Lesson video

Hi, my name is Miss Speakman.

We're on lesson 13 of 14 and we're on the exam practise lesson today for crime and punishment.

So, in today's lesson, we're going to be specifically focusing on answering examination questions from the unit and we will try to be inclusive of different exam boards as much as possible though, of course, there will be some elements which don't quite fit with some exam boards, but it's a really, really good idea to ask your teacher which exam board you are sitting before doing this lesson, or, if you're not able to do that, then to check after the lesson to see whether it fits really well with what you're doing.

Many of the questions we do today will fit more with AQA and Edexcel than the other exam boards as that is what I teach myself at my school.

So let's make sure we're ready for our lesson first of all.

So we need a pen or a pencil, a piece of paper or an exercise book, and a different coloured pen for corrections.

Let's also make sure we've got a nice, clear, quiet working space.

So TV, music off, phone to one side if we're not using it for the lesson, and then, also making sure that we've got a nice, quiet working space and we've got enough space to work in.

If you need to get yourself ready by getting any of those things or clearing a space, please pause the video now, then unpause when you're ready to start looking at exam questions.

Okay, brilliant, nice to know that you are ready, let's go.

So we're going to start off with, what we call, low value questions, and I always say, well, low value questions doesn't necessarily mean that they're less important but, of course, they're worth less marks.

I always say to my students, just because they're low value, they might be one mark, two mark, three mark, it's so important that you get these ones correct at the beginning of the exam because it could be the difference between one grade and another if it's just one mark difference.

So I always say to my students, make sure you're getting these correct early on so that you are giving yourself the best chance of the best grade.

So all exam board specifications have what we call these low value questions.

AQA has one mark and two mark questions, Eduqas and WJEC will have two mark questions, Edexcel and OCR have three mark questions.

All will be fairly similar.

AQA, though, has a multiple choice question which is worth one mark, which is the main difference.

So we're going to be practising , first of all, some sort of low value, one mark questions, definition questions.

In some of the two mark and three mark questions in the other exam boards, they might ask you to give a definition.

So what we're going to be practising first of all will be a really good way of getting yourself covered for those questions too.

What we're going to do is do, what I call, my multiple choice quickfire questions.

I will give you a question, there will be four options, I will give you a countdown of three seconds.

After those three seconds, I expect you to point to your screen or say out loud which one is the correct answer so I really feel like you are doing this with me, sort of like I can hear you saying it even though I am, perhaps, miles away.

So I'm going to disappear so we can do that and then we'll get started on this.

There'll be five multiple choice quickfire questions to complete.

Which aim of punishment is to change a criminal's behaviour for the better? Is it reformation, deterrence, retribution, forgiveness? Three, two, one.

Good, it's reformation, the idea that you're changing them, reforming their behaviour.

Which aim of punishment is to put people off committing a crime? Is it reformation, retribution, deterrence, forgiveness? Three, two, one.

Good, it's deterrence, the idea of deterring them, putting them off committing crime.

Which of these actions would be disliked according to Shari'ah law? Drinking alcohol, smoking, shirk, drinking tea? Three, two, one.

Good, it's smoking.

Essentially, what we mean by disliked is that, Muslims believe, within Shari'ah law, you wouldn't be punished for doing this action but you could be rewarded for refraining from it.

Which of these actions would be permitted according to Shari'ah law? Drinking alcohol, smoking, shirk, drinking tea? Three, two, one.

Good, it's drinking tea.

The idea here is you don't get rewarded for doing it, nor do you get punished for not doing it.

And last of our multiple choice quickfire questions: which of these actions would be obligatory according to Shari'ah law? Smoking, drinking tea, extra prayers, the five daily prayers? Three, two, one.

Good, it is the five daily prayers.

This means that a Muslim has to do these five daily prayers.

Extra prayers are recommended, you don't have to do them.

What we're going to move on to now is some other lower value questions where I ask you to, perhaps, name me two things or three things.

We're going to do about four different types of these and then we will move on to looking at longer questions.

So we're going to start off.

Let me just wait for my face to appear.

So we're going to answer this question then, please.

Spend about two minutes on this, just because, usually, depending on the exam board but, mostly, it works out this way, you should spend a minute per mark.

So if the question is worth two marks, you should spend two minutes on it.

If the question is worth five marks, spend five minutes, etc.

So I want you to spend two minutes on this question: name two types of punishment not allowed in the UK.

Okay, so I want you to pause the video, two types of punishment not allowed in the UK, unpause when you are ready.

Okay, so the two types of punishment not allowed in the UK are corporal punishment and capital punishment.

So corporal punishment is causing physical harm to a prisoner, criminal.

Capital punishment is the death penalty.

So if you put death penalty, that's fine, and corporal, if you put causing physical harm to a prisoner or criminal, absolutely fine too.

Well done if you got both of those.

It's always best to try and use these key words like corporal and capital just so it's really nice and clear that you know your stuff.

Next question, spend two minutes on this: give two Christian teachings on forgiveness.

Now this one makes it sound like you need to write more.

You can write in bullet points for this question.

So, perhaps, maybe you'd say teaching, like a particular Bible verse.

Perhaps, maybe, you just know very briefly, it can be a brief sentence, what Christians believe about forgiveness.

It doesn't haven't to be in full sentences.

So two things that Christians teach about forgiveness.

Pause the video now please, unpause when you're ready to go through the answers.

Okay, so I've got a number of things here.

This doesn't cover everything you could have chosen.

It's absolutely fine if you've got something else as well which fits with Christian teachings on forgiveness.

So you could have had that it's a duty to forgive in Christianity, that Jesus preached forgiveness.

You could have used any of these verses such as "Love your enemies", "Pray for those who persecute you", "Forgive them Father", "Forgive us our sins "so we forgive those who sin against us", etc, etc.

You could say that Jesus died on the cross to forgive sins.

There are so many things you could say here.

Christians believe it's important to forgive limitless times.

They believe that God has forgiven all sins by sending Jesus to the cross, all sorts of things.

So essentially, any of these answers, plus a number of others, would be absolutely fine if we're talking about Christianity.

If you need to make any corrections or you want to add any of these things to what you've written, please pause the video now, then unpause when you're ready to look at the next question.

Okay, next question, three minutes for this question then, please, 'cause I want you to name three reasons for crime, so three reasons, whether or not those are acceptable or non-acceptable reasons, but three reasons why someone might commit crime.

Pause the video now please, unpause when you're ready to go through the answers.

Okay, so I could have had any three from the following: upbringing, poverty, hatred, greed, mental illness, opposition to unjust law, and addiction.

Now if you need to make any corrections, please pause the video now and do so, and then we'll move on to the last of our low value questions.

Okay, last low value question: name three sources of Shari'ah law, so where Shari'ah law comes from, how it's originated.

Spend about three minutes on this, pause the video now, unpause when you're ready to go through the answers.

Okay, I would accept Qur'an, Sunnah/Hadith, ijma, which is the consensus, qiyas, which is reasoning.

If you've got three of those, you can give yourself three marks.

If you've got two, two, etc, etc.

This one, I think, is the hardest one of them so it's absolutely fine if you didn't get all of them but it is important, of course, to make sure that you've got corrections.

So if you need to make any corrections or want to add anything, please pause the video now and after that, we're going to have a look at a longer question.

So we're going to look at a four mark question.

Okay, let's move on to a four mark question then.

In this one, we're going to explain two religious teachings about forgiveness.

So I said this is a four mark questions 'cause I'm sort of thinking AQA brain.

They'll be slightly different for each exam board.

It's a really, really good idea to ask your teacher if you don't which exam board you are sitting so that they can give you further advice.

This question above fits best, as I said, with AQA and Edexcel but you might be asked to do longer answers for explain questions, like Eduqas and WJEC, and the question style might look a little bit different for OCR, but, essentially, the structure that I'm going to use for this four mark question will work quite well for other exam boards too but the question style and the question amount of marks might look a little bit different.

So we're going to do two religious teachings about forgiveness and, since I teach Christianity and Islam and that's the things we've been doing at Key Stage 4 with Oak National Academy, that's what we'll be focusing on in this answer.

So you will need to make sure you include a Christian view and an Islamic view, an explanation of why they have this view on forgiveness, and around four sentences would probably be enough as long as you've given a point, explained it, given a point, explained it, that should be enough.

In some exam boards, and this could work for AQA and Edexcel too, adding in a quotation could be a really nice addition and, for some exam boards, they might think that that is needed to, essentially, add to that explanation.

So I'm going to give you a structure as well to help you so don't feel like you've got to do this all by yourself, you think, oh, I'm not quite sure what to do.

I'm going to help you through it, we'll do a model answer, we'll do corrections, so, hopefully, you feel really confident with it.

So I'm just going to disappear.

I want you to pause the video on the next slide to complete your task.

As I said, I'm going to give you a structure so really don't worry if you think you're not going to quite get it or you're not quite sure where to start, I'm going to help you with it, sort of hold your hand along with the process, metaphorically.

So, as I said, you need to include a Christian view and an Islamic view, an explanation of why they have this view, around four sentences would probably be enough.

I've given you some sentence starters.

So start off with: some Christians believe forgiveness, tell me what they believe and tell me exactly why, this is because.

Same for Islam: some Muslims believe forgiveness and this is because.

Use those sentence starters to help you structure an answer for this.

So pause the video now, give it your best go, try really, really hard, as we will go through corrections together.

You can do it.

If you can see this slide, I'm assuming then you are ready for corrections.

Please have your different coloured pen out ready for corrections.

Making corrections is so important for improving.

If you're not quite ready, then you can rewind the video and continue with your answer, then unpause when you're ready and come back for corrections.

Here's my example then.

So: some Christians believe forgiveness is a duty.

This is because God was willing to sacrifice his Son for sins and is said to have no limit of forgiveness.

Some Muslims believe forgiveness is not a duty but is encouraged.

This is because Shari'ah law set certain punishments for certain crimes as retribution but does allow victims to show mercy for forgivable crimes.

So, as you can see there, they're not necessarily really long sentences but I've explained really clearly why, in Christianity, it's seen as a duty, and why, in Islam, it can be seen as encouraged but not a duty.

If you need to make any corrections or you want to add anything to yours or you just want to compare your answer to my answer, please pause the video now and then, when you unpause, we're going to look at a longer answer, and we may also look at encoding scripture verses.

Moving now on to a longer explain question which says explain two beliefs about retribution as an aim of punishment.

Refer to scripture or sacred writings in your answer.

So, as we said before, explain questions will be slightly different for each exam board.

It's best to ask your teacher which exam board you are sitting.

This question best fits with AQA and Edexcel but what we do in this answer will be really helpful for Eduqas and WJEC, and even OCR.

So you need to state within this particular answer what Christians or Muslims believe about retribution, including at least one scripture verse, so perhaps, maybe, one we've mentioned in an earlier lesson, or perhaps, maybe, one you know if you haven't watched my lesson on it, explain how that verse shows that belief and explain, in detail, for the paragraph without the verse, a belief about retribution.

It's actually really helpful to include two just in case, maybe, one of them, you get incorrect or you don't use correctly, it then just covers your back.

But, in this case, I'm going to show you how to do it with just one verse.

So let's go on, have a look at a structure, let's have a go at answering it 'cause we've got to tackle it so we can get ourselves better in exam questions.

So I'm going to disappear again.

You should pause the video on the next slide to complete your task.

As I said, I'm going to give you a structure to help you with this question.

So I want you to start off with: many Muslims believe retribution, and how you, essentially, would finish that off, what they believe about retribution.

I'm giving you the Qur'an verse.

I want you to use: The Qur'an supports this when it says, "As for the thief, the male and the female, "amputate their hands in recompense "for what they committed "as a deterrent, punishment, from Allah." Then you have to tell me what that shows, what does this show about retribution? And then, for the second paragraph: Many Muslims believe retribution, and tell me what Christians believe about the idea of retribution as an aim of punishment, and why they believe this, making sure you go into detail.

So I want you to pause the video in a moment, you need to write all of this out, finish off the sentences.

Give it your best shot.

Always best to have a go, even if you're not quite sure because, more likely than not, you will be along the right lines.

So pause the video now, give it your best go, and then we'll go through corrections together.

Okay, please make sure you've got your different coloured pen out ready for corrections.

If you're not quite ready, then you can rewind and continue, but if you are ready, let's get started at looking at a model answer.

So: Many Muslims believe retribution should be the main aim of punishment.

The Qur'an supports this when it says, "As for the thief, the male and the female, "amputate their hands in recompense "for what they committed "as a deterrent, punishment, from Allah." This shows, that as compensation for stealing, the hand of the thief should be amputated.

This is payback for their crime.

Many Muslims believe retribution should not be the main aim of punishment and reformation should be instead.

This is because the purpose of Jesus dying on the cross was to forgive sins and Christians believe Jesus is a model of how to behave.

They should be willing to forgive others.

If you want to make any corrections, please do so now, if you want to add anything, if you want to change anything on your answer or think that something on there is really, really helpful, please pause now, add to your answer, then unpause it when you're ready to go through the next style of question which is the discuss/evaluate question.

Now moving on to a discussion or evaluation question, we're going to do this one: the death penalty should not be used for any crime.

For the longer questions, the 12 or the 15 mark questions, depending on the exam board, we'll either have the command word evaluate or discuss.

Again, it's always best to check with your teacher which exam board you're with if you don't already know.

This question best fits with AQA and Edexcel if we had the word evaluate on the end but you might see the command word discuss for Eduqas, WJEC, and OCR.

I'm going to be taking it from sort of an AQA point of view.

So I want you to start off, please, by, actually let's go back.

I want you to write down this, first of all, please, on your piece of paper.

So write down for me, please: the death penalty should not be used for any crime.

Pause now, write it down 'cause that'll be helpful then when we go onto the next section.

So write this down, pause now, unpause when you're done.

Okay, we'll move on now to this bit because I think it's easier to do this if you've got the question in front of you.

So I want you to write some bullet points as to why people might agree with the statement, and you can include as many religious teachings as you can.

Spend about four minutes on this, just jotting down, very briefly, you don't have to go in any detail or anything, just some arguments, why might some people agree the death penalty should not be used for any crime.

So pause the video now, write down some bullet points to agree, unpause when you are ready.

Okay, well done for writing down all your thoughts.

You've probably come up with loads of amazing ideas, that perhaps, maybe, even I haven't thought of yet.

However, I'm going to give you the sort of things I think I would include if I was to be answering this question.

It might be that you put some of these things down, maybe you didn't.

You might find it useful to jot some of these ideas down that I've got in a moment.

I'm going to disappear so I can show you my thoughts.

Okay, so some of my thoughts then on what we could do, okay, some of my thoughts then for an agree side of this argument: in Christianity, we have "Forgive them Father" and we have "love your enemies" which both suggest that the death penalty should not be used.

We should be looking to reform, forgive people.

In situation ethics, agape love is the idea of unconditional self-sacrificial love and it's not the most loving thing to do 'cause it does not give someone a chance to reform.

In Christianity, you should be looking to reform criminals.

Execution does not give them a chance to do that.

Within Islam, we may use the idea that Islam means peace and it's not peaceful to execute someone, and that Muhammad was reluctant to use violent in the Battle of Badr which, if Muslims want to follow the example of Muhammad, maybe they, too, would be reluctant to use violence.

If you'd like to add any of these things to your table of agree, then please pause the video now and jot those down, and then we'll move on.

So what I'd like you to do now is to do the same but to bullet point some disagree arguments.

So spend about four minutes on this, again.

Include as many religious teachings as you can.

So pause the video, bullet points, why people might disagree with the statement.

Okay, here is my disagree, what I've come up with.

Of course, there might be many things that you've come up with too but these are just some of my ideas.

That, in Christianity, we've got "an eye for an eye".

It doesn't demand the death penalty but does allow it, so maybe for some crimes like murder some Christians believe it could be used.

The idea of the sanctity of life within Christianity, we may say, it is therefore okay to end a life if it's going to protect other lives and save the lives of other people, the idea that all life is sacred and should be protected and, in this case, perhaps, maybe it might protect more lives to end the life of a criminal.

In Islam, we've got the verse "except by legal right", the Qur'an and Shari'ah allows it.

So the idea that except by legal right allows people to end a life if it's in lesser jihad, abortion, if the mother's life is at risk, and capital punishment, so the Qur'an allows the death penalty.

Shari'ah law also uses it as punishment for some forgivable and unforgivable crimes, like adultery, shirk, and murder.

And also, we could talk about non-religious views.

Some non-religious people might say it's a way of protecting society, it's a deterrent for putting people off committing those sorts of crimes, so that might be why some people might disagree.

If you want to add any of those thoughts down to your table, then please pause the video now and then, unpause and we'll start thinking about how we might structure an answer.

So I want you to pause the video on the next slide to complete your task.

So I'm going to talk through how we're going to start writing the first, perhaps, paragraph or couple of paragraphs to answer this question so that, hopefully, over the course of the next few minutes, you'll be able to structure and complete a really good answer to this question.

So, I've given you my agree things here just to remind you.

You might want to include your own points too and that's absolutely fine.

I want you to use your ideas on your own to write some paragraphs this side of the argument.

Now, there isn't really a set structure.

Different teachers will give different advice for how you might want to structure it and exam boards aren't particular about what they would like to see in terms of structure.

But what is important, when answering these sorts of questions, is using, what we call, logical chains of reasoning which means you have to write in full sentences, fully explain your points, include quotations or teachings to support your points, and also consider, and write, about how strong or weak a point is that you are making.

In future, we won't do this now, but you may want to consider having arguments to agree, then counter-arguing it with a disagree point.

For now, we're going to do sort of agree paragraphs, then disagree, then a conclusion, but it's always good to try and sort of have it more like a discussion, so back and forth arguments.

You shouldn't include all of these.

Probably, if you were to include all of these, you'd be spending far too much time than you'd get for the exam question, usually about 12 or 15 minutes, but you want to be making sure that you're going into enough depth, so making sure you're not just listing these but actually explaining them, considering how strong or weak they are, etc.

So I want you to pause your video now and give it your best go at writing out a couple of these points and, essentially, having some agree paragraphs, and then, when you unpause, I'm going to show you sort of a model paragraph.

You can do it.

Give it your best go.

Okay, so here's my model paragraph.

I've tried to include a couple of these verses, the important verses that might talk about Christianity, and then show you the level of detail you need to go into to explain these.

Some Christians may agree that the death penalty should not be used for any crime, as the death penalty does not fit with Christian teachings on love and forgiveness.

For example, Jesus said, "Forgive them Father" before he was crucified, forgiving his killers, and also taught people to "love your enemies".

This suggests a better way to respond to people who commit crime is to look to reform them.

As well as this, Situation Ethics says the good thing to do is the most loving thing in a situation, by showing agape love.

They would argue that it is not showing unconditional love to execute a criminal rather than giving them a chance to change their behaviour.

So, as you can see there, I've tried to explain in full, with those logical chains of reasoning, using the verses and explaining how all this links back to the particular statement.

If you'd like to use any of this in your own answer, or you want to make some notes on everything, then please pause the video now and then unpause when you're ready to move on to the disagree side.

Okay, so we're going to pause the video on the next slide 'cause we're now going to complete the disagree side.

You might have found that the agree model answer is really helpful now for you structuring your next part, and I really hope it will do, and we're now going to have a look at disagree.

So, just like we did before, I've put up my examples up there but you probably have your own points too and that's absolutely fine.

So you're going to do exactly the same thing, choose a couple of them, perhaps, maybe, from Christianity, from Islam, a mixture of them, and then make sure that you've explained them in full, used those verses, used those teachings, explain what they show, consider how strong or weak an argument is, for example.

So I want you to pause the video now, give it your best go to write a paragraph or a couple of paragraphs on disagree, and then unpause and I'll give you a model answer.

Okay, here is my model paragraph.

It wouldn't be my full answer but this would be, perhaps, a paragraph I would include.

So, some Muslims may disagree that the death penalty should not be used for any crime, and state that Shari'ah law allows the death penalty for certain unforgivable and forgivable crimes.

As well as this, the Qur'an gives specific permission to end life through the use of capital punishment when it says "except by legal right." In Islam, a life can be justifiably taken through abortion, if the mother's life is at risk, lesser jihad, and capital punishment.

As well as this, many Muslims may argue that capital punishment acts as an effective deterrent to put people off committing crimes.

This is because executions in Islamic countries are often done publicly.

So, again, if there's things you want to add or things that you find helpful, or useful sentences, or verses, etc, pause the video and then annotate yours, corrections, add things, but really, really well done so far for keeping up.

I'm so, so impressed with you.

We're now going to have a look at how we would make and structure a really good conclusion.

One of the number one things I get asked by my students in my own school is how do I write a good conclusion? What does it look like? And, actually, I think, a lot of the time, the bulk of the answer isn't the problem and that many people struggle with a good conclusion.

So, to make sure that we're writing a good conclusion, you need to include a clear judgement on the statement.

It's not really a good idea to say, "Oh, I'm not quite sure," or "Both sides are really good." Make a clear judgement , even if, perhaps, even if you don't specifically believe in that, make sure it's nice and clear and make a clear judgement , and have at least two reasons to support this judgement.

I always say to my students it's best to start with, "Overall, the strongest argument is" or something along those lines rather than using the word I 'cause I sounds quite personal and, I think, sometimes limits the amount of judgement you can go into in terms of how evaluative you can be.

I think if we argue something like "Overall, the strongest argument is", you are then able to sort of directly link it to the argument itself, rather than it being personal opinion.

I suppose, really, if you do have an opinion on it, then wording it as "Overall, the strongest argument is" is a better way than saying, "I think this is the better argument." I just think it sounds better, it sounds more formal, it sounds more like you're actually, physically evaluating and coming to that clear judgement.

And what I would like you to do is to pause the video on the next slide to complete your task.

I'm going to give you a structure for writing a really good conclusion for this answer.

So writing a good conclusion, "Overall, the strongest argument is" and then you tell me, in that bit, which is the strongest argument, this is because, and you give one reason and then also give a second reason.

What you're going to do then is write a good conclusion for the question and statement we are working on, so I want you use that structure, use those sentence starters, pause the video now, work on that, and then unpause when you are ready.

Okay, here is my example then.

So overall, the strongest argument is that the death penalty should never be used for any crime.

This is because the death penalty does not give a chance to reform.

Many people who have made mistakes, however bad, can learn from them and be forgiven.

As well as this, there may have been too many cases of miscarriages of justice to be certain that the death penalty is the correct response to crimes, however severe they may be.

And you can see here, I've given two reasons but I've expanded on them.

This is quite a lengthy paragraph.

A conclusion should be a fair length because then you are really evaluating, coming to a clear judgement.

I think it's a really good idea to have at least sort of a full paragraph of at least four or five sentences which are nice and clear and evaluative.

If you find any of this useful, please pause the video now and then add corrections or add things to your answer, and then we will say thank you and goodbye in the next part.

So thank you so, so much for working so hard in this lesson.

I feel like sometimes these could come across a little bit tricky but I really hope you feel more confident now with answering these types of questions or, at least, feel like you've made a step towards feeling more confident with them.

The more you practise them, the better you will get at them.

I always find that my students don't like doing them because they're things that we don't do as often as other things.

The more you do them, the more you'll be used to them, and the more practise you'll get.

I always say, at the beginning of the GCSE, people find things really hard, like writing exam questions, and take more time over them, and say like, "I'm never going to do the exam questions "in the time limit." Honestly, the practise makes permanent, which is the idea, that the more you practise, the more permanent that will get the idea in your head, the more used to it you will be, and the quicker you will be too.

So, again, thank you so much for working so hard.

I really, really appreciate your hard work and you being so interested and so involved and writing such brilliant answers.

I may not be able to see your answers but I know that they'll be fantastic.

So, hopefully, I get to see you again soon for another lesson.

If not, I hope you've enjoyed this lesson.

So thank you so much, goodbye.