Lesson video

Hi there.

Miss Vincent here for your next reading lesson based on the poem "The Listeners".

In today's lesson, we are going to be reading the poem one more time and then we're going to have a go at answering some questions based on the poem.

Those are some questions where we can find the answer in the text and then some questions where we need to be a little bit like detectives and look for clues in the text as well.

So let's get started with our lesson on answering questions based on the poem.

Here's our agenda for today's lesson.

Like in the other lessons on this unit, we're going to start with a reading warmup.

Then we're going to go and reread the poem, just to remind ourselves of the poem.

We're going to have a go answering some retrieval questions, which are questions where we can find the answer in the text.

And then we're going to have a go at answering some inference questions where we need to look a little bit more closely for clues in the text.

For both of these types of questions, I will remind you of some important strategies that can help us when we're answering our questions.

So for this lesson, you'll need an exercise book or a piece of paper, you'll need a pencil or a pen, and you'll need your brain switched on and your eyes looking really, really focusing for the details in the poem.

So if there's anything that you need to go and get that you don't have, then I'd like you to pause the video, go off and get it and press play when you're ready to start the lesson.

Okay, so hopefully we are all set and ready to start our reading lesson.

Starting with our reading warmup.

For our reading warmup today, I have written some statements and sentences about the poem "The Listeners", and you need to decide if the statements are true or if the statements are false, okay? So I'm going to read the statements one time.

Then I'm going to ask you to pause the video to make your decision for each one.

Is it true or is it false? And then you can press play and we can check our answers.

So the first statement says the traveller arrived in a car.

True or false? The next one, he knocked on the door more than once.

That means not just once, he knocked on the door lots of times.

The next one, the house was in a forest.

And then the final one, the traveller went inside the house.

So pause the video to decide if the statements are true or false and press play when you are ready to check your answers.

Okay, well done.

Let's check.

So the first sentence, the traveller arrived in a car.

If you think it's true, show me a thumbs up.

If you think it's false, show me a thumbs down.

That statement is false.

He arrived on a horse and we know that because we read about his horse eating, champing, and cropping, cutting the grass outside the house.

Next statement, he knocked on the door more than once.

Show me true or false.

It is true.

He knocked on the door lots of times.

And we saw that word smote, which means the same as knock or hit quite hard.

Okay, the next statement, the house was in the forest.

True or false.

Show me in three, two, one.

It's true.

We know that because it talks about the forest's ferny floor.

Ferns are a type of plant that grow in forest, especially in Britain, we have lots of ferns.

So that's definitely true.

And then the final one, the traveller went inside the house.

Show me true or false.

Three, two, one.

It is false.

He didn't go inside the house.

And he found that quite frustrating.

He wanted to go inside.

He knocked and he knocked, but nobody answered.

Nobody came, just the listeners, the phantom listeners were listening.

Really good effort.

Thank you for taking part in our reading warm up.

Okay, so what we're going to do now is we're going to reread the poem.

So we're going to read the poem through one more time.

We're going to use my turn, your turn.

So I'm going to read the poem through once in sections and then you're going to read that section after me.

I will tell you when it's your turn to read and when it's your turn to listen.

So I'm going to start and then it'll be your turn to read the section as well.

So "The Listeners", remember, is the title of the poem.

So my turn to read, your turn to listen.

"The Listeners".

"Is there anybody there?" said the traveller, knocking on the moonlit door.

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

And a bird flew up out of the turret above the traveler's head.

And he smote upon the door again a second time.

Okay, your turn to read.

So pause the video and read this section of the poem out loud, please.

When you've read it press play and we can read the next part.

Okay, fantastic reading.

Onto the next part of the poem.

"Is there anybody there?" he said, but no one descended to the traveller.

No head from leaf-fringed sill leaned over and looked into his grey eyes where he stood perplexed and still.

Remember that word perplex, we thought about it last lesson, and it means to feel a little bit confused.

Okay, just like before, it's your turn now to pause the video and read this section of the poem out loud, please, to yourself.

Off you go.

Okay, fantastic reading.

Onto the next part.

My turn to read, your turn to listen.

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 traveler's call.

Okay, your turn.

Pause the video and read and press play when you're ready to move on.

Well done, fantastic.

Onto the next section.

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.

Pause the video, read it out loud, please.

And press play when you've done that.

Okay, fantastic.

Onto the very last section of the poem.

My turn, your turn to listen.

Never the least stir made the listeners though 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 backwards when the plunging hoofs were gone.

Okay, your turn now, last part of the poem.

Read it out loud, please, once you pause the video and press play and you're ready to move on.

Well done.

Fantastic reading.

And I hope that you are listening out when I read it for any words you were unsure of how to say so that you could have a go at reading them yourself.

Okay, so now we're going to have a go at answering some retrieval questions.

Retrieval questions are questions where we can look directly in the text to find our answer.

So we have some strategies that we can use when we need to answer retrieval questions.

The first thing that we need to do is that we need to skim and scan the text for keywords.

That means that we need to find in the question what it is asking us to look for.

And when we skim and scan, we reread the text, searching for some keywords that will help us locate where the answer is.

We could underline key information in the text to help us form our answer.

And then read around the keywords to check for context, so to check the context.

So once we found the area of the text that's going to help us answer the question, we can use the words around it and the meaning around it to help us answer the question.

So let's have a go at answering a retrieval question.

So the first question says how would you describe the setting? Remember the setting is where something takes place.

So in this case, it's the setting for where the poem takes place, the area that's around what is happening.

So how would you describe the setting? Use words from the poem to support your answer.

So when we're answering questions about a setting, we're looking for words, adjectives that describe what the setting looks like.

So the bits of the text that I have put on the screen for you should help you answer this question.

So this is the first bit of this poem where it's right at the start of the poem, where it describes where the traveller is and what he is doing.

So in a moment, I would like you to pause the video and have a go at applying those strategies that I mentioned.

So read through that text carefully to see if there are any adjectives that describe where the story is taking place to help us describe the setting.

So pause the video, have a go at identifying some keywords and forming an answer.

I would like you to have a go at writing your answer down on your piece of paper that you've got ready or your book that you've got ready so that you can keep track of your answer.

So pause the video, look through the text to see if you can describe the setting using some words from the poem.

Off you go.

Okay, great effort.

So let's have a look at what I thought.

So I have underlined the word silence, the word grasses, the word forest's ferny floor.

So I know that the poem is taking place in the forest.

I know that it's really silent.

So that tells me that there's not other houses around, there's not busy roads around and it's very grassy.

So it makes me think actually that if all the way up to the front door, there are leaves and there is grass, perhaps it's quite wild and not many people have been there for a long time.

So if you underlined those same things, well done.

You might also have said that it takes place in a house that has a turret as well.

So really well done if you added that to your answer.

So my answer says it is a wild place, which is inside a forest.

I think that people have not been there for a long time as the ground is overgrown with grass and ferns.

Remember, ferns are types of plants that grow in a forest.

It is a big house and it even has a turret.

Well done for trying your best with that question.

Okay, let's think about another retrieval question.

So the bit of text that you've got on the screen is the same bit of text as we had before right from the start of the poem.

My question is, what time of day is it? And how do you know? So I'd like you to pause the video and underline the words in the text that tell you what time of day it is.

You will have to do a little bit of looking for clues actually for this question.

But I think you will be really, really surprised at how easily you will spot the clue.

So pause the video and have a look to see if you can answer the question about what time of day it is.

Off you go.

Okay, well done.

So I thought the biggest clue for what time of day it was is that the door was lit up by the moonlight, okay? And the second clue was the fact that it was silent.

Now, when the moon is shining and it's quite silent, that tells me that it's probably nighttime.

So here is my answer.

The moon is out and it is silent.

This tells us that it is probably nighttime.

So well done if you wrote down your answer and had a go answering that question.

Okay, let's move on to the next question.

So my last question is a true or false question.

My true or false statement says true or false, the listeners are behind the door.

So when I say that, I mean they are listening right behind the door.

So you will need to read this section of text to find where it tells you the locations and where the listeners are.

So you will need to use your skimming and scanning to find the section of the text where it talks about the listeners and it talks about what they are doing and where they are.

You might want to write down with key sections 'cause you can't underline.

You might want to write down the key sections of the text that tell you where the listeners are.

So that will help you decide if it's true or false and then have a go at writing a written answer.

If you think it is true, you need to explain why using because, and if you think it's false, you need to do the same thing.

So it is true because, or it is false because.

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

Okay, good job.

So I wonder what you thought.

I found it.

I found, sorry, a couple of pieces of information.

So first of all, it tells me that no one descended to the traveller.

I know that if something is descending, it's going down.

And we often talk about numbers descending in maths, don't we? So nobody descended to the traveller.

So that tells me that whoever is listening is upstairs or up somewhere where they need to come down if they were going to the traveller.

And it also tells me further down in the second piece that I've underlined that they stood thronging.

Remember thronging means filling the faint moonbeams on the dark stair that goes down to the empty hall.

So another clue to tell me that they are up high and they're not in the hall next to the door, but they are further up.

So well done if you thought that the answer was false.

They are on the stairs.

So they are not behind the door, they are on the stairs.

Good job.

Okay, now we're going to move on to some inference questions.

And we did a little bit of finding clues in our retrieval questions as well.

So we're going to use that skill even more for this next section.

When we answer inference questions, it's just as before really important to underline anything that might help us.

And actually you might underline keywords in the question if you have the question in front of you.

Just like before, you should be skimming and scanning.

So reading the text and searching the key information that will help you answer that question.

And then often with inference questions, you need to do a little bit more than just find the text.

You need to look for hidden clues in the text.

So you need to think about what the author or the poet is trying to tell us.

And we need to use what we know to help us answer the questions.

So let's have a go with our first inference question.

So I've got some text on the screen.

And from that piece of text, I want you to think about how the traveller is feeling and how you know.

So you'll have to look for anything that tells us how he's feeling.

So you might look for the word felt or feeling when you're scanning.

And you might need to also think about what he's doing with his body and what that shows us about his emotions 'cause the author might be showing us, the poet rather, might be showing us his emotions instead of telling us.

So rereading that section of text, perhaps you might think about underlining or writing down some of the words that tell you how the traveller is feeling.

And then once you've done that, having a go at forming an answer written down on your piece of paper.

So pause the video and look for clues in the text about how the traveller is feeling and how you can prove that by showing information in the text.

Off you go.

Well done.

Okay, let's check our answer.

So it's a tricky one 'cause we need to look for the clues but my very first line has got the word felt in it.

And I can search for that when I'm thinking about his feelings.

And it says he felt in his heart their strangeness.

So it's telling me that he feels that the whole situation is a little bit strange.

And then further down it says suddenly he smote on the door even louder.

So he's banging on the door even harder.

And I want us to use what we know to think about what that tells us about how he's feeling.

If he starts to bang even louder, that might tell us that he's feeling a little bit frustrated or a little bit worried that nobody's answering the door.

And then finally he lifted his head.

And he might be lifting his head to see if there's anybody at the windows.

He might be lifting his head because he's really frustrated, okay? So there's two reasons why he might be lifting his head.

So here's my answer.

I've just written down three feelings.

I think that he is uncomfortable.

I think that he's frustrated.

And he's also a little bit worried.

And how I know is that he's banging loudly, that tells me he's frustrating.

The text tells me that he feels in his heart their strangeness makes me think that he's a little bit uneasy and uncomfortable and probably worried as well.

So really good job for giving that question a try.

Okay, now onto our final question for today.

This is another true or false question, but you will have to look carefully for some clues.

My statement says true or false, he left on his horse quickly.

Now this is an inference question.

So you have to look for clues for this answer.

It will not say in the poem he left quickly.

You need to look for clues that tell you that he left quickly.

Now I would be looking for the section of the poem where it talks about him getting on to his horse and leaving.

And that's the section that I've put up on the screen for you.

And then I would be thinking about anything that helps me know that the horse is moving quickly or the horse is moving slowly.

So I'd like you to pause the video and have a look in this section of text on the screen to see if there is anything that tells you, whether the horse is moving quickly or slowly.

So pause the video and have a go at answering that true or false question.

Okay, well done.

Let's check the answer.

So I can see that he gets on his horse, okay? Because it says that he put his foot in the stirrup, and it also says that we can hear the sound of iron on stone.

The iron is the horse shoe.

So horses often have iron metal shoes put on the bottom of their hooves to protect their hooves when they're going on the roads and on paved areas.

So we can hear the hound, the sound, sorry, the iron on stone.

But the most important part to answer this question is that his hooves, the horse's hooves are plunging.

If something is plunging, it's moving very, very fast, okay? So it's falling down really, really fast.

So it tells me that the horse's feet, the horse's hooves are plunging down quickly and that tells me that he's moving quickly because if they were just moving softly, it would be different.

But the hooves are really plunging down to the ground, which tells me that the horse is moving quickly.

So the answer is true.

A stirrup is a part of a saddle that you put your feet on and the sound of iron is the horse's hooves.

The verb plunging tells me the horse's feet are moving fast.

So well done for giving that question a go.

So remember, no matter what type of question we are answering, whether it's a retrieval question or an inference question, it's really important to read through the text and find some key information that can help us answer it.

Now, in this case, you didn't have the text in front of you but if you're ever answering comprehension questions in class or at home, and you have the text in front of you, a really good strategy is underlining the information that helps you answer the question, okay? So that's a really good skill to keep for future use.

Okay, so that is the end of this lesson for today.

Really well done for working so hard on these reading questions.

And you've completed today's reading lesson.

I will hopefully see you next time for another reading lesson based on the poem "The Listeners".

See you soon.

Bye!.