Hi everyone, this is Mr, Chandrapala and I'm so looking forward to working with you today.

This is one of my favourite things about English.

We've read through a text, we've had some incredible discussions, and now we have the opportunity to actually bring all of our incredible discussions together and actually formulate a really thoughtful, impactful argument.

We are gonna be having a look at what it means to put together a really important argument and actually all the different elements that we need to sort of blend together to create a really convincing piece of work.

This skill is not gonna be just important in English, it helps in history, it helps in geography, it helps in science, but really it helps in your everyday life being able to argue your point.

So let's not waste any time.

Let's get into it.

So our outcome for today is that I can understand what makes a clear and convincing argument.

Our keywords are the noun essay, which is a piece of writing that explains and develops a big idea we have about a text.

We're gonna be considering what a thesis statement is, which is an idea we develop and maintain that throughout an essay.

We're gonna be going back to our work on topic sentences, which is a first sentence of a paragraph which states the paragraph's main idea.

If you are unsure what the word maintain means, that just means to continue or keep something up.

And then finally, we're looking at the concept of Shakespearean comedy, which is a play designed to make us laugh, often involving misunderstandings and ending in marriage.

So the first thing that we're going to be doing as part of creating a convincing argument about "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is creating and maintaining an argument.

Sofia creates a plan for an essay answering the question, "How does Shakespeare present Puck?" Her plan sees her create a thesis and three topic sentences.

Her thesis is that Shakespeare presents Puck as a funny character.

Her first topic sentence is that Shakespeare presents Puck as a loyal servant to Oberon.

Then, topic second one is that Shakespeare presents Puck as a character who loves chaos.

And her final topic sentence is that Shakespeare presents Puck as a character who could be interpreted as malicious.

Now these are four interesting ideas, but we can't really say that they are actually very connected.

The paragraphs could go in any order and she creates new ideas rather than developing a main idea from her thesis.

So Sofia's worried about this and she goes to her friend Aisha, who has a little bit of feedback for her.

Aisha recommends, "Hey, you can improve your plan by spending more time on your thesis and using your topic sentences to develop and maintain your thesis." Aisha is so, so wise.

So Sofia redrafts her plan.

She has heeded Aisha's warnings and she's like, "You know what? I'm gonna rewrite that thesis statement so it's just a little bit better." So Sofia says, "Shakespeare presents Puck as a mischief maker who is central to the comedy, both the chaos and the happy ending." Now that's a lot better.

Her first topic sentence focuses on the fact that Shakespeare uses introduction to present him as a lover of practical jokes.

And his second topic sentence considers the fact that although Puck is presented as a character who enjoys the chaos in the forest, his powers also restore order.

The third topic sentence looks at how Shakespeare presents Puck's mischievous nature in comparison to the cruelty of Oberon and Egeus.

Now this is significantly better.

We have got a much more developed thesis statement and these ideas are starting to develop on each other and linking back to that overarching argument introduced in the thesis.

Our central idea is that Puck is a mischief maker central to the comedy in both how the chaos unfolds and the happy ending of the text.

Now we can see how each of the topic sentences maintain and develop this thesis.

The idea that Puck is a mischief maker and creates chaos is clear through the fact that he's a lover of practical jokes.

The fact that he helps to restore order is developed by the fact that actually he helps to deliver the happy ending.

And the fact that he has a mischievous nature in comparison to the cruelty of Oberon and Egeus is definitely demonstrated by the fact that he enjoys chaos, but he isn't actually looking to be evil or to be harsh on people.

So I would like you to show me your understanding by just completing this task.

One of our Oak pupils argued that Shakespeare presents Puck as a character who is very aware of hierarchy.

His ultimate loyalty is to Oberon and order rather than mischief and chaos.

I would like you to choose between the left and the right.

Which set of topic sentences maintain and develop this thesis? Is it option A, which is Puck's dialogue with Oberon establishes his role as a loyal servant.

Shakespeare presents Puck as targeting Bottom because of his low status and Shakespeare uses Puck's epilogue to suggest the importance of order.

Or is it option B, on the right hand side? Shakespeare introduces Puck as someone who enjoys humiliating others.

Shakespeare presents Puck as the only one who enjoys the chaos in the forest, and Shakespeare sometimes presents Puck as malicious.

Out of option A on the left and option B on the right, which set of topic sentences do you think best maintains and develops the thesis? Shakespeare presents Puck as a character who is very aware of hierarchy, his ultimate loyalty is to Oberon and order rather than mischief and chaos.

Pause the video now, maybe talk to the person next to you.

Maybe consider just rereading these and trying to work out how they developed that argument and when you have chosen A or B, A being on the left, B being on the right, hit play.

Really good work there, everyone.

Thesis statements are so hard and it definitely takes a little bit of time, but I was so impressed by how many of you were really starting to get into what makes a good topic sentence and actually how these topic sentences build on our thesis.

I would argue that A is the better set because actually that idea of him having ultimate loyalty to Oberon is covered in that first topic sentence.

The fact that Puck targets Bottom because he is of low status is demonstrating the fact that he's aware of hierarchy and the fact that Puck's epilogue suggests the importance of order shows that actually he is ultimately loyal to Oberon an order rather than mischief and chaos.

So we're just gonna practise our understanding here.

We're gonna practise applying it.

Alex was answering this question, "How does Shakespeare present Puck?" And his thesis is, "Shakespeare presents the character of Puck as an ambiguous character.

His ability to create chaos is central to the comedy, but his love of pain and humiliation suggests he's a malevolent example of the supernatural." All I would like you to do is to help Alex out here.

I'd like you to create three topic sentences which maintain and develop this thesis.

So you are going to have a look at developing three topic sentences, maybe even a evaluative topic sentences so that you can maintain and develop the thesis, which focuses on the fact that Puck is an ambiguous character, that he's central to the comedy, but his love of humiliation and pain suggests that he is a more malevolent, more threatening example of the supernatural.

Pause the video now.

See if you can draught three topic sentences which support this thesis and when you are ready, hit play.

Well done everyone.

Let's take some feedback so we can see how we can develop our topic sentences so they're even more closely tied to our thesis.

So Alex had a go at this and he wrote the topic sentence.

"Shakespeare introduces Puck via a dialogue with a fairy which focuses on the malicious pranks he likes to play on people." So Alex has managed to maintain and develop this thesis.

He was focusing on that bit of his love of pain and humiliation suggests he is a malevolent example of the supernatural.

And by talking about the malicious pranks of Puck, actually Alex has managed to develop his thesis through his topic sentence.

I would like you just to identify now where your own topic sentence maintains Alex's thesis.

There are a couple of different elements that you may want to have a look at within Alex's thesis, but you need to be able to match really clearly how your topic sentence links to Alex's thesis.

Once you've done that, hit play.

Well done everyone.

Really impressive checking back through work and that is gonna be so helpful as we move into this next part of the lesson.

What you are really allowing yourself to do here is to build a really tight overarching argument, which is really gonna put you in good stead when you come to writing your own whole essay.

So we're now gonna have a go at writing thesis statements.

We've had a look at Alex's and Izzy's.

Sorry, Alex and Sofia's thesis statements.

We're now gonna try doing it for ourselves.

So we're still focusing on that question.

"How does Shakespeare present Puck?" But as I said, you are writing your own thesis statement.

If you've never come across a thesis statement before, they're found in your introduction.

They maintain an idea in answer to an essay question.

They include reference to the writer and their intentions in their work and they contain an idea that we maintain and develop throughout your essay.

I'm gonna ask you to pause the video now just to make sure that you've got this four bullet points underneath the title of thesis statements because this is a really important success criteria just to keep in our head before we move on with the lesson.

So pause the video now and make sure that you've got these bullet points for what makes a thesis statement really clearly there.

So now that we've got that key definition of what makes a thesis statement, we're gonna now have a look at what we know of Shakespeare's intentions with the character of Puck.

So we're gonna have this discussion thinking about Shakespeare's intentions for the character of Puck.

And as you're doing this, I want you to consider how he might want us to respond to Puck, how he might have tried to engage, or how he might have tried to engage, Shakespeare how might have tried to engage with his first Elizabethan audience's understanding of the supernatural, and of Puck, how Puck helps Shakespeare explore any of the key themes around disorder, order, love, marriage and supernatural.

Pause the video now and start seeing if you can have that discussion around each of those three key bullet points.

When you are ready, hit play.

Really good work there, everyone.

Really pleased to see really thoughtful consideration of Shakespeare's intentions for Puck.

I really liked the fact that people were talking about the fact that Puck is a character that we sort of associate with folklore for Elizabethan audiences linked to that concept of Robin Goodfellow, the fact that there's a sort of ambiguous nature in how we understand him as being both maybe a character who is potentially able to do evil, but also a character who is able to inspire and to do maybe more mischievous acts without necessarily them being evil acts.

I also really like the fact that people were considering the fact that actually he helps restore order even though he does enjoy chaos and though he delights in the sort of petty issues of human beings in terms of the pursuit of love, he ultimately is so important for bringing the marriages together at the end of the play.

Here are some examples of how our other pupils responded.

One of them said, "I think that Shakespeare wanted his first Elizabethan audiences to connect to Puck, which is why he gave him the name, Robin Goodfellow, a common name in Elizabethan folklore." It's a really interesting idea and definitely linked to the context of the time.

Often the thesis statements will have a look at wider historical or literary context to help develop their ideas.

Another student said, "Well, I think Shakespeare makes Puck seem ambiguous because Elizabethans connected the supernatural with both good and evil." Again, that's a really good idea.

Definitely linking to the historical context and starting to touch on that sense that actually Puck is a really ambiguous character.

Another of our students said, "I think Shakespeare included Puck so that there was chaos in the forest and we like Puck get to enjoy watching it." It's a really interesting idea, Puck almost as being a mirror for the audience within the play, an analogue for us being able to create this sense that actually there are other beings that enjoy the the sort of issues experienced by the Athenians.

Now can you build on any of these ideas? I would like you to use the sentence starter, "I also think.

." And you may just wanna turn to your partner and explain what you think Shakespeare's purpose for Puck is.

Maybe linking back to any of the ideas that we've covered so far or maybe thinking about your own ideas that we've already sort of started thinking about and I just want you to express it to your partner.

And then I want your partner to be able to share their idea.

You're then gonna take some feedback and just write down what would you say your thesis is, your purpose of Shakespeare's use of Puck in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" So pause the video now, using that phrase, "I also think," turn to the person next to you or jot down your idea on your sheet for what the purpose of Puck is in "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Really good work there, everyone.

So pleased to see you all getting into such deep historical context, literary context in your approach to developing an understanding of Shakespeare's purpose for Puck.

There's so many ways we can go through this and that's why we looked at those Oak answers because actually there are multitude of ways of looking at how Puck is maybe used by Shakespeare.

There's no single right answer.

So I'm just going to ask you to complete this check for understanding here.

As you can see, there are at six terms at the bottom of our page, at the bottom of our slide, and you are going to use those to complete the gap fill.

So each of those terms will be used once to complete the sentences above.

So we've got, a mmm statement is your main idea and answer to an mmm question.

It is found in your mmm.

It will include reference to the writer and their mmm.

And, each of your mmm should mmm and develop your thesis.

Lots of mmms for you to have to deal with there.

So hopefully those sentence, sorry, those sentences will be easily filled in by using those words at the bottom of the slide.

So pause the video now and use the words underneath the line, so at the bottom of the slide to complete the gap fill.

And once you think you've got it, hit play and we'll go through it.

Quality work there from everyone.

People checking back through their notes, people retrieving that key knowledge, making sure that it's right at the top of our head.

If you can, what I'd really like you to do is just to make sure that you are writing these into your notes as we go through, because that means that you've got a really helpful bank of knowledge later on.

So we can see that a thesis statement is our main idea in order to answer an essay question.

Thesis statements are found in our introductions and they will refer to the writer and their intentions.

Each of your topic sentences should maintain and develop your thesis.

Well done to all of you who got that correct.

You are the real superstars out here.

I'm gonna ask you just very quickly just to make sure that anything you didn't get right, just pause the video, just add it in a different colour pen into your notes and once you've done that, hit play.

Really well done everyone.

Excellent learning habits.

Let's keep moving.

So here I've got Jacob's first draught of a thesis statement.

Jacob was answering the same question as us and he said, "Shakespeare presents the character of Puck as a mischievous prankster.

He also is known as Robin Goodfellow and he puts the magical potion on Lysander by accident before restoring order." Now Jacob had a really good effort here, but when he reflects on what a thesis is meant to do, he gives himself one what went well and one EBI.

He is proud of the fact that he focuses on an aspect of Puck's character.

So he definitely focuses on the fact that Puck is a mischievous prankster.

That's really good and definitely deserves praise, but he's also very aware that that second sentence, "He also is known as Robin Goodfellow and puts the magical potion on Lysander by accident before restoring order," doesn't really get into Shakespeare's intentions and rather retells the plot.

So it's not actually as effective and definitely what not what we need to produce for a thesis statement.

So Jacob goes away and he tries really hard and he draughts this second draught.

He writes, "Shakespeare presents the character of Puck as a mischievous prankster.

Significantly, Shakespeare names him Robin Goodfellow, a figure known by his first Elizabethan audiences as a mischievous but also helpful spirit.

In this way, Puck is presented as a figure of fun rather than anything more malevolent." Here I want us to consider how has Jacob met his target? Have a look at that second and third sentence.

Has Jacob managed to consider Shakespeare's intentions rather than retelling the plot? So pause the video here and see if you can find out where he is doing that.

Once you have, hit play.

Well done there, everyone.

I'm really pleased to see that actually we are able to praise Jacob a little bit more because he has managed to discuss Shakespeare's intentions just that little bit further.

He's actually managed to say that actually Puck is meant to be a mischievous but helpful spirit and therefore, Puck is presented as a figure of fun rather than anything more malevolent.

The fact that actually it links back to Elizabethan audience's landing.

So we're just gonna have a look at writing thesis statements here.

Which of these would serve as the most powerful thesis statement? Is it A, Shakespeare presents Puck as an important character through lots of different quotations? For example, "I am that merry wanderer of the night," in Act 2, Scene 1 and then his epilogue in Act 5.

B, Shakespeare presents Puck as a supernatural character in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" He's also a loyal servant, a cruel trickster and someone with a powerful reputation? Or C, Shakespeare presents Puck as the most important character in "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

He's important not only in creating disorder, but also creating the happy ending that company requires? And we just choose A, B or C.

And once you have selected that, I want you to hit play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

We can clearly see that it is C.

A doesn't really discuss the intention and actually strays away from what we would normally expect from a thesis because it includes evidence from the text.

Whilst B doesn't include any discussion of Shakespeare's intention and therefore, even though it's better than A, it's not much better.

C is much better because actually it does manage to discuss the fact that Puck is important in creating disorder, but also in creating the happy ending that comedy usually has.

So we're gonna make sure that we can practise and apply the skill for ourselves.

I'd like you to write your own thesis statement for the question, "How does Shakespeare present Puck?" Remember, you need to make sure in the thesis statement to contain a main idea in order to answer the essay question, to refer to the writer and their intentions and their work and contain an idea that you could maintain and develop throughout your essay.

I want you to pause the video now and to make sure that you have written a perfect thesis statement.

And once you have done that, I would like you to hit play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

Let's take some feedback.

I want you to self-assess your thesis using these instructions.

I want you to identify first of all what your main idea is in relation to the question.

Where do you discuss the character of Puck? I then want you want you to identify where you have mentioned Shakespeare's name.

I'm just gonna ask you to circle that moment.

I then want you to underline where you have considered Shakespeare's intentions for this character.

What are we meant to think of Puck as? And make sure to underline that.

Pause the video now.

Make sure that you have circled Shakespeare's name and underlined where you've discussed Shakespeare's intentions maybe boxing off where you've discussed Puck.

And when you're ready, hit play.

Some really careful reflection there from lots of people.

That's so important for us to be able to see because actually that's the thing that's gonna make us better.

Just maybe the first time that you're writing a thesis statement, this may be the fifth or sixth time you've practised writing thesis statements, but each time we do it, if we can do a little bit of feedback, a little bit of reflection, we're gonna be back getting better each time.

So let's just summarise our key learning for today.

We've been looking at creating a clear and convincing argument and that has involved really clearly understanding what a thesis statement is.

A thesis is an idea that we develop and maintain throughout an essay.

A thesis should consider the writer and their intentions.

And we've used topic sentences to develop and maintain our thesis.

You've all been fantastic working through this really complicated part of our essay writing and I've been so impressed.

I'm really looking forward to working with you again.

I hope that this has been helpful and if there's anything you need, please do reflect on this lesson.

Thesis statements are really important within essay writing and they really help set up strong essays.

So there's better we are with it here, the better we will be with it later down the line.

But fantastic work again today, everyone.

Really looking forward to working with you again soon.

Bye for now.