Lesson video

Hello, everyone, and my name is Mr. Brown.

And I'm your teacher for today's English lesson.

And it's the last lesson in our unit focusing on the poet Joseph Coelho.

And so it seems right that today's lesson is writing a letter to the man himself, Joseph Coelho.

So let's get writing a letter to Joseph.

Let's get started.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can write a letter to Joseph Coelho.

The keywords we'll use are letter, first person perspective, and compliment.

Let's say this together.

My turn and then your term.

Letter.

First person perspective.

Compliment.

Fabulous, well done.

Let's look at the definitions.

A letter is a piece of writing that someone sends to someone else.

First person perspective is the point of view where the speaker is the I character.

Compliment is to say something nice to someone else.

We'll start today's lesson by preparing to write and then move on to writing a letter.

In this lesson, we'll be writing a letter to the British poet Joseph Coelho.

Writing a letter to someone famous you admire is a common thing to do.

It is a way to connect with someone you do not actually know and are unlikely to meet in real life.

This type of letter can be known as fan mail because you are a fan of the person.

So you're sending them mail, and you are a fan, fan mail.

When we write a letter to someone, we are the sender.

We write letters in the first person perspective.

This is the point of view where the speaker is the I character, providing a personal and subjective account of events or experiences.

You are writing the letter as yourself.

You are sharing your own personal opinions and experiences.

Which of these is written in the first person perspective? Is it a, the poet is so inspiring? Is it b, he is inspiring to lots of children? Is it c, I think you are so inspiring? Which one is written in the first person perspective? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's see if you found the right answer.

Well, well done if you said, c.

And it's the I word, isn't it? I think you are so inspiring.

So this is being written from the first person perspective because it is me giving my opinion.

I am using my own opinion to share.

I'm not talking about someone else.

I'm saying I think you are so inspiring.

To compliment someone means to say something nice to someone else.

It is a polite expression of praise or admiration.

Can you think of any times you have given or received any compliments? Tell your partner about those times sharing the following.

Why you gave the compliment, why you received a compliment, what it felt like to receive.

Have a chat with the person next to you.

Pause the video and off you go now.

And welcome back.

I hope you enjoyed that discussion.

I'm sure you've been given many compliments about lots of things that you've done.

Here's an example.

I received a compliment from my art teacher for a drawing I did.

It felt lovely to receive and made me want to draw more often.

Wow, so that compliment felt great to receive and inspired you to be able to produce more things that you received a compliment for, brilliant.

What aspects of Joseph Coelho's poetry might you want to compliment in your letter? Hmm, what do you think? Pause the video and have a chat with the person next to you.

What aspects of Joseph Coelho's poetry might you want to compliment in your letter? So what things about his poetry would you want to say, "Hey, I love this." Have a chat with the person next to you.

Pause the video and have a discussion now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's have a look.

So here are some things you might have come up with.

How it provokes emotion.

So how his poetry makes you feel emotions, makes you feel feelings.

How creative it is.

How he comes up with such unique and special ideas.

How fun and exciting it is to read.

How he writes from his own life experience.

Of course, it really feels like you are getting an insight into Joseph Coelho's life when you read his poetry.

How inspirational it is.

It is certainly inspires me to want to write poetry.

How he uses poetic devices to create vivid imagery.

Of course, now MORERAPS is the poem that springs to mind there because it has all the poetic devices included and listed for you to use.

How inclusive it feels.

Absolutely, his poetry feels like it is for everyone.

And that is a pretty special thing to be able to achieve.

These are some ideas, and you may have different ideas yourself too.

When complimenting someone, you should give specific examples to support your compliment.

When complimenting Joseph Coelho, you should share which of his poems inspired that specific compliment.

For example, if we are complimenting him on how his poetry provokes emotions in the reader, then "If All The World Were Paper" would be a good poem to use as an example to support that compliment.

Now this is because that poem provokes the reader to think about protecting those we love and preserving precious memories.

So we think about the compliment we want to pay, and then we think about which poem will support that compliment.

Which poems might you want to use as examples to support these compliments? Discuss your reasons with your partner.

So you can work with a partner to come up with some poems that will support.

So I've got a poem that supports provoking emotions, and that would be "If All The World Were Paper." So how about one for how creative he is? How about one for how fun and exciting his poetry is to read? Work your way through this list.

Pause the video and have a go at this task now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's have a little look, shall we? So how creative it is? "There are Things That Lurk in the Library" is a brilliant example of how creative his poetry is.

How fun and exciting? MORERAPS.

Writing from his own life experience, "Miss Flotsam." Yeah, he talked about that poem being written from his own experience of the teachers he had at school.

How inspirational it is? "I Am A Writer." Certainly a poem that's written to inspire you to want to write.

Poetic devices, that has to be MORERAPS, I think again, doesn't it? And inclusivity, it's "Miss Flotsam." She was such an inclusive role model in that poem.

You have a plan with some ideas that you might want to include in your letter to Joseph Coelho.

So this is the plan we created last lesson.

You will have something very similar to this, hopefully.

If not, you can use this one.

So I'm going to use my plan to say the first two sentences of my letter, and I will include a compliment.

So you can see I have the top of my plan to use there.

I'm gonna talk about MORERAPS and about how creative he is.

So let's go for it.

I love all your poems, but MORERAPS is my favourite.

Full stop.

That's my first sentence.

It is such a creative poem.

Perfect, that's the first two sentences of my letter.

Now it's your turn to use your plan and have a go at saying the first two sentences of your letter.

Include a compliment in that too.

Okay, pause the video and have a go at that task now.

And welcome back.

Okay, let's take a moment to reflect.

Did you use an example from your plan? Did you include a compliment? Let's move on to a practise task.

Use your plan to say out loud two more sentences of your letter.

Include a compliment and use one of Coelho's poems as an example.

And you can see, we've got a long list there of compliments and poems that could be used to support that compliment.

So feel free to integrate these into your sentences.

Okay, it's over to you.

Use your plan to say out loud two more sentences of your letter.

Pause the video and have a go at this task now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's have a look at the example.

So we have from Aisha, "I wanted to tell you that I loved your poem MORERAPS and found it so creative." Beautiful.

Izzy says, "I wanted to share that when I read your poem, 'If All The World Were Paper,' I felt deeply emotional and thought about my grandfather who I don't get to see very often." Lovely, girls.

Well done.

Let's move on to writing a letter.

When we write, we always try to do these things.

Plan and say each sentence before we write it.

Use punctuation where we know the rules.

Showcase each sentence type we know.

Write letters neatly on the line in joined handwriting.

Use spelling strategies to spell words accurately.

And check and improve our writing when we think we've finished.

Letters follow a specific structure and layout.

This means we have to position the following things correctly on the page.

The sender's name and address goes at the top on the right side.

The date goes below the sender's address, also on the right side.

And the recipient's name and address.

Well, that goes below the date, but this time, on the left side.

And finally, the salutation, which means the greeting that goes below the recipient's address on the right side.

I'd like you to match each layout feature to the number on the letter template to show where they should be positioned.

You have the send us address, the recipient's address, and the date.

Where should they go? One, two, or three? Pause the video and have a go at this task now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's have a look and see if you managed to match these correctly.

So the sender's address is one, the recipient's address is three, and the date is number two, well done.

Here is an example.

I have put the sender's address.

So that's my address, Oak National Academy on the right side at the top.

Then I have the date.

Then I have Joseph Coelho's address.

And all that we need to put for this is just his name, and he lives in a town called Folkestone in Kent.

And then I've got my salutation, my greeting, dear Joseph with a comma after it.

Sender's address in the top right corner.

Date, recipient's name and address, and the salutation and greeting.

I will now write the first few sentences of my letter to Joseph Coelho.

So I'm gonna start by introducing myself.

I'm gonna say, my name is Mr. Brown and I'm writing to you because you are my favourite poet.

Lovely, first sentence, keep it simple.

Tell him why you are writing.

Now let's start to expand that.

I love all your poems, but especially MORERAPS.

It's such a creative poem.

So I'm using my plan there.

Now, a question to him, again, from my plan.

How do you get your incredible ideas? This poem even inspired me to write my own too! And I've used an exclamation mark because I'm saying to him that this poem inspired me to write my own.

That's a big thing, to be that inspirational.

So let's just check in.

Did I use my plan to help me guide my writing? Well, I've got my plan there.

We can see that the first thing in my plan says, loved MORERAPS, your poetry so creative.

And then in my writing, I've got I love all your poems, but especially MORERAPS.

It's such a creative poem.

So you can see I'm not using word for word, my plan, but I'm using it to inspire my writing.

So I've got that there.

And then how about questions? So the question in that, how do you get your incredible ideas? So in my plan, I've got how do you get your ideas? I've added the word incredible just to make it a little bit more interesting and exciting to read.

So I have followed my plan again.

Okay, it's your turn now.

I'd like you to use your plan to write a letter to Joseph Coelho.

Remember to lay out your letter correctly.

And you can use this plan on the screen if you do not have your own.

Pause the video and complete this task by writing a letter to Joseph Coelho now.

Welcome back.

I am sure your letter is brilliantly written.

Let's have a look at my example and see how close it is to yours.

Dear Joseph, my name is Mr. Brown, and I'm writing to tell you what a huge fan I am of yours.

I enjoy reading your poetry and loved your MORERAPS poem.

It is such a creative idea and inspired me to write my own poem with lots of poetic devices.

How do you come up with these ideas? I love how emotional your poetry is.

And when I read, "If All The World Were Paper," I felt such sadness.

I would love to be able to create poetry like you.

How can I become a writer? I wanted to ask if you wouldn't mind sending me your autograph.

It would mean the world to me.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Yours sincerely, Mr. Brown.

And you can see I have included my salutation at the top.

I've written two paragraphs, so I've split my letter up into paragraphs.

I've referenced two poems, MORERAPS and "If All The World Were Paper." And I've signed my letter off by saying yours sincerely, Mr. Brown.

Let's summarise the learning we have done today.

A letter is a piece of writing that someone sends to someone else.

First person perspective is the point of view where the speaker is the I character.

A compliment means to say something nice to someone else.

The layout of a text refers to the way the information is organised on the page.

Brilliant work in today's lesson and in this entire unit.

I have loved sharing Joseph Coelho's incredible poetry with you.

And I hope that you have a thirst for poetry and a hunger to be able to read and respond to more of Joseph Coelho's fantastic poems. I hope to see you again very soon.