To analyse characters

Key Stage 2

English

I Was a Rat! by Phillip Pullman

﻿Hello, my name is Ms. Johnson and I'm going to be teaching you reading today. In today's lesson, we're going to analyse the characters in the opening chapter of I Was a Rat by Philip Pullman. If you haven't watched lesson one and two, you should pause this video and go back to lesson one before you complete this lesson. If you have then let's get started. We're going to start today's lesson by recapping what we already know about the characters in I Was a Rat by Philip Pullman. There we're going to look at a big question, something that I want answered by the end of this lesson. And in order to do that, we're going to look at inference questions in the book. I'll explain what those are later, if you're not too sure. And then we're going to have developed our impression of the main characters in the opening chapter. And then we're going to summarise everything that we've learned in today's lesson. In the lesson today, you will need an exercise book or paper. A pencil, or a pen and your brain. I really want you to be thinking throughout this lesson today. If you have any distractions near you, for instance, my phone is right here, so I'm just going to pick it up now. And I'm going to move it all the way to the other end of the desk. If you have any distractions that are similar, can you perhaps pause the video now, and make sure you're ready, and then press play when you're ready to get started? Okay, ready to go? We're going to start today's lesson by recapping the main characters in the opening chapter of I Was a Rat by Philip Pullman. And so in a minute, I'd like to pause the video, but first of all, I'm going to explain the task. So I want you to tell me who are the main characters, tell me everything you know about them already. And what can you tell me the key information about them? And I would like you to write down two things. So just two things that you know about them already, and they can be anything that you like. But what do you think is probably the most important thing that you known about the characters? If you can't quite remember who the characters are, you can use these pictures to help you. So I'd like you to pause the video now. You can do this in bullet points and then press play when you're ready to resume. well done, I'm sure you remembered lots of different things about the characters. Shall we see my notes? So I remembered that there is the boy. Now the boy thinks he was a rat, and that's why I've got picture of rats here as well. His uniform, when he turns up on the door of Bob and Joan in the middle of the night, his uniform is really grubby and stained and torn. And all he can say is, "I was a rat." He doesn't even have a name. And then we have Bob and Joan. Now what we know about Bob and Joan? Are they are a old couple. We know they help the boy, cause they bring him in for the night out of the cold. And we also know they have always wanted children of their own, but they don't actually have any. And I think that's quite key to why they perhaps are so willing to help the boy. Today though, we're going to really analyse their personality traits and find out a little bit more about what impression we gather with these two characters. I'm going to be doing this through inference questions. Now, inference questions, are questions where you have to search for hidden clues in the text. The answer isn't directly in the text, you have to work out what it looks like. So it might ask you, why is someone angry? So you'd have to look for clues that somebody was angry because rarely in a text, does it say, he was angry. So a good strategy for answering these questions is this, you should always underline the key words in the question to help you, because you need to find out where in the text you're looking for the answer. Once you've worked out, what you're looking for, you can then skim and scan the text. Now when I skim and scan, I always take my tracking finger. And this helps me to keep track of where I am on the page. And that's really helpful and important. Then you need to search for the hidden clues in the text. And that's also, this is maybe slightly trickier to do so I suggest you look above and below where the information is in the text. And you look for the hidden clues. You have to check the context, which is why you should read around where you think that clue is in the text. And the context, is the meaning of the words. So I have a big key question today that we're going to keep going back to in this lesson. What impression of the old couple and the boy do we get in the opening pages? Now impression means, what picture in your reader's mind is created. So what picture does Philip Pullman create in your mind, with the old couple and the boy? If you were to describe them to someone else, how would you describe them? And that's what we're aiming for today. So we're going to have a go now. At answering a series of questions that are going to help build this image in our mind. I'm going to read the question first, and then I'd like you to press pause, and then play when you're ready to resume. But let me read the questions first and the extract. So the extract that I'm reading you is when the boy has been taken in and he's about to eat the food that he's been offered. And we want to think about how he eats it. So she, which is Joan, put it in front of the boy and without a second's pause He puts his face right down into the bowl and began to guzzle it up directly, His dirty little hands gripping the edge of the table. "What you doing?" Said Joan. "Dear, oh dear, you don't eat like that. Use the spoon." And my questions are these, who do you think the boy... Why do you think the boy eats like this? And why do the old couple of find it surprising? Now I've underlined a word here. I've underlined the word guzzle, say it, guzzle. I think to understand this question and why he eats so strangely and what that image looks like of him eating. We need to know what that word means. So I've got something here to help you. So, guzzle. Say it again, guzzle is a verb. And I thought we'd learn a new word today. And here you can see we've got a character guzzling, some milk. And so to guzzle, is to eat or drink greedily, like gulping down a huge carton of milk in one go. And so you can see by the picture here that this character is guzzling down the milk. So I want you to hold that picture in your mind now. Lock it, got it? Now think about the word again here. She put it in front of the boy and without a second's pause, he puts his face right down into the bowl and began to guzzle it up directly. So now, how is the boy eating? And why do you think he eats like this? So now you know what it looks like when he's eating. Why do you think he's eating like that? And why did the old couple find it surprising? So pause the video now, write down your answer, and then press play when you're ready to resume. Excellent, shall we see how you got on? So, there's two clues about how he eats and why it might be surprising. So firstly, he guzzles his food, which can be a little bit rude, okay. You're so greedy, you eat your food in such a rush, you're going to make a big mess so it can appear a bit rude. He also puts his face right down into the bowl. So he doesn't use any cutlery, no knife and forks or spoon. He puts his whole face into the bowl. So when I was thinking about this, I was trying to imagine the picture this has created in my mind and it reminded me of a rat. Because when rats eat, they have to go really close to the bowl. He's also probably never quite tasted food like this. So I said, he eats like this because he is a rat. This is how a rat would eat. He believes he's a rat. And I said the old couple find it surprising because they expect the boy to have manners. And so it shows he's got no manners at all. He doesn't really understand what manners are. so well done, I wonder how you got on with that question. Shall we try another one? If you found it hard, don't worry, that's why we're going to keep practising some questions. For question two, I'm going to read the extract first of all, then I'm going to read the question, and then you'd like you to write down your answer. So I'm going to start reading now. So he sat down, and Bob showed him how to use the spoon. He found it hard at first, because he would keep turning it upside down before it reached his mouth. And a lot of the bread and milk ended up on his lap. But Bob and Joan could see he was trying, and he was a quick learner. By the time he'd finished, he was quite good at it. My question is this, which words, so I want two or three, best describe the boy? When you pick these words and write your answer, I want to say he is funny because and I want you to give your reason. Now the word resilient, say it, resilient means you never give up. Something's hard you keep going. Now we've got funny, I think you know that one. Clumsy, say it after me, clumsy. Intelligent, your turn, intelligent. And cruel, say it, cruel. So pause the video here and have a go at answering the question. Well done. So the two words that I thought were most appropriate were resilient and intelligent. I thought the boy was resilient because in the text it says he found it hard at first. But then I learned that he actually doesn't give up, he keeps going. Now isn't that an important thing we can all learn? That If something is difficult, even something like these questions, you should keep practising and keep trying, because eventually it will get easier. And then we have the word, intelligent. Now I thought the boy was intelligent because he is a quick learner. I'm told in the text, he is a quick learner, which shows he learns new skills really quickly. You might have also chosen the word clumsy, cause it does say he turns the spoon upside down. but I'm not sure he's clumsy cause I think he's still learning something. So I don't think that necessarily means he's clumsy. You're clumsy, if you perhaps trip over and things like that, I'm quite clumsy. Okay. Well done, let's try another question. So we've got a very similar question and we've got the exact same piece of text, but this time I want us to focus on the old couple. So I'm going to reread the text to you again. And I want you to be listening out to clues about the old couple, and then press pause when you're ready to answer the question. So he sat down, and Bob showed him how to use the spoon. He found it hard at first, because he would keep turning it upside down before it reached his mouth, and a lot of the bread and milk ended up on his lap. But Bob and Joan could see he was trying, and he was a quick learner. By the time he'd finished, he was quite as good at it. Which words best describe the old couple? Shall we read the words together? So I was going to say it And I want you to say it after me, encouraging, encouraging. Hostile, hostile. Patient, patient. Entertaining, entertaining. Hostile means you're not very friendly if you're not sure what hostile means it's means you're not very friendly at all. So pause the video now and again, write your answer. I think he is... they are encouraging because. Off you go. Shall we check your answers? So the two words that I thought best described the old couple are encouraging. I think they are encouraging because Bob showed him how to use a spoon. He didn't just laugh at him. He didn't just leave him to do it. He showed him and taught him a new skill. So he wanted the boy to improve, which is encouraging. I also thought they were really patient, because the boy makes such a mess. You've got the lot of the bread is ended up on his lap. He's making a mess in their home, but they just patiently are pleased that he is trying. So then they don't get cross with him. So I think they are both encouraging and patient. Question four. This is an extract about the old couple. We're going to think a little bit about them now. I'm going to read it first of all, then I read the questions and then I'll pause video, and get you to write down your answer. They made up a bed in the spare room, a spare room is it an extra room, so it's not their bedroom. And Joan took his clothes down to wash. They gave Roger, that's the boy remember they named him Roger, an old nightshirt, pyjamas, of Bob's to wear and very small he looked in it. but he curled up tightly, looking for all the world as though he were trying to wrap a long tail around himself and he went to sleep at once. My question, two questions. What do the old couples actions, that's means what they do, tell us about them? And why do you think they want to look after him? So this second question, you're going to have to bring what you know already about the book towards your interpretation or your understanding of it. So pause the video now and have a go at answering the questions. Well done, let's see how you got on. So I said that I can tell that they made up a bed for him. They took his clothes down to wash. They gave him a nightshirt. So it shows us, they are kind because they take care of him. And I think they do this because we know they have always wanted a child. And they believe he's an orphan so he needs helping. Now we've looked at some questions. We're going to develop that impression that we get, within that picture of all the characters that we have. And we're going to think about this key question. What impression of the old couple and boy do we get in the opening pages? And in order to answer this question, I want you now to have a go at creating two mind maps. Now a mind map is just everything that you know about the characters. So for the boy I've said, he's intelligent because he learns quickly. And I learned that already today. And I said, the old couple are kind because they helped the boy. Can you think of any other adjectives to describe the personalities and then give me the because and how you know? So pause the video now, and have a go at just jotting these ideas down. Well done, so you can see my notes here. Yours might look very different to mine and that's absolutely fine. The thing with the mind map is it's things that you have thought of. So here are some of my notes, so you can check yours and see if you've got any similar, but don't worry if you don't. So I said the boy is also peculiar because he thinks he was a rat and I've never met a boy who thinks he was a rat before. I don't know if you have. and then I said, he's friendly because he is kind to Bob and Joan. He's quite grateful towards them. I said the old couple are patient, because they teach the boy and they encouraged him. I said, perhaps they're also lonely because they have no children and it's clear they want to look after the boy. So there's lots of other ideas you could have had. These are just a few notes that I came up with. So like I said, don't worry if you haven't got all the ones that are the same as me, but if you have some similar ones, that's fantastic. And as long as you have thought about your answers, that's the most important thing. So now we're going to have a go answering a written question. And our big question is one that we've looked at already today. What impression of the old couple, what picture is created in your mind, and the boy do we get in the opening pages? I want you to write two sentences. How many? Two. One about the boy and one about the old couple. And I've given you sentence starters to help you here. I think the boy is... because, and I think the old couple are... because... So pause the video now and write two sentences for me. Off you go. Well done, So you could have had, I think the boy is kind because he... or is friendly because he is kind towards Bob and Joan. He is grateful for everything they offer him. I think the old couple are kind because they help the boy. They give him a nightshirt, they wash his clothes, they give him food. So those are two ideas you could have had. So congratulations, you've finished today's lesson, fantastic work. I hope you have now perhaps learn a new word, such as resilient, which means we never give up. And I hope perhaps the boy can teach you something there, that even when we're learning a new skill and it's difficult, we keep going, we keep trying just like you have done today in the lesson. I hope you enjoy the rest of your lessons today and take care.

To analyse characters

To analyse characters

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UnitEnglish / I Was a Rat! by Phillip Pullman

English