Lesson video

Hello, my name is Miss Johnson, and I'm going to be teaching you English today.

In today's lesson, we're going to analyse the opening section of Hansel and Gretel by Anthony Brown.

If you haven't watched lesson one, you should pause this video now and go back and watch that one first.

If you have, then let's get started.

We're going to start today's lesson by recapping what we read in the previous lesson.

Then we're going to do a vocabulary check and make sure we have a strategy of understanding words that we're not sure of.

Then we're going to do some text analysis.

So this will mean that we are going to answer some questions on the opening chapter.

And then we're going to respond to the text, and this is your response to the text.

How does it make you feel? Or what's your reaction? Or what do you think? It is really important that we always think about our own reaction to a text or what our own feelings are about a book that we read.

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

I really want you to be thinking throughout the lesson, you're doing the work, not me today.

Now is also a good time, if there are any distractions in the room.

For instance, if the TV's on or the windows open, just pause the video here and go and sort those distractions out, and then press play when you're ready to resume.

Well then, so let's get started then.

we're going to start by recapping.

I want to see what you can remember so far about the story of Hansel and Gretel.

So here we have some of Anthony Browns illustrations.

And throughout this book, there are lots of illustrations, and these really help to tell the story.

It's almost the pictures that I remember when I think the story.

So can you remember the events of the story? And I would like you to pause the video and say a simple sentence.

That means something like the family had no food and were very poor.

That night, or overnight stepmother planned to take the children into the woods and to leave them there.

And that's what I want you to be doing.

I want you to retell and remember the events of the story so far.

Remember, we haven't read the whole thing yet.

So press pause here, and then press play when you've done that.

Well done.

I wonder how much you could remember.

Hopefully the pictures really helped you, and helped you to identify the different parts of the story.

Now we're going to do a vocabulary check.

What do I mean by vocabulary check? This is a way that you can remember something you can remember, and you can do in your own reading, when you're unsure of a word.

So we always need these strategies, to hand.

We always need to be ready to use different strategies to help us with our reading.

Because reading is a skill and we have to learn how to do it.

So all adults, when they read books, they always come across words that they're unsure of.

And so what I do, when I read is I stop myself, and I try work out what that word might mean.

And this is a really important skill, because it helps me to gain understanding of the text that I'm reading.

If I just skim over those words, and I don't stop myself, then I'll start to lose meaning in the text, because authors choose their words for a reason.

So we're going to do a vocabulary check.

The word that I wasn't sure of when I was reading Hansel and Gretel was the word stooped.

I'm going to read where it came from in the text.

"The moon was shining brightly, "and the white pebbles around the house "glittered like new coins." And this is in the section, where Hansel it is laying down the pebbles.

"Hansel stooped and filled his pockets "with as many as they would hold." So what's he filling his pockets with? White pebbles.

So I know he's collecting the pebbles for his trail.

So in order to work out what this word means, 'cause I'm not sure what he's doing.

I'm going to have to skip the word out.

Hansel, and filled his pockets with as many as they would hold.

So we now know it's a verb.

There's another clue that tells me this is a verb, it's a doing word.

It also has an ED at the end.

So often words with Ed at the end of them are past tense verbs.

So I know that it's similar to the word filled.

So if I read around the word now, I can think, well he's filling his pockets with as many as they would hold.

So, he must have to do something in order to pick these pebbles up.

And finally, if I look at the picture there, I can see that he's bending over.

So I think I could replace the word with the word bent.

Hansel bent over and filled his pockets with as many as they would hold.

So I think that works.

I think that is exactly what the word means.

I've just worked that out by reading around the text thinking about the word first and looking for clues in the pictures.

If pictures are in front of you, they're a really good place to help you with vocabulary.

Because often they mirror what is happening in the text.

And so stooped means having head and shoulders bend forward, just like Hansel has in this image.

So say the word for me, stooped.

Well done.

We're now going to start a text analysis.

So what I might mean by an analysis, is we're going to look closely at the text and answer questions on it.

We're going to look at a series of different questions.

And just like when we were understanding vocabulary that we're not sure of, I gave you a strategy.

I'm going to give you a strategy for this, for answering questions on a text.

And this is really important when you grow up, when you're an adult, because you always have to find information in text.

This is a good skill to practise.

So to help me when I'm answering questions, I always underline the key words in the question.

And then I skim and scan the text for key information.

Skim and scan means you just track over the text really quickly, and you just look for the key words.

This will speed your reading up.

You've read the text once before, so this is you returning to the text, you're just finding the key information.

And then I will search for clues in the text, and look around the text to find the meaning.

So, we're going to have a go now, at applying this strategy.

Okay, so we're going to have a go now, by answering the first question.

I'm going to read the extract to you first, and then I'm going to get you to pause the video in a minute, not now, and I would like you to answer the questions.

Now have a go doing these on your own.

So, let me read to you first of all.

This comes from the opening page of Hansel and Gretel.

"The family was always very poor, "and when a terrible famine came to the land, "they could find nothing to eat.

"The woodcutter lay fretting in bed at night "tossing and turning." So my question is this, why was the woodcutter fretting, and what does this tell us about him? So if we were to think about this, we're going to find fretting in the text, underline it, then find it in the text.

And then I want you to skim and scan around the text to work out what this means and the reason why he was fretting.

Then once you've understood that, I want you to think about what this tells you about him.

So pause the video here, and have a go at answering these two questions.

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

Well done.

Let's have a look.

Now my answer might be slightly different to yours, and that's okay.

As long as they are similar, that's what we're aiming for.

So I said that he was fretting, because they could find nothing to eat.

So I found fretting in the text.

And I knew that fretting meant worrying, because I read around the word and realised that he had been tossing and turning at night, which tells me he was worrying.

So then I looked for the reason in the text and I skimmed and I scanned the reason in the text, why he was worrying, and I found out it's because they could find nothing to eat.

So it shows me, that he wants to provide and care for his family.

And so this shows me what he's like as a father.

He is caring, he wants them to be able to eat, he wants to be able to provide for his family.

So this is the impression that I get of him in my mind.

When I look at the picture here, it looks like he's really worrying about this.

Okay, we're now going to have a go at the second question.

Again, I'm going to read you the extract from the text, then I'm going to read you the questions, and then I'd like you to have a go at answering them.

"I'll tell you what, said his wife, early tomorrow morning, "we'll take the children out into the thickest part " of the forest, "we'll make them a fire, "and give them each little piece of bread.

"Then, we'll go to our work and leave them alone.

"They will never find their way home "and will be rid of them." So my questions are these, what does the stepmother plan to do? So can you find what her plan is.

And what impression does this give you of her? By impression, what I mean is, what picture of her do you have in your head? How does it help to create this picture in this image in your head? Now we can see what she looks like, and how Anthony Brown imagined her to look like, from the pictures that he's drawn.

But, what do you think about her personality? Do you like her? Do you not like her? So by reading this extract, how do you feel about her? What's your reaction to her? So press pause here and have a go at answering these two questions, and then press play when you're ready to resume.

Well done, you're working so hard today.

Keep it up.

So here are my answers to the question.

Like I said before, yours might be similar to these.

They don't have to be exactly the same.

I looked around and I've thought where does it tell me what she plans to do? So she says, "We'll make them a fire "and give them each little piece of bread." And then, that they'll leave them alone.

Now this shows me, that she's planning to trick them.

Because she's giving them bread and fire to make them feel like she's looking after them, and that they should be left in the forest.

What they don't realise, is that she's not going to come back for them.

And that's the trick.

However, we know that Hansel and Gretel know that's what she's planning to do.

I said that it shows us that she is actually an evil character.

And when we think about fairytales, I'd say that the stepmother is perhaps the evil character in this book.

It shows that she's also selfish, because she's only worrying about herself.

And unlike her husband, who was trying to care for his whole family, and was lying awake at night worrying about how he might do this.

The stepmother just wants to get rid of the children, so they have less mouths to feed, and so that she can have whatever food there is to herself.

So to me, she sounds like an evil character.

And that's when I think of mothers traditionally, they would never leave their children alone in a forest.

Okay, well done.

Question number three.

I'm going to read this part of the extract to you again, and again we're thinking about character traits.

So what impression of a character, does the author create in your mind? "Quiet Gretel, whispered Hansel.

"Don't be upset, I'll find a way to save us." This comes from the section in the text, where Hansel and Gretel have just overheard stepmother and their father talking about their plan.

So which words below do you think we could choose to describe Hansel's personality? I would like you to explain your answer so, because.

So the words that you can pick from are these ones.

Cunning, which means that you are quick to make a plan.

Cunning.

Selfish.

Selfish, it means you only think of yourself, like the stepmother, we showed see was selfish.

Protective.

Protective, that means you look after other people.

And brave.

Brave.

Brave means that you, even when you're scared yourself, you still show courage.

You still are willing to do something.

You don't worry, you move on, and you maybe do something that scares you.

So which words do you think you could use to describe Hansel in this part of the text? Press pause and then press play when you're ready to resume.

Well done.

Now, I hope you gave me a reason.

So it's selfish because? So I said these three words work.

I said cunning because he thinks of a plan quickly.

We know that he puts the pebbles as a trail, when they head to the woods into the forest, and he sets the path back to the house.

I said he's protective because he really wants to look after his sister as well.

And I also said he's brave, because instead of being upset, he's trying to solve the problem.

He's really trying to think of ways that he can help himself and Gretel.

Well done.

Now I said he wasn't selfish because he's putting Gretel first.

He was really worried about looking after his sister.

So if he's protective, he can't really be selfish at the same time.

Okay.

The next question, we've only got a few more to go, well done.

So I'm going to read this one now.

It's a bit longer this one.

"When they had gone a little way, "Hansel stood still and looked back at the house.

"He did this again, and again.

"Hansel why are you lagging behind?' That means falling behind, "asked his father.

"I'm looking at my white cat, said Hansel, "it's on the roof saying goodbye to me." "You idiot! "Said the wife, that's not the cat.

"It's the morning sun shining on the chimney.

"But Hansel was not really looking at a cat, "for each time he had dropped a white pebble onto the path." So why did he drop the pebbles, and why did he lie to his stepmother and his father? So pause the video here and have a go at answering this question.

Well done.

So I hope you skimmed and scanned that text for information.

This was a long piece of text.

So we have to make sure we skim and scan for the key information, to make sure we're being nice and quick when we answer questions.

So I said that he dropped the pebbles because he was making a path back to his house.

We knew that.

That he had a plan already.

So from our previous reading, we could tell that.

And we knew that he was dropping all these little pebbles and looking back at the house because it says in the text, he was looking back at the house and he did this again and again.

And then I said he lied because he didn't want her to know.

So he lied to his father and his stepmother because he didn't want them to know what he was doing.

Because he knew that they were tricking him.

So if he told them what he was doing, it wouldn't help his plan to get home safely.

Okay.

And our final question today, or one of our final questions in this part of the lesson.

I'm going to read the extract from the text and then I'd like you to answer the question.

"You wicked children." And this is in the section, once the children have returned to the house.

So they go into the forest, then they are abandoned by their stepmother and father, and then they use Hansel's trail to find their way home.

And when they return, the stepmother says this to them.

There's an image of her standing at the door.

"You wicked children.

"Why did you sleep for so long in the forest? "We thought you were never coming home." So I said, why does the stepmother pretend to care? So you need to think about what you know already about this story.

And why she might want to say it was a children's fault, and not the fact that her and her husband left them in the forest on purpose.

So pause the video here, and have a go at answering this question.

Well done.

So, I said, it's because her plan has failed.

So she tries to make it look like it was their fault for staying in the forest, and that there was never a plan.

And that she never intended to leave them on their own.

Because we know she might need to make a new plan now, because her first plan has failed.

Hansel and Gretel have outwitted her and made their way back home.

So now I want to hear a little bit about what you think overall about the text.

So we're going to respond to the text.

And this is my big question for the end of today.

Which characters do you think are the good characters, and which ones do you think are the evil ones? And why? Is there only one evil one, or are there more than that, so far in the story? And I would like you to say, "I think, because.

And if you're saying that a character is a good character, what personality trait do they have that show they're good? Is it because they're brave? Is it because they care for others? So I want you to really expand your answer here, and write a sentence in response to this.

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

Well done.

So I think the stepmother is definitely the evil character at the minute because she sets a plan to abandon the children.

And I think perhaps the husband, the father, you could argue is evil because he doesn't really say no to the stepmother.

He goes along with the plan.

But we do have evidence to show that he does care about the children, because we knew he was fretting and worrying about them.

And then, we are told, then we think about Hansel and Gretel.

We don't know much about Gretel just yet, but we know Hansel is a really protective brother.

Now he's looking after his older sister.

So we would argue that he's the good characters.

And when we think about where we are as a reader, we often are on the side of the good characters.

And when I read this, I definitely want Hansel and Gretel to be okay.

I don't know if you feel the same.

How do you really like the stepmother as a character? So congratulations, you've now completed your lesson today, and I look forward to seeing you in the future lessons.