Lesson video

Hi everyone.

It's Mr.Brown, with the last English lesson of this unit.

It's been an absolute pleasure.

This lesson, is going to be something pretty special.

We are going to read, the end of The Viewer.

We have, spent many lessons, diving deeply into this text, really enjoying the beautiful pictures, now is the chance, to finish the book.

Let's go for it.

Okay.

So our learning objective is, to write an alternate ending to a story.

In this lesson, you'll need an exercise book, or a piece of paper, a pen and a pencil, something to write with, and your brain, your creative brains.

We're going to start with a writing warmup where We're then going to read the rest of The Viewer, and then we're going to think about, writing an alternate ending.

So, a warmup.

Adding non-finite clauses.

Can you see I have the sentence here, "Mr. Brown taught his lesson." And then I've added the non-finite clause, "Smiling at the camera, Mr. Brown taught his lesson." Can you add a non-finite clause to, "Mr. Brown taught his lesson?" Off you go.

Okay, welcome back.

I wonder what non-finite clause you came up with.

Did it start with an ing? I deliberately didn't give you too much guidance, because we've gone over this a lot.

So we need to, assess how well, you could do with this.

Here's another one for you.

"Tristan stared, at the contraption on his desk in disbelief.

He's looking at The Viewer on his desk, and he cannot believe, what it has shown him and what it can do." What would he be doing, right now, while he was looking at that desk, at that viewer on the desk? What would he be doing? Would he be like me? Smiling at the camera? "Smiling at the camera, Tristan stared at the contraption on his desk." It doesn't work, does it? What would he be doing? Can you pause on this and have a go, at writing a non-finite clause, to go, at the beginning of this sentence? Over to you.

Okay, welcome back.

Let's see some of the options you could have had.

I went for, "Sitting upright, on the end of his bed, Tristan stared at the contraption on his desk in disbelief." But you could also have lots of other choices.

Let's do another one.

"Tristan looked through The Viewer." Over to you again.

Pause the lesson.

Give me some choices.

"Tristan looked through The Viewer." Go for it.

Okay, "Tristan looked through The Viewer." "Holding his breath in anticipation, Tristan, look through The Viewer." Really nice.

"Sweating profusely," which means lots, Tristan looked through The Viewer." "Shaking all over, Tristan looked through The Viewer." Good, okay.

Let's get onto The Viewer.

So, this amazing book, written by Gary Crew, illustrated by Shaun Tan.

We are going to refresh ourselves, read it through, from beginning, to the end.

Oh, just before we do that, what are your predictions for the end of the story? What do you think is going to happen? Why don't you pause the lesson, have a think about it.

You could tell a parent or a carer, or an older sibling perhaps, or a younger sibling.

Tell them what you think is going to happen, and then we'll see if you're right.

Okay.

Let's go through.

The very beginning of the story.

"Tristan was curious from birth.

This is not to say that he was different from other babies.

In fact, he was rather ordinary, But from the moment he opened his eyes, he seemed to be examining the world.

As he grew older, Tristan would wander from his parents' house, to be found hours later, miles away and always alone, staring up at a cloudless sky, gathering autumn leaves in a city park, or crouched by the seashore, peering at some long-dead life form washed up there.

One place, attracted Tristan more than any other.

The city dump stretched over acres of drifting sand.

A vast crescent littered with a detritus of careless people.

But to Tristan, well the dump was nothing short of a museum.

Every afternoon, he searched for interesting objects, to take back to his room, until curiosity led him to examine them again, as if they might reveal another world.

One afternoon, as Tristan scavenged through piles of rubbish, he came upon the most remarkable find of all, a curious box, fashioned from dark wood, and burnished metal, and covered with detailed engravings.

Its lid was locked tight.

Tristan ran his fingers, over the indecipherable names and patterns, sensing fascination, and dread.

He picked up the box and carried it home.

Later that evening, Tristan left the dinner table early, eager to return to his room, to figure out how to unlock the box.

Yet, the moment he placed it on his desk, the latch snapped open.

He carefully, raised the lid.

The musty odour of entombed air, escaped from the dark space inside.

Tristan's pulse raced.

The box was crammed with intriguing treasures, though all were devices designed to magnify, or focus or illuminate.

What attracted Tristan most, was an object that appeared to be an old toy.

A simple machine that a child might use to view pictures.

He picked it up, and held it to his eyes.

It fitted perfectly, as if custom made, yet through the machine's tiny lenses, he could see nothing.

Searching the deeper recesses of the box, Tristan found three discs of thin metal, each framing a circle of black glass windows.

Each of them empty.

He inserted the first disc into the machine, and held it to his eyes.

Still nothing.

He pressed a lever at the side.

From somewhere deep within, a light began to burn.

A delicate machinery, cluttered and chimed, the disc began to turn.

One, by one, strange images, flickered into life.

At first, a scene, a fearful chaos, then others, more luminous, and eerie." And you can see, there is the first picture that Tristan could see.

Fearful chaos as the book describes.

And then, lots of different images.

"These sights left Tristan terribly afraid.

After removing the third and final disc, he put the machine away.

In bed, he descended into a restless sleep, all the while, unable to dismiss the feeling, of another presence in the room.

The next morning, Tristan could not stop glancing towards the machine, even as he left to go downstairs.

It sat up right on his desk, as if staring back at him, surely just as he had left it the night before.

And this is as far as we've got, until now.

At school, he could not concentrate.

He stared all day at the clock, observing it's slow ticking circles, it's relentless counting.

He could only think about being back in his room, looking into the curious world of images.

That evening, he lifted the cold eyes of the machine to his own, and inserted the first disc again.

He pressed the lever, the mechanism whirled and clicked.

The light began to burn, and Tristan gasped.

The images, had changed." Now, the images had changed, something is not right here.

Definitely something is going on.

Okay, if you look at this page, what do you notice? What do you notice about the text? Yeah, it rotates around, so that you can't read it without spinning the book, without doing, and I've got my copy here, without doing this.

Just like, you're being hypnotised, that kind of circular motion.

You find yourself having to look, closer and closer and closer, because the text is smaller and smaller and smaller.

Now, because obviously we can't spin this video around, I have copied the text out to the next page, so you can read it.

"Afraid, Tristan wanted to pull the machine from his eyes, but something compelled him, against his own wishes, against his own common sense, to slip into the space between, one flickering darkness and the next, drifting into a collapsing circle of time, that moment, the eternal present, returning perhaps, to a place he had always known.

In the morning, when Tristan had not come to breakfast, his mother called him.

There was no answer.

When she opened the bedroom door, the musty odour of entombed air spilled into the hall.

Tristan's bed was empty.

The room was unusually neat and tidy, as if he had never been there.

As if, he had never, existed.

As if things had always been this way.

The only thing that seemed out of place, was a box of dark wood and burnished metal on his desk.

Its lid, locked.

Curious.

She thought.

And forgetting why she had come to the room, she returned to her breakfast." And that, is the end of The Viewer.

So, quite a complex and interesting and mature ending to try and understand.

So my first question to you is where is Tristan? Where is he? He's not in his room.

Where is he, and how did he get there? And why does his mother seem to forget about him? Why don't you have a go at answering those questions, first of all, just with your initial ideas.

Where is Tristan? How did he get there and why does his mother seem to forget about him? Off you go.

Okay, welcome back.

So, we're going to think about writing an alternate ending, to The Viewer.

And we're going to be answering these questions.

At the end of The Viewer, we don't, we do not know what's happened to Tristan.

All we know is that, he looks at The Viewer again, the images had changed.

On this page it talks about, "He couldn't pull the machine from his eyes.

He kept looking at it, even though he didn't want to.

And he felt like he was drifting into the gaps between the pictures, the darkness, and that darkness seemed to be going on forever." And then it says, that he was returning to a place he had always known.

So perhaps, he's been to this darkness before.

We don't know.

But then, when his mom comes up to find him, cause he hasn't gone to breakfast, his room is empty.

It's neat.

It's tidy.

It's like he has never been there.

It's like he has never even existed.

And his mum, looks at the box, that's now locked, thinks, that's curious.

And then forgets why she even came to the room, and goes back to have her breakfast.

Forgets that Tristan, even exists.

So, where is Tristan? Now my idea of where Tristan is, is that he's in a long dark corridor.

There are windows every so often, and in these windows, he can see the scenes from the pictures he looked at, in The Viewer.

Nobody else is there, and the corridor seems to go on forever.

How did he get there? I think he felt himself being hypnotised, by the images he saw in The Viewer, and he couldn't look away.

Tristan became sleepier and sleepier, and eventually passed out, became unconscious.

When he woke up, he was in the corridor.

Will he get back? How will he get back? No, he will not be able to return is what I think.

And the ending twist, is he back in his room, or is he lost forever? Tristan will walk and walk down the corridor, searching for a way out.

After a while, he realised that he's now looking at the first image again, he's actually been walking around in a giant circle.

A circle, just like the disc, of The Viewer.

So there's no escape for Tristan.

He will be stuck there, forever.

It's like he never existed.

Okay.

That's my idea.

It's over to you now.

I want you to plan and write your own ending of The Viewer.

And remember to think about these questions.

Where is Tristan? How did he get there? Will he get back and how will he get back? And the ending twist.

Is he back in his room or is he lost forever? It's up to you.

You can take the story in whatever direction you want.

If you want to go above and beyond, you can write two endings.

Lots of times when famous movies are being made, so no one can find out what the ending's going to be, they'll film multiple endings, just to make sure no one knows, what the ending's going to be.

It's over to you.

This has been, such an interesting, exciting, mature, grown up, and fun unit for me to teach you.

I have really loved it.

You've produced amazing bits of writing, that you can be so proud of, and you've got to know a text, that I bet you didn't know before.

And it's probably the most interesting, dark text you've ever read.

Well done, everyone.

I hope to see you on another unit really soon.

Take care.