Lesson video

Hello there.

My name is Mr. Brown and I am going to be your teacher for today's lesson.

And I'm so excited because it's a really interesting one.

We are going to be identifying the features of a diary entry.

Now you might have heard the word diary used before, but in today's lesson you are going to fully understand what a diary is and what a diary entry looks like so that you can identify one in the future.

So we have a lot to do today.

But I'm ready, you're ready, let's get started.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can identify the different features of a diary entry.

The keywords which we'll use on our learning journey today are diary, features, recount.

Let's say those together.

My turn, your turn.

I'll say the word, you repeat.

Diary.

Features.

Recount.

Amazing job, well done.

Let's look out for those words in today's lesson.

So we will start our lesson by looking at what is a diary entry.

We'll then move our learning onto identifying the features of a diary entry.

So what is a diary entry? Have you ever told someone about something that's happened to you in the past? There are many times we talk about our past experiences, perhaps telling someone about what you did at school that day.

I often see children walking out of school talking to their parents or carers, friends or family, about what they did at school that day.

Telling someone about what you did during a school holiday.

Children often come back on the first day after a school holiday and want to tell me about their experiences during the holiday.

Or telling your teacher about something that's happened to you in the playground.

This might be something positive or something negative that you need to talk to the teacher about, but you are sharing your own experience.

Now when we do this, we are recounting something that's happened to us.

We are recounting something that's happened to us.

And when we are recounting the information we are sharing with someone is called a recount.

Now a recount is a way of telling others what has happened to you.

Let's check your understanding.

True or false.

When we are recounting the information we are sharing with someone is called a recount.

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

Welcome back everyone.

Let's see if you were right.

When we are recounting the information we are sharing with someone is called a recount is true.

It is.

A recount is when you are recounting your past experiences or events.

There are some important things to remember when writing a recount.

A recount is written in the first person because it is happened to you.

It's something that's happened to you.

Now it's written as if you are the one writing and sharing your experiences.

So that's what first person means, writing in the first person.

A recount is written in the past tense because the events have already happened.

They are in the past.

A recount is written in chronological order.

That means it's written in the time order that the events happened.

So if you are writing about a particular day, you'll write about the morning first, then the afternoon, then the evening in time order.

That's chronological order.

Let's check your understanding.

A recount should be written in, a, chronological, non-chronological order, sorry, b, chronological order, or c, any order.

A recount should be written in non-chronological is a, chronological order, b, any order, c.

Pause the video and decide a, b, or c now.

welcome back.

Let's see if you found the right answer.

A recount should be written in chronological order.

Well done if you said chronological order, that means time order, the order in which things happen.

There are lots of times when we are sharing a recount with someone else, however, what if we want to write a recount for ourselves? What do you think that might be called? When we write a recount that is just for ourselves to read, it is written in a diary.

It is written in a diary.

Each time a person writes in their diary, it is called a diary entry.

So a diary is a book full of recounts written by the person who is writing about their own life.

And each time they write in that diary it's called a diary entry, an entry.

A diary is a personal book that is used by someone to write their thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

A diary is just for the person writing it to read.

It is personal and private to them.

Therefore it is written in an informal tone.

The person writing the diary is only writing it for themselves.

So they don't need to write in a formal way.

It can be informal, which is more relaxed.

So my question to you is why? Why might a person write in a diary? Maybe you keep a diary.

Why do you do it? Maybe you know someone at home who has their own diary.

Why do they do it? Why might a person write a diary? Have a moment to think.

Well they might write it to keep a record of a day or a week, to record what has happened to them.

To remember important moments.

To express emotions or explore difficult feelings.

Something might be happening in someone's life that is difficult, that's emotional, and to write it down may help them to explore that.

To keep secrets and have a private space.

So there might be things that are personal to you that you want to keep a bit secret.

There might be feelings that you have that you might not want to share with people.

And a diary gives you the opportunity, the opportunity to write it down.

True or false.

A diary is for anyone to read.

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

Welcome back.

Let's see if you are right.

A diary is for anyone to read.

No, that is false.

It is for the person writing it to read.

It is personal and private.

Well done if you said false.

Okay, time for a practise.

With a partner, brainstorm reasons for why writing a diary might be a positive thing to do.

Why might it be a positive thing to do? Now we know that looking after our mental health is very important and keeping a diary might help someone who is finding it hard to manage their thoughts, their feelings and emotions.

For example, reasons for writing a diary might be to remember happy memories or to help you think through a problem.

So I've started this process for you.

Your job with your partner is to try and brainstorm as many reasons as you can for why writing a diary would be a positive thing to do.

And I would love it if you could link some of these to mental health, to helping to maintain a positive state of mental health.

So why might writing a diary be a positive thing to do? Pause the video and make a list of reasons now.

Welcome back everyone.

I am so excited and intrigued to see your list.

So I asked you with a partner to brainstorm reasons for why writing a diary would be a positive thing to do.

And we talked a little bit about the benefits that it might have on someone's mental health.

I gave you the suggestions of, remembering happy memories, helping you to think through a problem.

Other reasons I thought, safe place to share ideas, dreams, and goals.

So there are some things that you might not feel safe sharing with someone else.

A goal that perhaps seems so ambitious that you might not want everyone to know that it is your goal, but writing it in your diary is a perfect place to do that.

It might help you not to worry about problems. If there's a particular problem in your life and you can write it down in a diary, think it through, talk it through with yourself almost, that might help you to manage how you're feeling about that problem.

Help you not to feel lonely, as it gives you a chance to talk about your life.

Sometimes people can feel lonely, particularly if maybe you've moved house, you've moved away from your friends.

Having a diary is an opportunity for you to be able to talk as if you're talking to someone else.

So it will help you to not feel lonely.

And writing before bed may help you to sleep better as it can clear your mind.

You might have lots of worries about what's happened in the day, anxieties about something that might be happening in your life, but stopping before bed and writing a diary entry where you talk about these things, talk them through, think them through, this might help you to feel a bit more relaxed, bit less anxious before bed, and therefore you're going to sleep better.

And we know that better sleep helps us to maintain a better state of mental health.

Well done.

Lots of great ideas and I'm sure you had other ones too.

Let's move on to identifying the features of a diary entry.

Now we know what a diary entry is, however, do you know what a diary entry actually looks like? Would you be able to recognise one if you saw it? You may have read a real diary entry before or one written by a writer pretending to be a character in a book.

And there's an example on the screen now of a writer pretending to be a character and writing a diary entry from their perspective.

Let's look at a diary entry and explore the features.

Now features are the distinctive qualities or characteristics of something.

The features of a classroom might be desks, a carpet, pegs, and a book corner.

We are going to be writing a diary entry as Florence Nightingale.

The example we'll look at today will be a diary entry written by the writer as if they are Florence Nightingale arriving at the Crimean War.

So let me just go over that one more time.

We are going to be writing a diary entry as Florence Nightingale.

We'll be pretending that we are Florence Nightingale and writing as if we are actually experiencing her life and we are Florence.

So here is the diary entry.

Let me read that to you now.

Monday the 15th of March, 1855.

Dear Diary, today, my team of nurses and I arrived at the Scutari Hospital.

My heart sank when I saw the conditions.

I couldn't believe my eyes as I saw injured soldiers lying on the floor surrounded by filthy rats and blood stained bandages.

We were so angry to find out that the hospital didn't even have enough beds.

How were the soldiers ever going to get better in this awful hospital? Straight away, my team and I started cleaning, organising and taking care of the soldiers but there was a lot to do.

I was exhausted by the end of the day.

And that is a diary entry that I have written as if I am Florence Nightingale.

Let's explore the features.

We can see the first thing that I noticed was a date.

Diary entry starts with a date.

So mine is Monday the 15th of March, 1855.

All diary entries start with a date at the top.

A feature of a diary entry is a date written at the top on the left side.

This records when the entry was written.

The next feature is Dear Diary.

And this is a greeting, a feature of a diary entry is a greeting, which is always Dear Diary with a comma afterwards.

So you are addressing the diary almost as if it's a person, Dear Diary.

The next thing I noticed was there is lots of examples of language that tells the reader that I'm writing in the first person.

So a feature of a diary entry is that it's written in the first person, therefore it uses words like I, me, my, we, our, and us.

And you can see lots of them in my diary entry.

The next thing I noticed was that there are past tense verbs like arrived, sank, started.

A feature of a diary entry is that it's written in the past tense.

Therefore it uses verbs in the past tense such as arrived, saw, started.

Another feature of a diary entry is that it contains feelings and emotions.

So there are phrases like, I couldn't believe my eyes, my heart sank, we were so angry, I was exhausted.

This is an opportunity, a diary entry is an opportunity for the writer to write down the feelings and emotions that they have inside them.

So let me ask you, what are the main features of a diary entry? Have you remembered? Take a moment.

You can pause the video if you'd like to try and think back what were those main features that we just looked at? Well, I can tell you.

A date, a greeting, written in the first person, written in past tense, and contains feelings and emotions.

A date to say when the diary entry was written.

A greeting which will always be, you tell me.

Dear Diary, exactly.

Written in the first person.

Words like I, me, we, our, us.

Written in the past tense.

So you'll see verbs like started, arrived, cleaned.

And contains feelings and emotions.

I couldn't believe my eyes, I felt angry, I was frustrated, I was exhausted.

These are all features of a diary entry.

Let me check your understanding.

Which of these is not a feature of a diary entry? Is it a, written in the first person, b, written in past tense, or c, written in future tense.

A, b, or c, which is not a feature of a diary entry? Pause the video and decide for yourself now.

Welcome back everyone.

So I asked you which of these is not a feature of a diary entry.

A was written in the first person and we know that that is a feature of a diary entry.

Words like I, me, we, us, show that it is written in the first person.

B, written in past tense.

Or c, written in future tense.

Well, well done if you said that the one that was not a feature was c, written in future tense.

Because a diary is written in past tense.

Words like started, arrived, cleaned, tell you that this has happened already.

We are recounting events and experiences that have already happened.

So well done if you said c.

Time for a practise.

And I would like you to write a short diary entry about what you did yesterday.

Now it only needs to be three sentences long.

I am not asking for you to write a long diary entry.

I mean of course you can if you want to, but I'm more interested in that you understand the features of a diary entry.

So remember to include these features in your diary entry.

A date.

I want to see the date that the diary entry was written.

A greeting, which we know will be Dear Diary, with capital letters for Dear and Diary and a comma after.

Written in the first person.

I, me, we, us, our, that's what we'll see in your diary entry.

Written in the past tense.

Whatever you are going to describe as happening yesterday, it will all be past tense so I need to see those past tense verbs.

And containing feelings and emotions.

Well this one is up to you.

I don't know how you were feeling yesterday.

Maybe you had a brilliant day that was fun and exciting.

But maybe it was a tough day.

Maybe it was a day that was difficult and had problems. You need to incorporate those into your diary entry so that you can explain to your diary how you felt when you were experiencing the events yesterday.

So now it's over to you.

Pause the video and write a short diary entry about what you did yesterday.

Off you go.

Welcome back everyone.

I am so interested to see how you got on.

Let's have a look at an example from myself.

Monday the 15th of January, 2024.

Dear Diary, today was a great day.

I played with all my friends at break and we ate pasta for lunch.

I was happy it was pasta day.

So very, very short diary entry.

But enough that I can show that I understand how to use into the features.

I can see that I've got a date, Monday the 15th of January, 2024.

A greeting, Dear Diary, there it is.

I've written it in the first person because I say, I played with all my friends, we ate pasta for lunch.

I've written in the past tense, I played, ate.

And it contains feelings and emotions.

I said that today was a great day and that I was happy it was pasta day.

So I'm sharing how happy I feel.

I wonder if you were able to get all those features into your diary entry.

Perhaps take a moment to pause the video now and reflect to read back through and see if you did.

Let's summarise our lesson today.

A diary is a personal book where you will write about your thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

Features are distinctive qualities or characteristics of something.

And the features of a diary entry include writing in the first person and the past tense.

Well done.

I am so confident that you now have an excellent knowledge of what a diary is and the features of a diary entry.

I will see you again very soon.