Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to lesson 14 of our unit On The Day the Crayons Quit persuasive writing.

My name is Ms. Bourke and I am a teacher with the Oak Academy.

In today's lesson, you are going to have the chance to write a persuasive letter to whoever and about whatever you like.

We are going to be doing a free writing lesson.

So you'll be able to use your imagination and your creativity as much as you want.

So exciting, let's get started.

Let's go through our agenda for today.

First, you will do a warm up.

Then we will have a recap of the features of persuasive letters.

And finally, you'll complete your task, writing your persuasive letter.

In this lesson you will need an exercise book or some paper, a pencil, and your brain.

If you don't have an exercise book, paper, or a pencil, pause the video and go and get them now.

Okay, let's get started with our warmup.

The first thing I would like you to do is correct my mistakes.

I have two sentences here that have some mistakes.

I wonder if you can spot them and correct them.

My first sentence says, i feel so unloved because you never play with me anymore My second sentence says, i am the saddest toy in the whole world Can you correct the mistakes in my sentence? Pause the video and correct them now.

Okay, good job, I wonder if you spotted what mistake they were.

I was missing a capital letter and a full stop in these sentences.

Well done if you spotted my mistake and if you manage to correct it, good job.

Now I've got some more sentences with mistakes in them.

This time I'm going to give you a clue.

The mistakes are that these sentences have some missing commas.

Can you find where the comma should be and put them in the right place.

My first sentence says: You've left me to rot in a cold dark cupboard.

And my second sentence says, I feel completely heartbroken devastated and distraught.

Where should my commas go? Can you pause the video and add them now, please.

Good job, I wonder if you've found where my commas should go.

There's my first comma, it should go between the adjectives cold and dark.

That's a list of adjectives, the list of two adjectives.

So we need a comma to separate those two adjectives in that list.

And then I've got a list of three adjectives to describe how the character is feeling, heartbroken, devastated and distraught.

I've remembered my and between devastated and distraught, but I forgot my comma between heartbroken and devastated.

Well done, if you found the missing commas and corrected them.

Okay, a little bit more for warmup.

What punctuation should I put at the end of these sentences? I have two sentences here and they've both got full stops at the end, but I don't think that's the punctuation I should use.

I think I need to use some different punctuation.

My first one says: Give me a break or I will quit.

And my second sentence says: Do you even care how I feel.

What punctuation needs to go at the end of these sentences? Pause the video and add the correct punctuation now.

Good job, I'm sure you spotted it.

My first sentence is a command.

Give me a break or I will quit! My command with my warning at the end.

So I would use an exclamation mark there.

And my second sentence was question.

Do you even care how I feel? So I needed to put a question mark at the end of that question.

Well done, if you added an exclamation mark and a question mark to those sentences.

Okay, our final warmup for today.

I've had to got writing these words, but again, not sure I've spelled them correctly.

I wonder if you can correct my spelling mistakes.

I have written the words rong, riggle, rite and reck.

They don't look quite right though.

I think there might be a silent letter missing from them.

Can you please pause the video and correct my spelling mistakes now.

Okay, good job, let's have a look.

All of these words were missing a silent letter.

They were missing the silent letter W.

I needed to put it at the beginning of all of these words for wrong, wriggle, write and wreck.

Well done, if you spotted my spelling mistakes.

You might have corrected write to R-I-G-H-T as in, correct.

This was the type of write, meaning to write down.

But if you wrote the other rite, you can still give yourself a tick because that would have been a correct spelling as well.

So wrong, wriggle, write and wreck all with my silent letter W at the beginning of them.

Good job if you manage to find or my mistakes and correct them.

Now we will be recapping features of persuasive letters.

Here is my letter that Mr. Fox who sleep in my garden wrote to me.

I'm going to read the letter out to you and then I'm going to ask you to find some features in it.

Dear Ms. Bourke, Do you think I like being woken up from my naps? Do you think I have nothing better to do all day than find new places to sleep? Well I don't! I'm sick and tired of you waking me up every day just as I've gotten to sleep.

I'm utterly exhausted because I haven't slept in days.

I am the most tired fox in the world! This is just my first paragraph of the letter from Mr. Fox.

I would like you to find the speeches in this first paragraph.

Can you find an example of the first person that's writing from the fox.

The fox's perspective.

Can you find questions? Can you find exaggeration? Where the fox has made things sound worse than they are.

Can you find an example of argument of opinions and reasons? And you won't find it in this bit, but later in our second paragraph, we'll be looking for commands and warnings.

I would like you to pause the video and find the features of a persuasive letter in paragraph one now.

Really well done.

I wonder how many of those speeches you managed to find? Let's have a look.

Okay, there is all the example in green of the first person.

I, my, I'm, me.

And then also the word I've, well done if you found any of those.

And my questions we could find, because they end with a question mark.

So they're at the start of my letter.

Do you think I like being woken up from my naps? Do you think I have nothing better to do all day than find new places to sleep? Then I have my arguments, my opinions and reasons.

So I'm utterly exhausted.

That is how the fox is feeling.

And then the reason they're feeling that way is because I haven't slept in days.

I am the most tired fox in the world.

We've also got examples of exaggeration.

The fox has said, I haven't slept in days.

They've exaggerated, they probably have slept in days, but they're making their problem seem bigger than it is.

They've also said I am the most tired fox in the world.

I think that's exaggeration too.

There's no way they could know that.

And also there might be a fox that's getting even less sleep than they are.

Well done, if you found all those persuasive features in my first paragraph.

Let's have a look at my second paragraph.

I think you should stop coming into the garden during the day because you have a house to sit in.

Further, if you want to go outside, you can go to the park.

I don't have anywhere else to go.

Stop waking me up or I will lose it! If you don't, I will come into your bedroom and wake you up! You're very tired and grumpy friend, Mr.Fox.

Okay, pause the video again and have a look for those persuasive features in my second paragraph, off you go.

Okay, good job.

Let's have a look.

Here we've started again with the first person in bold and green are those first person words.

I, me, I'm.

well done, if he found those.

There was no questions in this paragraph, but we know from our previous writing that we could have added a nother question at the start of this paragraph as well.

We haven't got any exaggeration out there, but again, you could always add that into your second paragraph.

Here is the argument, the opinions and reasons.

I think that's the first opinion.

I think you should stop coming into the garden during the day.

That's the opinion.

And the reason is because you have a house to sit in.

And then the fox has given me more reasons.

You can go to the park and I don't have anywhere else to go.

Those are the other opinions and reasons.

So those are the other reasons to back up the opinion of, I think you should stop coming into the garden.

Finally, we have the command stop waking me up.

Stop waking me up, that's the command.

And then we've got a warning at the end, or I will lose it! And then our full warning, if you don't, that means if you don't start waking me up.

If you don't, I will come into your bedroom and wake you up! That is my warning right there at the end.

Well done, if you found all of those persuasive features in the second paragraph of this letter.

Okay, we're ready for our task.

It's time for you to write your persuasive letter.

So far, you've written a persuasive letter, pretending to be an object that you own, that is unhappy! My letter was from my quote game that was not happy with me.

Well done! That is a great achievement.

Pause the video now and read your letter that you wrote in our previous lesson.

Okay, good job.

I'm sure you found lots of features of persuasive letters in the letter that you have already written.

Now, you are going to choose who to write a persuasive letter to and what it will be about.

It's entirely up to you.

But before you do, you need to think about what do you want? What's something that you want? Or what's something that you want to change? Because that might be the basis of your persuasive letter.

What is something that you want and who would you ask for it? What is something that you want to change and who could you talk to or persuade to make that change? Pause the video and have a think.

I want or I would like to change.

Okay, I bet you came up with some great ideas.

Here are some ideas that I came up with in case you needed a little bit of inspiration.

I thought you could ask a company for some sports equipment for your school.

Maybe you'd like some more skipping ropes and balls or hula hoops for your school.

Well, you could write a persuasive letter to a company asking them to give you some.

You could persuade the author of your favourite book to write a sequel.

Maybe there is a book that you really love, but there's just one story.

Or there's just one book and you'd like the author to write another one.

You could try and persuade them to write another book with the same characters as sequel.

You could ask a person you admire to speak about their career at your school.

So maybe somebody that has a job that you would really like to do, maybe a doctor or a dentist or a vet or an astronaut who knows maybe you would write them a persuasive letter, encouraging them to come and speak at your school.

Remember if you're going to do that, you might want to let your teacher know first.

Maybe, you want to pretend to be an animal or another object who wants you to do something or change something.

So just like we did before, maybe you want to pretend to be somebody that's writing a letter to you about something.

So these are all choices that you have now.

Remember, if you're going to send any of these letters off, you must ask your parents or carer first, if it's okay.

If you send the letter off before you do that.

When you thought of your general idea, make a very brief plan.

What will the plan be of your letter? You could use one of our plans from a previous lesson.

So you could have the greeting, introduce yourself, ask some rhetorical questions, give your opinions and reasons and have a command and a warning.

Don't forget to use exaggeration to make the problem sound bigger than it is.

I would like you to write your plan now.

Pause the video and write your plan now.

Good job.

Remember you can use a plan from a previous lesson, if you would like to.

Before we start, this is really important.

What skills do you think you need to use in your writing to be successful? What skills did you use in your last persuasive letter that helped you write a successful persuasive letter? What skills could you use in this letter? Have a think.

Okay, the best thing you must do is follow your plan.

You've written a plan.

Your plan is there to help you, make sure you are following it.

Think, say, write, read.

Think about what you want to write fast, say it aloud, write it down and read it back to make sure it makes sense.

Use precise vocabulary, precise adjectives, nouns, verbs, and adverbs.

Don't forget to use complex sentences to explain your opinions and your reasons.

Make sure you're using accurate punctuation, full stops for the end of sentences.

Question marks for the end of questions and using an exclamation mark, if you've used a command or a warning.

And a rhetorical questions, those questions that help to persuade the reader and see things from your point of view.

Okay, that's all I'm going to give you today.

It's time for you to write your persuasive letter now.

Remember you have chosen who you were going to write it to and what it will be about.

You can use the plans from previous lessons to help you, and you could use the letter that we wrote in the previous lessons to help you structure and to give you ideas for your letter today.

Pause the video and write your persuasive letter now.

Well done, wow.

I bet you have just written a really, really persuasive letter and I'm sure whoever you've written it for is going to change their minds or want to give you the thing that you've asked for.

Now here's the most important thing, you must read back your writing.

Why did we think that's important? Why do you need to read back your writing? Have a think.

One reason is to check that it makes sense.

The other reason is to get a sense of being the reader.

How will the person reading your letter feel when they receive it? That's going to give you an idea.

It might make you want to make some changes to your letter as well.

You must read it back to make sure you've got the purpose, right.

We're writing a persuasive letter, does your letter feel persuasive? Do you think it will change somebody's mind? You read your writing back to check and change punctuation errors.

Have you got missing full stops or question marks, missing capital letters or commas? It's a good time to read through your writing and check now.

You can check that you've used precise vocabulary in your writing.

To check and change spelling errors.

So looking through, are there any spellings that you've maybe rushed through and you can go back and check and correct now.

Lastly, we read our writing back to enjoy it! Because I bet you've written a really excellent letter and it's good opportunity for you to enjoy your writing as well.

Pause the video and read your writing back now, checking for all of these things.

Okay, well done, you have done so much today.

You have done your warmup.

We have recap the features of persuasive letters and you have free written your own persuasive letter.

Wow, impressive work.

Remember if you do want to send your letter off that you've written today, you must ask a parent or carer if that's okay first.

Congratulations, you have completed your lesson.

Well done, if you would like to please share your work with a parent or carer.

You can also share your work with Oak national.

If you'd like to please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and hashtag LearnwithOak.