I'm going to read it through.

If you want to pause the recording and read it through first of all, on your own, or you might want to pause the recording and read it through on your own afterwards.

Otherwise follow along as I read.

Bleak times, when Anning was 11, tragedy struck.

Her father was suffering from a disease called tuberculosis.

Remember, you know what that means.

Then one day he fell from a cliff.

Richard Anning was already so weak from his illness that he did not recover from the accident.

He died in 1810, just 44.

It was yet another sad event for the family.

Annings's elder sister, also called Mary, had died in a house fire when she was just four.

Here's the first question that I want you to answer on this section of the text.

What does the word, struck, suggest about this tragedy? So we can see in the first sentence it says, when Anning was 11 tragedy struck.

So tragedy is something bad, something negative, something sad happening in your life.

Why does the author use the verb struck? What does that tell you about the tragedy? Pause the recording and write your answer, now.

Struck tells me that the event occurred suddenly.

If you strike something, it's like hitting it very, very suddenly.

So if an event struck, it means it occurred very suddenly or unexpectedly.

It also could mean that it caused damage or harm.

You know that if you strike or you hit someone, it will really hurt them and it will cause them damage.

So if an event struck, then that event could also cause damage or harm.

And we know this tragedy definitely did cause damage or harm because her father died and it really caused harm and upset to her family.

I now want you to have a look at this sentence.

He died in 1810 aged just 44.

What does the word, just, suggest about Mary's father's age when he died? He died in 1810 aged just 44.

Pause the recording and try and answer that question now.

The word just, suggest that he died at a very young age.

44 Is quite a young age to die.

It's a bit like saying, he was only 44.

Interestingly, the author uses this word again.

The end of this paragraph, when she says Anning's elder sister, also called Mary had died in a house fire when she was just four.

Again, that means she was only four.

And that implies that that's a very young age for someone to die.

The next part of our language analysis is going to focus on this section of the text.

I'm going to read it through, if you want to pause the recording and read it before or after, you can.

Otherwise follow along as I read.

In all, eight of nine brothers and sisters would die in childhood.

Unfortunately, this was not at all unusual.

At the beginning of the 19th century, half of all children never reached the age of five.

For a poor family such as the Anning's, life was difficult.

Food shortages and poor harvest made things worse.

Wheat prices rocketed.

And so did the cost of bread, which meant the poor people like the Anning's could hardly afford to eat.

It's said that Richard Anning himself protested against food shortages.

When Richard Downing died, life became even more difficult for the family.

They were already poor, but he had left them in terrible debt too.

Now that the earnings he'd once made from his carpentry had vanished, fossil hunting was more important than ever before.

Here is our first question on this section.

What does the word, unfortunately, tell us about the author's opinion.

Have a look at it in the sentence.

Unfortunately, this was not at all unusual.

Pause the recording and answer this question now.

The word unfortunate, means without fortune.

Fortune is a little bit like luck or good things happening.

So unfortunate is often good things not happening or bad things happening.

It suggests that the author thinks it was sad that so many children died in the 19th century.

It certainly wasn't lucky that half of all the children never reached the age of five.

What does the word, rocketed tell us about wheat prices? Let's find it in a sentence.

Wheat prices rocketed, and so did the cost of bread, which meant the poor people like the Anning's could hardly afford to eat.

Now the word, rocketed sounds a little bit like rocket, but it's got e-d on the end.

So it must be a past tense verb.

What does it tell me about the wheat prices? Pause the recording and try and answer this question now.

Rocketed means to travel quickly, just like a rocket would shoot into space.

A rocket, would rocket into space.

This tells me the prices of wheat must have increased in a short space of time.

So they got really, really expensive, very, very quickly.

This is our last language question for this section of the text.

What does the group of words, it's said, suggest let's find it in the text.

It's said, that Richard Anning himself protested against food shortages.

What does, it's said mean? Pause the recording and write down your answer now.

It's said, suggests that people have said this information, but the author doesn't know if it's true.

It's a little bit like saying, it's believed, or allegedly.

Authors often use phrases like this, but they're not completely sure if what they're saying is true.

So, it's said that Richard Anning himself protested against food shortages, the author is not completely sure if that's true, but she knows that people have said it in the past.

Before we read the next section of text, I just want to go through a few words that might be unfamiliar to you.

We did focus on these in our previous lessons.

So you might remember the meanings of these words.

The first one is ammonites.

Ammonites, these are a group of extinct marine molluscs with a ribbed spiral form shell.

Remember extincts means they don't exist anymore on earth.

Marine means they lived underwater, and molluscs means there are sort of animal with a shell, a bit like a snail.

The next word is belemnites, belemnites.

Belemnites are an extinct mollusc with a bullet shaped internal shell.

So quite similar to the ammonites, but a different shape.

And you can see the shape of the shell there, it looks very much like a bullet.

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

If you want to read the whole double page, you can pause the recording and do that now.

We're going to focus on this section.

I'm going to read this section through.

If you want to pause the recording and read it yourself, then you can otherwise follow along as I read.

Back to the beach.

After their father's death, Mary and Joseph Anning returned to the shoreline, looking for fossils to sell.

They had stiff competition, because they weren't the only fossil hunters in Lyme Regis.

Other locals found and sold fossils to wealthy tourists as well.

Luckily, there were plenty of ammonites and belemnite fossils for everyone to find.

For find and copy questions, we need to understand the word synonym.

Can you say that synonym, synonym.

A synonym is a word or a phrase that means the same or similar to another.

Now this is a bit strange.

What's a synonym of the word synonym.

It could be same or similar.

And in a sentence, we could use it like this.

A synonym of the word book, is text.

Book and text have a very similar meaning.

Okay, first find and copy question, find and copy of word, or group of words, that means tough.

So you need to try and find a synonym for the word tough in this text.

Pause the recording, try and find the word and copy it down, off you go.

A synonym for the word, tough, is stiff.

They had stiff competition, because they weren't the only fossil hunters in Lyme Regis.

That means that they had a lot of competition.

It was really, really difficult to sell their fossils because lots of other people were doing it at the same time.

Well done if you identified stiff as the synonym.

Find and copy a word, or group of words, that means rich.

Scan through the text and try and write down the synonym for rich.

Pause the recording and have a go now.

A synonym for rich, is wealthy.

Other locals found and sold fossils to wealthy tourists as well.

That means they were rich.

They had lots of money.

Find and copy a word or group of words that means residents.

Can you find a synonym for the word residents? Pause the recording and write down your answer now.

A synonym for the word residents, is locals.

Residents means people that live in a certain place.

And locals means the same thing.

People that live in a certain area would be local to that area.

Well done, if you found that answer.

Find and copy a word, or group of words, that means lots, lots.

Can you find a synonym for lots? Pause the recording and have a go now.

A synonym for lots, is plenty.

Luckily there were plenty of ammonites and belemnites fossils, for everyone to find.

That means there were lots available.

We're now going to focus on this section of the text.

I'm going to read it.

And if you want to follow along, you can, or you can pause the recording and read it yourself.

Ammonites had once been sea creatures with ribbed spiral shells.

They were around for hundreds of millions of years before becoming extinct at the same time as the dinosaurs.

Belemnites fossils were the remains of sea creatures, similar to squid and cuttlefish today.

They had 10 arms and an ink sack, and lived in a long pointy shell.

But ammonites and belemnites were common.

So the Anning's needed to find a rare fossil if they wanted to stand out from the crowd.

Something really special could make them a lot of money.

For your final task today, I would like you to see if you can find synonyms for some of the words in this extract.

See how many you can find.

I've underlined a few words that you might be able to find synonyms for.

I've underlined sea creatures, remains, common, rare, and stand out from the crowd.

Can you think of some words or phrases that would have the same or similar meaning to those words.

You might be able to think of some others as well.

Pause the recording and give it a go.

Well done, you have finished your lesson today.

If you would like to please share your work with your parent or carer.

Congratulations on all of your hard work.

I will see you in your next lesson, goodbye.