Lesson video

Hello, it's Mrs. Smart.

Welcome back to this English unit all about the book "Mirror" by Jeannie Baker.

In today's lesson, we are going to be using the images to make some predictions and some comparisons.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book, or some lined paper, a pen or pencil and some coloured pencils or felt tips if you've got any.

If you haven't got any of those items with you right now, just pause the recording and get yourself ready.

In this lesson, we will start with an introduction where we will recap the text "Mirror." We will then explore the Australian half of the text first, looking at some of the images and making predictions.

And then we will move on to look at the Moroccan half of the text and again, we'll make some predictions and that will be the opportunity to make some comparisons between the Australian text and the Moroccan text.

We'll finish today's lesson with your independent task.

Here is the text that we are exploring as part of this unit.

It is called "Mirror," it's written and illustrated by Jeannie Baker with thanks to Walker Books for granting us permission to use this book.

On the screen, you should be able to see the front and the back cover, which we explored in detail in a previous lesson.

Half of the text is set in Morocco.

The other half is set in Australia.

And the story follows two families through a normal day.

But the two stories mirror each other.

They've very similar in some ways but in some ways, they've very different as well.

Let's remind ourselves where Morocco and Australia are on the world map.

Now remember, Morocco is in North Africa.

Can you point to it on the map? Well done.

That's where Morocco is there where the pink star has just appeared.

The other half of the story is set in Sydney, Australia.

Can you point to Australia on the map? Excellent, well done.

And this is roughly where Sydney is in Australia where that pink star has just appeared.

Here is the introduction at the beginning of the story that explains to the readers a little bit about the book.

There are two boys and two families in this book.

One family lives in a city in Australia and one lives in Morocco in North Africa.

The lives of the two boys and their families look very different from each other and they are different.

But some things connect them, just as some things are the same for all families no matter where they live.

And you can see that this opening or introduction is also written in arabic script.

That's because Arabic is one of the main languages that people speak and write in Morocco.

Here are the pages that we explored in a previous lesson.

We had a look at the morning routine of a family who live in Sydney, Australia.

Then we compared it to the morning routine of a family who live in Morocco.

Here is the next page in the Australian half of the story.

In this part of the story, the father and the young boy, his son, go on a journey.

Have a look carefully at the pictures.

What can you see in the images? How would you describe the landscape? That means the land around them.

What are they surrounded by? And where do you think they might be going? Maybe you could use what you saw in the previous images to help you think about where they might be going.

Can you remember? The dad was writing a list.

Pause the recording and write down some ideas to try and answer those three questions.

If I have a look at these pictures, I can see that the boy and his dad are travelling in a car.

I can see that they travel on a very, very busy road.

They're surrounded by lots and lots of other cars but also, all around them are quite large buildings.

And some very large what look like billboards or adverts above the buildings.

And you can see very far in the distance there's some very tall skyscraper-style buildings.

So I know that they must be driving through or driving towards a city.

In the bottom picture, I can see them driving across a huge bridge, crossing that water that we saw on the front cover.

Where do you think they might be going? I remember in the previous page, the dad was writing a list.

It was a little bit like a shopping list but not to go to the supermarket to buy food.

To was a shopping list to go to get some hardware supplies to help him to build the fire in his house.

Let's look at the next page.

And explore the next part of their journey.

What can you see in the images? How would you describe the landscape now? Is it the same or is it different from the previous page? And where do you think they might be going, thinking about what we've just discussed? Pause the recording and write down your ideas now.

I can see that they're still driving on some very, very busy roads.

Maybe not quite as busy as before.

And here I can see that they're driving towards a huge aeroplane.

Maybe they're driving towards or driving past an airport and I know cities often have airports.

So that would make sense.

Did you have any other ideas? This is where they ended up.

We were right.

They've gone to a shop called Hardware Planet.

So they're buying some hardware or some DIY supplies to help them to build the fire and the fireplace in their house.

Using the images that you've just looked at, can you describe the landscape of Sydney, Australia? What was the land like, what it was like all around them? How would you describe it? What could you see? Use these sentence starters to help you.

The characters travel in? What were they travelling in? And what were they travelling on? They are surrounded by? What? In the distance, there are? What could you see a long, long way away from them? Pause the recording and write a few sentences to describe the landscape of Sydney, Australia.

Here is the next page of the Moroccan half of the text and we're going to think about those same three questions.

You need to look really carefully at the images and think about what can you see, how would you describe the landscape? And where do you think they're going? Pause the recording and write down your ideas now.

I can see that this time, the family isn't travelling in a car, it's travelling on a donkey.

And they're putting all of their belongings and all of their supplies onto the donkey.

So not only is it carrying two people, but it looks like it's carrying a rug as well and maybe a sheep I think it's carrying.

In the next image, I can see the landscape really clearly.

And it's very different to Sydney, Australia.

There's hardly any buildings around them and it's very, very mountainous and hilly.

Also, the land looks very dry.

There aren't lots of plants, it's not covered in grass.

It looks like soil or maybe sand and lots of rocks.

Where do you think they might be going? I remember, in the last page, that the dad was putting some money into a bag and we thought that maybe they were going shopping.

So maybe that's what they're doing but they've put a rug onto their donkey.

So maybe they're going to buy something or maybe they're going to sell something.

Let's have a look at the next page.

Again, I want you to think about these three questions.

What can you see? How would you describe the landscape? And where do you think they're going? Pause the recording and write down your answers now.

Well done.

I can see again really hilly or mountainous landscape, lots of rocks and soil or dust or sand around them.

It's not very green but I can see some small green squares.

Maybe they are some fields where they're growing crops, for example.

I can also see what looks like some water.

I remember seeing some water in the Australian text as well but this is much smaller, a much smaller area of water.

And there are some people down by the water.

I wonder what they might be doing.

Maybe they're using the water to wash or maybe they're collecting the water to take back to their homes.

This is where the father and his son go.

So they are going shopping but this is a very different shopping experience to the family in Australia.

Instead of going to a shop, this family are going to a market.

What can you see being sold in the market? I can see things like spices and herbs.

I can see electronics like TVs and phones.

I can see vegetables being sold as well.

And it looks like maybe the dad is selling the sheep to this man because he's holding it and the man is looking at it.

I wonder what he's doing.

Can you describe the landscape of the Valley of Roses, Morocco? Valley of Roses is the area in Morocco where the family live and the area that they are travelling through.

Use these sentence starters to help you.

The characters travel on.

They weren't travelling in a car this time, were they? What were they travelling on? Can you remember? They are surrounded by.

What was all around them? What did you see in the landscape? In the distance, there are? What could you see a long way away from them? Write a few sentences to try and describe the landscape of the Valley of Roses, Morocco.

Then, I want you to try and compare the two landscapes.

How is the landscape of Valley of Roses, Morocco different from the landscape of Sydney, Australia? Have a look back at your notes about Sydney, Australia and how you described it, and think about how it is different from the area in Morocco.

Pause the recording and write down your sentences now.

For your task today, I would like you to split your page into three sections.

In each of the three sections, I would like you to draw an image of three landscapes.

Landscapes, remember, means what the land is like, what the area is like.

So I want you to draw an image of what does Morocco look like? What did the Valley of Roses look like, the area that the father and his son travelled through? And then I want you to draw an image of Sydney, Australia.

Think about what it was like as the father and son were driving through the streets.

And then I want you to compare those two landscapes to your own location.

What's it like where you are? Have a look out the window.

That might help you.

And draw an example of a street or the area that you are in right now.

Congratulations! You have completed your lesson.

If you would like to, please share your work with your parent or carer.

I will see you in our next English lesson.

Goodbye.