Lesson video

Hello everyone.

My name is Miss Smith.

And welcome to the first lesson of this new writing unit, "The Golden Compass".

In this unit, we will use the film, "The Golden Compass", which is based on a book by the author Phillip Pullman.

And that book is "The Northern Lights".

You might have read that and be familiar with the story already.

All you'll need for this lesson is something to write with and to write on and a place that's quiet and free from distractions.

And so when you're ready, let's get started.

So our objective today is to identify key characters and events in the plot.

And we'll start today's lesson with a word classification activity, and think about different types of words in a sentence.

We'll then move on to look at vocabulary that is crucial to our writing for this unit.

And some of the words in this unit are words that we will only come across when we read and look at this story.

So some very special vocabulary to get our heads around.

And then finally, we'll look at characters for the opening part of the story.

Who the main characters are and what the main plot at this point in the story is.

So things you'll need for the lesson.

You need something to write on and to write with and make sure that you've got somewhere quiet so that you're able to concentrate.

Okay.

So let's just check our understanding and remind ourselves of the key definitions for each term below.

And you might just pause and think to yourself for a moment, and whether you can define a noun, an adjective, a verb and an adverb before I reveal a definition for each.

So you might want to pause and have a think about that now.

So a noun is a noun is a PPT, a person, place or thing.

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

Your turn.

An adjective, have a little think.

What did you write for your definition for an adjective? Well, an adjective describes a noun.

It tells you what it's like.

An adjective describes a noun.

Verbs.

A verb is a doing or a being word.

My turn, a verb is a doing or being word.

Your turn.

well done.

And the last one, an adverb, an adverb describes a verb.

An adverb describes a verb.

So now that we're really clear on the definition for each of the terms below, I want you to copy down the sentence and I'll read it to you in a second.

And in a moment you will identify and have a go at finding each of the word types below.

So will you, can you find the noun, the adjective, verbs and adverbs in the sentence below.

So our sentence is about a character that we'll come across later in our unit.

And the sentences is, Mrs Coulter devised a cruel plan to viciously separate every child from their daemon.

So copy down the sentence and have a go at finding the nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs in that sentence.

And then we're going to have a go and look through it together.

So press pause and have a go yourself.

Okay.

Hopefully you've had a good go.

And let's see if the things you found are the things that I'm going to show you now.

So nouns, a noun is a PPT, a person, a place or thing.

And in this sentence our nouns on Mrs Coulter person, proper noun, plan, thing, child with a person and daemon, we say that word daemon, even though it's an unusual spelling, a daemon, we'll find out what daemons are in our story later on.

Those are our nouns in the sentence.

Adjectives describe a noun.

And we just identified plan, as on noun, and so cruel is a word that describes the plan.

Cruel is our adjective in the sentence.

Give yourself a tick if you found that in your sentence.

Verbs, just remind yourself that definition for a verb.

A verb is a being or a doing word, and in this sentence, devised created is one verb and separate is another verb.

There were two verbs in that sentence, well done if you found both of them.

And an adverb describes the verb.

Often, not always, often they end 'ly'.

And in this sentence our adverb ends 'ly' it is viciously.

So in this unit, we're going to use clips from the film, as I said earlier, and the film is "The Golden Compass", and that will really help to support our writing.

In a moment, I'm going to play the trailer for the film.

And while it's playing, I'd like you to note down any words that you think might be important for this unit.

Those might be words that you know, or it might be the first time you've heard the word, any language you hear that you think might be important, just note it down on your page and we're going to have a look at the vocabulary afterwards.

What is this? It's a alethiometer, it tells the truth.

You are meant to have it, Lyra keep the alethiometer to yourself, it's of the utmost importance.

Are you familiar with the prophecies of the witches? You think she's that child? She must be found.

I need to go North and fight.

You have no idea what's at stake.

I have a contract with the child.

Lyra! "The Golden Compass".

So you might want to take a few more minutes to write down any vocabulary that you've heard, or you might even replay the video and listen again, because there's quite a lot of new vocabulary in that film.

Okay.

So here are some of the words that I wrote down having heard the trailer.

Let me pull it back, here we go.

And so let's read them together.

You've got parallel universe, unique, prophecy, loyalty, alethiometer and quest.

Now just have a little think for a minute.

Did you have those words? Do you know some of the definitions for some of those words, have you heard them before? And some of those words, it might be the first time that you've ever come across them.

They might be so new that you've not heard them before.

Now we're going to look at the definition for these words.

I'll move myself.

So I was looking at the words and I thought, I think there are three words that we may have come across before.

We might have a good idea of those and what they mean.

And the first of those was loyalty.

Someone who is loyal has a strong feeling of support for something or someone.

Something that is unique is the only one of its kind.

And a quest is a long search for something.

So those three words probably you've come across those before.

Now for the three other words, it might be the first time that you've heard them.

So parallel universe, this is on the left hand side, alethiometer and prophecy.

I wonder if you can just have a think and look at the definitions on the right hand side of the page, and can you match each definition, have a go at matching each definition to the word on the left.

We've got The golden compass, one of them means the golden compass.

We've got a prediction of what will happen in the future and a world existing alongside our own.

I'm going to let you think.

Let's find out.

So parallel universe is another world that exists alongside our own, like parallel lines that never meet, parallel universe sits alongside our own and the two don't meet.

The alethiometer is a golden compass.

And so it has its special name in this story, and it's the alethiometer, we'll get really familiar with that word.

And finally, a prophecy is a prediction of what will happen in the future.

Okay.

So we're onto characters and plot.

There are three characters that I'm going to talk to you about and tell you a little bit about now.

The first is Lyra who is our main character.

Lyra is 12 years old, and she's really lucky because she gets to live in Oxford University in one of the colleges.

Now because she's in Oxford University, she is around people who are researching really interesting things, having very very secret and interesting conversations.

And later in the story Lyra overhears one of these conversations that is about a magic particle called Dust.

Now Dust is believed to be found in the North, in the Arctic.

And for lots of the story, Lyra is on a quest to find Dust.

And on this quest, she was joined by magical creatures and mythical creatures, animals that talk and people help her along the way.

And that's our main character Lyra, who is the first character on the screen.

Now Lyra has a daemon.

We mentioned daemons earlier this lesson.

And Lyra's daemon is called Pan, which is short for Pantalaimon.

And Pan is like all daemons, the human's soul represented in animal form.

So every human in this story has a daemon and the daemon might be a different animal for different people.

And daemons are magical really because they can change shape, they're shape-shifters, they can move from one animal to another and change their form, they can also change their size.

So a daemon who might be feeling a bit angry might increase in size.

So they're shape-shifting, but they are loyal to their human and they are a companion really.

An important thing to note about daemons is that their close relationship with their human means that if a daemon feels pain or discomfort, then the human feels that same emotion, and if the human feels pain or discomfort, then the daemon feels that emotion too, they're so closely linked.

So that's Lyra and that's Pan.

And then finally, we've got Lord Asriel.

Lord Asriel is Lyra's uncle, that's why Lyra lives in Oxford University.

And Lord Asriel is a researcher and he's researching Dust.

So this magical particle, he's trying to find out lots of information about Dust.

So those are our three characters who are important at the beginning of the story, and in our first scene that we're going to be looking at, we meet Lyra and Pan.

Now then we've seen the trailer and I've told you a little bit about Lyra and Pan and Lord Asriel, focusing on Lyra.

Want you to look at the table below and think about which of these adjectives you might infer about Lyra.

What might we be able to say or have worked out about Lyra and her character from the trailer and from everything that I told you.

So I'm looking at the table and I'm going to read the adjectives to you now.

Got, determined, curious, weak, bold, ambitious, lazy, loyal, courageous, brave, fearful, intrepid and dependable.

So look at those adjectives and write down which of those you think we might be able to use to describe Lyra, and when you've done that, I wonder if you can think of any of your own adjectives to add to the list.

Press pause and off you go.

Okay.

So hopefully that's been plenty of time.

You spent a while thinking of your own, as well as looking through my list.

Let's see which of those in the table I also thought could be used to describe Lyra.

There we go, so many.

So we've got determined, curious, bold, ambitious, loyal, courageous, brave, intrepid, dependable, lots of adjectives all ready to create a bank of language that we might use to describe our main character.

Congratulations.

That is the very end of your first lesson for this unit.

So things we've covered today, word classification, reminding ourselves of nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs.

We looked at vocabulary that's important for our unit and for all the writing that we're going to be doing.

And we have already met the key characters and learnt some important points in our plot so far.

And so hopefully you are looking forward to the next lesson in the unit, where we will go on to analyse our main character in even more detail and hopefully you really enjoyed today's lesson as well.

All right, I'll see you next time.

Bye.