Lesson video

Hello everybody, my name is Ms. Johnson.

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

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

This book also focuses on family relationships and divorce.

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

If not, then let's get started.

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

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

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

Then we're going to do a vocabulary check.

Then we're going to be answering some retrieval questions.

If you're not sure what that means, then don't worry because I will be explaining that in today's lesson.

And then we're going to be reflecting on everything that we've learnt in the lesson.

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

I want you thinking throughout this lesson.

Now is also a really good time to move any distractions or turn them off.

So if your TV is playing, perhaps turn it off if you can.

If the window is open, it's really noisy outside, it might be a good idea to try and close it, just so that you can really hear the lesson and you can focus completely.

I have to sit in a completely silent room whenever I do any work.

And if you find something difficult today, don't worry.

Sometimes we do find things difficult and that's okay.

We just have to stay calm and be resilient and work our way through them.

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

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

The text is "The Suitcase Kid" by Jacqueline Wilson.

I want to see what you can remember from lesson one.

So I would like you to answer these questions.

We're going to read the questions, then I'll let you to press pause and have a go at answering them.

So who is the author of "The Suitcase Kid"? Who is the main character? And Who is Radish? Now you can say these just out loud, you don't have to write the answers down, but pause the video now have a go and press play when you're ready to resume.

Well done.

Lets see how you got on.

So who is the author of "The suitcase Kid? Shout out for me.

Jacqueline Wilson.

Fantastic.

Who is the main character? Shout out.

Andy.

So her parents call her Andrea.

So her full name is Andrea, but like her nickname and the name that she calls herself is Andy.

And who is Radish? Andy's toy mascot, she's a Sylvanian rabbit.

So a little toy figurine in the shape of a rabbit.

Well done.

Now we're going to do a vocabulary check.

It's really important that we keep checking how to work out What unfamiliar words mean, because whenever we read text, sometimes we might come across unfamiliar words.

Whenever adults read texts, they come across unfamiliar words.

So this is something that adults even have to do.

And it's really important that we don't just skim over word, if we're not sure what it means.

We have to have a strategy to help us work out what it might mean because sometimes it holds the whole meaning of the sentence.

So let's practise together now.

So the word I thought we could look at today was snatched.

Say after me, snatched.

And it is a verb, I know it's a verb, so I'm going to start so by looking at the word class.

This is what I'd always do if there's a word I'm not sure of.

I know it's a verb because it's a doing word and it's got an ed.

So past tense verbs often end in ed.

That's a really good way for us to spot them.

So I'm going to read the sentence where it occurs in the text.

And let's have a go at working out what it might actually mean though.

"I snatched Radish," Radish is the toy figurine, "back and put my hand gently over her ears.

She can't stand to hear them arguing." So this is in the scene where the counsellor is currently holding Radish.

And Andy says, "I snatched Radish back and put my hand gently over here ears." I'm not too sure of what snatched means.

So I started by looking at the word class and I know I'm looking for a verb.

My next step is to try and replace the word with another word.

Hmm.

I might skip out first of all.

I hmm Radish back.

I took radish back? Might work.

That's also a verb.

"I took Radish back." And then I might read around the word.

This is going to help me really understand what snatched might mean, because they also could just have written took.

But why have they written snatched? So I can tell that Andy is perhaps quite angry here because she can hear her parents arguing.

She says she can't stand, or Radish can't stand to hear them arguing.

So she's being quite protective of Radish.

We also know that she does not account to the holding Radish.

So I think snatched is almost like an aggressive way of taking back Radish.

Shall we find out? So snatched is to quickly seize, which means quickly take something in a rude or aggressive way.

So if you snatch something back, you're doing it in a kind of aggressive way.

It's quite a forceful movement.

Which makes sense 'cause we know that Andy is really possessive of Radish and she doesn't want other people touching her.

So that's really helped me to work out how to understand a word if I'm not sure what it means.

And if I follow those steps throughout today, and if you follow those steps throughout today, whenever you get stuck, you can just pause and you can do those trustees.

Then you have a good idea of what the word might mean.

When you do it, you don't have to have the exact meaning of the word.

That's okay.

But as long as you get close to the meaning, then you'll be able to understand the text.

The next section of the lesson, we're going to move on, retrieval questions.

Retrieval questions are where the answer, is already in the text.

All you have to do is find it.

And we have a strategy to do that.

And our strategy is this.

So you will start by reading the question and underlining the keywords in the question.

You then go on a search.

So then you skim and scan the text for key words.

What this means is you don't read every word individually.

You quickly scan the text.

So your eyes should flick really quickly across the page.

And you're looking for just a few words, those key words that you've already identified.

And then when you find them, you pause, you put your finger on it and then you underline that section in the text, and that should help you to find the answer.

But there's one more step you have to do.

You also have to read around the keyboards, to check the context because sometimes, it's really important we read above and below because sometimes the meaning of that sentence can change depending on what's come before it or what's come after it.

That's a step that lots of children often skip out.

So lets have a go now at doing some questions.

So this is an extract from the text.

I'm going to read the text first, and then we going to cut the question together.

So just listen to begin with.

You can track as I read.

"My mum wanted me to go and live with her.

My dad wants me to go and live with him, but I didn't want to go live at my mom's new place or my dad's new place.

I wanted to stay living in our old place, Mulberry Cottage, the three of us together.

Four, counting my pet Sylvanian family spotted rabbit Radish." So my question is this, where does Andy want to live? I've underlined where in the question, because I know that tells me I'm looking for a location.

So when I skim and scan the text, I know I'm looking for a place.

I've also underlined Andy, because I'm looking for her view, not her mom's view, not her dad's view, but her view.

And that's really important in this question.

So what I'd like you to do now is pause the video and jot down your idea on a piece of paper.

Where does Andy want to live.

Press play when you're ready to resume.

Let's see how you got on.

So I'm now going to show you my answer.

So when I skim and scan the text, I was searching for a place.

And that place I found was Mulberry Cottage.

What was really helpful is often places are proper nouns.

So often they have capital letters when I'm searching for them.

And so it was easy for me to find this one because I knew Mulberry Cottage was like the name of a person or a place.

So once I found Mulberry cottage, I then read around it and I found that it says, "I wanted to stay living in our old place." So I know Mulberry Cottage is a place.

Then I had to check one more thing.

I had to check that it was where Andy wanted to live.

It was confusing in this section, if the word place comes up a lot of times.

But, sometimes it refers to Andy's mother and sometimes it referred to Andy's father, but only once it did tell where Andy actually wants to live.

So the I, "I wanted to stay" is really important in helping me find the answer, and confirming that Andy wants to live in Mulberry cottage.

Okay.

Well done.

I wonder if you got the correct answer.

Fantastic if you did, don't worry if you didn't, that's why we are practising these types of questions.

Sometimes these type of questions actually trick us out a little bit.

Okay.

Question number two.

I'm going to read the text again and then we will answer the question together.

"There were all these arguments about who would get custody of me.

I thought they were talking about custard at first.

I hate custard because you can never tell when there's going to be a lump and it sticks in your throat and makes you shudder." My question, what did Andy think everyone was talking about? So the key words in this question are what to think and talking.

If I scan the text with those key words, I think I'm going to find the answer, especially talking.

So I'm going to start by skimming and scanning, and then I'll read around the text to check that it does make sense.

So I've done the first step for you, I've underlined the key words.

So pause the video, write down your answer and press play when you're ready.

Well done.

Let's see how we go on.

So I found two sections here.

I underlined, whilst I skimmed and scanned this with my finger, I found talking, which I've highlighted for you and arguments.

I thought both those words might help.

But then I got a bit confused because it talked about custody and custard.

When I first read that, I actually read it as custard both times.

So it really confused me.

I also wasn't too sure what custody meant.

So that kind of made me get a little bit stuck as well.

I wonder if you got stuck too, perhaps you didn't, but I did get stuck.

Now in this question, Andy thought they were talking about, I said, Andy thought they were talking about custard, because it tells me there were all these arguments who would get custody of me and it tells me, I thought they were talking about custard at first.

So even though I don't understand what custody means, I do know what custard is.

And I do know that they were talking about custard first.

It tells me that they were actually then talking about custody.

I don't have to know what custody means.

I just have to copy it from the text to give them the answer.

It's really helpful if I do know what it means, but even if I don't know what it means, I can still answer this question because I've got enough of the other information.

So I said, Andy thought they were talking about custard, they were really talking about custody.

I wonder if you're able to answer that too.

Okay.

Onto question three.

Well done.

You're doing really well so far, keep up.

So I'm going to read the section.

And then as before, I just want you to pause video and have a go at answering the question.

"It was much easier for Radish.

She just sided with me.

She lives in my pocket.

So there's never been any hassle over who gets custody of her." This is a why question.

These are sometimes a bit harder to answer because you're looking for a reason.

So why has there never been any hassle over who gets custody of Radish? So I should have actually also underlined the word hassle here, I think that might help me.

So I'm going to skim and scan the texts, for Radish, custody, and hassle.

I'm also looking for a reason.

So pause the video, write down your answer and press play when you're ready.

Okay.

So as I skim and scan this text, I found the word hassle and custody.

I pause, underline them, and then I'm going to look back to find the rest of the text.

So I'm actually going to give you some options here.

So why has it never been any hassle over who gets custody of Radish? Let's see if you can remember.

Andy's parents don't want Radish to live with them.

Radish she lives in Andy's pockets.

Radish doesn't mind who she lives with.

What was the reason? I'm going to now let you have a think.

Andy's parents don't want Radish to live with them.

She lives in Andy's pocket.

Radish doesn't mind who she lives with.

Let's find out what the answer is.

So as I looked through, I find hassle and custody and I look forward and then I can see she lives in my pocket.

So, and so is explaining my answer.

That's my reason that I said I need to find there's never been any hassle over who gets custody of her.

So the answer is, is because Radish or she lives in Andy's pockets.

Okay our next question.

I'm going to read the extract, then we're going to have a look at the question, and then you can answer it.

"So we had to go for family counselling." Remember counselling is when you go and seek advice.

"It seemed a bit daft because my mum and dad didn't want to be a family anymore.

This lady chatted to me.

She was trying to be ever so casual but I knew she was trying to suss things out." My question is this, it's another why question.

Why did Andy think counselling was a bit daft? Now a why question again, I need to find a reason for this.

So I'm looking for a reason as to why Andy thinks counselling was a bit daft.

I'm a bit confused, 'cause I don't know what daft means, and it's in the question.

So that's quite tricky for me.

So what I'm going to do is just pause here, because this is a word I'm not sure of, I'm going to use my strategy to work out an unfamiliar word.

So daft is describing something.

It's a bit daft So it's an adjective.

So here it is in a text.

So I've worked out the word class daft.

Now I'm going to try and replace it with another word.

"It seemed a bit hmm because my mum and dad didn't want to be a family anymore." So perhaps it seemed a bit, I wonder if I could describe as seemed a bit silly perhaps? Because my mum and dad didn't want it cause we have family anymore? If I read around and I try to think about that.

I can know that she had to go for family counselling and she's not happy about that.

So it seemed a bit silly perhaps because my mum and dad didn't want to be a family anymore.

So I'm going to remember that daft perhaps means silly.

Now I'm going to have a go at trying to work out the answer to my question.

So why did Andy think counselling was a bit daft or a bit silly? I'm going to look for the word daft in the text, and now I found it.

And I can see that it was because, her family didn't want to be a family anymore, so Andy didn't think they needed to go for counselling.

It said, "We had to go for family counselling.

It seemed a bit daft because my mum and dad didn't want to be a family anymore." And then I can find it in the text and I can see where the answer is.

So well done.

I wonder how you got on with that one.

That was me kind of showing you how to do a question, if you're unsure what the word means.

And a final question, I'm going to leave you to do this one.

"'Hello Radish,' she said peering right into her little furry face.

I scowled her.

OK, Radish is real for me, but I can't stick it when grown-ups act like she's real too." In this one, I want you to have a go.

So why did Andy scowl at the counsellor? Now I'm not going to give you any help on this question.

So pause the video and have a go.

Well done.

Shall we see how you got on? Making you be a little bit independent there.

I'm going to give you some reasons in case you got stuck here.

So let's have a go now.

Maybe thinking a little bit more carefully.

So your reason might already be there, or it might be similar to my reason.

So, "'Hello, Radish,' she said, peering right into her fury littler face.

I scowled at her.

OK, Radish is real for me, but I can't stick it when grown-ups act like she's real too." So why did Andy scowl at the counsellor? Is it, because she was bored? Is it, because she acted as if Radish were real? The she is the counsellor here and the first one.

Because she was bored as Andy was bored.

Is it because she the counsellor, acted as if Radish were real? Or is it because the counsellor was a grown-up? So why did Andy scowl? Now, scowl is like a frown.

So if you weren't sure what scowl is, it's a frown.

And I would use, if you didn't know that I would have paused the video here and I would have done my strategy to help me work out.

So why does she scowl.

It tells me there if I looked through the text carefully, it tells me, "because she can't stick it when grown-ups act like she's real too." So it's because the counsellor acted as if Radish were real.

And I could answer probably this question without actually knowing what scowl meant, because the answer is in the text.

And this is what makes retrieval questions slightly easier than some other questions that you have to do.

Sometimes and often the answer is just completely in the text view, you just have to pick it out.

Well done.

I hope you got closer to the answer or you've got the correct one.

If you didn't, don't worry, we're going to keep practising these.

So we're going to now reflect on everything you've done so far in today's lesson.

I want you to pause the video and answer this question for me.

On this scale, how important is Radish to Andy? So this is just us thinking a bit more about the whole text.

And this isn't necessarily a retrieval question.

This is you thinking now.

So sometimes we answer questions that are based exactly on evidence in the text.

Sometimes we have to search for hidden clues, and sometimes we just have to think about our own view on something.

And this is the side of reading that I absolutely love.

Because reading is always about bringing what you think about something to the text and interpreting something yourself.

So have a go at this one.

This is kind of like your big thinking question for the day.

How important is Radish to Andy? How do you know? So place your answer on the scale.

She can either be not important or very important, and give evidence to support your decision.

And I would like you to write your answer down.

So how important is Radish to Andy? Pause the video and press play when you're ready.

Well done.

I wonder what your sentence looks like.

So I might say, Radish is very important to Andy, because Andy does not like it when the counsellor talks to Radish, she is private.

So Andy described Radish as private.

Which means she's hers.

And so I think she's very important to Andy.

And I think the reason being is that Andy is going through lots of different changes at the minute and Radish is that one thing she can keep, that one thing that she can hold onto.

And it's her lucky mascot, as she said, it's her kind of pet toy.

Congratulations.

That's the end of today's lesson.

I hope you enjoyed it.

What I would like you to do now, is just to write down three things that you've learnt from today's lesson.

It could be a new word that you've learnt.

It could be how to answer retrieval questions you've learnt.

Or it could just be something about the book that you've learnt And then I hope you enjoy the rest of your lessons today and take care.