warning

Content guidance

Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour

Depiction or discussion of peer pressure or bullying

Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering

Adult supervision recommended

video

Lesson video

In progress...

Loading...

Hello and welcome to today's lesson.

Thank you so much for joining me.

It's an absolute pleasure to have you here.

My name's Miss Halliday, and I'll be your teacher for today.

I can't wait to get started with today's lesson because I absolutely love "Frankenstein".

It is my favourite novel in the whole world.

So I can't wait to show you what I find so amazing and so interesting about this novel.

Let's get started.

So today's lesson is called "Planning a Written Analysis of Frankenstein", and that's exactly what you'll be doing.

But by the end of today's lesson, you will be able to use single paragraph outlines to plan an excellent response.

Here are some keywords that you'll need for today's lesson.

We've got irresponsible, negligent, to transgress, to shun and grave.

Let's take a look at these keyword definitions, and if you'd like to pause the video so that you can jot them down so that you remember them later in the lesson, then please do feel free to do so.

So first of all, irresponsible means not behaving in a sensible or responsible manner.

Somebody negligent would fail to take proper care of something that they have responsibility for, or somebody who's being careless in their approach to something.

To transgress means to violate a rule, law or boundary.

To shun means to reject or refuse to accept someone.

And finally, if consequences are grave, then they're extremely serious and concerning.

Here's our lesson outline for today.

We're going to begin by getting our question and unpicking the question and the corresponding extract.

We're then going to move on to you planning your response.

But let's start first by getting the question and unpicking that and the extract together.

So here's the question that you are going to be planning a response to today, and it's a great question using this extract as inspiration, how does Shelley present Victor Frankenstein as irresponsible in "Frankenstein"? So what we're being asked to do here is to consider how Victor is presented as irresponsible in the novel.

So whenever we answer a question like this, it can be really useful to come up with some words that are alternative ways of describing the key question word, which here is the word irresponsible.

So what I'd like you to do is with the people around you, I'd like you to come up with alternative words that you can use that mean irresponsible, so that you can use these words to describe Victor Frankenstein in the novel so that you're not repeating the word irresponsible 50 times in your response.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

I'm really impressed by how many ideas you all had.

Here were some of the words that I heard that I liked the best.

So first of all, we've got this word negligent, which is one of our key words for today.

And it means when you kind of fail to take care of something properly and that in itself is irresponsible.

I also have this word careless, and that's another word that means irresponsible.

If you're being careless, you're not taking care of something properly, you're not thinking about the consequences of what you're doing.

Again, this word reckless, that can mean irresponsible as well in the right context.

If you do something recklessly, you do something without thinking and that's irresponsible.

And finally, this word thoughtless, which means that you're not being considerate perhaps of the consequences of something or how other people might react to it, which again is irresponsible.

And what I'm hoping you've started to notice is that by considering alternative words for irresponsible, you're actually gathering some ideas and giving yourself some inspiration for your response.

Because actually, if we think about how Victor's presented as negligent, well there's a really clear example of that in the novel, there's really clear examples of Victor being reckless.

There's really clear examples of Victor being careless.

And although all these words do mean irresponsible, there's shades of meaning between them that enable you to generate different ideas that all link back to this idea of him being irresponsible.

So it's a really useful activity when you get an essay question, to think of alternative words for the question focus word.

So what I'd like you to do now is take each of these words and see if you can think about an example in the novel of where we see Victor behaving in this way.

So where do we see Victor being negligent? Where do we see Victor being thoughtless or careless or reckless? Because even though all these words have slightly different meanings, they all fit really nicely within this overarching argument that Victor is irresponsible.

So what I'd like you to do now is pause the video and discuss, well, how is Victor irresponsible in Frankenstein? So you can discuss that with the people around you.

Off you go.

Fantastic discussions.

And let's take some feedback from our fantastic Oak pupils.

So here are some of the ways that they felt that Victor had behaved irresponsibly in Frankenstein.

So Andeep states, "Well transgressing against the laws of nature and the boundaries of morality to create the creature was irresponsible." and Jacob replies, "Yeah, and rejecting and shunning the creature was careless.

Victor's rejection of the creature made it a fiend." And that's something that the creature points out himself.

He says, misery made me a fiend, which shows that actually Victor's initial rejection of the creature was a really careless thing to do and it had devastating consequences.

And finally, John points out that Agreeing to create the second creature, the mate for the first one was also irresponsible and thoughtless because it really hurt the creature's feelings and it actually catalysed a devastating chain of very violent events in the novel.

So these are some ways in which we can take those alternative words that all still mean irresponsible and use them as a springboard from which to kind of get different ideas together.

So they're all different examples of different kinds of irresponsibility that Victor demonstrates, but they all fit really nicely within that overarching argument, that is the fact that Victor is irresponsible in the novel.

So well done.

So let's unpick exactly what it is that you're being asked to do, because I think often students tend to panic about the way that questions are phrased.

So let's have a look at exactly what you're being asked to do in this question.

So here's our question again, using this extract as inspiration, how does Shelley present Victor Frankenstein as irresponsible and "Frankenstein"? Now, first of all, this word how should jump straight off the page at you.

Because actually, when you're being asked how something is done, you are simply being asked to analyse the writer's methods.

Because the writer's method is anything that the writer does.

It is how they create their text.

So actually what we're being asked to do here is we're being asked to analyse Shelley's use of methods.

Now we've been asked to use an extract as inspiration, okay? And what that means, that word as inspiration, that means that some of our evidence should definitely come from the extract, but also some of it should come from the rest of the novel.

And we've studied a plot summary and quite a few different snippets of extracts from the text that you should be able to refer to in your response to show your knowledge of the whole text.

Okay, so what we're really looking to do here is take some quotes from the extract and some quotes from the rest of the novel.

And lastly, of course, we are looking at Victor Frankenstein as an irresponsible character, and therefore we need to be looking and thinking of evidence that shows that Victor has been irresponsible or negligent or careless, okay? So we're basically looking for evidence for the ideas that we brainstormed slightly earlier in the lesson.

So that's what we're being asked to do in the question.

Let's check for understanding before we move on to look at the extract.

So which question word requires you to examine the writer's methods? Is it a what, B, why, or C, how? I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you jot down the correct answer.

Off you go.

And well done if you correctly identified that it is in fact C, how.

Whenever we're asked how something is done, we're being asked to examine and analyse the writer's use of methods.

So without further ado, let's read that extract together.

You can find this in your additional materials.

Hopefully you've got it in front of you.

As I read, you should be following along with a highlighter in hand.

And the reason that we read with that highlighter in hand is because actually, as I'm reading, there might be points where you think, oh, that's Victor being irresponsible.

So you would highlight that in the text so that you can come back to it and find it quickly once we've read the full extract, it might also be useful to annotate very brief ideas in the margin as we go through the extract.

Again, this will save time later on because you'll know exactly what you're going to include when you come to plan your response.

So here's the extract, highlighter in hand.

I'm gonna start reading, you follow along.

"As I said this, I suddenly beheld the figure of a man at some distance advancing towards me with superhuman speed.

He bounded over the crevices in the ice, among which I had walked with caution.

His stature also as he approached, seemed to exceed that of a man.

I was troubled, a mist came over my eyes and I felt a faintness seize me.

But I was quickly restored by the cold gale of the mountains.

I perceived as the shape came nearer, sight tremendous and abhorred, that it was the wretch whom I had created.

So here we see another encounter between Victor and his creation here.

And what I'd like you to do with this extract is think, well, why is the creature so dangerous and how does this link to Victor being irresponsible? So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you consider those questions either on your own or with the people around you, whichever you would prefer.

So pause the video and off you go.

Fantastic work and some really interesting contributions there.

So thank you, and here's some of the responses that I heard that I liked best.

So I heard someone say that the creature's superhuman height and speed makes him really powerful.

Now, this shows Victor's irresponsible nature because making the creature so powerful and so strong was very, very silly, okay? It was very negligent, it was very irresponsible because it means that the creature can, and we know that he does very easily overpower another human being and that therefore means that Victor is unable to control this creature.

So it was actually really silly of Victor to create such a massive creature that he has no control over, because what that means is that he cannot actually contain it, and therefore the devastation that it could and does wreak on humanity is considerable.

So it is really kind of a very silly and negligent decision there from Victor to make this creature so big and give it that superhuman speed.

So onto the first task of the lesson now, and I'm going to ask you to finish reading the extract that you have been given.

Remember that we are reading with a highlighter in hand, and therefore you should continue to highlight any evidence that you think characterises Victor as irresponsible.

So any moment where you feel that Victor's being careless or thoughtless or negligent, quickly highlight it so that you know that you can use that in your essay.

Remember to continue to annotate the extracts with quick ideas and any methods that you think might be worth discussing in your response.

Because remember, we are being asked how Shelley characterises Victor as irresponsible.

So we need to be focused on methods.

And as you read, consider how you can link each piece of evidence that you've identified to other parts of the novel.

So thinking back to those other extracts that we've studied together and the plot summary and how do these moments kind of link to the rest of the novel? So for example, we said earlier that obviously Victor made the creature, gave it superhuman strength and speed.

Why is that a problem? Well, because later in the novel we know how many people it kills.

So there we're linking what we learn from the extract with what we know from the rest of the novel.

So you need to think about how you're going to do that in your response as you are annotating.

So I'm gonna invite you now to pause the video while you read the rest of the extract and select any evidence that you think you might want to use making those annotations and thinking about those links to the rest of the text.

So pause the video and off you go.

Fantastic annotations.

I can see some very, very full looking extracts, which is fabulous to see at this stage.

It means you've got lots of ideas and you'll be able to pick really judiciously which ones you want to take forward in your planning.

So well done, if you didn't get as many ideas as that, do not worry at all because here's some ideas that you can have to take forward in your planning process.

So here's some evidence you might have highlighted.

First of all, we're told in the extracts that "His countenance bespoke bitter anguish combined with disdain and malignity." And now that shows how irresponsible Victor was to shun the creature, so to reject the creature when it was first animated, because now what that's done is filled the creature with this vengeance and rage that motivates him to murder several of Victor's friends and family.

So again, we see here Victor's decision to shun that creature very early on was very silly and very negligent decision to make because this is the consequence of his actions, a very hateful and a very spiteful creature.

We also had this quote here "That I could, with the extinction of your miserable existence, restore those victims who you have so diabolically murdered." And again, here we see Victor's deep regret for his irresponsible behaviour.

He understands now that making the creature powerful was reckless because Victor gave him the ability to inflict harm.

And I think Victor in this moment realises how foolish it was of him to give the creature such power and such strength because unfortunately, he's used it really wickedly and really negatively in the novel.

So well done if you've got any of those annotations, and if you didn't, take them now and take them forward into the next part of the lesson where we're going to start planning.

So let's look at planning your response.

So generally, critical writing tends to follow a structure a little bit like this.

So we start with our introduction where we include that thesis statement and we outline our big idea about the question.

So basically what we intend to prove.

Now in the case of this essay, what we're trying to prove is that Victor is irresponsible.

We've been given the idea in the question, and that is what we're trying to prove.

And what we're trying to prove as well is that his thoughtless behaviour has really dire consequences in the novel.

And the reason for that is so that Shelley can show the dangers of the over advancement of science.

So then what we'd do is we'd start to think about our reasons.

So why do we think what we think? Where's our evidence for our opinion? So reason one would be section one.

And we might say in this case that actually making the creature in the first place was really irresponsible because Victor violated moral and natural boundaries in order to do this.

So the next section would be our next reason or our next opinion.

And that in this case might be that actually making the creature powerful was also negligent.

So he shouldn't have given the creature that superhuman speed and strength because we know that it means that he can't control it.

Section three is yet another reason.

It's always good to give a minimum of three reasons for your opinion, three bits of evidence.

And again, in this case, another mistake that Victor made was to shun the creature.

And that was really careless because what it created is a very kind of vengeful and hateful creature that kind of made destruction his mission because of the way he was treated by Victor.

So shunning the creature and rejecting him at birth was a very foolish and negligent thing to do.

And then once we've outlined all our reasons for why we think what we think, we've then got to kind of return to those reasons and summarise them for our reader.

So we then come back to our thesis statement and we restate our opinions and we kind of reinforce those reasons as to why we think that Victor is irresponsible.

So again, in this case we might say something like, well, Victor's irresponsible behaviour has really grave consequences.

So very serious and concerning consequences.

And actually the reason for this is that Shelley is trying to raise concerns about scientific advancement.

So you'll notice there that our conclusion and our introduction are actually very similar and we should be echoing the same ideas in both.

So what we're gonna use today is something called a single paragraph outline.

And these are really helpful in supporting the planning of each section of your work.

Now it's important to know and to bear in mind that each single paragraph outline should not take more than five minutes to complete.

So it's a very quick kind of planning process, but it's also very effective.

And here's how it works.

So it looks something like this.

We have a topic sentence, we have supporting details up to four, and we have a summary sentence.

So first of all, that topic sentence introduces the main idea in our paragraph.

So what we'll be proving, okay, so basically that Victor's irresponsible.

Our supporting details are then any information and ideas that you will use to prove your opinion.

Now in literature, in English, we know that proving something involves using a quotation from the text, okay? 'Cause we've always got to refer back to the text and explain how we know what we know and why we think what we think.

So your supporting details should always include a quotation and also some links to other parts of the novel.

And finally, we have a summary sentence, which concludes the main ideas in your paragraph, and it links back to the writer's intentions.

So why did Shelley write this novel? Okay, so that's what you're looking to explore in your summary sentence.

So let's check for understanding before we look at an example of this inaction together.

Which section of your essay should revisit your main idea from the paragraph and link to the writer's intentions? So why they wrote the novel, is it A, the topic sentence, B, the summary sentence, or C, the supporting details? Pause the video and make your choice.

And well done if you selected B, it is the summary sentence.

We look to revisit the main idea and make that really clear link to why the writer wrote the text.

So we're going to read a paragraph of analysis about "Frankenstein", and it is in response to the same question that you are answering about Victor being irresponsible.

So here it is.

Victor Frankenstein is presented as a highly irresponsible and negligent character whose relentless pursuit of scientific knowledge leads him to thoughtlessly transgress against nature, God and science.

Victor's negligence is evident in the design of his creature.

In the extract, we are informed that the creature has superhuman speed and stature.

Here, Shelley's use of the word superhuman shows us Victor's irresponsible behaviour because in making the creature so powerful, Victor has lost his ability to control and contain it, which leads to the murders of several of Victor's friends and family.

In showing us Victor's negligence, Shelley raises concerns about scientific advancements in the 19th century and illustrates the potentially devastating consequences of unethical approaches to acquiring knowledge.

A really good paragraph of analysis there, and that's what you're aiming for.

So let's see now how this paragraph would look as a single paragraph outline.

So first of all, our topic sentence in which we introduce the main ideas would be this.

Victor Frankenstein is presented as a highly irresponsible and negligent character.

So we're saying yes, we think he's irresponsible and negligent, whose relentless pursuit of scientific knowledge leads him to thoughtlessly transgress against nature, God and science.

So what we've done there is give a really brief example of Victor being irresponsible.

And we say that it's actually because he transgresses against nature, God and science, and that is what makes him thoughtless overall.

And then we're going to start later in the essay looking at how he does that.

So the supporting details, we've then got to tie this to a quotation from the text.

So the quotation that our paragraph used was "Superhuman speed and stature." And in terms of Shelley's methods, because remember we were asked how Shelley characterises Victor as irresponsible, is through this use of the word superhuman.

Shelley has chosen that word, therefore, it is one of Shelley's methods.

And that word superhuman shows us the sheer power of the creature.

And unfortunately, that means Victor can't control him.

Now, our link to the rest of the novel is the fact that he then goes on to murder several of Victor's friends and family.

And that is a direct consequence of the fact that Victor made him very powerful and strong.

So it's really important that we mention that here, because the family members and the friends, they really don't stand a chance against the creature, and that is Victor's fault.

So it was irresponsible of him to create such a huge creature.

In terms of the summary sentence where we conclude our ideas and revisit our thesis statement, making links to our writer's intentions, well, we have this.

In showing us Victor's negligence, Shelley raises concerns about scientific advancements in the 19th century and illustrates the potentially devastating consequences of unethical approaches to acquiring knowledge.

So here again, we reiterate, we restate that Victor is negligent and irresponsible, and we say why Shelley has made him this way.

And it's to show us the dangers of pursuing science without moral conscience.

So now that we've looked at that example together, I'm going to hand the batton to you and you are going to plan the single paragraph outlines for each section of your response using the question, how does Shelley present Victor as irresponsible? Now remember, this is what your single paragraph outline looks like.

We have the topic sentence where you outline what you are trying to prove in the paragraph and in what way Victor is irresponsible.

Your supporting details.

You've got to think about which quote are you gonna use as evidence? Is it gonna be from the extract or will it be from the rest of the novel? And what you're gonna say about that quote? And also, what other moment in the novel could you link to here? And finally, remember that you'll need to plan out your summary sentences.

So you'll need to think about, well, how is Victor irresponsible? So returning to that same idea in the topic sentence where you explain in what way he's irresponsible, and thinking about why has Shelley made him irresponsible? What point is she trying to make about society? What concerns is she trying to raise? So when you are planning, it's really important to have all your notes open and the novel open if you've got a copy of it in front of you.

If not, then make sure you've got your extracts in front of you so that you can constantly refer back to the notes you made, the ideas that we've discussed together to make sure that your plan is as high quality as it can possibly be, as this will put you in the best position possible when you come to write this essay up.

So what I'm going to invite you to do now is pause the video while you create your plans using the single paragraph outline structure.

I can't wait to see your plans, good luck and enjoy amazing work, some absolutely fantastic and really detailed plans there.

And I could see many of you thinking really carefully about exactly which quotations you wanted to use from the extract and which moments you wanted to link to from the rest of the novel.

So really well done.

I'm so impressed with how conscientious you have been in that activity.

So we're going to undertake some self-assessment now.

So I would like you to check that you have written your topic sentences in full on your plan, and that you have kept your focus on how Victor is presented as irresponsible, and also why he's irresponsible.

You then need to check that you have provided at least three pieces of supporting detail per paragraph outline.

And that needs to include quotations, discussions of Shelley's methods, and also any links to other relevant parts of the text.

I, I also want you to look really closely at your plan and think, well, have I actually thought about the vocabulary I'm going to use? Have I thought about using ambitious vocab such as negligent transgress, malignity, destructive, abhorrent, grave and dire? Because these are all really specific and impressive words that you can use to show your understanding of the text.

And finally, have you written your summary sentence in full? Have you reinforced the main idea in your paragraph, which should be something like, Victor is irresponsible.

And have you thought about why Shelley makes Victor irresponsible and why she wrote the novel? So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to invite you to pause the video for a few moments while you check back over your plan and make sure that you have ticked off all the bullet points on screen now to ensure that your plan is as high quality as it possibly can be.

So pause the video and undertake that self-assessment now.

Really well done.

It's really hard to be reflective of your own work, but you've managed that really responsibly.

So a massive well done.

So to summarise the learning from today, well Victor's presented as a really irresponsible character whose negligence has disastrous consequences.

Single paragraph outlines can be really useful for organising your ideas into a coherent structure.

A single paragraph outline contains a topic sentence, supporting detail and a summary sentence.

And remember that the supporting details should contain quotations that you want to use, along with the writer's methods, key vocab and any relevant contextual information.

So anything about Shelley and why she wrote the novel.

And finally, a single paragraph outline should be planned for each section of your response.

Although this might end up being more than one paragraph, it depends how much you want to say about each quotation.

Thank you for joining me for today's lesson.

It's been an absolute pleasure, and I was so impressed with the plans that you created.

I can't wait to see your responses written up.

Thank you and see you later.