Lesson video

Hi everyone, Miss Vincent here for your second reading lesson based on the poem, "The Listeners." In today's lesson, we're going to think really carefully about the vocabulary words that are in the poem.

And we're going to use strategies to help us understand those tricky words and little bit better.

So let's get started with our understanding of new vocabulary in the poem, "The Listeners." Here's our agenda for today's lesson.

We're going to start with a reading warmup.

Then we're going to think about identifying unknown vocabulary.

So we're going to read through the poem and have a go at picking out words that we don't understand.

Then we're going to learn some strategies to help us understand those words and identify their meaning, what they mean.

And then finally you'll have a chance to practise those strategies yourself, to find the meaning of lots of words in the poem.

For this lesson, you will need a piece of paper or an exercise book, you'll need a pencil or a pen, and of course you'll need your brains switched on ready to do some real thinking about these new words.

If there's anything that you don't have that you need to go and get, then please pause the video and go and do that now.

When you're ready, you can press play.

Great, let's get started.

So let's start with a reading warm up.

I've got a sentence on the board, I'm going to read it for you and then it's going to be your turn to read it again.

My turn, the Traveller rode his horse through the dense, leafy forest, your turn.

Good job, okay, so my question for you, I have put the word dense in green.

I want you to think of a word to replace the word dense.

The word must have the same meaning.

So thinking carefully if you know a word already that has the same meaning as dense in the context of a leafy forest.

If you need a little bit of an extra help, I've got three different words on the board and you can choose the one that means the same as dense.

The words I've got are big, thick, and empty.

Choose the word that has the same meaning as the word dense.

So pause the video and do that for me now.

So hopefully you have chosen a word.

Can you point to the word that you have chosen in three, two, one? Okay, the word thick in the context of a forest means the same as dense.

So a forest that is dense has got lots and lots of leaves.

So it's really thick with leaves and there's hardly any sunshine coming in and it's quite hard to get through.

I can check that the word has the same meaning by putting it in the sentence instead of the word dense.

So the Traveller rode his horse through the thick, leafy forest.

That works really well done if you spotted the word thick or if you came up with a different word that means the same as dense.

So now let's read our poem that we read in the last lesson.

Now, if you haven't done lesson number one from this unit, I would really recommend stopping this lesson here and going back to do the first lesson because in the first lesson we find out a little bit about the poet and the poem.

So in today's lesson, we're going to look at vocabulary.

So all of those tricky words.

This is a really tricky poem that has lots of words that you might not know the meaning of.

So we're going to read through the poem one time and you're going to have a chance to read it yourself and also to make a list of any words that you don't know.

So as I said, as we read through the poem you'll need that pencil and paper that you had before and you'll need to make a note of any of those words that you don't recognise or understand.

So my turn first and then it's going to be your turn to read and pause the video and write down any words that you don't know.

"The Listeners" remember, that's the title.

"Is there anybody there?" said the Traveller, Knocking on the moonlit door, And his horse in the silence champed the grasses Of the forest's ferny floor And a bird flew up out of the turret, Above the Traveller's head, And he smote upon the door again a second time.

Okay, so it's your turn now, I would like you to pause the video and do two things for me.

The first thing I would like you to do is to read the poem to yourself out loud.

The second thing that I would like you to do is as you are reading, if you come across a word that you do not know the meaning of, then stop, write down the word, and then continue with your reading.

So pause the video to do that for me now and press play when you're ready to move on.

Okay, fantastic, so some of the words that I wasn't sure about when I first read this poem, were the word champed.

So his horse in the silence champed the grasses.

So we'll think about what that word is so that's a word that's on my list.

Another one I didn't know the meaning of was ferny.

So that's another one on my list.

The next one I was unsure about was turret, the bird flew up out of the turret.

And then finally that word smote which we did talk about briefly in the last lesson but don't worry if you don't remember what it is.

I wonder if you had any of the same words as I picked up on your list as well.

Now we're going to do the same thing for the next bit of the poem.

So my turn first, your turn to listen.

"Is there anybody there?" he said.

But no one descended to the Traveller, No head from the leaf-fringed sill Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes Where he stood perplexed and still.

So now it's your turn, remember two things, read the poem out loud and as you're reading if you come across a word that you do not understand then stop reading, write down the word and then continue.

So pause the video for me now to do those two things and press play when you're ready to move on.

Okay, fantastic, I wonder if you spotted some of the same words that I did.

So I thought descended, I wasn't sure what the word descended means.

So that was on my list.

Leaf-fringed sill, I didn't really understand what that was.

Leaf-fringed sill, and then the word perplexed.

That's quite a tricky one, my turn, your turn, perplexed.

It's quite fun to say perplexed.

So I wonder if you found any of the same words as me, and hopefully you are getting your list a bit longer as well like I am.

Onto the next part of the poem, your turn to listen, my turn to read.

But only a host of phantom listeners That dwelt in the lone house then Stood listening in the quiet of the Moonlight To that voice from the world of men.

Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair That goes down to the empty hall, Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken By the lonely Traveller's call.

So as before your turn to pause the video, read this part of the poem out loud and spot any words that you don't know the meaning of.

Once you've done that press play and we'll move on to the next part of the lesson.

Okay, fantastic, well done.

So some of the words that I put on my list were; a host of phantom listeners, phantom as well.

We talked about phantom in the last lesson.

So you might already know what that means.

Dwelt, they dwelt in the lone house then.

And the thronging, they stood thronging in the faint moonbeams. I thought that was a really tricky word and hearkening is a really tricky word as well.

So those are the words on my list.

I wonder if you had any of those words on your list as well.

Onto the next part, my turn to read, your turn to listen.

And he felt in his heart their strangeness, Their stillness answering his cry While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf 'Neath the starred and leafy sky.

For he suddenly smote on the door, even Louder and lifted his head, "Tell them I came, and no one answered, "That I kept my word," he said.

Your turn to read through the poem and to spot any words that you're not sure of the meaning of.

So pause the video to read and identify words and press play when you're ready to move on.

Fantastic, so some of the words that I spotted, I spotted cropping, he was cropping.

I wasn't sure what that was, and he was cropping the dark turf.

Then I got that word smote again that I came across before.

So that was all the words for this section that I wasn't sure about.

I wonder if you found some of the same ones as well.

So last section might turn to read, your turn to listen.

Never the least stir made the listeners, That every word he spake Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house From the one man left awake, Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup And the sound of iron on stone And how the silence surged softly backward When the plunging hoofs were gone.

Your turn to read this last section of the poem and identify if there are any words that you are unsure of.

So pause the video, read and check for words that you don't know, put them down on your list and press play when you're ready to move on.

Okay, well done, so we should have by now quite a long list of words that we don't know the meaning of so let me show you my words.

So my words were stir.

So a stir that the listeners made and the word stirrup as well, the stirrup.

And then surged, the word surged.

So as I was saying, we should have by now quite a long list of words that we don't perhaps know the meaning of.

So I'm going to teach you some strategies that you can use, some different ways that you can have a go at identifying, at working out what those different words mean.

So let's have a go at exploring one of the words that I put on my list.

Right at the beginning, I said that that word champed I wasn't sure what it meant.

It says that, "Is there anybody there?" said the Traveller knocking on the moonlit door.

So he's calling out and he's knocking.

And his horse in the silence champed the grasses Of the forest's ferny floor.

So I don't know what that word champed means.

So I'm going to use some strategies to help me.

So the first thing that I need to do is identify what type of word it is.

And I know that it's a verb and what's given me that clue is that it ends in ed and lots of past tense verbs end in ed, but also it's something that his horse is doing and a doing word is a verb.

So the first thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to skip out that word to see if I can figure out what it might mean.

So, and his horse in the silence.

the grasses Of the forest ferny flaw.

What might a horse do? I know it's a verb, it's a doing word and it's something the horse is doing with the grass.

So I know that horses eat grass.

So maybe the word means to eat.

My next thing that I could do is to replace that word with another word.

So maybe I'll try the word eat coz that's what I was saying before that I know that horses eat grass.

And his horse in the silence ate, coz it's the past tense, ate the grasses of the forest ferny floor, that makes sense.

So perhaps the word champed means to eat.

And then the last thing that I could do if I was still feeling unsure is read around and I read the rest of the sentence and I could read the bit of texts before and the bit of texts after to see if it gave me a clue.

Now, my idea for this word remember is that it means eating.

And it sounds a little bit like chomped, doesn't it? And chomped is to do with eating.

So let's have a look, so we were right.

The word champed is to do with a sound that a horse makes and it's a noisy biting or chewing action.

So it's more to do with the noise of the chewing that they made.

So I applied my strategies of missing out the word to think about what it might mean and that helped me to understand it.

Let's try another one together.

So the next one that I'm not sure about is the word turret.

And a bird flew up out of the turret, Above the Traveller's head.

And he smote upon the door a second time.

So that word turret, I need to think about first of all what word class it is.

A bird flew up out of the turret.

So it's flying up out of something, so it's a thing.

And I know that a person, a place, or a thing is usually a noun.

So I think that the word turret is a noun.

So I'm going to apply my strategy.

So the first thing I'm going to do is skip out the sentence sorry, skip out the word in the sentence.

And the bird flew up out of the.

Above the Traveller's head.

What could be above the Traveller's head? The sky is above the Traveller's head.

I know that he's at a door, so there's a house in front of him.

So that tells me that a turret is something high up in a house or in a fancy house, perhaps in a bigger, that might have birds that can fly out of it.

So let's think about our next strategy which is replacing the word with another word.

Now, something high up in a house, maybe it's like a tower.

So I'm going to replace the word turret with the word tower.

And a bird flew up out of the tower Above the Traveller's head, so that could work.

And then the last strategy is reading around the word.

So I know that it says above just after it so I know that it's something that's up high and it's something that a bird can fly out of.

So I think it's part of the house that's up high.

So I think our guess of a tower is probably a good guess.

So let's check, so a turret is indeed a noun and it is a small tower on top of the building.

Often you might hear about turrets on castles but you can also have small turrets on some houses as well.

Old fashioned houses might have small turrets and there's a picture of one just there.

Your turn now to apply the strategies that we just practised to the word smote.

Now you've had a little bit of a headstart with the word smote if you watched the first lesson from this unit.

So let's read the sentences first.

And a bird flew up out of the turret, which we know is a little tower, above the Traveller's head.

And he smote upon the door again a second time.

And I've given you a little clue.

I told you that smote is a verb.

So remember to use your strategies.

The first thing to do is to read the sentence but missing out the word, then try and replace that word with another word to see what it could mean, and then read around for clues.

So I'd like you to pause the video and have a go at using those three strategies to identify the meaning of the word smote, off you go.

And press play when you're ready to move on.

Okay, well done, I wonder what you thought.

So to smote, so the verb smote is to strike with firm blow, to strike with the firm blow.

And it tells us that he's doing it upon the door.

So it makes us think of knocking so we can put the word knock instead of there to see and then we know that it's a second time.

And earlier in the poem, it tells us that he knocked on the door.

So if he's doing it again, then that must mean knocking and he's knocking quite hard now because he wants somebody to come and open the door.

Your turn again, this time I've chosen the word perplexed, your turn.

So, no head from the leaf-fringed sill Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes, Where he stood perplexed and still.

So I'd like you to think about this word perplexed.

Perplexed is an adjective, it's describing how the Traveller is feeling and how he's behaving.

So I'd like you to pause the video and use our three strategies to help you figure out the meaning of this word.

So pause the video, have a go, and press play when you're ready to move on.

Okay, well done, the word perplexed is an adjective and it means to be baffled, so a little bit confused.

So he's confused because nobody is answering the door.

So now it is time to practise our strategy with our long list of words that we don't know the meaning of.

Remember if you don't know the meaning of a word, you could also look it up in a dictionary but you might not have a dictionary nearby.

So you can have a go at using our strategies to help you.

So, we have had to go identifying the different words that we don't know the meaning of.

I have put in bold a number of words that we are unsure of.

So the word host, the word dwelt, the word thronging, and the word hearkening.

So I'd like you to pause the video and your task is to use the strategies that we have practised to try and identify the meaning of these words.

It is your best guess, but you need to make sure that you read the sentence, skipping out the word, thinking about what word class it might be.

Is it a noun? Is it a person, place, or thing? Is it perhaps an action? Is it a verb? And try and replace the word with another word to see if that meaning works in the sentence.

And remember always reading around the word to help you get lots of clues from the text as to what those words might mean.

So pause the video, have a go at applying these strategies.

If you're unsure, don't worry, we will look at the meaning of each of these words together, but I'd love for you to try your best and apply these strategies.

So pause the video, have it go, and press play when you're ready to check what you've got.

Fantastic, so let's have a look at this piece of text.

So that word host actually means a large group of something.

So a host of phantom listeners, means a group of ghostly listeners who are listening.

The word dwelt is a verb and it means to live.

So they lived, the ghost that lived inside the lone house or the lonely house.

So only a group of phantom listeners that lived in the lonely house stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight.

It's really, really silent, to that voice from the world of men.

So they are ghosts and they're listening to somebody who's alive, so that's what it means by him being in the world of men's, of men sorry.

Stood thronging, that's a really tricky word.

Perhaps you identified that it's a verb and perhaps you thought that it might mean listening as well.

And that would have worked in the context but the word thronging means that they're filling the space.

So that filling the moonbeams that are coming into the house on the stairs, so there's lots of them and they're filling that light of the moon.

So stood filling the faint moonbeams on the dark stairs.

It works if I replace it, that goes down to the empty hall.

So the Traveller's on the step that, sorry, the listeners are on the stairs, listening to what the Traveller is saying from all the way down to the empty hall.

Then hearkening in an air stirred and shaken By the lonely Traveller's call.

Hearkening is a synonym for the word listening.

So hearkening means to listen.

So the next part of the sentence, I identified a couple of other words.

I identified the word cropping and the word turf.

I'm going to tell you the meaning of these words so we can start to think about what the poem means.

So he felt in his heart their strangeness Their stillness answering his cry.

So he knew that there was something a bit strange and a bit strange going on, and a bit weird going on.

While his horse moved, propping the dark turf.

Now we know that the horse was champing, so it was eating the grass.

Cropping just means to cut and turf is another word for grass.

'Neath the starred and leafy sky.

'Neath is a shortened version of beneath.

So he's underneath, beneath the starry sky.

For he suddenly smote on the door, even louder and lifted his head, "Tell them I came, and no one answered.

"That I kept my word," he said.

To keep your word is to keep a promise.

Never the least stir made the listeners, so they didn't make any noise.

They didn't make any movements.

Though every word he spake, past tense spoke slightly different from olden English.

Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house From the one man left awake, Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup, And the sound of iron on stone.

So they heard him getting onto his horse.

A stirrup is something that you put your feet in on a saddle of a horse.

And the sound of iron on stone, is the sound of the horses hoofs on the ground.

And how the silence surged softly backwards, When the plunging hoofs were gone.

So I want us to have a go at summarising what this poem is about.

So I'd like you to pause the video and write down just one or two sentences about what you think this poem is about.

So pause the video and do that for me now please.

Okay, fantastic, really good work.

You've worked really hard and you have completed today's reading lesson.

So I hope you will join me soon for more reading lessons on the poem "The Listeners," bye.