Lesson video

Hello everyone.

My name's Ms Butt, and today we're going to be learning some new vocabulary together.

I'm hoping that this vocabulary will be very useful when you write your narrative writing on the Rabbit-Proof Fence.

That's because today we're focusing on words that describe working hard.

Now, the girls' journey is obviously a very tiring one.

So today we're going to learn three words to describe their tiring journey.

And then we're going to learn one word to describe the girls and how they push through and persevere with their journey.

I hope you enjoy the lesson.

Here's what we're going to do today.

First, I'm going to introduce the new vocabulary one word at a time, and we'll be looking at Mrs Wordsmith pictures to help illustrate what the words mean.

Then we're going to identify word pairs and synonyms so that we really understand these words and all their complex forms. And finally, we'll apply these words in sentences, and we'll use sentences that hopefully you can then transfer into your writing.

Right towards the end of the lesson, I'm going to ask you to write your own sentence, so you will need something to write on and something to write with.

Perhaps you could pause the video now to make sure you've got the things that you need, that you've cleared away anything that could distract you, and that you're ready and focused to start your learning.

Okay, great.

So here is some key vocabulary we'll be using in this lesson.

I'm going to say each word, and then I'd love it if you repeated it back to me, just so I know that we're all engaged.

Synonym, word pair, adjective, noun.

A synonym is a word that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, like the words merry and happy.

A word pair are words that often appear together.

So if we had the adjective bright, its word pairs might be a sun, a moon or a light, because they're things that we often describe as being bright.

An adjective is a describing word, and a noun is a person, a place or a thing.

So let's look at our first working hard word.

Before I introduce the word I'm going to, first of all, ask you to look closely at this picture.

I'd like you to think about what is happening in this picture.

How would you describe the characters? How would you describe the characters who are having to carry the other character? What story is this picture telling? Pause the video and have a think about that now.

Okay, great.

Well, I think it's fair to say that one of the characters, the character that's being carried and eating pizza and got a platter of fruit and is in the shade and has got their feet up on plumped up cushions looks extremely relaxed and happy and content, but the two poor characters who are having to carry this rather large character look absolutely exhausted.

They're stooped over, they're sweating, they're clenching their teeth.

Let's find out what this word is.

Gruelling.

I say, you say, gruelling.

Gruelling.

Gruelling is an adjective and it means difficult or draining, like the effort of carrying a huge bear.

So I'm going to read some words to you now, and I'd like you to see if you can identify the synonyms of gruelling.

Remember, a synonym is a word that means the same thing.

And as this word gruelling is an adjective, then the synonyms should also be adjectives.

The rest of the words will be word pairs, which we'll look at in more detail afterwards.

Exhausting, workload, climb, schedule, draining, journey, marathon, demanding, race, training.

Here's the word in a sentence.

Every step of the gruelling journey felt like a mile.

Could you pause the video and tell me the three synonyms of gruelling? Let's see how you got on.

The synonyms are exhausting, draining and demanding.

Which means the rest of these words are word pairs, which I'll read to you now.

A gruelling workload, a gruelling climb, a gruelling schedule, a gruelling journey, a gruelling marathon, gruelling race, and gruelling training.

Now what I'd like you to do is to say these word pairs out loud as well, because it's through saying words, not just through reading them or hearing them that they really stick in our memory.

As you're saying the words, also try to picture what you're reading.

So for example, what might a gruelling schedule look like? Could you pause the video and read these word pairs now? Excellent.

Let's take a look at the second illustration.

So what's happening in this picture? Again, how do you think this character's feeling? And how might you describe this task? Pause the video, and either just have a think about that or describe what you see out loud.

Okay, again, so this seems like a very difficult challenge, what this character's having to do, lift or push an enormous boulder up a very steep hill.

Again, we can tell from this character's body language and facial expressions, how exhausted and gruelling they're finding this task.

So let's take a look at what this word could be.

Laborious.

Laborious.

Laborious is an adjective, meaning difficult or exhausting, like the job of pushing big, heavy boulders uphill.

You might notice that this word sounds similar to the word labour, which means work.

So as I read these words to you, see if you can identify the synonyms of laborious.

Remember, because laborious is an adjective, the synonyms should also be adjectives.

Chore, difficult, paperwork, slow, process, job, task, duty, effort, exhausting, undertaking.

Here's the word in a sentence.

Dragging their cracked feet across the arid land, the girls continued on their laborious journey.

The word arid means dry or parched, so that's why I've used that word to describe the land.

Okay, just as before, can you pause the video and tell me the synonyms of laborious? Okay, so the synonyms are difficult, slow, or exhausting.

So he could replace this word laborious with those words and it should still read, the sentence should still make sense.

So the girls continued on their difficult journey, their slow journey, or their exhausting journey.

Let's read the word pairs.

Laborious chore, laborious paperwork, laborious process, a laborious job, a laborious undertaking, a laborious task, a laborious duty, and a laborious effort.

Again, I'd like you to pause the video now and read these word pairs out loud.

And again, as you read them out loud, really picture what you're reading.

For example, what do you imagine a laborious task might be like? Perhaps if somebody dropped a whole enormous bag of rice on the floor and you had to pick up every single grain, you might describe that as a laborious task.

Perhaps there might be an example that you can think of, which is more physically exhausting.

So as you're reading the words, picture what it is, picture a scenario.

Okay, excellent.

So before we move on to our next two words, let's just take a moment to pause and reflect and recap what these two words mean.

So I'd like you to pause the video, use the pictures to help you, and very quickly define what does laborious mean and what does gruelling mean? Okay.

So laborious means difficult or exhausting, and gruelling means difficult or draining.

So we can see that these two words are almost synonyms of each other because they're very similar.

Right, here's our third image.

So what's happening in this picture? Again, how would you describe this task of what the giraffe's having to do? Can you pause the video and have a think about that now? So again, we've got all these facial expressions and the body language, again, that's showing extreme distress, gritting, showing their teeth, stooping over, this looks, again, like a very difficult task.

So we definitely, I think, can agree that this character is working hard.

Let's find out what this word is.

Backbreaking.

Backbreaking.

Backbreaking is an adjective, meaning exhausting or crushing, lifting something so heavy it feels like your back will break.

Backbreaking is a compound word, that means it's made up of two words, back and breaking.

Other examples are keyboard, keyboard, tablecloth, notebook, and football.

So let's take a look at which of these words could be synonyms of backbreaking.

Tiring, work, effort, pace, that's how quickly you do something, task, operation, a burden, that's a heavy load, a chore, exhausting, job, and crushing.

Here's the word in a sentence.

Under the relentless blaze of the blistering sun, the girls continued that backbreaking journey across the desert.

So again, we can see here in this sentence, we've got the word relentless.

If something is relentless, it happens over and over again, it doesn't stop.

So under the relentless blaze of the blistering sun, the girls continued that backbreaking journey across the desert.

Okay, so just as before, could you pause the video now and see if you can identify the three synonyms of backbreaking? So the synonyms are tiring, exhausting, and crushing, which means the rest of these words are word pairs, which I'll read to you now.

Backbreaking work, backbreaking effort, backbreaking pace, backbreaking task, a backbreaking burden, backbreaking chore, backbreaking job, backbreaking operation.

So again, could you please pause the video and read these word pairs out loud and as you do picture a scenario so that you're not just reading them, but you're actually imagining what you're reading.

Excellent, well done.

Okay, our final word we're learning today.

So have a look at this picture, this is a bit of a different theme.

So what's happening here, and how would you describe these characters? Think, I want you to especially focus here on the dog, the little dog character, how would you describe that character? Pause the video and have a think about that now.

Okay.

Well this little dog looks extremely determined to hold onto that donut.

And despite the other character's best efforts to pull it away, yank it away, it looks like he is not letting go.

So this word is tenacious.

Tenacious.

This is an adjective, meaning determined or strong-willed, like refusing to let go of something.

Tenacious actually comes from the Latin word tenere, which means to hold.

Okay, so the last time I'd like you to see if you can identify the synonyms of tenacious.

Grasp, hold, grip, determined, attitude, memory, strong-willed, perseverance, refusing to give up.

Here's the word in a sentence.

Her tenacious perseverance kept her going step by step, mile by mile.

Could you pause the video now and tell me which three words are synonyms of tenacious, and you might've even just spotted one there.

Good luck.

Okay, so the synonyms are determined, strong-willed, and refusing to give up, which means the rest of these words are word pairs, which I'll read to you now.

A tenacious grasp, a tenacious hold, a tenacious grip, a tenacious attitude, a tenacious perseverance, and a tenacious memory.

What would that be? If you had a memory that was tenacious, what do you think that means your memory is like? Hmm, that's right, it means that won't let of things, so it will hold onto things.

So if you have a tenacious memory, you would have a very good memory.

Now I think this word will be really useful to describe the girls in the Rabbit-Proof Fence, because they're doing such a gruelling, backbreaking journey that they would need to have a tenacious attitude and a tenacious perseverance to keep on going and not give up.

Could you pause the video now and read these word pairs out loud? Excellent, well done.

So we've now learned our four new words that we're looking at today.

Could you remember, can you remember each word? I wonder if you can pause the video and see if you can tell me what each picture, which picture each word represents.

Okay, so the first word we learned was gruelling, then laborious, backbreaking, that compound word, and finally, tenacious.

I'd now like you to tell me which of these words describe the journey that the girls are on and which would describe the girls.

Just having a little think about that now, have a look, which would describe the journey really well and which would describe the girls? Okay, so the words that we'd use to describe the journey would be gruelling, laborious, and backbreaking.

And the word we'd use to describe the girls would be tenacious, okay? Because that adjective is more to describe a person or a character, whereas the other words are more to describe something like a task or a journey.

So I'd now like you to define each word yourself, because it's always important that we actually try to explain things in our own words.

So imagine you were talking to somebody who'd never heard any of these words before, and they didn't have access to looking at these lovely pictures like us.

So how would you describe what gruelling means what laborious means, what backbreaking means, and what tenacious means? Can you pause the video and define each word now? Okay, so, so you can see how close you are, I'm just going to recap them very quickly.

Gruelling means difficult or draining, laborious means difficult or exhausting, backbreaking means exhausting or crushing, so we can see how similar those three words are, and tenacious means determined or strong-willed, refusing to let go of something.

So let's now take a look at a couple of sentences.

I'd like you to listen as I read this sentence and think about which of these adjectives you think would fit well in the gap.

Step after step, mile after mile, the girls kept going on their, hmm, journey, hoping each step would bring them closer to home.

Can you pause the video and see if you can tell me which of these words do you think would fit best in this sentence? And there might be more than one option.

Okay, so I've gone for their gruelling journey, but you could also describe the journey as being laborious, or backbreaking.

What we couldn't use is tenacious, we couldn't say the girls kept going on their tenacious journey.

We could say the tenacious girls kept going on their gruelling journey.

Let's talk a little bit about some devices that we can see in this sentence.

First of all, we've got a bit of patterning or repetition.

Step after step, mile after mile.

And that really exaggerates how long this journey is.

We've also ended the sentence with an ellipsis, which is when we have dot dot dot at the end, because it's hoping each step would bring them closer to home.

It kind of ends the sentence with a little bit of mystery, like, is that going to happen? Is that where they're leading? So again, it can be quite a dramatic way to end a paragraph.

Okay, let's take a look at another sentence.

Although her body was weak, her, hmm, spirit kept her going in such oppressive conditions.

So again, pause the video and have a think about which word fits in this sentence.

Okay, so the answer is her tenacious spirit, because on this journey that these girls are on, they've got the sun beating down on them, they've got very little food and drink, and so they would be feeling weak and exhausted, and the conditions would be oppressive.

So they would have to have tenacity or they'd have to be tenacious in order to carry on.

Right, I'd now like you to have a go at writing your own sentence.

So you can choose either the word gruelling, laborious, backbreaking or tenacious.

You could even write a sentence where you described the girls as being tenacious and the journey as been one of the other words, or if you wanted to, you could write two or even three sentences, that's up to you.

Remember, as you write your sentence to try and think about the unit that you're working on and try and write a sentence that you could put directly in your writing so it will be really helpful.

'Cause that's what we're doing today, we're preparing for writing.

Here's a little bit of help, if you'd like it, you don't have to use this.

Sometimes it can be hard to know how to start your sentence, so you could start your sentence with, step after step comma.

You could start your sentence with, trudging on across the vast landscape comma.

This is a non finite clause because it's got the verb, trudge, which means you're kind of walking in a heavy and tired way.

Trudging, we've got added an ing to make the verb incomplete or unfinished.

Trudging on across the vast landscape comma, and then you would add a main clause after that, what were the girls doing? How would you describe their journey? Remember, the really important thing is to try and include some of the new words that we've learned in your sentence or sentences.

Okay, good luck.

Pause the video and have a go at writing your sentence now.

Excellent, well done.

Now, it's really important whenever we do writing, that we take a moment just to read back to check things like missing punctuation, missing words, or even a spelling error.

And we also, as we read a sentence back, sometimes I find that I might think, ooh, actually I might replace that word with an even better one or, ooh, actually I haven't described that noun, so I might add an adjective there.

So we can not only correct any mistakes, but we can also improve our work.

So again, can you pause the video now and just see if you can find any errors or even make any edits or improvements to your sentence or sentences? Okay, brilliant.

Well, well done, I really hope that you've enjoyed expanding your vocabulary today.

And I hope these words come in very useful in your writing for the Rabbit-Proof Fence.

Thank you so much for watching.

And if you want to share any of the sentences that you've written today, you can ask a parent or carer to take a photo and you can upload them on Twitter so we can all see the excellent work that you have done.

I'll see you soon, everyone.

Bye.