Lesson video

Hello everyone.

My name is Miss Weerasekera.

Welcome to lesson seven in our unit where we are writing a discussion, trying to decide if Ganache cheated or not in today's lesson we're going to look at a discussion similar to this one, but about a completely different topic.

It should follow the similar structure of introduction, points for, points against, and a conclusion.

And it should hopefully include lots of things that we want to include in our own, like sentence openers, subordinating conjunctions, and generalizers too.

We're going to use our toolkit for a balanced discussion to help us identify all the things that we might want to steal from this piece of writing and put into our own, as we write in the rest of the unit, we really need our thinking brains today.

So make sure that you've got yours ready to learn.

In today's lesson, you're going to need a piece of paper and a pencil and of course your brain but you've already got that.

We need to make sure that it's switched on and ready to do some learning.

If you do not have a piece of paper or a pen or pencil, pause here, go and get it, and then press play, when you've got everything that you need.

In today's lesson, we're going to be playing an oral game called balance the scales.

We're then going to go and do a strategy check.

We're going to be reading together today.

So we need to remember how we read in the best way possible, so that we can steal some ideas from this piece of writing and put it into our own.

We're then going to listen and read the balanced discussion together and then we're going to dig deeper into it, using our toolkit to help us understand what makes a really fantastic balanced discussion.

So our oral game is called balance the scales.

This question says, can you think of a point for the other side to balance the scales? So I have some there on one side, it says against, and on the other side it says for, okay? Now the question that we are discussing is, is summer better than winter, okay? So if I was for that I would just be saying, yes, summer is better than winter.

If I was against that, I'd be saying, no, winter is better than summer.

At the moment, there was a point already weighing down the against side, it says "snow is really fun, and you only get that in winter." Okay, so they'd say, "no, I do think summer's better than winter, winter is better because you get snow." Now we know in a balanced argument, we don't want to scale, those tips like this we want to even it out, by having an equal amount of points on each side to make it balanced.

So your job now is to think of a point for, so that we can put that on the other side and balance out the scale.

So I would like you to pause in a moment and you're going to think of a reason why summer is better than winter, pause here, have a think, write it down.

Why is summer better than winter? And then press play when you are done.

Fantastic, I'd like hear your idea.

That is a fantastic idea.

And I think our scales are balanced out now with your brilliant idea about why summer is better than winter, I actually prefer summer too.

I like warm sunny weather rather than cold weather.

Okay, we're going to do this again, but we're going to do it with a different discussion question and we have swapped over the for, and against.

So this time it's a for side has been weighed down and I've put a point in there that I will show you in a moment and this time the against side is up here and we need to think of an against, point.

So should the weekend have three days, okay? I have added a point saying "We would all be happier and more relaxed." So that's for, that's saying, "yes, we should have a weekend that's three days because we would all be happier, and more relaxed." It's your job to find a point to put on the against side to balance it out, and this means that you're telling me why we shouldn't have a weekend that's three days.

Why would it be bad to have a three day weekend? That's quite a tricky one to think of, because it sounds quite nice having a three day weekend, but I want you to think deeply, what could the problems be with a three day weekend? What might we not have time to do during the week, okay? Pause here, think of your point, write it down and then press play when you've done that.

Great, i want to hear this one too.

Okay, i think that does balance the scales.

I still think it would be better to have a three day weekend, don't you? We're going to look at our balanced discussion toolkit and we're going to be using this in each of our writing lessons to really focus our mind on what we need to include as we're writing.

So the first thing that we need to be clear of, and we do know already from our story map and our boxing up, is the structure.

We will have an introduction where we introduce the judge, introduce the question, arguments for.

So all of the points that say Ganache is a cheat, argument against, our three point saying he is not to cheat.

And then our conclusion, where we get our personal opinion and the decision of what the brothers should do.

We're going to use generalizers, in the introduction and conclusion the judge might use I, but in the rest of the argument with the points we're going to use generalizers, we're not going to say, I think that, we're going to say many people think that, some people believe that, some might say okay, so that takes out the personal judgement and means that the reader, the listener is free to make up their own mind as we go through the points.

It's only in the introduction and the conclusion that we're going to use I.

We want to use a range of openers.

Not only does this make it interesting for the reader, but these openers can add specific detail and structure what we are saying.

But firstly, secondly, thirdly really helps to show which point is which, and make it very clear to the person listening.

We're going to use present tense for when we're using opinion, so when in the conclusion or introduction, the judge is saying, I think that, it's present tense of think not thought because it's what they think now, the same with the generalizers, many people think, some people believe, we're talking about what they believe or think right now, not in the past, but, when we are talking about events from the story, those have already happened, so they are in the past.

So when we're talking about Ganache got married to Bordy or the fact that Catcea had travelled around the world, those things have already happened and we would do past tense then, but I am going to be helping you and modelling this for you, as we go through the writing in the later lessons.

Finally, subordinating conjunctions are so important in all writing but especially in a balanced discussion.

Because we need to add clear, extra detail to each of the facts so that we can really explain each point properly.

So we're going to have our eagle eyes out today looking for how this writer has used subordinating conjunctions so that we can do the same.

So before we start reading we want to do our strategy check.

Please make sure that you are watching me and you can follow along and that you are listening really carefully especially for each of those things in our toolkit because we're going to be going over at the end, what have they included? We're going to listen to another balanced discussion about a different topic by a different writer now.

So, hello my name is Dr.

David Attaman, and I know everything there is to know about nature.

I know all about plants and animals and why we should take care of them.

Today, i am here to discuss an important question.

Should animals be kept in zoos or not? This is a tricky question with no right or wrong answer.

Different people have different opinions about this.

First of all, let me explain what a zoo is, in case you have never seen one.

A zoo is a place where animals are kept in cages or behind fences for people to come and see them.

Often you can see animals like lions and tigers, giraffes, and elephants in zoos, okay? Now with our story, I just want us to think about all of those animals that Catcea, sees on his journey in the mountains in the oceans, in the forests, and think about how they are in the wild in their natural habitat, okay? And think about in this discussion, how we are going to see them in zoos behind bars, okay? So start thinking about what's your personal response to this question? Do you think those animals that Catcea saw in the wild should be in a zoo for us to go and see? I don't know.

We'll listen to the points and that might help us to decide.

On the other hand, many people think zoos should be closed.

They say this for three reasons.

Firstly, they think it is cruel because animals are locked in, they want animals to be free.

Therefore seeing animals locked up in cages is very upsetting.

Secondly, they argue that animals usually get their food by hunting and they cannot do this in the zoo.

Additionally, these animals are given food by humans, which makes them lazy and sad.

If they were released back into the wild, they would not be able to survive.

Thirdly, people think that it is wrong to keep animals imprisoned for the entertainment of humans.

While we are having fun at the zoo the animals are suffering.

On the other hand, people think that zoos should stay open.

They give three main reasons for this.

Firstly, many animals are in danger of dying out.

We call this becoming extinct.

If zoos are closed, we would not be able to protect these endangered species in the same way.

For this reason it is vital that zoos remain open to keep these species alive.

Secondly, when people see animals in zoos, they care more about looking after nature.

An outcome of this is that people are more caring towards animals and plants and also donate money to charities that protect them.

Thirdly, a trip to the zoo is relaxing and makes people happy.

And if all zoos are closed, it would be a shame to those that love to visit them.

In conclusion, I think zoos should remain open because it is a good way to make people care more about nature and so it'll encourage people to do something, to protect it.

Nevertheless, zoos must be run well so that the animals there can live a happy and healthy life, okay.

Fantastic, now let's have a think about did the writer use the toolkit? We certainly had our introduction argument for, argument against, and conclusion.

I definitely heard some generalizers in there.

Many people think that, some people believe, and there were lots and lots of openers in different ways, I heard firstly, secondly, thirdly, I heard additionally, some others, as well, there was a difference between present and past tense.

In this one, it's mostly present tense because they're not thinking about a story that's happened in the past.

They're thinking about something that's currently going on.

It's easier for them to stick to present tense.

But it's slightly different for us, but that's okay.

And then subordinating conjunctions, there were the ones that I'm familiar with and there was a couple of extra ones.

I think I heard the word while as well.

So we'll have a look at that.

We are now going to go through a look in detail again, at those paragraphs and pick out things from our toolkit that we noticed.

Okay, we're going to go quickly back through, and I'm just going to point out to some of the things I noticed from our toolkit, okay? So in this first section, this is clearly our introduction.

Introducing the person in this case, its a Dr.

David Attaman in ours, it's judge whoever you want your judge to be.

And they introduced the question, don't they? And they say what's going to happen.

They also give a little bit of extra information about zoos in case those people listening or reading don't know what a zoo is.

They use an opener like first of all, and I don't think they use different people have different opinions.

So they use that general, that generalizer to show that this isn't just what Dr.

David Attaman thinks, he has taken into the account lots of different perspectives and views of others to make it a balanced argument.

In this section, I can see lots of yellow.

There's lots of openers, and this is our points for, we've got three points for the case.

Okay so three points that zoos should be closed.

Okay, so on the one hand, many people think, so on the one hand, firstly, therefore, secondly, additionally, thirdly, all fantastic openers.

We've also got many people think and some people think so there's generalizers that are summing up the general opinion about this idea.

We also have the conjunctions, the subordinative conjunctions, if and while and they've put those at the beginning with the extra information afterwards followed by the main cause at end.

I especially like while we are having fun at the zoo, the animals are suffering.

We use that conjunction to show two things are happening at the same time.

So we might be able to use that in our writing to talk about while Catcea was physically moving around the world, Ganache was sitting in his study, reading a book.

Yeah, so it shows two actions happening at the same time, which could be a good one for us.

Now we've got our points against, you'll notice that there are three.

so it is balanced with the points for, again lots of openers on the other hand, firstly, for this reason, secondly, an outcome of this, thirdly, okay, so we've got first, second, third structure in both, those additional ones for this reason an outcome of this, which kind of gives an extra explanation for example, you'll notice that they use on one hand here on the one hand, and then to structure the second part, they did on the other hand.

So they use those openers to structure those two sections really clearly and I think we could use that as well in ours.

And they've also continued with their use of generalizers, and so they've said there are many people that think this, they also talked about the animals in the same way.

Many animals are in danger of dying out and we have our conjunctions again.

So if the zoos were closed, so we use if, to show some possibility of something might happen.

If this happens then, we also got when, so we know when tells us when, when something's happening, the time.

So when people see animals and zoos, they care more about it, okay? So it shows us the time.

Finally we've got our conclusion, so they sum up, they give their personal opinion here.

You could say I think in the present tense.

Okay they say what, they think should happen.

But also they kind of say the actual details of what needs to happen next.

And what's quite nice about this is you and this is balanced.

They say that zoos should stay open, but they use that opener there nevertheless, okay? Which is, it's a bit like on the one hand, on the other hand, okay? It shows two contrasting opinions, or it says even though I think this, this is something that needs to happen too.

They also use the conjunction because, to really explain their own judgments, so i think zoos should remain open.

They don't just leave it there, they explain why and I think that's really important for our conclusion as well.

I have a small writing task for you to do today.

I'm going to show you three questions in a moment and you can choose one of them.

I would then like you to write your own balanced argument or discussion about this, using the things from the toolkits and all of the things you've just seen in that piece of writing there.

You can do this as something that's written down, you can say it out loud.

You can do it as a discussion map or as a boxing up plan.

It's up to you, how you would like to structure it.

I will let you choose, okay? The three points are, should children be allowed to use the internet? So we'll say yes, for, no, against, should homework be banned? Again, yes, for, no, against.

And should dogs be banned from parks, so, no, for, against.

So you're going to choose one of those to do.

Whichever one you think is most interesting, whichever one you think you can think of points for and points against, and here is our toolkit.

So in your piece of writing or in your plan, wherever, however you do it, you need your introduction, three points for, three points against, conclusion.

So in your conclusion, make sure you say what you think, within that I want those generalizers.

Many people think that, some people believe, your openers.

Firstly, secondly, thirdly, for those points and any extras then your conjunctions, add detail, when, if, that, because, we just saw while as well, to show two things happening at the same time, okay? So have a go, choose how you want to present it.

That's fine, choose your question, use your toolkit and have it go at creating your own balanced argument.

Pause here, and then press play, when you are done.

I am so impressed by how you have taken our toolkit and all of the things we saw in that balanced argument that we just read and you put it into your own.

I can tell just from this that our piece of writing and the rest of this unit is going to be truly amazing.

If you would like to share what you wrote today with me, please ask a parent or carer to put it on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, you can tag Oak National and use the hashtag, #learnwithOak, in our next lesson, we're going to start writing the introduction of our own balanced discussion.

About where they can Ganache cheated or not.

We'll then go on to do the points for, and against and the conclusion before the end of the unit.

I hope to see you in our next lesson.