Lesson video

Hi there.

My name is Mr Byrne-Smith, and today we are doing some reading together.

This is the fifth of five lessons on, "King of the Sky." So, if you haven't watched lesson one to four, please go do that first, otherwise this lesson won't make sense.

In today's lesson, we're going to be analysing some themes of the story.

So, 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 a text analysis.

After that, we're going to summarise what we've learned and then think about the book as a whole.

In this lesson you will need an exercise book or paper, a pencil and you mustn't forget your brain.

So if you need to pause the video to get any of these things do that now.

Okay, let's introduce the lesson.

We going to do this by thinking about Mr. Evans, I'd like you to create a mind map with your various descriptions with Mr. Evans.

I'm going to get you started.

Now with every choice you make, I'd like you to have a little brief think about how you know that to be true.

So, I've said, that Mr. Evans is enthusiastic.

I know this to be true because he speaks about his pigeons with great passion.

And he also really encourages the boy to take part and I especially like the bit when he encourages the boy to go out to look to the pigeon, on its way home.

I think that shows great enthusiasm.

I'd like you to create a mind map.

With similar suggestions that you yourself have justified.

I've started with enthusiastic.

You might include any number of descriptors, describing Mr. Evans.

Pause the video and have a go.

Okay, I like you to keep that description handy.

I like to keep the mind map handy because we might make use of it in this lesson, and it will be really useful to refer to.

So, let's analyse some text from this story.

I'm going to give you a few statements throughout this lesson, and we're going to discuss, the extent to which they are true.

To whether they're true or not, or may be they are partly true maybe they're partly false.

The first statement I'd like you to look at is this.

Friendship brings happiness.

Now first of all, I'd like you to have a think about what this means.

What do you think about this phrase.

Do you think it's true? Do you know what it means? Friendship brings happiness.

Pause the video now.

So with this statement, there's the suggestion that if you have friendship it brings along with it happiness.

So with friendship comes happiness.

I think this is a really nice statement and I think there's going to be at least some truth to it.

What we're going to do is we're going to explore this statement by looking at the text.

So my next question is.

Does it relate to the story and how? Do you think this statement relates to our story, "King of the Sky?" And how? Is there any examples of friendship bringing happiness in our story? I'd like to have a think, pause the video now.

Okay, now I can already think of a few examples of friendship bringing happiness.

Purely in the transformation of the boy.

Where at the beginning of the story is very sad and at the end is very happy.

One of the the big thing that happen to the middle, is he makes friends.

Makes friends with Mr. Evans.

So I think already I'm starting to feel that perhaps this is true and that perhaps yes it does relate quite strongly to the story.

Here we have three images.

I'd like you to choose, which of these you think represents this statement best.

So the image number one, Mr. Evans and the pigeon and the boy.

Image number two, which is boy leaning against the wall.

And then image number three, the boy with a pigeon in his hands.

Now there's no right answer here.

It's really up to you.

The key is that you explain your choice.

You might even feel as though, two pictures combined, give a good indication of friendship bringing happiness.

That's up to you.

Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, now I really think there's an argument that all of these pictures, represent the statement really nicely.

I wonder how you justified it.

Perhaps for the first image you said that this is a really good indication of a friendship, that between Mr. Evans and the boy.

Bringing lots of happiness which we can see on their faces, they're both smiling.

In the middle picture, we see the boy depicted as being really sad.

At first glance, this has got nothing to do with happiness.

Until you remember that by the end of the story he was really happy.

The thing that brought that on, was partly his friendship with Mr. Evans.

Now, happiness that's come from sadness, that's really valuable and that's really distinctive.

Jumps out at us.

So if somebody's gone from being very sad to feeling very happy, that's really notable.

Finally we have the boy with the pigeon in his arms. Which represents some of the purest happiness that we've seen in the story.

This is the moment when the boy felt perhaps as happy as he did in the entire story.

Flown down into the arms of the smiling, crying boy.

The boy who knew at last that he was home.

And I think the crying there is actually maybe tears of happiness, or at least of intense emotion, strong emotion.

This is the next statement that we're going to discuss.

You can only be friends with someone your own age.

Now you might immediately have something to say about this.

So, first of all, what do you think? Pause the video now.

Okay, now hold that answer in your head.

What you think about this phrase? And now I'd like to think about, whether or not it's relate to the story.

Does it relate to the story, this phrase? If you don't feel as though this is true, then you should be using the story to prove that it's not true.

So if you think it's false, then why? Why do you think it's false? Has this been proved or disproved in our story? Pause the video now.

Now let's look at this in a bit more depth.

We have lots of examples.

I think, that disprove this statement.

That means we have lots of examples, which prove this thing to be false.

This image alone shows that an old person, and a young person can be friends.

Here they are spending close, personal time together.

Now of course they're talking about and looking at the pigeon in this picture.

But you wouldn't be this close to somebody that you didn't enjoy the company of.

We can tell here that they're, if not friends, they're very close.

And then that just builds and builds throughout the story.

We know that Mr. Evans's face was crumpled, and he could hardly walk.

Yet, there's the boy, spending time with him, showing great deal of patience, and they're enjoying the same thing.

And that's quite a big part of friendship.

Big part of friendship is sharing hobbies, and enjoying the same thing together.

How does this image relate to the story? How does this image represent, prove or disprove the fact of the statement, that we just heard.

Pause the video and now think.

I think this image really does prove that you can be friends with people that are older that you or much younger than you.

Here we see them arm in arm, and the young boy is looking up at Mr. Evans adoringly.

If you adore something you really like it, and he has an adoring expression.

He's looking up at Mr. Evans as though he really likes him.

So I think this is proved.

This book has proven that you can be friends with people who are not your own age.

The old man's eyes blazed fire.

"Get out there boy," he said, "and welcome him!" So we know that the boy is really fun with the old man.

Does this page prove that the old man is fond of the boy? And how? Pause the video now.

I think that this page does prove that Mr. Evans is fond of the boy.

'Cause he's really encouraging him.

"Get out there boy," he said, "and welcome him!".

He's really tried to encourage him to go out there and have a positive full experience.

And I think that's a big part of friendship, is encouraging and being enthusiastic about what your friends do and what your friends enjoy.

Okay, we have a new statement.

Getting old makes it harder to enjoy life.

So, what do you think about this statement, first of all? Pause the video and now think.

Okay and now I'd like you to have a think about whether it relates to the story.

Does it relate to the story? And how? So really then we're looking for a proof of why this statement is or is not true.

And we're going to use the story to help us discuss these and help us answer these questions and they're hard and is not always an obvious answer.

Getting old makes it harder to enjoy life.

In this image we can see Mr. Evans spending time with the boy.

Now Mr. Evans is an old man.

He's old and we know that he's frail and sick.

However, here we can see that he really is enjoying life.

He has a smile on his face, he's taking part in his hobbies, he's taking part in something that he really enjoys.

We can see he has his rosette proud on the wall and he is sharing his hobby with something else.

This suggests to me that at least this element of his life, he really is enjoying.

He's really making the most of.

Now I wonder if you can think about how his relationship with a young boy, makes it easier for him to enjoy his hobby.

How does his relationship with the young boy, make it easier for him to enjoy his hobby? Pause the video now.

Okay so, Mr. Evans is able to enjoy his hobby partly because of the young boy.

The young boy doing lots of things that Mr. Evans can't do.

So he's helping him move, he's helping him carry, he's helping him travel.

That's part of it.

Mr. Evans is able to enjoy his hobby even more because of the young boy.

But there's also something else going on.

If you really love something, doing something.

If you really love doing something, a hobby.

It's really nice to watch other people do it too.

And it's really nice to watch other people grow to love that hobby too.

And that's what's happening here.

It's almost as though Mr. Evans is passing on his enthusiasm, raising pigeons on to the boy.

It's almost as though he is passing it on and he is watching, the boy live out some of his own experiences.

Experiences that he's enjoyed.

I'd like you to have a think about whether or not this makes Mr. Evans's life more enjoyable, or less enjoyable.

Sharing his hobbies, with the boy.

And why of course? Pause the Video.

Okay, I think mostly it makes his life more enjoyable.

'Cause it's nice to see somebody else enjoying something that you love.

There could be and perhaps some of you said this.

There could be a tinge of sadness in watching somebody do something that you can't really do anymore.

But in the man's heart there's a lot of positivity so it's probably a mixture of emotions.

Now, discuss that the old man is enthusiastic about the boy taking part in his hobbies.

His eyes blazed fire.

"Get out there, boy," he said, "and welcome him!" Real enthusiasm there and energy.

However, we can't forget that Mr. Evans' an old man.

A lifetime down the mine, had taken his breath away.

So he spoke soft and slow.

Now, these are aspects in his life, which might make it more difficult to enjoy things, to enjoy activities.

Here he is trying to go about his day, and his breath's taken away.

He's speaking softly and slowly due to his long and probably difficult life.

We have another example on this page.

Mr. Evans' getting weaker and reaching a point at which he couldn't even leave his bed.

Now, do we think in light of these things? Do we think that getting older makes it harder, or easier to enjoy your life? Is it possible to enjoy your old life when you're as old as Mr. Evans? Pause the video now.

Okay, now I think it's hard to deny that these things, are massive restriction on Mr. Evans's life.

The fact he's getting weaker, the fact, he can't leave his bed.

It's hard to deny that they do make it harder for him enjoy his life.

At least aspects of it.

It must be horrible not being able to get out of bed.

It must be a horrible feeling as though you're getting weaker with every day that passes.

And as though your breath is getting weaker and you're speaking softer and slow with everyday.

I think it's hard to deny that these things make life harder.

Okay, we had a really interesting look at Mr. Evans there and how he has developed and changed throughout the book.

Let's summarise what we've discussed.

So what do you think? We've now finished working on "King of the sky" by Nicola Davies and Laura Carlin.

Have you enjoyed working on "King of the sky?" And I'd like you to think about why and why not.

Pause the video now.

Okay, I've really enjoyed it.

I've enjoyed it because I think it's beautifully illustrated.

To me that's a big part of this text is how beautifully it's illustrated.

I also think it has some very strong characters.

I really like Mr. Evans as a character.

I think he's a really kind old man, who's obviously slowing down in his own age but who is really keen in passing on lots of his energy and enthusiasm to the boy in the story.

I also think it's really nice of the boy, who at the beginning of the story is feeling a bit lost and confused has somebody to guide them, to guide them through life.

I think that's really nice, It's for that reason, I've really enjoyed working on it.

Now I'd like you to consider whether or not you consider reading more Nicola Davies or Laura Carlin's books.

Why? Why not? Pause the video.

Okay, well done.

Congratulations at the end of the lesson.

In this lesson we have done our introduction the text analysis, and we have summarised.

You worked really, really hard and I'm very impressed.

So, Well done.

The end of the lesson is the end of the unit and you've completed everything.

So well done, bye.