Lesson video

Hi everybody, and welcome to our very first lesson together.

My name is Miss.

Mullins, and I'm one of the Oak English teachers.

Now English, when I was at school, it was one of my absolute favourite subjects, and it is still one of my favourite subjects to teach today.

So, I'm so excited for the amazing learning and all of the fantastic skills we're going to work on together over the coming weeks for our next couple of writing units together.

Our learning objective is to build knowledge of the historical context of a narrative.

We are in lesson one of 10.

That means that for the next 10 lessons, we are going to work together to create and write a setting and a character description.

So, our agenda for today's lesson is firstly, we will discuss an author.

We will then discuss the historical context of the narrative that we're going to be working on.

When we have done that, so when we've learned a little bit about the author, and about the historical context of the narrative, we will then use that learning to generate and record some key descriptive vocabulary that we will use in our writing later.

So for this lesson, you will need an exercise book or paper with lines on it.

You'll need a pen or a pencil, and you need your brain.

Your absolute best brain though.

You've got to bring your very best brain power to this lesson, and we're going to set that bar really, really high for the next 10 lessons, as we go forward.

Okay everybody we're going to get started with our writing warmup now.

First of all, we're going to begin by listening to an audio clip.

That means there will be a movie clip playing in the background, but you can only hear it to start with.

I would like you to make sure you've got your pen or pencil, and paper, and record your initial, or your first thoughts, using these question prompts.

What do you think is happening? Are there any sound effects? What era or time period do you think this clip might be set in? And can you hear any music? Now remember, there is no such thing as a right or wrong answer for this activity.

I just want you to write down what you think is happening and then we'll get to watch the movie in a short moment.

Okay, so hopefully you had an opportunity there to record your predictions.

So what do you think was happening? Could you hear any sound effects? What era or time period do you think the clip might have been set in, using those clues that you heard? And could you hear any music? Now, an extra challenge.

How did the music make you feel? So now that we've listened to the audio clip, we're going to watch the full clip.

So from watching this video, you will have seen from the title that our new writing unit is based on Sherlock Holmes.

I wonder whether you already know anything about Sherlock Holmes? Have a little bit of thinking time.

So, even if you don't know anything about Sherlock Holmes and you've never heard of him before, think about what predictions you made about that video that we've just watched.

Have you already worked out where the story was set? There was one clip of a very famous building: St.

Paul's Cathedral.

I wonder if anybody knows where St.

Paul's Cathedral is.

Well done! It is in London.

So our story is set in London.

Now, my next big question though.

Did anyone spot any of the historical clues from the clip? Meaning, were there any things that you noticed that give away when the story was set? There were a couple of things I spotted.

I wonder if you spotted them as well.

There were cobbled streets.

That's when the street looks as if it's almost been paved with bricks rather than by concrete.

There was also, I noticed, a carriage being pulled along by horses.

What we would call a horse-drawn carriage, My turn: horse-drawn carriage.

Your turn.

Well done; we don't often see horse-drawn carriages around now.

So I wonder when they would have been very common.

When do you think our story was set? Let's find out.

It was written in 1892, 128 years ago, which was the Victorian era.

Well done if you spotted that, but no problem if you didn't.

So, our story is set in Victorian London.

The Sherlock Holmes books were written by an author named Arthur Conan Doyle.

My turn: Arthur Conan Doyle.

Your turn.

Well done; now, he wrote lots of mystery, crime, and action stories.

So the genre of the Sherlock Holmes stories, genre: my turn; genre: your turn, were mystery crime and action stories.

That's just the type of stories that he liked to write.

So now we're going to learn a little bit more about the author.

Can you remember his name? Have some time to think.

If you remember it, say it out loud.

Well done.

His name is Arthur Conan Doyle.

My turn: Arthur Conan Doyle.

Your turn.

Fantastic.

So, Arthur Conan Doyle, our author of the Sherlock Holmes series.

He studied as a doctor before becoming a published author.

He was also born in Edinburgh in Scotland.

Now we know that Scotland is one of the countries in the United Kingdom, and Edinburgh is one of Scotland's cities.

In fact, it's Scotland's capital city.

That's where Arthur Conan Doyle was born.

Now, we're going to learn a little bit more about the historical context of the Victorian era, which is where our narrative is set.

So we know that the Victorian era started in 1837 and finished in 1901.

That was when Queen Victoria was queen, which is why we call it the Victorian period.

Here are some more photos and paintings.

Here's a photograph of London from above.

We call that a bird's-eye view or an aerial view.

If you imagine you were flying over the top of London during the Victorian period and looking down, that's what you would have seen.

And here on the right-hand side, we have a picture of a river.

A river that goes all the way through London.

I wonder if you know what that river's called.

Some thinking time.

Say it out loud if you know.

Fantastic! This the River Thames.

My turn: River Thames.

Your turn.

Excellent, so good! So, I'm going to read the text aloud first, and then I'm going to pause the video.

Rather, you're going to pause the video and you can read it afterwards.

"Victorian London; the Victorian city of London was a city of startling contrasts - buildings and affluent developments went hand in hand with horribly overcrowded slums, where people lived in the worst conditions imaginable.

Because the population surged in the year 1800 from around 1 million people to over 6 million people a century later, the overcrowded living conditions meant that many people's basic needs were not met." Now, there were a few tricky words in that paragraph.

I've picked a few out.

So, let's look at that word, contrasts.

The Victorian city of London was a city of startling contrasts.

Maybe use the visual.

If you're not sure what the word contrast means, maybe you can work it out from the picture.

Hmmm.

The word contrast means differences, or almost opposites, okay? Two really different types of living conditions.

So, buildings and affluent developments went hand in hand with horribly overcrowded slums. Now I'm going to show you an image of what the words affluent and slums mean, but maybe you can already start to work out what you think.

Because the population surged.

Maybe show me an action for the word surged if you think you know.

Because the population surged in the year 1800 from around 1 million people to over 6 million a century later.

Show me an action if you think you can work out what surge means.

I would probably go with - show me first.

Oh, I'm going to steal your idea.

Because the population surged, it increased, it got greater or larger, meaning, more people were born.

So you can have a pause of the video now if you would like to reread the whole paragraph and take a moment to see whether you can work out what the words affluent and slums are.

Pause the video now.

Well done, everybody.

Hoping you've all re-read that paragraph yourself.

And now I'm going to show you our new vocabulary.

Affluent.

Your turn.

Fantastic.

So this is an adjective, a describing word.

It means rich or wealthy, like a neighbourhood where everyone lives in fancy houses.

In contrast with that, we had people living in places like this.

This is an image of a slum.

My turn: slum.

Your turn.

Excellent.

So a slum, as you can see, is very overcrowded.

It looks like there are far too many people living here.

It doesn't look like a very enjoyable place to live or a very clean place to live.

Now I'm going to read this next paragraph aloud, and then you can pause the video and read it yourself.

"A combination of coal-fired stoves and poor sanitation made the air heavy and foul-smelling.

Immense amounts of raw sewage was dumped straight into the River Thames, which resulted in London being filled with a revolting stench." Hmm.

Some more tricky words here.

Let's pick them out.

A combination of coal-fired stoves.

So, I can see this image up in the top, left-hand corner.

Basically just means fires were lit using coal, and coal fires produce lots of smoke and pollution.

So if everybody was lighting their homes to keep warm, using coal, it meant there would be huge, huge clouds of smoke billowing out of the tops of factories and houses during the Victorian period, and it meant that the air would be really, really polluted and dirty, and actually really dangerous and unhealthy to breathe in.

During the Victorian era, there were also lots of factories which were built in London.

That's called the Industrial Revolution.

When lots of factories were built, they also produced loads of smoke and pollution, because they were using coal-fired stoves themselves.

Now, sanitation, the word sanitation or sanitary means clean.

So if poor sanitation, hmm.

What do you think that means then? If we have the word poor sanitation.

If sanitation means clean, what is poor sanitation? Have some thinking time.

Well done! You came up with a fantastic synonym there.

Unclean, or not clean, or dirty.

So, filth, dirtiness, unclean living conditions, made the air heavy and foul-smelling.

Immense, huge amounts of raw sewage was dumped straight into the River Thames, which resulted in London being filled with a revolting stench.

Back in the Victorian era, sewage systems hadn't been developed to the way they are now.

Now, if any of us need to go to the toilet, we use the bathroom and we flush the toilet and it disappears in a clean way.

But in the Victorian times that didn't exist.

So, people would use the toilets, and then dump their waste straight into the River Thames.

Can you imagine how smelly it must've been to live in London at that time? And here's the word stench.

My turn: stench.

Your turn Super.

This is a smell word.

It is a negative smell word.

I would not want to describe a nice smell with the word stench.

It's for a foul smell.

This is a noun: an odour or stink.

Like the smell of someone who hasn't showered in a while.

Everyone, we are now at the final section of our lesson: generating descriptive vocabulary about the setting of our narrative.

Now can you remind me where and when our narrative was set? Have a think.

Well done.

It is set in Victorian London.

So before we can describe a setting, we've got to do a quick recap of what these words mean.

What are these words' classes? Nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs.

Have some thinking time now, and try to remember what these words are.

Pause the video while you do that.

Okay.

So, nouns.

A noun is at PPT: a person, place or thing.

Your turn.

Fantastic.

Adjectives: an adjective is a describing word.

Your turn.

Well done.

Verbs: a verb is a doing or a being word.

Your turn.

And last but not least adverbs.

An adverb describes a verb.

Your turn.

Super; well done, everyone.

Now, there's some vocabulary I would like to teach you that I think would be really relevant for the images we're about to describe.

First word is overcast.

Your turn.

Overcast is a cloudy word.

It's an adjective, meaning cloudy or grey.

How the sky looks when dark clouds block out all the sunshine.

Imposing.

Your turn.

Fantastic; so, another adjective, meaning grand or impressive.

Like a building so big and important, it towers over you.

We might describe some of the imposing, towering buildings in the city of London.

Polluted.

My turn: polluted.

Your turn.

Polluted We've already discussed that there was lots of pollution in Victorian London at the time.

During the Victorian period, lots of factories were built in London.

It became industrialised, which means there were a loads of factories belching smoke and smog into the air, and it created this pollution, which hung over the city in the sky, and made the air polluted.

Okay, everybody, So we've already started to talk through some really high-level vocabulary.

Now I'm just showing you this page so you know how to lay out your learning for the rest of this lesson.

We are going to be mind-mapping descriptive vocabulary about Victorian London.

Remember those images that I just showed you? Well, we're going to go back and look at them in a lot more detail.

So for each image, it will have a title.

I would like you to write the title in the centre of a mind map.

And then, around the outside of the mind map, I would like you to start recording your nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs.

So, make sure you take a moment now to pause the video and set your first page up with your mind map in the centre and get ready to write the title I'm about to show you.

So here is our first image: London from above.

That is your title.

It goes in the centre of your mind map.

I've also put a few questions: sights, sounds, weather.

Just to prompt you further and think what things might I describe? Lots of people just describe the sights and what they can see, but actually to make an image come alive, we want to hear about the sounds, and maybe what the weather was like and what was going on.

The actions that were taking place in the image as well.

So pause this video now, while you create your mind map and start to add to it.

Okay, well done, everyone.

I bet you've already got a vocab, a mind map full of incredible vocabulary.

I'm going to share some of my ideas.

So here were some of our Mrs. Wordsmith words: polluted, overcast, and imposing.

And I've also used some of those words in a sentence.

And here's my sentence.

Imposing buildings towered over the city, which continuously belched smog into the atmosphere.

Now that word smog means clouds of pollution and smoke, which we know were coming from the factories and buildings in the city.

And I've also made the city sound alive.

I have personified it to make it sound as if it's almost like a human: belched.

Almost as if it's burping or belching these clouds of smoke up into the sky above it.

You can pause the video now if you would like to magpie any of my vocabulary and add it to your mind map.

Fantastic, everybody.

So now, we have our painting.

Our painting of the River Thames.

I can see lots of boats.

That's because there were boats used to transfer goods up and down the River Thames to other parts of London.

Also, maybe thinking about that sky.

What was the weather like? What Mrs. Wordsmith words could we use here? Pause the video while you add to your vocabulary now.

Well done, everybody.

I can tell you've been working so hard already.

Here are my ideas.

So here are those Mrs. Wordsmith words again.

I might describe the overcast sky, or the imposing buildings, which I can see towering up into the sky above.

Here's my sentence.

In the sky above, thick, grey clouds blanketed the polluted city of London.

I've made those clouds sound as if they were wrapped around the city and holding it really tight, using that verb, blanketed.

You can pause the video again to add some magpieing if you see any vocabulary here that you would like to use as well.

Okay.

On to our next image.

Now, we're down at the street level.

So I want you to imagine jumping into this image.

What could you see around you? What could you hear? What are the people around you doing and how does it feel to be there? So what's the atmosphere like? I can also see lots of clues of the Victorian era in this painting.

I can see gas lamps.

I can see horse-drawn carriages that we talked about earlier.

Pulling those carriages along the cobbled streets.

So again, pause this video while you start to mind map some nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs for this image.

Such a great job, everyone.

I can see your mind maps are incredible already.

Now, we're going to add to them.

Bustling.

Your turn.

Super.

This an adjective, meaning crowded or lively.

Like a busy market full of shoppers.

We might describe the streets as being bustling or bustling with life.

Dreary.

Your turn.

Excellent; boring, or miserable, like a dull job, doing the same thing over and over again.

Hectic.

Your turn.

Excellent.

This is another adjective.

Meaning very busy or manic.

How are your day is when you have to do everything in a mad rush.

Another word that we might use, a noun this time, would be chaos.

If there was chaos and commotion all around you, it might feel very hectic.

Bleak.

Your turn.

Super.

Gloomy or depressing.

Like the hopeless feeling you get when you realise all your donuts are gone.

This is another adjective.

Again, a bit like dreary.

We could describe lots of things as bleak.

Perhaps characters, or the weather, or the sky.

You can decide how you use these words.

And now I'm going to show you my sentence.

On the streets below, bustling, hectic markets were filled with the shouts of vendors.

Now, let's talk about this word vendors.

Back in the Victorian era, there weren't shops along a high street in the way that we have them today.

Lots of people sold goods or products on market stalls.

And the people who owned and sold things on a stall were called vendors.

My turn: vendors.

Your turn.

Fantastic; so, those people really needed customers to buy things from them.

So, to attract customers to their stalls, they would shout really loudly and try and entice customers to come and buy their goods.

You can pause this video again if you want to add any final points to your mind map.

Okay.

And our final image.

This is a very different street.

This is an image, a photograph, of a Victorian slum.

So, remember we were talking about those overcrowded living conditions, those unsanitary living conditions, where those narrow streets made things feel really cramped and crowded.

And I can see some people in that image.

I wonder how they might be feeling.

You can mind map your vocabulary here now.

Here's some of mine.

Now the words hectic and bustling don't really go with this image, but I've included them because you are the author.

If you want your streets to all be bustling, chaotic, manic, hectic, busy, then you can use those words.

These are just suggested images to inspire you, to show you what your different options are as the author, and what kind of atmosphere you want to create.

Here's my sentence.

Icy wind whistled through the dreary streets as bleak-looking children huddled together by the cobbled roads.

Pause the video now if you want to do some magpieing.

And now that brings us to the end of our first lesson, everyone.

I am so impressed already with the standard of learning that you guys have been producing in this lesson.

I cannot wait to see what you do in our next lesson.

And if you'd like to, I would love if you would upload some of your work to Twitter with these hashtags, or the OakNational Twitter account.

Well done, and I'm really looking forward to seeing you all again, really.