Lesson video

Hi there, my name is Mr. Byrne Smith and today we're going to be doing some reading together.

In today's lesson, we're going to be looking at figurative language.

It's going to be really fun.

Now, if you haven't watched lessons one, two, three, I recommend that you do that first.

That way you'll really understand and enjoy today's lesson.

Okay, let's make a start.

Here's the agenda for today's lesson.

First, we're going to have a quick introduction, then we're going to do some text analysis.

After that we going to just summarise what we've learned.

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

So you need to go up and get any of these things, please pause the video now.

First let's introduce today's lesson.

I'm going to do this by looking at the character from the story, not the most obvious character, we're going to look at Re del Cielo.

Now and I have a practise saying that together.

I don't speak Italian, so I'm doing my best here.

I've learned how to pronounce it and I've practised and practised and I think I'm getting better.

So don't worry if you can't pronounce it properly because guess what? Neither can I, we just got to do our best.

Rel del Cielo, my turn you turn, Re del Cielo.

Okay, now we're going to think about this character, King of the Sky or Re del Cielo and we're going to consider what we know about this character.

We're going to use one particular page from the story to think about various things we know and it's this page.

Every day, I came to see the pigeons.

"I'm training them to race," Mr. Evans said, "and this one's going to be a champion." He put a pigeon in my hands.

I felt its small heart racing underneath my finger and the push and power of its wings.

Its head was whiter than a splash of milk, its eyes blazed fire.

"Name him and he's yours," the old man said.

I didn't have to think, Re del Cielo!" I replied.

King of the Sky.

So the text there tells us a lot and so does the image, which we can make use of to.

We have an image there of the character we're looking at, which is really useful, so we must use it.

I'd like you to put together a mind map that describes Rel del Cielo.

Now I've made a start, I know that it's small.

I know this from the image and the description.

What else do we know? I'm going to go back to that page with the text on it.

So I've made a start for you there with small.

You're going to use the page with the text and the image to come up as much you can about this character.

Pause the video and analyse the text.

Okay, so we know that the pigeon is small and we know that it has potential.

We hear about its strength and we hear the way Mr. Evans speaks about it.

We know Mr Evans is a pigeon expert.

So we know that it has potential to do very well.

We know that it's strong, it's happy, is described and some of the strength of its wings.

We know that it has a white head and that it's mostly grey, we can see that in the picture.

Now today, we're going to be exploring a piece of figurative language that's used on that very page, the page we just looked at.

First question which might pop to your mind is what is figurative language? Now figurative language is a phrase used to describe a variety of devices that writers use to create an image in our head as the reader.

Figurative language helps us imagine something that's otherwise hard to describe, by likening it to something that we know really well.

Some things are quite hard to describe perfectly.

It's very difficult to put an image in somebody's head by describing it.

You'd actually have to describe it lots and lots and lots.

So if instead we can say, well it's a bit like this other thing, which you know really well.

Well then the image pops into their mind straight away.

Let me show you an example.

Hair as white as snow, this is a piece of figurative language.

When I say hair as white as snow, you can imagine, I bet you're doing it right now, exactly what colour the hair is.

It really, really white.

Now the reason you can imagine it so easily is because you're already familiar with the colour of snow.

Now, if I were to do this without using figurative language it's possible, but number one, it would take much longer.

Number two, it wouldn't sound as nice.

Often, figurative language sounds really nice.

I'm going to show you what I mean.

I'm going to try and describe the hair colour without using figurative language.

Okay, so the hair is very, very white, it's a very pure white.

It's not got any tinge of greyness or any other colour to it, it's just pure white.

Now two things have happened, it's taken me ages, that's the first thing.

Second thing, it doesn't sound as nice.

Maybe you don't even have have as good an image of how the white the hair is in your head, in which case it hasn't even been as effective.

So if figurative language is a fantastic device.

There are a few different ways of using it, we're going to look at a particular example today.

We going to do this by analysing the text.

So here's our piece of text.

The figurative phrase we're going to look at is this one, it's eyes blazed fire.

We're going to get to the bottom of exactly what that means by the end of the lesson, it's eyes blazed fire.

So I've taken the phrase out of the text, got the picture, picture of the pigeon now which is going to help us its eyes blazed fire.

Now this phrase is only made up of a few words yet they're all quite unfamiliar when used in this context, eyes blazed fire.

But we're going to start by understanding this, blazed.

What does it mean to blaze? I'm going to tell me.

Blaze is a verb, it is to burn brightly.

So if something blazes, it burns brightly.

So here we're being told its eyes burn brightly and then some sort of link to fire.

Well, that's starting to make sense, fire link quite closely to burning.

Let's see if we can get a little bit deeper.

We have this word fire, when thinking about the birds eyes yet we're being told to think about fire.

Well, why, why is the author trying to make us think of fire? What comparison is the author trying to make between fire and the birds eyes? Well, first let's think about fire, what is fire? How does it behave, what does it look like? Here's a picture.

I'd like you to think about fire and I let you to put together another mind map.

This one is going to contain everything that springs to mind when you think about fire.

How would you describe it, what does it do? What does it look like? I'll let you to pause the video, collect as many ideas as you can, off you go.

Okay, so I'll come up with a few of the things that spring to mind when I think about fire.

Dangerous, fire is dangerous, it can hurt you.

It can hurt you because it's very hot and it burns things.

Then I came up with this one which I think it was interesting.

I imagined fire in my mind and I imagined the flames and I almost imagined the dancing, the way they move or misfields and seems rhythmic, just like dancing would be.

So I put dancing, that's something that springs to mind when I think about fire Hot, it's very, very hot.

This links the dangerous, but then also remember we use it often for cooking.

So it has to be hot.

Life, I've used this word because I feel as though life is a really good way of describing fire in that it seems as though it has a kind of life to it.

Now fire is not alive in that it's a living creature, but when you look at fire and the way it moves and dances and prances and the way it glows and the way it dies back down, it really seems as though it has a life of its own.

Spark, fires start with a spark.

When we think about fire we think about it as spark that's inside them.

And then bright, they're very, very bright and when they burn really brightly that even quite hard to look at, they're so bright.

These are the things that sprung to my mind.

You of course might have a list of completely different things, which is fantastic.

Now the word fire is often used in day-to-day expressions, expressions that we use on a day-to-day basis in order to get some sort of idea across to the people we talk to.

When it's used in expressions, it's not being used in a literal sense, which means it doesn't have the first and most obvious meaning, it has a slightly deeper meaning.

It's often used to tell us something deeper about a character.

We're going to see some examples in a minute, so don't worry if you're wondering exactly what this means because it will all become clear.

And because it's figurative language, it helps us imagine something that's hard to describe by likening it to something that we know well.

So that's fire.

If you use fire to describe other things, you're relying on the fact that everybody knows what fire looks like and everybody knows how fire behaves and therefore you can use it to explain things that are a little bit more difficult to explain.

Here's my first example, play with fire.

So we're going to have to think about what this might mean.

First of all, I'm going to ask you to have a go without an example.

So I'm not going to give you an example of this being used.

I wonder if you can figure out what this phrase might mean.

This is hard but I'm testing you and you figure out what it might mean before I even giving you an example.

Give it a go, pause the video now.

Okay, now I'm going to give you an example.

You're playing with fire if you try to cheat on the test.

You're playing with fire if you tried to cheat on the test.

Now I wonder if you can figure out what it means to play with fire.

Now, remember this is not literal.

So when you say this and you say a phrase like this, you're playing with fire, you don't mean that somebody is actually playing with fire.

You mean something a little deeper.

You're using this phrase to make somebody think exactly what you want them to think, to have another go.

What does it mean to play with fire? Okay, so this phrase means your acting dangerously.

If you were to play with fire in real life with actual literal fire, then that would be a really dangerous thing to do.

However, it's quite tempting and quite an attractive idea to play with fire.

Slight fire kind of draws you in and you really feel a bit tempted to try playing with fire, to get a bit closer.

However, we know it's really dangerous and we have to be really careful.

Let's look at the example at use, you're playing with fire if you try to cheat on the test.

You might be tempted to cheat on the test, but if you do it's really dangerous, because you might get caught.

Just like if you play with fire, it's really dangerous because you might get burnt.

Okay, that's our first phrase.

Here's our next, fire in your belly.

This is a phrase we often use, fire in your belly.

You can use this in reference to a particular person.

So you could say fire in her belly or his belly or their belly, everything.

What might this mean? Now of course we don't actually mean fire in somebody's belly, we mean something a bit deeper than that.

Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, I'm going to give you an example phrase.

After being out injured for months, she returned to the pitch with fire in her belly.

Wow, it sounds amazing, doesn't it? It sounds very dramatic and grand.

After being out injured for months, she returned to the pitch with firing her belly.

Then I'll let you to have a think now.

Now can you figure out what it means? Pause the video and have to think.

Okay, so if you have fire in your belly, it means you're very determined, means you have the energy and you have the necessary enthusiasm to do something.

And often this is for a reason, maybe something's gone wrong and you're trying to make up for it.

Maybe you've missed out on something and you're trying to make up for lost time.

In this instance, the character has been injured for months, so they haven't been able to make play football or play whatever the sport might be.

So they've returned to the pitch, with fire in their belly, with enthusiasm and energy to return to play.

Fire in her belly.

The next phrase is fired up.

So you might say he's fired up, she's fired up, fired up, everybody's fired up.

So have a think, pause the video now, what might this mean? Okay, now when thinking of this, it's important to think of what fire is like.

There's a reason the to why fire has been used here, because this has some sorts of meaning that is linked to what fire is like or how it behaves.

Let's try it in a sentence.

The coach's emotional speech fired up the team.

Okay, fired up the team.

Have another think, pause the video.

Okay, so to be fired up or to fire something up is to inject it with life and energy.

The coach's emotional speech fired up the team.

Now fire is something that is very energetic and it's full of life and it's full of spark.

So if you're feeling fired up, you're feeling full of potential and energy and spark and life like you're really motivated to do something.

So in this instance, we thinking really about motivation and enthusiasm.

Okay, so we've delved a bit deeper into the way fire is often used in figurative language.

So I wonder if now we can figure out the piece of figurative language from our book.

It's eyes blazed fire.

Well, this have a really careful thing.

What now do you think this might mean? Remember so far we've thought about fire as something that has lots of energy and lots of life and it has a spark to it.

So when we say its eyes blazed fire, now of course there isn't actually fire in its eyes, we know that.

What does it mean? Pause the video now and have a think.

Okay, so when would you say its eyes blazed fire, the suggestion is that there's a spark in there somewhere, it has some real life and energy to it, maybe some real motivation, determination to succeed and to do well.

And that would make sense, wouldn't it? Especially since we know that Re del Cielo goes on to do really well and to do these fantastic things it takes miraculous journey all the way back from Italy.

So that would make sense.

In this piece of text on this page, the same phrase is used.

So this is later on in the story.

Let's read it and see if we can spot that phrase, the old man's eyes blazed fire.

Get out there, boy," he said, "and welcome him!" Interesting, so having discussed what this phrase means when applied to the bird, what do you think it means when applied to the old man, Mr. Evans.

The same thing, something different, what does it tell us about him? Pause the video now and have it think.

Okay, this suggests to me that perhaps Mr. Evans has that same spark in his eye, even though he's old and he's not very well we know he has lots of energy and enthusiasm, lots of motivation.

The same sorts of spark in his eye as Re del Cielo has which I think is an interesting name to make.

Maybe they're quite similar in personality of the pigeon and Mr. Evans.

Okay, time to summarise what we've looked at today.

Thinking about Re del Cielo, has your opinion changed? Now we've looked at the bird in a bit more detail, has your opinion changed and how? Pause the video and have to think.

Okay, now my opinion has changed actually because we've dealt a bit deeper and I actually think this is a character with a bit more depth.

So that means, they have a bit more to them.

At first, I was thinking of this character as being quite a simple character, in that it's just a bird, it's just a pigeon.

I thought maybe there's not much to this particular character.

But actually having discussed the fire that's blazing in the eyes of Re del Cielo, King of the Sky.

I'm thinking that maybe there's more to this character than I first thought.

It just goes to show how important this kind of discussion is.

How about your opinion of Mr. Evans? 'Cause we've also looked at Mr. Evans and we found that same spark in his eyes, has your of opinion of Mr. Evans changed, how? Pause the video now.

Okay, now my opinion of Mr. Evans has also changed slightly, to be honest with I always have a feeling, he was a pretty motivated character because he's so enthusiastic about his hobby, even when he's old.

So my opinion has changed slightly in that I think he's even more energetic and motivated than I first thought.

Okay, congratulations at the end of the lesson, I'm really well.

We've done an introduction today, then some text analysis and finally we have summarised what we'd learn today.

At the end of the lesson, well done to your hard work, you've completed the lesson and that's four out of five.

So the next one is our last lesson on King of the Sky.