Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

It's Mr. Brown with your English lesson for today and we will be preparing the introduction of a report on the Great Fire of London.

Preparing.

We're not writing yet.

We are preparing.

We are getting ready to be able to write it, because preparation is a really important part of the writing process.

So, lots to do.

Let's get started.

The outcome for today's lesson is, "I can prepare the introduction of a non-chronological report about the Great Fire of London." and here are the key words which will help us on our learning journey today.

The first one is introduction, we then have prepare, and finally, command.

My turn, your turn.

Introduction.

Very good.

Prepare.

Command.

Excellent.

These words will come up throughout today's lesson.

The lesson outline for preparing the introduction of a report on the Great Fire of London.

We will start our learning by looking at the purpose of an introduction and we will then move the lesson on to preparing to write an introduction.

Non-chronological reports have features that help us to recognise them and to know what to include in them.

The features of non-chronological reports are a title, an introduction, subheadings, and sections.

Today you'll be preparing your own introduction.

The sections of a non-chronological report will be structured in this order.

You'll start with the introduction.

That's the first section.

You'll then have section one and section two of the main part of your report, but we count the introduction as a section as well.

Each of these sections has a different purpose.

You will write one paragraph in each section of the report.

Let's check our understanding.

Where does the introduction come in a non-chronological report? Is it A, at the start, B, in the middle, or C, at the end? Pause the video and decide for yourself now.

Welcome back, everyone.

So the introduction, congratulations if you said it comes at the start.

The introduction is the first section that we write.

Here is an example of a report in its entirety.

You can see you've got everything from the title, the introduction, and the sections.

This is how a whole report will look.

We are focusing just on the introduction today.

Allow me to read you an example of an introduction.

"Have you heard that over 350 years ago, there was a huge fire in England's capital city of London.

The fire is now called the Great Fire of London, and it is a very interesting event in London's history.

Shockingly, the vast, fast-moving fire destroyed thousands of homes, but it is thought that only six people died.

In this informative report, you will learn about how the fire started and how it spread and stopped.

Read on to find out more about this fascinating event." Now, the purpose of the introduction is to give the reader the most basic information, tell the reader what they are going to read about, make the reader want to read on.

Which of these is not a purpose of the introduction? Is it A, give the reader the most basic information, B, tell the reader what they're going to read about, C, tell the reader specific detailed information, or D, make the reader want to read on? Which is not a purpose of the introduction? Pause the video and decide for yourself now.

Welcome back, everyone.

So giving the reader the most basic information, A, we know that is a purpose of the introduction.

Telling the reader what they're going to read about is an important part of enticing them to keep reading, so that's in there too, B.

So it's C or D, which is not a purpose? Tell the reader specific detailed information or make the reader want to read on? Well, we know that the introduction has a key purpose of making the reader want to read on to keep reading the rest of the report.

So it must be C, well done if you said C.

Telling the reader specific detailed information is not a purpose of the introduction.

The introduction should include the following features, a question to the reader which shares a general fact about the subject to open the report, an outline of the report, a command to the reader to continue reading.

Which of these would not be included in the introduction of a non-chronological report? Is it A, a question to the reader which shares a general fact, B, detailed specific information, C, an outline of the report, or D, a command to the reader to continue reading? Which would not be included in the introduction of a general, of a introduction of a non-chronological report? A, B, C, or D? Decide for yourself now.

Welcome back, everyone.

So which will not be included? A question to the reader which shares a general fact is an excellent way to start an introduction.

A question will hook the reader in.

It will engage them.

Definitely that should be there.

So it's not A.

A command to the reader, D, to continue reading.

That is a superb way to end an introduction.

It tells them to keep going, keep reading, so it's not D.

Is it B, detailed specific information or C, an outline of the report? Well, in the introduction, you want to give the reader an outline of what is to come, an outline of the report.

So it's not C.

Well done if you said B.

Detailed specific information does not belong in an introduction of a non-chronological report.

Well done.

Let's have a practise, shall we? Read this example of an introduction and highlight these features.

I'd like you to highlight a question to the reader which shares a general fact, an outline of the report, and a command to the reader to keep reading.

Here is the introduction.

Your job is to highlight one, a question to the reader which shares a general fact, two, a sentence which gives an outline of the report, and three, a command to the reader.

Pause the video and highlight these three things now.

And welcome back.

Let's see if you managed to spot them.

So, "Have you heard that over 300 years ago, there was a huge fire in England's capital city of London?" That has been highlighted, because it is a question to the reader which shares a general fact.

So well done if you highlighted that.

That's number one.

Number two, an outline of the report.

It's the sentence that says, "In this informative report, you will learn about how the fire started and how it spread and stopped." That's the outline.

It tells the reader what is coming up, what they will read about.

That's number two.

And then the very last sentence, "Read on to find out more about this fascinating event." Well, that is number three.

That's the command to the reader to continue reading.

Well done if you highlighted one, two, and three.

Okay, let's move our learning on to preparing to write an introduction.

Preparation is an important part of the writing process.

Sometimes a writer can prepare by saying sentences verbally, which means out loud.

When planning an introduction, a writer should think about what their introduction should contain and prepare to include each of these, a question to the reader which shares a general fact about the subject to open the report, an outline of the report, and a command to the reader to continue reading.

These are the three things which must be in an introduction.

Let's focus on a question to the reader which shares a general fact about the subject to open the report.

Starting an introduction with a question to the reader is a great way to spark their interest and entice them to keep reading.

It is also the perfect opportunity to share a general fact about the subject by asking if they knew that fact.

So you can give information quite simply by saying, "Did you know this?" If I want to tell you something and I add it, add a question starter at the beginning of it, it's a great way to tell you while also asking a question.

Now, some question starters are more formal than others.

"Did you know that.

." Can you see it's on the informal side? "Did you hear about," informal.

"Did you see that," informal.

We are looking for the formal question starters.

So look over to the formal side of our informal to formal scale.

Question starters like, "Have you ever heard," or, "Have you ever considered," or, "Were you aware that.

." These are the ones to use in a report.

Introductions should only contain general facts that will give the reader a flavour of the report rather than lots of specific details.

We are just giving them hints about the report, not going into full detail.

Which of these are general facts and therefore suitable to be used in an introduction? "The fire took place in 1666." Is that a general fact or is that specific details? "The people tackling the fire only had buckets, axes, and squirts." "There was a huge fire in London over 350 years ago." Which ones are general facts? How about this one? "The Lord Mayor agreed to firebreaks being used to stop the fire spreading." Is that a general fact, or is that going into specific details about a particular part of the events? Well, well done if you said, "The fire took place in 1666." That's a general fact.

It doesn't go into specific detail.

It tells you one piece of information about the event.

And well done if you also said, "There was a huge fire in London over 350 years ago." This is also a general fact.

Let's check our understanding.

Which of these facts is a general fact and therefore suitable to be used in an introduction? A, the buildings were positioned closely together on narrow streets, B, it took over 50 years for the parts of London damaged by the fire to be fully repaired, or C, the Great Fire of London started in a bakery, A, B, or C? Pause the video and decide for yourself now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's have a look.

Which of these are general facts? "The buildings being positioned closely together on narrow streets." This is quite specific.

If we're talking about how the fire was spreading, I think this would be a great thing to include, but if it's not a general fact about the whole event.

"It took over 50 years for parts of London that were damaged in the fire to be fully repaired," is a really interesting fact about how London rebuilt itself after the fire.

But again, it's not a general fact, which means C, the Great Fire of London started in a bakery is a really good general fact.

It's not going into specific detail.

It's not saying who the baker was.

It's not saying how the fire started.

It's not saying where the bakery was, which street it was on.

It's just saying, "The Great Fire of London started in a bakery." It's enough to spark the interest of the reader.

Let's have a practise and it's a talk task.

I would like you to decide which question starter you'll use and match it with a general fact and then practise saying them together out loud.

Rehearsing verbally by saying out loud is a really great thing to do to prepare you for writing.

So here are some question starters.

"Have you ever heard.

.", "Have you ever considered.

.", "Were you aware that.

." We know that they are formal, so they're appropriate to be used in a report.

Here's some facts that you can use to combine with your question starters.

"The Great Fire of London took place in 1666." "There was a huge fire in London over 350 years ago." "The Great Fire of London started in a bakery." One more thing I want to add is that remember, we're saying it out loud now, because we are preparing to write, but when we actually come to writing, it will need a question mark at the end.

So I think it'll be helpful if as you say your question out loud, say the words question mark at the end, saying the punctuation at the end can help I think.

So, that's a good thing to remember to do.

Okay, it's over to you now.

Please pause the video and have a go for yourself now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's see how you got on.

Here are some examples.

"Have you ever heard of the Great Fire of London, which took place in 1666?", question mark.

Or, "Were you aware that the Great Fire of London started in a bakery?", question mark.

Really nice examples of how you could combine a question starter with a general fact.

Well done.

To prepare the sentence, where you'll share an outline of the report, you'll need to know what your report will include.

These are also the subheadings of each paragraph in the report.

How did the fire start and how did the fire spread and stop? They are our subheadings, but they are also what the report will include.

Here's an example.

"In this report, you will learn all about how the fire started and how the fire spread and stopped." That sentence provides the reader with an outline of what the report will include.

"This outline of the report clearly tells the reader what the report will include.

However, it doesn't make the report sound very interesting and entice the reader to keep reading.

It is missing an enticing adjective, or adjectives, before the noun report." You can see we've got the noun report there, but there's no adjectives to describe that noun.

"In this, mm, report, you will learn all about how the fire started and how the fire spread and stopped." What adjective can we put there to make our report sound interesting, sound engaging, sound enticing to read? We can add one or two positive adjectives to describe the report in an appealing way to entice the reader to read on.

For example, informative, or informational, educational, or knowledge-rich, or even fact-filled.

These would all be excellent adjectives that you could use such as engaging, interesting, fascinating, surprising, intriguing.

Can you see the ones on the left, informative, informational, educational, knowledge-rich, and fact-filled, these are telling the reader how much knowledge there is in the report, how this report will teach them.

Then the second column with engaging, interesting, fascinating, surprising, and intriguing, that appeals to the reader if they want to be engaged.

If they want the report to be interesting, if they want the report to not be boring to read.

So therefore each of these columns are appealing to a different part of the reader's brain.

So, combining both will really help.

And remember, we are looking for positive adjectives.

So, detailed is a positive adjective.

Lengthy is a negative adjective.

If something is detailed, great, it's got lots of detail in it.

If something is lengthy, and it might be because it's got lots of detail in it, but the word lengthy implies that, hmm, it's gonna take a long time to read, a long time to get through.

It might not be as positive as detailed.

So it's a negative word.

We are aiming for positive adjectives, not negative ones.

Let's check our understanding.

Which of these expanded noun phrases does not describe the report in a positive and enticing way? A, this long, wordy report, B, this surprising, fact-filled report, C, this interesting, informative report.

I want you to tell me which one of these expanded noun phrases does not describe the report in a positive and enticing way.

Pause the video and decide for yourself now.

Well done and welcome back.

Okay, let's see.

So A, this long, wordy report.

If something is long, we know that means it's lengthy.

It's gonna take a long time to read, long time to get through.

Wordy means it's got lots and lots of words and it's some of which might be hard to read.

So therefore, long and wordy report is not describing the report in a positive and enticing way.

B and C have real positive adjectives.

Surprising, fact-filled, interesting, informative.

They're already positive, aren't they? So, A was the correct answer.

Well done if you said A.

Let's have a practise.

Choose two positive adjectives to describe your report in an appealing way to entice the reader to read on.

Again, practise saying your sentences out loud.

Every time before we write, we want to have said them out loud first.

"In this mm, comma, mm report, you will learn all about how the fire started and how the fire spread and stopped." Your job is to choose two positive adjectives to describe the report, and remember, positive, not negative.

Pause the video and have a go for yourself now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see some examples.

"In this fascinating, fact-filled report, you will learn all about how the fire started and how the fire spread and stopped." Fascinating and fact-filled.

If something is fascinating, it is very, very interesting.

If something is fact-filled, it is full of information.

Both of those things are great attributes for reports to have.

Here's another example.

"In this intriguing, informative report," again, very positive adjectives.

Intriguing means it's really interesting to the extent where you're so curious to keep reading.

And informative, again, it's filled with information.

The last thing a writer will do in their introduction is command the reader to keep reading.

A command is a direct order or instruction telling someone to do something and should start with an imperative verb.

An imperative verb is a bossy verb, a word that tells someone what to do, like walk, run, jump, sit, look, stare, talk, eat.

The command should be short and clear, so the reader knows exactly what to do next.

The command is also another opportunity to entice the reader by using an adjective to describe the event itself.

True or false? A command is a direct order or instruction telling someone to do something.

Is that true or is that false? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back, everyone.

A command is a direct order or instruction telling someone to do something.

Yes, it is.

It's true.

Well done if you said true.

Let's have a go at a practise task.

I would like you to plan your command by selecting an adjective to describe the Great Fire of London itself.

Remember, you want the adjective to entice the reader to keep reading.

"Read on to find out more about this, mm, part of London's history." You can use one of these adjectives if you think it is suitable or think of your own.

The adjectives I'm giving to you are shocking, devastating, fascinating, awful, entertaining, boring, interesting.

Which one would you use to describe this part of London's history? And remember, we are enticing the reader to keep reading.

Okay, pause the video and have a go now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's have a look at an example.

"Read on to find out more about this fascinating part of London's history." Fascinating is an excellent adjective to describe this event in London's history.

Another one could be interesting.

"Read on to find out more about this interesting part of London's history." Or, "Read on to find out more about this devastating part of London's history." It was devastating.

Thousands and thousands of people lost their homes.

Therefore, it is a devastating part of London's history.

We are trying to entice the reader to read on.

And even though devastating is a negative word in terms of it has lots of negative connotations, it makes us think of negative things.

This event was negative and therefore describing it as devastating is accurate, but it's also enticing, because lots of parts of history are devastating.

But we still want to know about them, because it's part of our history.

It's part of our world that's been formed before we have arrived.

Let's summarise our learning today.

Introductions often contain questions to the reader.

An introduction may contain some general facts and information to gain the reader's interest.

An introduction may end with a command, which is a direct order or instruction telling the reader to continue reading.

Brilliant work today.

I feel that you are ready to write a fantastic introduction of a report on the Great Fire of London.

Well done.

I will see you soon.