Lesson video

Hello and welcome to today's English lesson.

My name is Mrs. Butterworth and I will be guiding you through the learning, which today is all about planning and writing.

Specifically, it'll be planning and writing for an informative website.

Now, I know for some of you, planning can be a little bit tricky.

Some of you may think you don't need to plan.

Some of you may not know how to plan.

So, in this lesson, I will show you how important planning is to the writing process and lots of strategies in how you can create efficient and effective plans.

And I promise you those that don't think they need to plan by the end of this lesson will definitely be a planner.

Okay, let's get started.

So in this lesson, you will successfully plan and write copy for a website.

But before we delve into the main part of the lesson, let's look at some keywords that will appear throughout.

So you may want to keep an eye out for these.

So the keywords are navigate, safeguarding, autonomy, and vital.

Now, if you are navigating something, you are finding your way and directing a route either physically or metaphorically.

So you may navigate your way through a difficult situation, or navigate your way through a wood.

And safeguarding is to take measures to ensure the safety and protection of a person or object.

So you would safeguard a person.

Autonomy is all about having the freedom and independence to make your own decisions.

So if you have autonomy, you have the freedom to do that.

And then vital means something that is absolutely necessary or critically important.

It is vital that he gets to the lesson on time today.

So the outline of our lesson looks like this.

We're going to start with our planning, so how we plan to write copy for a website.

And then we're going to move on to writing the copy for a website.

So let's start with that planning.

In this lesson, we are specifically planning to write copy for a website.

However, many of the strategies and steps that we are looking at today can be used for other pieces of writing too.

So, as we go through, think about these strategies and think about how you could potentially use them for other pieces of writing.

So these don't just work in this lesson, they work for others too.

So an important step in the planning process is to ensure you fully understand what the task is asking of you.

So like I just said, it's not just this task.

We can do this with other tasks too.

So let's read the task together.

Social media encourages us to accept the invasion of our privacy.

It is turning us into a spying society.

Write the copy for a website aimed at informing teenagers about how to protect their privacy on social media.

So when you are looking at this style of task, this type of task, you can ask yourselves the following questions.

So, what are you being asked to write about? So what is the subject? What is your writing going to be focused on? Purpose, is the task asking you to inform, explain, or persuade? Or it could be to argue or instruct.

So what is the purpose? Then the form.

So in the task, what type of text is it, okay? What style of text? What type of text? And then finally, audience, who are you writing for? Who is the intended reader? So for your subject, you can see here that we've highlighted here.

So for this task specifically, the subject is about how to protect privacy on social media.

So how to be safe online, how to be safe when using social media.

And you can see that from the highlighted text, how we've come to that conclusion.

And then we know the purpose is to inform, because here it actually says the word aimed at informing.

Now, sometimes in other tasks, it may not be quite so obvious, but always look for what it's asking you to do in terms of purpose.

And then the form, here, it is a website.

In other tasks, it might be a leaflet or an article.

But for today's task, it is a website.

And then the audience, who is the intended reader? So here it's all about informing teenagers.

But for this task, we might want to consider that adults will read this too.

So sometimes when we're thinking about audience, yes, it will specify an audience, but think about where that text is going to appear.

So in this case, it'll appear on a website online.

So it probably won't just be teenagers reading it, it will be adults too.

So in today's lesson, we are going to use a single paragraph outline.

And remember what I said at the start of the lesson, this isn't just for this piece of writing.

A single paragraph outline is a really effective planning strategy that you can use for other pieces of writing.

It's really adaptable and it's really efficient.

So it's a really good way to plan and it looks like this.

So for this piece of writing, we have a hook, topic sentence, supporting detail, and concluding statement.

So your first part, your hook, you really need to think about how are you going to hook your reader in.

So what device or what sentence are you going to use to engage and hook your reader? Then you want a topic sentence.

So a topic sentence may develop your hook and introduce your viewpoint.

So your topic sentence is really establishing what your website is all about and what you are going to tell your audience.

Then we've got our supporting detail.

So in this, you need to think about the points or the information you are going to deliver to develop your argument or your point of view.

So everything you feel that a teenager may need to know about online safety and also how you're going to present that, so what rhetorical devices you are going to use.

And then we have our concluding statement, which needs to be impactful.

So this will be the last thing your readers read.

So it needs to be impactful and really make sure that they understand what it is you are saying.

Okay, so let's see what you remember.

Which two parts are missing from the single paragraph outlines? So it's those two top sections there.

Which two parts are missing from the single paragraph outline? What do you think? Are we ready to feed back some answers? Okay, great.

So well done for everyone that noticed we were missing the hook, so that way you were gonna hook our reader in, and our topic sentence, which is all about developing that hook and introducing a viewpoint.

Well done.

Let's keep going.

So, what I would like you to discuss is what makes an effective hook and topic sentence.

So we have an example here, but although this has a particular way of starting, there are many ways that we could start our website using an effective hook and topic sentence.

So let's just read through this example together and then consider the discussion question.

"Is social media spying on us all? Hey there, fellow teens.

In the digital age, social media has become a huge part of our lives.

It helps us connect with friends, share our experiences, and express ourselves.

However, with this great power comes an even greater responsibility, particularly when it concerns safeguarding our privacy on the internet." So I'd like you to discuss, what you think makes an effective hook and topic sentence? So you may want to use the example as a starting point, see what that's done, but then consider how we could change this to do alternative hooks and topic sentences.

Okay, great.

You'll need to pause a video so you can discuss that question, or think quietly to yourself, okay? Off you go.

Great, fantastic.

Some really interesting ideas of how we can hook our reader in.

So let's share some of those now.

So some of you may have noticed that this example used a rhetorical question.

Now, a rhetorical question is a really effective way to engage and hook your reader in and also provoke thought.

So, "Is social media spying on us all?" So it provokes thought, but it also establishes what the website is about really clearly.

So a rhetorical question is a really effective way to hook your reader in.

A declarative statement can also be an effective hook.

And I heard some of you say this, which is fantastic.

So here, instead of the rhetorical question, we have, "Social media has transformed our lives." So again, that declarative, it hooks the reader in, but it also establishes exactly what the website is about, in this case, social media.

And then the hook is followed by this direct address.

"Hey there, fellow teens." So this direct address is effective as it is appropriate for the specified audience and the form.

Okay, so we know that it's about writing to teens.

So here this example has specifically referenced that.

And then at the bottom we have this conjunction, "However," and this is really intriguing and successfully sets up the information that is going to be provided in the website.

So you can see how these following sentences in this opening have really established what the website is about, really engage the reader, and also intrigues and sets up what is going to be written further on in the content.

So what this does effectively is this concisely introduces the main ideas that are going to be addressed in the website.

So it really sets up the writing well, doesn't it? So now we thought about our openings.

I want us to now think about a concluding sentence.

I want you to discuss, please, what makes a good concluding statement? So we're going to look at this beginning and end idea and what the writer has done.

So let's look at this first and then you can discuss what makes a good concluding statement.

So we've got our introduction here.

"Social media has transformed our lives.

However, with this great power comes an even greater responsibility, particularly when it concerns safeguarding our privacy on the internet." Okay, and this is the concluding idea.

"Yes, social media has transformed our lives, but let's use our power to navigate it wisely and responsibly.

Our privacy on the internet matters.

So let's safeguard our digital footprints." So using those as a starting point, I want you to think what makes a good concluding statement and what has this writer done? Pause the video so you can discuss your ideas.

Think quietly to yourself.

Pause the video now.

Great.

Well done, everyone.

I love how lots of you identified what the writer has chosen to do in this example, but take your discussions further, really thinking about alternative ways that you can conclude a piece of writing.

So well done for developing those discussions even further.

So lots of you picked up that this example has used mirroring, which is such an effective structural feature.

So what they have done is they have used language from the start at the end.

So you can see how they've mirrored their introduction in their ending, and it creates this kind of cyclical structure.

It brings your writing to a really nice conclusion.

It signals to the reader this is the end and it brings it all together nicely and allows you to really make your point clearly.

Okay, so a, b, c, or d, which one of the following would you not find in a hook or a concluding statement? So which one of the following would you not find in a hook or a concluding statement? Choose your answer, a, b, c, or d now.

Okay, and the answer is d, quotations.

Well done to everyone that noticed quotations.

Now, you could use quotations later on in your website writing, 'cause you may choose to quote an expert or somebody that knows lots about social media safety, but it's not so good in a hook or a concluding statement.

So rhetorical questions, declaratives, and mirroring are good things to use in those.

So we have our single paragraph outlines here, and we focused on our hook, topic sentence, and concluding statement and what they can look like.

And I now want us to think about this supporting detail.

So how we can use that middle section to plan our supporting detail.

So, your supporting detail could use the following to make it effective.

So, only in note form, outline main point and ideas, and any rhetorical devices.

So you may want to create the rhetorical devices that you are going to use in your plan, so you're not trying to think of those off the cuff when you are writing.

So let's look at an example.

So isn't it time to take control of your online presence and protect your digital life? So you can see there I've created a rhetorical question that I'm going to use in my writing, and then the points that I'm going to make is that you should understand privacy settings, be cautious with personal information and use strong passwords.

So I've got three really strong ideas there that I can use.

As you can see, they're in note form.

They're not full sentences because we want this to be quick and an efficient way of planning.

I've then got some statistics there.

So I've planned them, so I'm not trying to think of them as I'm writing.

So 63% reuse passwords, 74% of teenagers have a privacy breach.

You may want to flesh out your statistics a bit more by including some specific details, but it's all about using this to best support you, so what you would want to include so that it makes your writing much easier and much more effective.

Okay, so we've looked at supporting detail.

Which three of these are the success criteria for planning supporting detail, okay? So you need to select three answers.

Which three of the success criteria for planning supporting details.

Pick those three answers now.

Okay, well done to everyone that noticed it was b, c, and d.

Now, a isn't in the success criteria, write in full sentences, because as I said, we want our plans to be efficient.

And if we are writing in full sentences, that will take up a lot of time.

So save our full sentence writing for when we come to write the whole website.

Okay, so what you are going to do now is you are going to create your own single paragraph outline, but for a model website copy.

So there is some model website copy, and this can be found on the worksheet or the following slides.

So should we look at that model copy together? Okay, great.

Let's read it together.

Okay, so here is the model copy.

Let's read it together.

"Social media is a powerful force.

While social media keeps us connected and entertained, it's essential to maintain our privacy.

This website is designed to assist you in this digital journey.

Take control of your settings: Learn to set your profiles to private.

Studies conducted by the Institute of Technology suggests that a whopping 87% of teens who make their profiles private had fewer security issues.

Manage who has access to your posts and messages.

Online bullying isn't going away, so only let those you trust see what you post.

You wouldn't let just anyone read your diary, would you?" And in the next part, "Guard your personal information.

Exercise caution when sharing your phone number, address, or school details.

Share such information only with individuals you know offline and trust.

Craft strong, unique passwords to master password security.

Shockingly, over 57% of young people reuse the same password.

Regularly update your passwords to ensure your accounts remain secure.

"With such powerful forces upon us as we navigate our digital journey, safeguarding your online privacy is vital.

Let's explore the digital world responsibly while protecting our personal information." So that's the model copy you will be working with.

Let's just go back to the task to remind ourselves what we need to do.

So using our single paragraph outline, you are going to create and fill in that single paragraph outline for the model website, okay? So you're gonna create that single paragraph outline for the model website.

So you may want to think about the following.

So you should identify the hook and topic sentence.

So look for where you think that is in the model example, and you can write that into your single paragraph outline.

You then need to think about the supporting detail.

So think about our success criteria.

So what parts of the model paragraph would you put into a plan? And then the concluding statement.

So which parts of that conclusion would you put into your single paragraph outline? Okay, great.

We've got everything we need to get this task completed.

So I'm going to ask you to pause the video so you can get your single paragraph outlines done.

Pause the video, and off you go.

Thank you, everybody.

So hopefully you can see how creating a plan from a piece of writing, so reverse planning if you like, so doing the planning after you've done the writing isn't something that we would usually do, but hopefully that task can help you see how a plan can become a really good piece of writing.

So here is an example of how you may have completed the task.

You may have something different, and that's fine, but it's good just to compare and to reflect on our own work.

So here is the example.

So we've got our hook, "Social media is a powerful force." The topic sentence, "While social media keeps us connected and entertained, it's essential to maintain our privacy.

This website is designed to assist you in this digital journey." We've got the supporting detail there, so you can see I've taken out some key features and key ideas from the main part of that writing.

And then I've used the concluding sentence from the end of that text and popped that in there.

So, as I said, use this as an opportunity to look at your own plans and reflect on what you have done.

But I would also like you to discuss and think about how has this single paragraph, how has this single paragraph outline met the success criteria? And again, you may take this as an opportunity to think about how your own single paragraph outline has met the success criteria.

So, when you are ready, pause a video so you can discuss that question, or think quietly to yourself.

Off you go.

Well done, everyone.

That was the planning part of our lesson.

So hopefully you have lots of strategies that you can take forward into other pieces of writing and other tasks.

But now we need to move on to our writing.

So we are going to be writing copy for a website.

So, as I said, it's time to start thinking about writing the copy for your website.

So your website copy should include the following, a title, a hook and a topic sentence, organisational devices such as subheadings and bullet points, a range of rhetorical devices, and an effective concluding section.

So I want you to think about first of all and discuss which rhetorical devices would be most effective to use when writing copy for an informative website? Pause a video so you can discuss your ideas.

You can think quietly to yourself or jot some ideas down.

So which rhetorical devices would be most effective to use when writing copy for an informative website? Pause video and off you go.

Wow, great.

So many suggestions.

You have fantastic knowledge of rhetorical devices, so that is great.

Now, you may have said some of the following.

So statistics, direct address, metaphor, rhetorical questions, mirrored openings and closings, and motifs.

So you may have listed many more, and I definitely heard many more being said, but these are some of the ones that you may have also said.

So before we delve into our own writing, I would like us to look at an example, thinking about the success criteria of a website and also those rhetorical devices that we've just discussed.

So here we have an example of a middle section of a website.

So let's read it together first.

This website offers some strategies that can help you to protect your privacy and stay safe on the internet.

Social media can lead to the invasion of privacy in a number of ways.

The loss of independence and autonomy from parents, the sharing of personal data to advertisers and third parties, the sharing of personal information and photos against your will, and the danger of being stalked or harassed, plus the resulting mental health issues.

So I'd like you to discuss, please, how has this section achieved the success criteria? Pause the video to give yourself time to discuss or think quietly to yourself.

Off you go.

Okay, great.

Thank you, everyone.

So you may have noticed that it has concisely outlined the content of the website using those bullet points.

So those bullet points are really effective at laying out the information.

So they really help to achieve the purpose of the website.

And it has also used direct address.

So strategies that can help you to protect your privacy.

So we've got that rhetorical device there and we've also got that structural and layout feature there too.

So I now want you to think about evaluating this example.

Is this the most engaging website copy? How could it be improved? And what rhetorical devices could you include to make it more effective? So this is a perfectly acceptable way to write, but could we possibly improve it? So, pause the video so you've got time to discuss your answers to those questions.

Or if you are working by yourself, you may need to think quietly to yourself, or maybe even write some ideas down.

So lots of options there.

Pause the video and answer those questions.

Thank you, everyone.

Some really creative and interesting ways to improve this and tackle this task and piece of writing.

So really well done to be thinking so creatively when we're writing to inform.

Okay, so what I want to think about now is which two features are missing from the website success criteria? So we've got those two blank bullet points there.

Which two features are missing from the website success criteria? Okay, answer the question now.

Well done to everyone that noticed that organisational devices such as subheadings and bullet points were missing, and a range of rhetorical devices.

Okay, so it is now over to you for our final practise task where you are going to write your copy.

So we've done all the planning and preparation for this and now you just need to write it.

So let's remind ourselves of the task.

"Social media encourages us to accept the invasion of our privacy.

It is turning us into a spying society." Write the copy for a website aimed at informing teenagers about how to protect their privacy on social media.

So I would use the completed single paragraph outline from Task A as a guide.

So you've done some planning work, so you can use that.

And use the model introduction to help you get started.

So this can be found on the following, this can be found on the worksheet or the following slide.

So let me just show you that model introduction.

So here is the model introduction.

You may choose to use this to help you get your writing started.

You may choose to use parts of it, you may wish to totally ignore it and write your own introduction, but we'll read it together first and then you can decide whether you want to use it or not.

"A spying society: How to protect yourself In a social media-driven world.

We wouldn't let our stranger into our living rooms, yet we so often welcome unknown followers to our social media profiles.

Our shopping choices are monitored by the cookies on our computer, which sadly are little internet tracking devices rather than delicious snacks.

And we map out our every movement on Google.

Every day, we leave a great, winding digital trail of information in our wake.

In a world where so media is so dominant amongst young people, it can be hard to shut ourselves away from it when it becomes harmful.

This website offers some strategies that can help you to protect your privacy and stay safe on the internet." So that's the model introduction.

Let's go back to the task and just make sure we've got everything we need to complete our writing.

So, here is the task.

So it's over to you to write the copy for that website.

Again, you can use the single paragraph outline from Task A to help you.

And you can use the model introduction to help you get started too.

Like I said, you can use it, you can use bits of it, or you can choose to create your own introduction.

Now, you may wish to include some of the following rhetorical and structural devices, and I would aim to include some of these.

So think about including some statistics, direct address, metaphor, rhetorical questions, mirrored openings, and closings and motifs, because they will just really elevate your writing and make it interesting for your reader.

Okay, so I am really excited to see what you come up with and all of your writing.

So when you are ready, get what you need to complete this task, pause the video and get writing.

Great job, everyone.

Fantastic.

Thank you for working so hard on this writing task.

I definitely think there may be some website copywriters out there.

It's a really great skill to practise, isn't it? And thinking about how we present information.

As you look at other websites going forward, you may start to notice this style of writing yourself.

So what I would like you to do now is I would like you to just have a moment of reflection whilst looking through your own work.

And I would like you to self-assess your own writing and check for the following.

Have you used statistics, direct address, metaphor, rhetorical questions, mirrored openings and closings, and motifs? You may not have used all of these, and that's absolutely fine, but this is just about self-assessing and see what you have used and maybe thinking about how you could use some of the other features in another piece of work another time.

So pause a video to give yourself time to complete that self-assessment task.

Off you go.

Okay, great.

So now you have done the self-assessment.

I'd like you just to have a little discussion or think to yourself.

So you've checked through the list, which rhetorical and structural features did you use and how do they effectively engage and inform your reader? So maybe just explain your choices.

So which rhetorical and structural features did you use? And explain how they effectively engage and inform your reader.

Again, pause the video so you've got time to discuss these ideas, or reflect quietly on your own work.

Off you go.

Fantastic work, everyone.

Well done.

And hopefully you are coming away from this lesson with lots of good planning strategies that you can take forward.

So let's just remind ourselves of all that we have achieved this lesson.

We now know that planning is an important part of the writing process.

Absolutely.

The single paragraph outlines can include hooks, topic sentences, supporting detail, and concluding statements.

Again, those single paragraph outlines can be adapted to include different things.

Textual detail could be in note form.

This should outline your main ideas and include rhetorical devices.

And when writing copy for a website, organisational devices such as subheadings and bullet points can be included.

Using a range of rhetorical devices can effectively engage and inform your reader.

And remember that even if you are writing to inform or presenting information, we still want our writing to be engaging and interesting.

Again, thank you for your hard work.

I have really enjoyed working with you today and I hope that you will join me soon for another English lesson.

I will see you then.

Goodbye.