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RSRT Y3 L4 Rumaysa

Literacy Counts

Created on June 18, 2025

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Transcript

Ready Steady Read Together

Rumaysa: Fiction Lesson 4

What do you think you know?

What?
Who?
Why?
Where?
How?
When?

Book Talk: Let's explore this illustration.

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What do you know and think?

It was a relief to step into someone else’s life and escape her tower room, if even just for a moment.

How might this extract link to the illustration?

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From: Rumaysa: A Fairytale by Radiya Hafiza © 2021. Licensed under CLA. Do not copy or share.

Today's Question(s)

How does Rumaysa cope with being locked in the tower?

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Let me read today's text

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Rumaysa refused to let sleep take her drooping eyes just yet. She opened up her favourite book, One Thousand and One Nights. It had beautiful drawings of palaces and animals, women in hijabs and men in magnificent robes. It was a relief to step into someone else’s life and escape her tower room, if even just for a moment. It was the only book Rumaysa owned where the characters had similar names to her and shared her skin colour. All her other books had names like Cordelia’s. The pages of her copy were well worn; it was her most treasured possession. She had also found a small book inside it with instructions on how to pray five times a day. Rumaysa liked how the prayers broke up her day, giving her something to do in between spinning straw. She didn’t think Cordelia had meant to give it to her, but she was glad for it. Rumaysa wondered what other books were out there in the world. If she ever got out of the tower, maybe she could have her own library. She smiled at the thought, imagining walls lined with books. But then her face fell.

From: Rumaysa: A Fairytale by Radiya Hafiza © 2021. Licensed under CLA. Do not copy or share.

When will I get out of here, she wondered for the millionth time. Rumaysa sighed and got off her bed. She traipsed over to the window and looked outside at the forest. Rumaysa had, of course, been trying over the years to escape the tower. She knew that hers was not a normal life. Zabina had tried carrying her out – which had quickly failed – she’d tried screaming for help for hours until she’d lost her voice. She’d tried pretending to be ill so she could go and see a healer, but Cordelia had just told her to stop complaining. Rumaysa liked to daydream – or nightdream, you might call it at this hour – and imagine a world beyond the forest, beyond these four walls. She was a princess fighting battles out in the fields, saving her people from destruction. Or she was a baker in a cosy shop, in a village where everybody knew everyone’s business. An ocean explorer with glittering magical fins for legs. The dreams went on and on. But at the end of all of them, Rumaysa would return home to her parents. But they were only dreams.

From: Rumaysa: A Fairytale by Radiya Hafiza © 2021. Licensed under CLA. Do not copy or share.

Vocabulary

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Hover for definitions!

drooping

most treasured possession

magnificent

traipsed

healer

destruction

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From: Rumaysa: A Fairytale by Radiya Hafiza © 2021. Licensed under CLA. Do not copy or share.

I will model the first.

Find the word or phrase Read the sentence Talk about it to a partner

drooping

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Find Read Talk

Rumaysa refused to let sleep take her drooping eyes just yet. She opened up her favourite book, One Thousand and One Nights.

Reveal Vocabulary

From: Rumaysa: A Fairytale by Radiya Hafiza © 2021. Licensed under CLA. Do not copy or share.

Your turn

drooping

magnificent

Find the word or phrase Read the sentence Talk about it to a partner

most treasured possession

traipsed

healer

destruction

Use your text

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Vocabulary Check & Re-read

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Reveal Vocabulary

Rumaysa refused to let sleep take her drooping eyes just yet. She opened up her favourite book, One Thousand and One Nights. It had beautiful drawings of palaces and animals, women in hijabs and men in magnificent robes. It was a relief to step into someone else’s life and escape her tower room, if even just for a moment. It was the only book Rumaysa owned where the characters had similar names to her and shared her skin colour. All her other books had names like Cordelia’s. The pages of her copy were well worn; it was her most treasured possession. She had also found a small book inside it with instructions on how to pray five times a day. Rumaysa liked how the prayers broke up her day, giving her something to do in between spinning straw. She didn’t think Cordelia had meant to give it to her, but she was glad for it. Rumaysa wondered what other books were out there in the world. If she ever got out of the tower, maybe she could have her own library. She smiled at the thought, imagining walls lined with books. But then her face fell.

Explore

From: Rumaysa: A Fairytale by Radiya Hafiza © 2021. Licensed under CLA. Do not copy or share.

Reveal Vocabulary

When will I get out of here, she wondered for the millionth time. Rumaysa sighed and got off her bed. She traipsed over to the window and looked outside at the forest. Rumaysa had, of course, been trying over the years to escape the tower. She knew that hers was not a normal life. Zabina had tried carrying her out – which had quickly failed – she’d tried screaming for help for hours until she’d lost her voice. She’d tried pretending to be ill so she could go and see a healer, but Cordelia had just told her to stop complaining. Rumaysa liked to daydream – or nightdream, you might call it at this hour – and imagine a world beyond the forest, beyond these four walls. She was a princess fighting battles out in the fields, saving her people from destruction. Or she was a baker in a cosy shop, in a village where everybody knew everyone’s business. An ocean explorer with glittering magical fins for legs. The dreams went on and on. But at the end of all of them, Rumaysa would return home to her parents. But they were only dreams.

Explore

From: Rumaysa: A Fairytale by Radiya Hafiza © 2021. Licensed under CLA. Do not copy or share.

Fluency

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Let me use my reader's voice...

It was a relief to step into someone else’s life and escape her tower room, if even just for a moment. It was the only book Rumaysa owned where the characters had similar names to her and shared her skin colour. All her other books had names like Cordelia’s.

What did you notice?

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From: Rumaysa: A Fairytale by Radiya Hafiza © 2021. Licensed under CLA. Do not copy or share.

My Turn
Your Turn

Echo Read

It was a relief to step into someone else’s life and escape her tower room,

if even just for a moment.

It was the only book Rumaysa owned

where the characters had similar names to her and shared her skin colour.

All her other books had names like Cordelia’s.

Explore

From: Rumaysa: A Fairytale by Radiya Hafiza © 2021. Licensed under CLA. Do not copy or share.

Sound like a reader!
Stand up!

Choral Read

It was a relief to step into someone else’s life and escape her tower room, if even just for a moment. It was the only book Rumaysa owned where the characters had similar names to her and shared her skin colour. All her other books had names like Cordelia’s.

Explore

From: Rumaysa: A Fairytale by Radiya Hafiza © 2021. Licensed under CLA. Do not copy or share.

Strategy Focus

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Strategy: Read Between the Lines

How does Rumaysa cope with being locked in the tower?

Be a detective and look for clues!

Teach

Let me show you

Reveal Text Marks

She opened up her favourite book, One Thousand and One Nights. It had beautiful drawings of palaces and animals, women in hijabs and men in magnificent robes. It was a relief to step into someone else’s life and escape her tower room, if even just for a moment.

How does Rumaysa cope with being locked in the tower?

This shows one of the ways Rumaysa copes with being trapped in the tower is to escape into her favourite book.

Reveal Explainer

Teach

From: Rumaysa: A Fairytale by Radiya Hafiza © 2021. Licensed under CLA. Do not copy or share.

Strategy Stop

What else could you use to answer today's question(s)?

Teach

Your Turn

How does Rumaysa cope with being locked in the tower?

Find the answers
Text mark

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Text Mark Evidence - it was a relief to step into someone else’s life (in a book) and escape her tower room - it (her favourite book) was her most treasured possession

uses books to escape mentally

Acceptable Answers

Text Mark Evidence she had also found a small book… with instructions on how to pray five times a day… the prayers broke up her day, giving her something to do between spinning straw

spiritual practice/prayer

How does Rumaysa cope with being locked in the tower?

Text Mark Evidence - Rumaysa wondered what other books were out there in the world - if she ever got out of the tower, maybe she could have her own library - Rumaysa liked to daydream – or nightdream…and imagine a world beyond the forest, beyond these four walls - the dreams went on and on - at the end of all of them (dreams), Rumaysa would return home to her parents

using her imagination/imagining different lives

Click on the evidence to reveal acceptable answers

Text Mark Evidence - Rumaysa had…been trying over the years to escape the tower - Zabina (the owl) had tried carrying her out

attempts to escape

Practise & Apply

Quiz Time

Start

Picture Me

Which image is the best match for ‘drooping’?

Tick Me

Why was One Thousand and One Nights Rumaysa’s most treasured possession?

Tick two

A It was the only thing she owned given to her by her parents.

B It had characters who looked like her with names like hers.

Check

C She had written it herself when she wasn’t spinning straw.

Click if correct

D It helped her escape her tower by imagining other lives and places.

Which One's Right?

Rumaysa sighed and got off her bed. She traipsed over to the window and looked outside at the forest.

The word ‘traipsed’ suggests that Rumaysa walked…

B nervously and carefully

A quickly and excitedly

D quietly and secretly

C slowly and wearily

Link Me

Link each word with its correct definition:

A fancy or beautiful

1 drooping

B damage or ruins

2 magnificent

C sagging or hanging

Check

3 treasured

Click if correct

D loved or valued

4 destruction

Feedback: Who did what well?

FindRead Talk

EchoRead

ChoralRead

ReadingStrategy

Answers & Text Marks

Other...

To be a book lover, you could...

discover new worlds.

Reveal

Immerse yourself in imaginative settings and ideas.

Copyright Notice

This document has been supplied under a CLA Licence with specific terms of use. It is protected by copyright and, save as may be permitted by law, it may not be further copied, stored, re-copied electronically or otherwise shared, even for internal purposes, without the prior further permission of the Rightsholder. Extracts sourced from: Rumaysa: A Fairytale by Radiya Hafiza © 2021 Schools must purchase the original text for full content.