Lesson video

Hello, my name is Ms Waddell.

I teach from year 1 to year 6.

I enjoy writing, I enjoy watching films, I enjoy travelling a lot.

And luckily this new unit that we're about to start combines all of those things.

We are going to write a narrative opening based on a film and we are going to work towards that in stages and get lots of useful things to help with our writing.

So let's begin.

Okay, let's look at what we're going to do today.

This is our agenda.

First of all we're going to think about the context of the story of Aladdin, where it comes from and what we know about it.

Then we're going to think about what the purpose of an opening is.

Then we're going to watch the opening clip from Disney.

And then we are going to orally retell the opening.

So in this lesson, what you will need, and I'm going to ask you to pause for a minute and go and get these is some paper or an exercise book, a pencil or a pen, and definitely switch on your brain, okay.

So first of all, a warmup.

Is your brain ready.

So here's our sentence, but I need your help.

Something is missing.

We need to improve this sentence because something has been stolen.

Carefully, the brave determined girl approached the window.

So carefully the brave determined, that's like when you try really hard at something and hoping to get it.

Work really hard to get something.

Approached, or came closer, to the window.

What is missing? And then my next sentence, she was strong-willed, inquisitive and courageous.

So, she was strong-willed, so, really determined, definitely wants to get what she wants.

Inquisitive, asked lots of questions.

And courageous, brave.

Do you know anyone like that? Have a think.

What could we add, what's missing? Aha! Commas are missing for adjectives in a list.

So the brave, comma, determined girl approached the window.

'Cause brave and determined are both adjectives.

So she was strong-willed, comma, inquisitive and courageous.

So you don't have a comma after inquisitive because there's an and there.

Brilliant, I bet you got that.

Now we're going to look at the narrative context.

So, the stories and where they come from and the context, what we know about them.

So, what narratives do you know? Pause the video and just have a think, what are your favourite stories? So here are some of mine.

I'm just going to move that up there.

Let's see if you can give me some brain power, and communicate with your fingers through your temples.

Is your word going to come up, let's see.

"Betsey Biggalow", that's a good one.

Story about a girl growing up in the city mostly "The BFG" that's a classic by Roald Dahl.

We've got "Gregory Cool".

Also a brill book, lots of lovely stories here.

And you can't see that "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone".

This one's the illustrated version.

So there's lots of really lovely pictures in it.

Okay, so were those one of yours? What were yours? Can you shout them aloud, a little bit louder? So many brilliant stories.

Aladdin is a traditional tale.

So it's a traditional tale that was orally retold.

So orally is when something's told, but not necessarily written down from one person to another.

And it was included in something called Hazar afsana, which is a Persian name for a thousand stories.

And these stories dated back to possibly the 10th century, like a really long time ago.

And then they were written down first of all, at a time of the Ottoman Empire.

So an empire is when one ruler or group of rulers or government, control a big lot of land often with lots of countries.

And there were lots of empires in history and the Ottoman Empire controlled at this time, this is the 18th century, controlled a lot of land in the whole of Northern Africa, the continent of Africa.

So some of Egypt and the top of Algeria and some of the other countries in the North, and then lots of the land around Turkey if you can see it and Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

But those countries were not there then.

They were called something else, but that's it in modern-day, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, et cetera.

Those were controlled by the Ottoman Empire.

So back when Aladdin was first written down, that's what the area, or how the area was controlled.

So, there's a storyteller for modern-day Syria.

So it wasn't Syria then, but we would now think of it as Syria, told it, we think, to another man called Antoine Galland.

And he translated the stories into French in 1704.

And he included the story of Aladdin, which wasn't really in the original set of stories.

And then much later, Disney did a story of Aladdin and they set it in a pretend place called Agrabah, which was supposed to be thought of as somewhere in the Middle East.

And so this Aladdin really is an example of how stories can really change as they're told over a long period of time.

So initially in the story in 1704, Aladdin was Chinese and you can see in the picture, that's one of the original pictures and then much later, closer to the present day, you can see on our timeline, Disney in 1992 made the Aladdin version that we're going to be watching.

So sort of way back before the 18th century, when the French translation was done, the stories were being told and retold orally.

And then as time passes, those stories have changed so much.

And so Aladdin is quite a good example of the stories that people tell about other places where they sometimes gets it quite wrong about what it's like there or they like to make up lots of interesting things, which aren't really necessarily how people did things, but they're how they imagined they did things.

So let's test if whether you've been listening, Aladdin was written by Disney in America.

True or false? It is, shout it at the screen, false.

It was a story retold from the region, which we now know as the Middle East, from many centuries ago.

The Middle East actually, is lots of different continents.

It's got a bit of Asia, there's a bit of Europe and a bit of the top of Africa, some people say, but it's quite complicated.

Lots of people disagree about what region the Middle East is.

So Aladdin has been portrayed as Chinese.

Is that true or false? If you've been listening, shout it to the screen.

It is true.

It was in the French, first French translation.

Aladdin was from China.

So very different to the story that we'll be looking at.

Now, we're going to look at what the purpose of the opening is.

So why do we have an opening and what does it need to do? And this will help us think about what our writing needs to do.

So pause and have a think.

What does an opening need to do when you read a story or you see a film, what does an opening of that story need to do for you? Pause and have a think.

So let's look at what we need to think about an opening.

So does the opening need to grab your attention? Left or right, yes or no? Thumbs up, thumbs down? Okay, you show me thumbs up, thumbs down.

Does it need to grab your attention? Yup, it needs to grab your attention because you want to carry on reading.

You want to carry on watching.

Next one.

Does it need to start the story? Yeah, it needs to start the story, well done.

Okay, next one.

Does it need to tie up all the parts to the story? Nope, it doesn't.

It doesn't need to tie up all the parts to the story.

Does the main character die in the opening? Not usually, no.

Does it need to introduce the characters? Yup.

Does it need to describe the main features of a fish in a story? Thumbs up or thumbs down? No, definitely not, not usually anyway.

Might be an interesting start to the story some way.

Does it need to describe the scene? Yeah, 'cause you need to picture where you are, where your characters are.

Okay, so now we're going to watch the beginning of the clip.

Let's have a go.

Would you like to hear the tale? It begins on a dark night, where a dark man waits, with a dark purpose.

You are late.

A thousand apologies, oh patient one.

You have it then? I had to slit a few throats, but I got it.

Ah, the treasure.

Trust me my pungent friend, you'll get what's coming to you.

What's coming to you? Quickly, follow the trail.

Faster! At last, after all my years of searching, the cave of wonder.

Now we're going to orally retell the opening.

So we're going to say it aloud.

So first of all, some key vocabularies.

I will do my turn, your turn.

So scarab beetle, sand dune, So a scarab beetle, is a beetle that you might find in the desert.

They don't glow gold.

So this one's obviously a magic one, but there's a real one below, what they look like.

A sand dune is a big pile of sand, which is really fun to jump down and really not fun to climb up.

And you can find them in the desert but you can also find them around the coast of the UK.

Next, we're going to put these pictures in the correct order.

This will help us to remember how the story goes.

So take a minute, pause the video and put the pictures in the correct order.

Use the letter.

So you just need to write the letter down on your piece of paper.

So, did you get it right? Here is the order, E, F, C, D, B, A.

So what I would like you to do now is to retell the story to your hand.

So, you try and use story language and say, one dark night, two figures met on a giant sand dune.

Next a stout, some kind of short man, grabbed a piece of mysterious treasure from his shirt.

Try and tell it to your hand to see if you can remember exactly what's happening.

Pause the story, pause tape now.

Okay, so we're going to watch the clip again and see whether it does what we think an opening to a story needs to do.

Okay, let's go.

You would you like to hear the tale? It begins on a dark night, where a dark man waits, with a dark purpose.

You are late.

A thousand apologies, oh patient one.

You have it then? I had to slit a few throats, but I got it.

Ah, the treasure.

Trust me my pungent friend, you'll get what's coming to you.

What's coming to you? Quickly, follow the trail.

Faster! At last, after all my years of searching, the cave of wonder.

Quick quiz, where is the story set? Let's see how well you've been paying attention.

Is it set in London, England or in the Middle East region? Middle East region.

How do you know? A, because they're in a desert? B, because you told us? C, because it's dark, or D, because I can hear the cars? Which ones do you think, more than one? They're in the dessert and yeah, I told you that they were in the Middle Eastern region when we were talking about the context of the story.

What is going on? Are they meeting to do some evil magic or are they setting up a party? One point to the right one.

Meeting to do some evil magic.

And how do we know that, what clues are there in the story? Is it because there're sparkles from the scarab beetle tell us? Is it because of what they say? Is it because the way they talk to each other? Or is it because they're meeting at night? Which one of those do you agree with? Well, all of them are kind of true.

The sparkles from the scarab beetle tell us that, probably something magic's going on, what they say is key because they're talking about doing just horrendous things and stealing things and see the way they talk to each other.

So they're very grouchy and under their breath and quite somewhat mean in the way that they talk to each other, they're not kind.

And they're meeting at night, which is when sort of scarier things can sometimes happen or things more that people want to hide.

Is it a good opening? Let's think about what we needed it to do.

Does it introduce some of our main characters? Yeah, it does.

It introduces some of our main characters.

Does it set the scene? So do we have a sense of where we are in the world or where we are, what country? Yes, it does, definitely.

And does it grab our attention or interest us? Well, it certainly does for me.

I mean, you may not like it, but I think it's quite exciting at the beginning.

So, we're going to retell this opening now using lots of story language that I'm going to give you and we're going to think about some really good vocabulary that we can then next, in the next lessons write down and use for when we start writing.

Sentence starters.

So here's some time conjunctions.

So I think of them as time conjunctions but you may know them as fronted adverbials, which tell you when something's happening.

So it gives you a bit more detail and tells you when something is happening.

So my turn, your turn.

One dark evening.

One Misty night.

Suddenly.

All of a sudden.

In the blink of an eye.

As quick as a flash.

Seconds later.

Moments later.

Then, next.

Great.

So all of these have commas after them.

You need to be careful 'cause it's not comma just after the first word sometimes, it's after the phrase, one dark evening.

But some of them have it just after the first word, suddenly.

So one dark evening gives you a sense of when something is, but suddenly also gives you a sense of how quickly it happened, or in the blink of an eye, how quickly it happened, as quick as a flash, very quickly.

Seconds later, or, just a few seconds later so not as quick as a flash, which would be milliseconds.

So let's have a look at these.

These some adverbs sentence starter.

My turn, your turn.

Hastily, really quick.

Speedily, also really quick.

Rapidly, again, really quick.

Cautiously very carefully and slowly.

Wickedly, I have your treasure.

Fiendishly, similar, like sort of evil and fiendish.

I have your treasure, fiendishly.

So what do you notice those all have straight after the word? Commas, yeah.

So after any adverbs, at the beginning of a sentence you need to have a comma.

What would your first sentence be? So here I've got some of my time conjunctions or fronted adverbials if that's what you call them.

One dark evening, comma.

One misty night, comma, suddenly.

In the blink of an eye.

What would you choose as your first sentence starter? Pause and have a think.

Just say it to your screen.

So here's my one.

One dark evening, comma, two shadowy figures met in the desert.

So next time I'd like you to try and see if you can communicate to me, through your mind control, which one yours is.

So let's try on another one.

So what happens next? All of a sudden, these are our time conjunctions, in the blink of an eye, or then, or would you like to use an adverb? Hastily, cautiously, wickedly? Does he pull it out hastily or does he pull it out cautiously or away? All of those would work or and is he doing it suddenly or in a blink of an eye? Pause the video and see which one you think you would use.

See if you can finish your sentence, have a whole sentence.

So all of a sudden, a stout man pulled a bit of treasure.

See what you would say.

Here's mine.

Wickedly.

So he does it with such a wickedly, a fiendish so he's quite a fiendish, unpleasant, he's a fiend, he's like a devil figure.

So we don't know who he is yet.

So we don't know his name.

A fiendish figure handed over an object All of a sudden, moments later or next.

This is when the man on the horse puts his pieces together and something happens or cautiously, does he do it cautiously, speedily or rapidly? Let's see, pause and say it to the screen.

See if you can whisper it this time and see if it will come through and I can use your idea 'cause yours will be brilliant.

I've used all of a sudden.

Was that your one? That is a good one, but lots of them are good.

So all of a sudden, the scarab beetle began to glow bright gold.

You can see it starting to glow bright gold.

What happens next? Something goes.

The horse starts galloping off.

So does it happen cautiously, hastily or is it in a blink of an eye? So super quick or as quick as a flash, what would you use? Say it to maybe shout your sentence this time.

See if it comes through more clearly.

Shout it and see if I can get it in.

Ready, pause the video.

Is that yours? Feeling smart in the blink of an eye, the shining creature shot off into the darkness.

So it happens so quickly just like a blink, shot off into the darkness.

Then what happened? Suddenly, seconds later next or maybe your adverbs hastily, which means it happened very quickly, but not thinking about it very clearly or rapidly or fiendishly.

Not sure about that last one.

This time maybe say it to the ceiling.

Pause the tape.

I have used rapidly.

Rapidly the shining bug made a golden circle around the sand Last one now is suddenly.

So this is when the cat cave erupts out of the sand like a, a bit like a volcano erupts.

So suddenly or seconds later or next without time conjunctions or speedily or rapidly.

This time, see if you can say it in an evil voice.

Suddenly or seconds later.

Pause the video.

I said seconds later, was that your word? There're people that the sand erupted and a fierce cave stood in the desert, it's exciting stuff.

So next I would like you to write down the best of your sentences that you wrote.

So I want you to say it again aloud.

Think about which one was your favourite one, say it aloud, write the sentence down, check it and then edit it if you think that some of your words could be a little bit better.

Pause the video and write it down underneath the letters that you had written for the ordering.

Fantastic.

You have finished your first lesson in this Aladdin unit.

If you'd like to, you can share your story.

So read out the story that you were ordering to someone at home, a parent a carer or whoever you're with.

And next lesson will be to prepare to write the opening of Aladdin.

You have worked super hard and I'm really looking forward to the next lesson.

Bye.