Video: To establish a background knowledge of the story and create an initial impression

﻿Hi, my name is Ms. Henman, and I am going to be teaching you for the whole of this guided reading unit. So for this lesson and the next four lessons afterwards, I am so excited. This was one of my favourite stories when I was your age. So I'm really pleased to be sharing it with you. One thing I would like you to know is that there are some sad things in this book, and it is set during the war and we will be talking about violence and bombs and cities being attacked. So if you think that that's something that you need to talk to an adult about, or you might be upset about, then I suggest you pause the video now and go and get an adult, have a discussion, and maybe ask them to watch this first video with you. All right, let's get learning. In today's lesson, we are going to form some understanding of the historical context and the setting that this book was written in. And we are going to form an initial impression. That means a first impression of the type of text it is, and the type of story that might be in it. So in order to do that, we are first going to look at some book covers and make some inferences. Then we're going to generate some questions that we might have as a reader. And then we are going to see if we can answer those questions by looking at some of that background information. In this lesson, you will need a pen, something to write on. So piece of paper and you will need to help your brain by making sure that your environment is calm and quiet. So please make sure there's no music playing and that your phone is turned off. That's good. Let's start by looking at these book covers and making some inferences. I want you to really carefully look at the picture and study and scrutinise it. What can you say? I want you to pause the video and to say out loud what you can see in the picture of the girl, What did you see? Well, I can see a young boy carrying a suitcase, looks like it's made of leather. I can see that wrapped around his shoulder, he's got a piece of string and attached to that is a purse of some kind. And I can also see wrapped around his neck, is more string with what looks like a piece of card or something attached with. I can also see in the background, some things, what can you see in the background? I can see some orange and grey clouds and in that sky line, I can see maybe what looks like some flames at the very lower part of those houses. I can also see what looks like a cathedral or an iconic building. And I think it might be Saint Paul's cathedral, which is a cathedral in London. So what inferences can we make? Well, one inference I'm going to make is I think that the story might be about a child who is travelling to London or a way from London. Can you pause the video and this time I want you to write down your inferences. You might want to use the sentence starter, "I think this story might be about." Off you go. I reckon you've come up with some really good inferences and some fascinating predictions. This is actually a book cover. So I've just read the rest of the book cover. Can you find the name of the book? Can you say it out loud? I can't hear you. Great. "Goodnight Mister Tom" And can you find the authors name on this front cover please? Well done. I'm going to say it to you, Michelle Magorian. Correct. Good job. And she is the woman who wrote it. This is the same story, "Goodnight Mister Tom" by the same author, but it has a different front cover. I want you to pause the video and to say out loud what you can see, on Flickr. Yeah. Okay. Now it's my turn. I can see a young child carrying something over his shoulder, and there is an older gentleman. Who's got his arm wrapped around him or placed on his shoulder, in quite a sort of loving and comforting way. And that they look like they're walking into a field. And to their left hand side is a dog trotting along them, he looks very happy, his tail in the air. And then in the sky, I can see some aeroplanes in a formation, which seems quite purposeful. What inferences can you make? You might think about when the story was set or where it was set. Pause the video and write down your inferences. What did you come up with? My inference is that those planes are either there to put on a show for these people, or maybe they're fighter planes and they are soaring through the sky and they've got the ability to drop some bombs. I can see that they're in the countryside. So I think this story might be set in the countryside. Oh, now this is confusing because in the last book cover, I thought it was set in London. So maybe the story has two settings and we saw that he was holding lots of luggage. So maybe he's travelling from one place to another. That's a pretty strong inference and prediction that we've just made. Now it's your opportunity to generate and come up with your own questions about this story. So what questions do you have? You might have a who question? Who are these characters? How are they related? You might have a where question? Where is the story set or which country in the setting? When? When was the story set? What? What happened in the story? What is happening behind the boy? Is there a fire? Why? Why is he carrying a suitcase? How? How do these two characters meet? How are they related? Is, is this story old fashioned? Is it real? Is it fiction text? I would like you to pause the video and to write down your questions. I think this is going to be at least a three minute task. I would expect you to have at least five questions. Off you go. I'm going to share with you my questions. Are we at that? I want to know who the two people are and how they are related. I also want to know where the book is set and what country it is set in and what part of that country. I want to know what happens in the book. I want to know when it was set, was it set in 2015? Was it set in 1915? Is it set in the future? I want to know why there were planes flying overhead. Why the boy is carrying so many things? Can you read this question for me please? Fantastic. And this one. This is based on the belief that maybe there are some bombs and they want to know how they might survive those. And I'm interested to know if it's a true story. Did we get any of the same questions or similar ones? Maybe you can share yours later. Now we're going to answer these questions and find out a little bit of background information. So the first question, we are going to answer is one of the why questions. Why are there planes flying overhead? And we already had an idea, but it might need to be in show or, but it might be something to do with war, either way we thought it was purposeful. This book is set during World War II. And these are the dates of World War II, of 1 Sep 1939-2 Sep 1945. So it was more than a year, more than two years. It was a very long time, lasting approximately six years. Now that's almost half of your life. So it's a very long time, especially for a child. During the war, there was something called The Blitz. The Blitz, correct. And this was approximately eight months of bombing, which happened to major cities and ports where ships were. London was especially badly bombed during the war, the dates of The Blitz in London, starts on the 7th of September, 1914 and lasted until the 11th of May, 1941. And that is where basically every night German aircraft to, Germans where the enemy, flew over England, over London and dropped bombs and tried to destroy major parts of the city. Now imagine that every time you're going to sleep, you think you're going to get a disturbed wild steep and don't know if you're going to survive the night or if your house will survive the night. Very scary. What can you see? I can see an aircraft too. I can see a river meandering a levee, and that is the towns. And these are part of the dockings where boats and ships were docked, so parked and they were especially badly targeted by the Germans because they obviously could transport food and ammunition. The inferences that I can make, maybe that London was especially badly attacked and targeted. And also that London is really big. What can you see in this picture? And what can you infer? This time I want you to pause the video and write down your inferences. So I can see two young children and two women and a baby sitting on a bench or maybe part of a fence. And behind them, there's just utter destruction. So it looks like this area has been targeted by bomb and significant amount of it has been destroyed. My inference is that it's actually their home that has been destroyed, which is why they're sitting there, they've got nowhere else to go. Now, if you were living in London, every morning, if you went to any shelter in your area shelter, and you'd be wondering, will my house still be there the next day. And this is what London looked like during The Blitz. At night time, you can see there's a lot of smoke. There's a lot of fire and you could see the fire brigade trying to put that out, to try and stop the destruction from a bomb that was dropped spreading. So again, I think my inference has to do with emotion. So can you pause the video, write down how you would feel if you were living in a city that was being attacked like this. I think I would feel frightened, fearful, overwhelmed, intimidated, anxious. I think it would feel a bit like a nightmare that it was never ending, if it was being attacked every night and that this was happening constantly. So my next question we're going to answer is another why question. Why is the boy carrying so many things? Can you read the two sentences in front of you please. Now I'm going to read them to you. Just in case, "Children from the cities evacuated, evacuated to the countryside. This was to try and keep them safe from the bombs being dropped in the cities." Can you work out what effectuated might mean? We hear it, In the modern day language, when people have to evacuate a building, when a fire alarm goes. Evacuated is a verb. You know that, it's got the ed, so it's something you can do. Evacuated in this sense means children were taken from the cities and removed to the countryside. And you can see that they would have gone by trains. And I've got a picture of the type of train that they might have travelled in. It would have been an old fashioned steam train probably, and they would have gone from London into the countryside, which was less badly targeted, less badly bombed, and to try and keep them safe. They, typically these children, if they had siblings, might go with their siblings. But not always. And their parents or parents would stay in the city that they lived. So they wouldn't go with them. So from looking at those two why questions, we can kind of answer these questions too. Where is the books set, and when was it set? So when was it set? Can you remind me? It was sets in World War II. It was set during The Blitz and these are the dates of The Blitz. And it starts off with a character in the countryside, in Buckinghamshire. Originally he has travelled, the child has travelled from London. He's been evacuated. And that is why the child on the book is carrying so many belongings because he was evacuated and moved to the countryside. Can you read the next questions? So these are some pictures of the two characters. This book has been turned into a film, which you can watch. So the man, the gentlemen that we saw on one of the front covers is called Mr. Tom, and we've got a picture of him there. And the child is called William Beech and his name is abbreviated to Willie, so he's called Willie Beech. And are they related by family, do you think? They're actually not. So William Beech was put into the care of Mr. Tom during the war to help him live in the countryside. So he had lived in London and he went to stay with this man he had never met called Mr. Tom. I think that might be a little bit scary to move where you're living from. So to move into a different part of the country and also to go and live with a complete stranger, we have answered these questions. Can you read them as they come up on the screen, please. We haven't yet answered this one, but I'm going to tell you, you ought to know. Is it a true story? No, it is not a true story. However, there were millions of children who were evacuated. And so a story like this is very much inspired by true stories. These are the questions we haven't yet answered. What happened in the book? How would I find that out? Yeah. Then I have to read it. I'm not going to tell you. How did the two people meet? Again, we're going to have to read it. I'm not going to tell you. And how do they survive or do they survive? That I'm not going to tell you. We're going to have to read the book. If you were being evacuated, what three items would you take and why? So if you had to move from your current home to a different part of the country to live with someone you didn't know, what three items would you like to take with you and why? Resume from pause once you've finished your task. I have said, I'd like to take a Teddy bear or a blanket to comfort me, pack of playing cards to keep me entertained and hopefully to help me make friends, because I wouldn't know anyone there. And I would be quite keen to make some friends and I would take pair of sturdy shoes to go exploring in. So I love walking and I liked being in the countryside. So if I had a really good pair of shoes, I'd be able to go off on some adventures. This is our last task, we've nearly finished this lesson. I think I would be feeling a range of emotions if I were to have be evacuated. How do you think you might have felt before travelling to new a temporary home? I want you to write down how you think you might have been feeling, and you might want to use this sentence scaffold to help you. So I might have felt... I would have felt... Off you go. Okay, I'm going to show you what I came up with. I would have felt anxious and apprehensive. Those two words have very similar meanings. I would have had so many questions. So I would have wanted to know where I'm going, who I'm staying with, how long I would be there, whether I'd have my own bedroom, whether I would be seeing any of my friends or my siblings, I'd have loads of questions going around in my mind. And I think I also would have similar to anxious and apprehensive, I would worry, specifically about this, is about feeling homesick and what I could do if I was missing home and how I might be able to cheer myself up and things like that. I think possibly I would have been a little bit excited too, depending on how old I was. And maybe depending on my character as well. If for example, I was really adventurous and I was, had a bit more experience in my life. I might be excited to go to a new place or to meet new people or to see the countryside. If I'd never been outside, the city outside of London, I might be really excited to know what a cow actually looks like. Back then. There wasn't TV. So everything would have been told about. They wouldn't have seen these things as readily as we do now. Congratulations, we finished our first lesson in this unit. You guys have done fantastically well. One thing I thought you might want to do is to talk to your parents and carers about how their families spent time during World War II. Have a lovely day. Bye.

Completed: To establish a background knowledge of the story and create an initial impression

In this lesson the children will make some inferences by looking at book covers and pictures from World War II. They will also generate their own questions and most of these will be answered by the teacher.

English

To establish a background knowledge of the story and create an initial impression

Video

Lesson Complete