Lesson video

Hello, my name is Ms. Johnson and I'm going to teach in English today.

In today's lesson, we're going to be answering questions on the traditional tale of Mulan and we're going to be using a version by Oxford University Press.

If you haven't watched the previous lessons, then you should go back to the beginning of this unit and watch them first.

If you have, then let's get going.

we're going to start today's lesson by recapping what we already know about the tale of Mulan, then we're going to read the next section.

And then after that, we're going to answer some questions based on that section.

And then we're going to respond to the text.

Responding to the text is your opinion on something.

in the lesson today You will need an exercise book or paper, a pencil or a pen, it doesn't matter which one and your brain.

I want you answering the questions yourself today and really actively taking part in the lesson.

now is also a really good time if there are any distractions around you, to pause the video and make sure you can concentrate for this lesson.

So press pause and then press play when you're ready to get going.

Okay, ready? Let's go.

We're going to start by doing a recap.

So if you haven't watched the previous lessons, then you should pause now and go back and watch those ones first.

If you have, let's see what you can remember why were Mulan's family against her going to war? What was their reason for telling her she should not go? So you need to explain a reason.

So pause the video and can you write down an answer to this question, and then press play when you're ready to resume.

Well done, can you remember? it's because girls were not allowed to fight in the emperor's army, and that was really important, wasn't it? That girls were not allowed to fight in the emperor's army.

And so they were really worried about her because they thought it would be dangerous.

And her brother kind of teased her and said, you'll be no good, you're just a soppy girl.

Okay, so now we're going to read the next section.

We know that Mulan has decided to go, she's determined.

She's not going to listen to anybody, but she's determined to go.

We're going to jump forwards a bit and I'm going to be jumping forwards at times through the story as well.

I'm not reading you the whole tale.

If you'd like to read the whole tale, this version is by Oxford University Press.

At home, she tied up her hair and tied on her armour.

All that night, she practised her fighting skills and took tips from her father.

She no longer looked like Mulan, now she looked like soldier, and you can see her transformation in the picture here.

From that moment on, Mulan lived in fear of her fellow soldiers discovering she was a girl.

Army life was tough and everyday, sights and sounds reminded her of home and her family.

The days were long, the nights were longer.

The life was harder than hard.

And you can see here, she looks desperately tired.

What happens next is Mulan proves itself as a fighter.

So I've jumped ahead a little bit.

She used her spear to leap over her attackers.

This spear is what she's holding in her arm.

She danced her way past clumsy attacks.

She hid under her shield, then jumped out to take her attackers by surprise.

She earned the respect of her fellow soldiers.

They still had no idea she was a young girl.

They clapped her on her back and said, what clever tricks you use.

Jumping forwards again, that was the first battle of many.

She became a fine warrior.

She became a leader, she survived one long year, two years, three years, four, five and six and seven more and more, for 10 long years, she survived.

So I'm jumping ahead in the story but also, we've jumped ahead in time.

This is 10 years later, she survived 10 long years.

She's never returned home.

Finally, the war was won.

The emperor was pleased with Mulan.

You have been brave and true he said, ask for any reward and you can have it.

Gold, diamond, palaces.

What do you think Mulan asks for? Pause the video here and just say out what you think she asks for.

Well done, she asks to have her freedom.

She wants her freedom because we know she's been missing her family and she wants to return to her family.

When she's returned home, I've jumped ahead again here.

When she's returned home, Mulan takes out her hair, she puts her dresses back on.

She becomes Moulin again, no longer the soldier.

And then she reveals herself to her comrades.

Then she went out of the door and greeted her troop of soldiers, a troup is a group.

I Mulan, she said, her comrades were all amazed.

A girl, they shouted, not possible.

It took her lots of explaining before they could believe it.

Can you imagine their surprise up to 10 long years, they'd been following this leader and they've always thought she was a male, and actually, she turns out to be a female.

The soldiers were so amazed that they told Mulan's tale far and wide.

The story of how a young girl became a warrior spread from person to person, across mountains and oceans, to many different countries.

And we know that is true because we still know the tale of Mulan today.

And so this is very common for traditional tale, is that it's been retold, passed on through generations, and it's still told today.

I am still telling you the story of Mulan today.

Okay, so now we're going to look back through the text and we're going to have a go at answering a few questions on it.

When we answer these questions, there's a few things we can do to help us.

So if we find them difficult, we should underline the key words in the question.

This will help us know what type of answer we're looking for We should skim and scan the text for key information, so you're not reading the whole thing, you're going through just for the keyboards.

And we should retrieve information to answer the question.

By that, I mean the answer is in the text often and we just have to go and find where it is in the text, and we take the answer out.

Other times though, we might have to read between the lines for hidden clues, and looking for these hidden clues means you look around where other information in the text is, and you use your own knowledge of things to add meaning to what you read.

So let's have a go.

My first question is this, why did Mulan tie her hair up? Why did she tie up her hair? Pause the video here, have a go at answering this question, and press play when you're ready to resume.

Well done, so we know she tied up her hair because she had to pretend to be a boy.

She needed to look like a soldier.

Girls were not allowed to go to war.

And so in the text, it doesn't say, she tied up her hair because, so what we have to do is we have to use our inference skills.

That means reading between the lines to work out the reason why.

And we are told that she tied up her hair so that she no longer looked like Mulan and she looked like a soldier instead.

The next question, how did Mulan earn the respect of her fellow soldiers? So it says she earned the respect of her fellow soldiers, they still had no idea she was a young girl.

Now, I got a little bit stuck here.

I wasn't sure what the word respect meant, and I had to think about this carefully.

What does respect mean? And so I used my strategy for working out a word that I'm unsure of the help me, and I should do this whenever I'm reading a text and I'm not sure of a word, I should do this to help me.

So respect, what does respect mean? I've heard the word respect.

I've heard teachers say to children, you should show me respect.

I've heard parents say to children, you should show me respect or respect your elders.

I've also heard about, respect those around you.

So I'm wondering what it might mean.

And I'm thinking about what it could mean in this context as well.

So I'm going to have a go at skipping out the word she earned the, of her fellow soldiers.

So it's a noun, it's a thing, I read around the text, I know that she is very skillful and this whole text is about how skillful she is.

By looking at the picture here as well, I can see that she's got all her tricks ready and we know the soldiers pat her on her back for being so skillful.

So I think respect means they are impressed by her.

So she impressed her fellow soldiers.

How did Mulan then, earn the respect of her fellow soldiers? What did she do that helped her to earn their respect? Pause the video now and write a written answer and press play when you're ready to resume.

Well done, so we know Mulan earnt the respect of her fellow soldiers because she proved to be a skilled and intelligent soldier because she used clever tricks.

We are told they clapped on her back and said, what clever tricks you use.

So this is why she's earned their respect, because she's an excellent fighter, a soldier, but she's also a very intelligent soldier.

And so they're learning from her.

And so they hold her in high regard.

That means they respect her, and it also means they are likely to follow her as a leader.

Little do they know though, that she is a girl.

Then we come to the final section, one of the final pages in the book.

And we are told that when she lets go her hair, she tells them that she is a girl, they are all amazed.

Her comrades are her fellow soldiers.

So why are they all amazed? What is it that has amazed them? Amazed means you can't believe something.

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

Well done, they are amazed because she was a girl and they couldn't believe that such a skilled soldier could be a girl.

They can't believe it.

How can such a skilled soldier be a girl? So they are shocked by this fact that she is a girl and such good fighter and warrior and leader.

Now we're going to have a go at responding to the text.

I want you to think carefully about this question.

Do you, and so this is your response, what you think, not what I think, not what other people think, this is your response.

Do you think it is fair that Mulan had to pretend to be a boy in order to be a soldier? Do you think girls can be soldiers, what do you think? By fair, I mean that it is okay that Mulan had to pretend, that that's okay.

It's fair because she is a girl and girls don't fight.

What do you think? I'd like you to pause the video, write a written response to this and then press play when you are ready to discuss.

Well done, I hope you thought carefully about that question.

It does need some thinking about, so I think it is unfair that Mulan had to pretend to be a boy in order to be a soldier because she proved herself as one of the finest, one of the best warriors and leaders that has ever existed and so much so that she became a hero of her time.

A hero that has been talked about and talked about for many generations to come.

And so I do not think Mulan should have had to pretend to be a boy and hide her identity in order to be allowed to be a soldier.

If girls are strong fighters, if they believe they are a good soldier or they can fight, then they should be allowed to fight.

It should be up to them to decide, not anybody else.

So congratulations, you have now completed your lesson for today.

I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you enjoy the rest of your lessons for today.