Lesson video

Hello and welcome.

My name is Mr. Santhanam and this is lesson nine of 10 from our discussion unit.

Our learning objective today is to write a discussion and we are going to be writing the middle part of our discussion today.

So we're going to be focusing on the for and against arguments.

And my friends, Fiona and Arnold are going to help me with this as well.

Before we begin, I wanted to ask you a question because it is a very, very hot day today.

I've got all the windows open, I'm drinking lots of water, and I can really feel how hot it is.

Do you like hot days? What do you like to see on hot days? Are there any good things about hot days? And are there any bad things about hot days? What would your conclusion be if you had to discuss whether hot days are good or bad.

I really like hot days because I can wriggle my feet around in my paddling pool.

And that makes me nice and cool.

I don't like hot days so much because I get very, very sweaty and very, very tired.

What about you? What are some of your reasons for and against hot days? And what would your conclusion be? Let's get started on today's lesson.

In today's lesson, you are going to need some paper, a pencil and your brilliant brain.

Pause the video now while you go and get those things.

Wow, super speedy Gonzalez, I'm so impressed with you, well done, let's continue.

In today's lesson, we are going to start with some sentence starters that are going to help us when we come to writing our middle part of the discussion.

We're then going to review our discussion toolkit or remind ourselves of what things we need to be using when we're writing discussion texts, we're then going to step through the story map to remind ourselves again about what goes in what order.

And finally, we will begin our shared write.

Today, we'll be talking about the for and against arguments about our discussion text.

So first of all, let's have a look at some sentence starters that are going to help us today.

What sentence starters do you think that we should use in our discussion texts? What do you think is wrong with these sentences? Here are some arguments against why zoos should not keep animals in them.

I think zoos are bad because.

I don't believe that zoos are okay because.

What's wrong with those sentences? Now remember these sentences will be going in the against argument.

What do we need to change here? What do you think? That's right, we're starting our sentences with, I think, I don't believe.

And when we're talking about our for and against arguments, we do not talk about I or me.

So you could begin with, some may think, many people think, there are people who think, in some people's opinions.

Why not pause your video now and write down those sentence starters so that you can use them when we come to doing our shared write.

Why is it so important to use those sentence starters? We must make sure that we are always neutral, which means we are not agreeing with for or against until the very end in our conclusion.

That is when we are allowed to say what we think.

We can then say, I think, I believe, that's when we can talk from our head or from our hearts.

But before then we need to stay neutral in the middle.

Pause your video now, while you complete your task, don't forget to write down those sentence starters to help you later on in the lesson.

It's now time for us to have a look at some of our discussion features from our discussion toolkit.

These are all the things that we really need to keep in mind when we are writing our discussion.

So let's have a look at the discussion features.

Do you know any already? If you do, shout them out at me now.

What do we need for our discussion? Well, I heard some great ideas there, let's see if you're right.

The first thing that we're going to need is our introduction.

My turn, your turn, introduction, introduction.

An introduction is often something that we see in nonfiction texts.

This is where we explain what is going to be discussed, we introduce an idea to our readers.

Conclusion, conclusion, this is where we give the writer's opinion.

So you are going to be writing this today.

And at the end of your discussion text, you are going to need to give your opinion.

What do you think? Do you agree or do you disagree with the discussion? Then we've got arguments for, arguments for, arguments for This is where we write the part of the discussion text that agrees, that is for the argument.

Can you remember which one of my friends is for the argument? Which one agrees? Is it Arnold or Fiona? That's right, Fiona is the person who always agrees, and she is always for an argument.

Arnold is not, let's see what the next bar is.

Arguments against, arguments against, these are the arguments in our discussion texts which are against the discussion.

They disagree, they think that it is not right and it is not okay.

Can you remember which one of my friends does not agree? That's right, it's Arnold, he does not think it's okay to have zoos, he does not like them.

But in a discussion text, we need to have Arnold and Fiona there to see both sides of a discussion.

And only afterwards we can make our own decision and our own opinion.

Remember when you get to write your own opinion and make your conclusion, think about what is your opinion, you can say, "In my opinion I think.

." Then you can give a reason.

Why do you think that? What is your reason for saying that? And if you really want to challenge yourself, you could even give an example.

Can you think of an example of why you think that? What makes you think that? Maybe you've seen a story before, maybe you've seen something on TV, maybe you know a special facts about animals that can help you here.

We're going to have a look at our structure now, and this is going to tell you what you're going to need in your discussion text.

Let's have a look, the first thing we're going to need is a title.

What is our title? I want you to shout at the screen now, off you go.

That's right, it should animals be kept in zoos or not? We're asking the question, should they or should they not be kept in zoos? The next part is our introduction.

After that, we have our arguments against, and that's when Arnold's going to say what he thinks.

Then we have our for arguments, so Fiona's going to say what she thinks then.

And finally we have our conclusion, that's when you are going to say what you think.

So remember, we don't talk about our own opinions until this point.

We are going to have three against arguments.

So Arnold's got one, two, three arguments against, and we are going to have three for arguments? So Fiona is going to say one, two, three points.

You'll grammar challenge today is to think about, can you include any coordinating conjunctions? We've been working really hard on our coordinating conjunction this week.

So try and see if you can fit one into your sentence.

Now in today's shared write, We are going to be covering three sentences, but explain our against arguments, three reasons why zoos are bad and three arguments why zoos are good.

So three sentences for each one.

Can you remember any of the arguments that are good or that are bad? Shout them out at the screen now.

Wow, I heard loads of ideas then, I heard that some people thought that zoos are bad because they don't allow animals who need to hunt, to hunt for their own food and that makes them sad and lazy.

I heard some people saying that zoos are cruel and they keep animals locked up when they should be free, I heard some people saying that zoos help people to care about nature, loads of things that we can include.

Now, remember this part is really tricky, we must be neutral until the end.

The only time we can say what we think is in the conclusion until then we need to be neutral, which means we're not siding with Fiona and we're not siding with Arnold.

The way we can do this is by using sentence openers.

We could say, some people believe.

Some people disagree.

Some people think.

Some people do not.

We can start with they, They think.

They believe.

They disagree.

They want.

Or we could start our sentences with we, If we do not.

We must remember.

We must not.

Or we call this.

Can do you notice how none of my sentence openers begin with I, We can only say I when we get to our conclusion.

Before then, we need to be talking neutrally.

That means we're not on anyone's side, we're just talking about what other people think.

Why not pause your video now and think about some sentences from our discussion texts that start with these sentence openers.

Some people, they and we, Let's move on, We're now getting ready for our shared write.

So make sure you've got your pencil and your paper with you to begin the discussion, good luck.

You can write at the same time as me if you like, or you can watch how I do it and then do your own version afterwards.

It's up to you.

I should have already written my title and my introduction.

And it is now time to think about my reasons for and my reasons against.

I'm going to start with my reasons against.

So I've got my trusty story map here, I'm going to use that to help me to tell the reasons against.

I know that when I start my sentences, I need to start with a time conjunction.

So I'm going to begin with, this is my first point.

So I think the word I should start with is.

What do you think I should start with? Firstly, firstly, I need a comma after my time conjunction.

Firstly, some people cause I want to stay neutral, so I'm definitely not going to say I, some people think that it is cruel to keep animals.

How should we finish the sentence? Some people think it is cruel to keep animals locked up.

End of my sentence, so what do I need here? Of course I ended up full stop.

They think and though we're staying neutral, so we're saying they, they think that animals should be.

Some tricky words going on here, should be free, full stop.

Now my next point is about animal animals who need to hunt.

I'm going to start with a time conjunction again.

I've done firstly, so my next paragraph is going to begin with second.

I've done firstly, so my next time conjunction is going to be secondly.

Secondly, they believe that animals who need to hunt cannot do this in a zoo.

They are just given their food, which makes them lazy and sad.

Okay, fantastic, so I'm going to stop there 'cause I think you can then do your thirdly sentence on your own.

Firstly, secondly, thirdly, what do you think? You can finish that sentence on your own.

Now I'm going to write my four arguments, I'm going to leave a line, I've done a paragraph for my against documents, I'm going to leave a line and do my for arguments? I'm going to leave a line now because I want to explain there are some people who think that zoos are bad.

So I'm going to begin with, on the other hand, some people believe that zoos are good.

I introduced that and now going to talk about my for arguments.

Now here, when I start talking about my against documents, I began with firstly, so I'm going to see the same thing again.

Firstly, comma, they think that zoos help to.

What does zoos help to do for endangered animals? They think that zoos help to protect endangered animals from becoming extinct, full stop.

Then I can go into my second argument and my third argument, you should know these really well.

Secondly, I'm going to let you finish your second and third argument yourself.

So let's have a look back at my for and against arguments.

Have I stayed neutral? Yes, I've said some people, they think, they believe.

Have I used my time conjunctions to order my thoughts, yes.

Firstly, secondly, thirdly.

firstly and secondly.

Have I explaining both sides of the discussion? Yes, I've said my against arguments and I've said my four arguments.

Amazing, now pause your video and you have a go at writing your against and your for arguments.

Don't forget to introduce each one.

Amazing, I was so impressed with your shared write there, Let's have a look at our self assessment now Think about, have you explained what the discussion is about? You can give yourself a tick if you have, or if not, you might need to add it in now.

Have you explained both sides of the argument? Have we said that some people believe this and some people believe that? If you have give yourself a tick, if not, you might want to add that in now.

And have you stayed neutral? This means that you're not taking a side.

You're just saying some people think this some people think that.

If you have give yourself another tick, if not, you need to add it into your writing now.

If you like, you can draw a table like this on your paper to really help you to understand your progress and how you're doing.

If you're getting all the ticks, that means you're doing a great job.

If you're not getting text, that means that you maybe need to think about how you can add those things into your writing.

If you really want to challenge yourself further, you can think about, have you included these things? Have you included a title? Are you writing in paragraphs? Have you included tonne conjunctions like firstly, secondly, thirdly? We're not writing the conclusion today, so don't worry about that just yet.

Pause your video now while you give yourself a self assessment.

Remember you can draw a table on your page or you can just think about it in your head.

Amazing, I saw some fantastic reasons for and against then.

In our next lesson, we are going to learn how to write our conclusion.

And that's when we finally get to say what our opinion is.

So we don't have to worry about what Arnold or Fiona says anymore.

We get to speak from our heads and our hearts now, and really voice our own opinions.

I would love to see your work today, if you would like to please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnWithOak.

I'll see you next time, bye bye.