Video: Annie John and the Red Girl

﻿Hi everyone. Now have you ever kept a secret from a parent or a carer? Because if you have you are remarkably similar to Annie in today's lesson, because today we're going to be reading all about Annie's secret. And her secret is a new friend. A friend so inappropriate, she feels that she can't tell her mother or father about her. Now, this friend only has one name. She's known as the Red Girl. And we're going to find out all about this amazing character today. You're going to need a quiet place to work, a piece of paper and a pen. And let's get started with a recap of the story so far. Let's see how much you remember. On your screen you have five sentences, and each needs to be completed with one of two options. Press pause, write out the sentences and choose the correct option. Okay, let's check your answers. Number one, Annie grows up in Antigua. Number two, Annie keeps her special items in a trunk that used to belong to her mother. You might remember that her mother brought her over with her to Antigua from Dominica where her mother grew up. Number three, Annie's mother takes good care of her, she protects her. Number four, Annie's relationship with her mother becomes more distant as Annie grows older. And we're going to look a little bit more at that in today's lesson. And number five, Annie impresses her classmates with a piece of writing on her first day of school. Now do you remember what that piece of writing was about? Perhaps you remember that Annie writes a story about when she was learning to swim with her mother, but her mother leaves her on the seashore as she goes swimming by herself. And we looked at how perhaps the story represents the growing distance between mother and daughter. Well done those of you who got five out of five correct. So we know that Annie's relationship with her mother is changing and they are growing in the distance between them. We've seen several examples of this. We've already talked about the story Annie tells when her mother leaves her alone on the seashore and swims without her. We've learned how they begin to wear different clothes. When Annie is a young girl they both wear dresses made out of the same kind of fabric. But as Annie grows older, her mother says, "No, you need to now look more independent, you need to be different from me." We've seen how they begin to have disagreements, they begin to have a little bit of hostility between them and Annie begins to lie to her mother about where she's been. Now today, we're going to look at another idea in this book that shows the increasing distance between Annie and her mother, because today we're going to look at the secret. The secret that Annie keeps. And this secret is, as we know, the Red Girl. Now the Red Girl is Annie's new friend, but she's really different from Annie. And because she's so different from Annie and has a very different upbringing, Annie's mother considers her highly undesirable. Undesirable, meaning she's not the kind of friend that Annie's mother wants Annie to have. Let's find out how they first meet. In the book, Annie says: One day I was throwing stones at a guava tree, trying to knock down a ripe guava, when the Red Girl came along and said, "Which one do you want?" After I pointed it out, she climbed up the tree, picked the one I wanted off its branch, climb down and presented it to me. How my eyes did widen and my mouth form an O at this. I had never seen a girl do this before. All the boys climb trees for the fruit they wanted and all the girls threw stones to knock the fruit off the trees. But look at the way she climbed that tree, better than any boy. What are your first impressions of the Red Girl here? How do you think Annie feels about the Red Girl when she first meets her? Let's check our understanding. You've got four questions on the board here. I'd like you to complete those questions using those sentence starters. Press pause now. Okay, let's look at the kind of thing you might have written. You might have written for number one, where does Annie first meet the Red Girl? Annie first meets the Red Girl underneath the guava tree. What does the Red Girl do for Annie? The Red Girl climbs the tree to pick a guava for Annie. Number three, how does it feel about the Red Girl? Well, Annie seems to feel really impressed that the Red Girl is able to climb up better than any boy. What impression do you get of the Red Girl when we first meet her? You might have written something like the Red Girl seems confident, outgoing, strong, and perhaps even a little bit wild in the way that she can climb up that tree like the boys can. If you wrote something similar to this well done and I do want you to check your capital letters and your full stops at the start and end of each answer, please, check them now. Okay, well done. Now we're going to continue with reading the section that describes the Red Girl's appearance and it's quite surprising in some ways. Let's find out what she looks like: The Red Girl and I stood under the guava tree looking each other up and down. What a beautiful thing I saw standing before me. Her face was big and round and red, like a moon, a red moon. She had big, broad, flat feet, and they were naked to the bare ground. Her dress was dirty. The skirt and blouse tearing away from each other at one side. The red hair that I've first seen standing up on her head was matted and tangled. Her hands were big and fat, and her fingernails held at least 10 anthills of dirt under them. What do you think is surprising here about the Red Girl's appearance? Well, for me What's so surprising about it is how dirty she is and how unkempt she looks. But Annie is really drawn to her. And we can start by analysing a few of these quotations that I've put in a colour for you. This first one, that when Annie describes the Red Girl as like a moon, a red moon, what might this suggest? Well, it might imply she is mysterious and magical to Annie. It reveals that Annie already looks up to her just as you look up to a moon in the sky. Let's look at the second quotation, her dress was dirty. What does this suggest? Well, this suggests she isn't looked after by her family and she might be poor. You're going to see the third one by yourself, please. The hair on her head was matted and tangled. What might this suggest about Annie? Press pause and complete your ideas now. Okay, what might you write here, you could write for example, this implies she is rough and wild. Unlike Annie, she doesn't seem protected or well cared for. If you wrote something similar to that, well done. Okay, we're going to see now that the Red Girl and Annie are very different from one another. Have a look at these two pictures. Which one do you think represents Annie? Yeah, that's right, it's the picture on the right of your screen. Annie wears clean clothes. Her mother insists that she dresses properly and neatly at all times. So which photograph might represent the Red Girl? Yep, it's that picture on the left, no shoes, bare feet, dirty clothes. Now when an author shows two things to be different from one another, we call it contrast. And we're going to be thinking about contrast today. And considering the question, how does Kincaid contrast Annie and the Red Girl? How does Kincaid show them to be really different from one another? Let's read a little bit more to find out. Annie continues talking about the Red Girl. She says: I soon learned this about her. She took a bath only once a week, and that was only so that she could be admitted to her grandmother's presence. She didn't like to bathe, and her mother didn't force her. She changed her dress once a week for the same reason. She preferred to wear a dress until it just couldn't be worn anymore. Her mother didn't mind that either. She didn't like to comb her hair, though on the first day of school, she could put herself out for that. She didn't like to go to Sunday school and her mother didn't force her. She didn't like to brush her teeth, but occasionally her mother said it was necessary. She loved to play marbles, and was so good that only Skerritt boys now played against her. Oh, what an angel she was, and what a heaven she lived in. Now, let's compare her to Annie. I on the other hand, took a full bath every morning and a sponge bath every night. I could hardly go out on my doorstep without putting my shoes on. I was not allowed to play in the sun without the hat on my head. My mother paid a woman who lived five houses away from us seven pence a week, a penny for each school day and two pence for Sunday to comb my hair. On Saturday, my mother washed my hair. Before I went to sleep at night, I had to make sure my uniform was clean and creaseless and all laid out for the next day. I had to make sure that my shoes were clean and polished to a nice shine. I went to Sunday school unless I was sick. I was not allowed to play marbles, and as for Skerritt boys, that was hardly mentionable. So we can see here that Kincaid is contrasting the Red Girl's experience of life with Annie's experience of life. And let's explore that contrast now. We're going to write a quick grid on our piece of paper and head up each side with Annie and the Red Girl. And we're going to write the details that describe Annie and how they contrast with the details that describe the Red Girl. For example, for Annie, I might write that she has to wash twice a day. For the Red Girl I might write that she rarely washes. Let's look at one more example together before you have a go yourself. For Annie, we might say that she seems protected by her family. Whereas for the Red Girl, we might say she seems poor. Press pause and see if you can add at least three more details on either side of your grid, please, off you go. Okay, let's check your work. You might have written for Annie that her mother insists she keep clean. However, the Red Girl, her mother doesn't force her to tidy up or clean at all. You might have put for Annie that she has to go to Sunday school but the Red Girl doesn't have to go to Sunday school. Annie has to comb her hair, the Red Girl isn't made to comb her hair. Annie isn't allowed to play marbles, but the Red Girl is the best at marbles. And Annie isn't allowed to play with boys, but the Red Girl is allowed to play with boys. Now here is interesting to consider, who would you rather be? Annie, or the Red Girl? Why? Because what's interesting here is, we might imagine that the Red Girl envies Annie and wishes that her life was a bit more like Annie's life, because she's protected, because she's cared for and she's looked after by her parents. But on the other hand, Annie seems to really envy the Red Girl as well. She envies the Red Girls ability to run around and play marbles and play and talk to boys. Which one would you rather be? Okay, now this last section we're going to read involves the Red Girl and Annie sneaking off to the lighthouse that you can see on the picture there. Let's read about what they do: The Red Girl and I walked to the top of the hill behind my house. At the top of the hill was an old lighthouse. It must have been a useful lighthouse at one time but now it was just there for mothers to say to their children, "Don't play at the lighthouse", my own mother leading the chorus, I'm sure. Whenever I did go to the lighthouse behind my mother's back, I would have to gather up all my courage to go to the top. The height made me so dizzy. But now I marched boldly up behind the Red Girl. It went without saying between us that my mother should never know that we had become friends, that we planned to meet at the lighthouse in this way every day for the rest of our lives and beyond. That I now worshipped the ground her unwashed feet walked on. Just before we parted, she gave me three marbles. They were an ordinary kind, the kind you could buy three for a penny, glass orbs with a tear shaped drop suspended in the centre. Another secret to keep from my mother. Okay, let's check our understanding about last section. You've got three questions here. I'd like you to press pause and choose the correct option for each one. Off you go. Okay, let's check our work. Number one, Annie follows the Red Girl to the lighthouse. Number two, Annie admires the Red Girl, she looks up to her. And number three, Kincaid contrasts Annie and the Red Girl to show their differences. Okay, so we can see that Annie has strong feelings of admiration towards the Red Girl. Look at these lines here she says, "Oh, what an angel she was, and what a heaven she lived in." She compares the Red Girl to an angel living in paradise with a perfect life. And as she continues this religious language in the second quotation, she says, "I now worshipped the ground her unwashed feet walked on." And the use of that word worshipped really shows how much Annie idolises the Red Girl and adores her, and looks up to her almost like a god. But my big question to you is, why? Why does Annie has such strong feelings of adoration towards the Red Girl? What do you think the Red Girl represents for Annie? Because it's clear that the Red Girl has a very different life from Annie's. So we might come up with these ideas. For Annie, the Red Girl might represent poverty. It seems clear that the Red Girl has far less in her life than Annie does in hers. However, the Red Girl might also represent freedom. Where Annie's life is quite controlled and protected, and almost perhaps stifling with the rules and expectations. The Red Girl is free, she can go where she wants, she can wear what she wants, so perhaps Annie feels a little bit envious of the freedom the Red Girl represents. The Red Girl might also represent rebellion. This idea of breaking the rules, of going against your expectations. We know that Annie keeps the Red Girl a secret from her mother. Perhaps the Red Girl also represents the enjoyment of keeping secrets. And the independence that comes with Annie sneaking off and doing what she likes with the Red Girl. And finally, perhaps the Red Girl represents power. Where the Red Girl has the power to do what she wants in her life. But when Annie's with the Red Girl, she also shares that feeling of power. Okay, we've learned a lot about the Red Girl today and we're going to finish up with a piece of writing, and this piece of writing will answer the question, how does Kincaid present the Red Girl? Now to help answer this question, how does Kincaid present the Red Girl? You might like to use some of the quotations we've already looked at in the green box. Remember, Annie describes her as climbing the tree better than any boy. She says her dress was dirty and her hair was matted and tangled. Her mother didn't force her to do anything that she didn't want to do. And Annie says what a heaven that she lived in and that she worshipped the ground her unwashed feet walked on. Now remember, if you're going to use any of those quotations they need to be embedded in a sentence, just like we've been practising in previous lessons. If you'd like too, you can use some of the sentence starters on the left. For example, Kincaid presents the Red Girl as, for example, when and those analytical verbs reveal, suggest, implies and indicates. You're going to be writing for at least 10 minutes now, so press pause, and off you go. Okay, let's look at the kind of things you might have written. You could have written something like this. Kincaid presents the Red Girl is uncared for and a little wild. For example, when Annie notices that her red dress was dirty and her hair matted and tangled. Kincaid implies that the Red Girl suffers from poverty, and her family doesn't look after her properly. Now this is a good answer because it answers the question clearly and we've got nice embedded quotations and a lovely analytical verb implies. But how can we turn this good answer into a great answer? Let's have a look. The great answer starts in the same way. Kincaid presents the Red Girl as uncared for and a little wild. For example, when Annie notices that her dress was dirty and her hair matted and tangled. Kincaid implies that the Red Girl suffers from poverty, and her family doesn't look after her properly. However, Annie still admires that Red Girl and envies her for her freedom. The Red Girl seems to represent rebellion for Annie, and she enjoys keeping her secret from her mother. Have a look at how the good answer has been transformed into the great answer. We've got that lovely connected, however, which shows we're giving an extra interpretation. And we've linked the big ideas of rebellion and secrets. I'd like you to have a look at your answer please and now add a sentence that starts with however, that would transform your good answer into a great one. Press pause and do that now please. Okay, so that's it. We've learned about the new character of the Red Girl and I think she's so fascinating because she represents Annie's rebellion. Now next lesson, we're going to be learning more about how Annie rebels and breaks the rules so I'll look forward to seeing you then. In the meantime, don't forget to do the exit quiz to check your learning. Bye.

Exit Quiz: Annie John and the Red Girl

Completed: Annie John and the Red Girl

When Annie makes friends with the dirty, barefooted Red Girl, she has to keep her a secret from her family. Today we'll find out just why Annie likes her so much.

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Annie John and the Red Girl

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