Lesson video

Hi, everybody, it's Ms. Gardner.

Thank you so much for coming back to our unit, a non-chronological report on the Portia spider.

Everyone's been doing absolutely brilliantly so far, and I've really enjoyed teaching you all.

So let's get started on our next lesson.

In today's lesson, we're going to be writing our final section of our non-chronological report.

Your learning outcome is, "I can write the conclusion of a non-chronological report about Portia spiders." So let's have a look at our key words.

Our key words today are, and we're going to do my turn, your turn.

I'll say the words first and then you can say them back to the screen, or in the classroom, or wherever you are.

Conclusion.

Summarising.

Formal fronted adverbial.

Let's have a look at what these mean.

Let's have a look at what these mean.

"A conclusion is the final part of something, and summarises the main points of a text, providing closure to the subject.

Summarising is the process of capturing the key most important points in a concise way.

A formal fronted adverbial is a sentence starter followed by a comma that is formal in tone and often found in non-fiction texts." So there are two sections of our lesson today.

In the first, we'll be preparing to write our conclusion, and in the second we will be writing our conclusion.

So let's get started with preparing to write.

"A non-neurological report can be structured into four sections." An introduction.

Section, one on a specific theme.

Section two, on a different specific theme.

And then finally, our conclusion.

We've already written the first three sections, so in this lesson, we are writing our final section, the conclusion.

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, show off each sentence type that we know.

Write letters as neatly as we can on the line, and using joint handwriting if possible.

And use our spelling strategies that we know to spell words accurately.

Finally, and this is really important, and this is what you had a go at doing in our previous lesson.

Check and improve our writing when we think we have finished.

So what is a purpose, why do we write one, what does the reader gain from reading a conclusion? The purpose of the conclusion is to summarise the key information from the text.

Tell the reader what to do if they want to find out more about the subject.

And this is really important, there is no new information or facts about the subject in the conclusion.

So in our non-chronological report, we're not gonna tell the reader anything new about the Portia spider.

We are just summarising the most important information about the Portia spider.

So, "True or false, this sentence would be in a conclusion, The Portia spider attacks its prey from behind by dangling on a thread before pouncing." Would you find that in a conclusion, true or false? Pause the video now.

It is false.

Could you use A or B to justify your answer.

A, specific and detailed facts about the subject come earlier in the report.

Or B, the purpose of the conclusion is to give final detailed facts.

Pause the video now.

It is A, those specific and detailed facts about the Portia spider's hunting strategies come in the earlier sections.

Well done, everybody.

So in your conclusion, you're going to include the following features; A formal fronted adverbial, a summary sentence, an outline of what the report was about, and finally, a suggestion to the reader of where to find out more information about the subject if they'd like to.

So let's look at these in more detail.

A formal front adverbial is used in your conclusion to signal that your writing is coming to an end.

It can summarise the main points of a text.

It gives a sense of closure for the reader so the reader knows that the non-chronological report is ending, they're not going to learn any new information about the subject.

So for example, you could have; in conclusion, to summarise, or to conclude.

All of these are formal fronted adverbials and they start a conclusion.

And you'll notice they're all followed by a comma, just like the formal fronted adverbials we looked at earlier in the unit.

A summary sentence opens your conclusion.

It summarises the key point or points of the text.

For example, "To summarise," that's your fronted adverbial, "The Portia spider is a fascinating creature that has successfully adapted to survive in its environment." Or, "To conclude, the Portia spider is a highly skilled predator, and it has interested scientists for years." Or, "In conclusion, the Portia spider has certain features and has different strategies that have helped it to become an extremely skilled hunter." In these sentences, you've basically summarised what you wrote about the Portia spider's appearance and its hunting strategies, and written in one clear sentence that this is what has made it a really successful hunter and what's made it a really unique and fascinating insect.

What you'll notice though, is that no new information about the Portia spider is given in the conclusion, and that's really important.

So let's check for understanding.

"Which formal fronted adverbial would be found in a conclusion? A, in addition.

B, however.

C, to summarise.

Or D, additionally." Pause the video now.

That is correct, it is, to summarise, C.

In addition and additionally are and formal fronted adverbials, and however is a but formal fronted adverbial.

Well done, everybody.

So the conclusion also summarises what the report was about.

Our non-chronological report about the Portia spider, we wrote about the spiders appearance, diet, and hunting strategies.

And this is kind of the opposite of what we wrote in our introduction, where in our introduction we wrote a sentence which said, "In this non-chronological report, you will learn about." And now we're writing about it in the past tense, that in this non-chronological report, this is what you have learned about.

So, "Which of these would appear in the conclusion: A, this report has taught you about the Portia spider.

B, this report has informed you about the appearance, diet and hunting strategies of the Portia spider.

Or C, this report will teach you about the Portia spider.

Which of these would appear in the conclusion?" Pause the video now.

That's correct, it is B.

A, although it is in the correct tense, "This report has taught you about the Portia spider," it's not enough detail.

And then C is in the future tense, "This report will teach you about the Portia spider." So that is a sentence that actually would've been found in the introduction.

Well done, everyone.

Our final sentence of a conclusion is a suggestion to the reader to find out more about the subject.

For example, "If you would like to learn more about this arachnid, continue your research online or visit your local library.

The reader is encouraged to find out more information." You're hoping, as a writer, that you've really interested the reader.

You've made them find the subject, the Portia spider, really interesting, and you want them to go and find out even more.

So it's time for task A.

We're going to practise saying our sentences out loud.

In this task, you are going say the first sentence of the conclusion.

Make sure you include the following; a formal fronted adverbial, a summary sentence.

You can use this sentence scaffold to help you.

I'm gonna say it out loud myself now, and I'm gonna say the word blank when there's a missing space for you to fill in.

Mh, blank, "The Portia spider is a blank creature that has adapted to its blank, and it's become a blank predator." Think about using this scaffold to help you saying your first sentence of your conclusion, making sure you include the formal fronted adverbial and that it's a summary sentence summarising the key information.

Pause the video now, and off you go saying your sentences out loud.

Okay, well done, everyone.

Before we go through an example sentence, I just want you to think about the sentence you've just said and check.

Does the first sentence include a formal fronted adverbial? And does the summary sentence summarise the key points of the text? Pause the video now, and just check the sentences you said out loud.

Okay, I'm gonna show you an example sentence, hopefully yours sounded quite similar to this.

"In conclusion, the Portia spider is a unique creature that has adapted to its environment and has become a skilled predator." And I used the sentence scaffold from before to help me write my opening sentence, say, sorry, my opening sentence.

Well done, everyone.

It's now time to move on to our second part of the lesson, where we're going to be writing our conclusion.

Here is our success criteria for today.

These are the things we want to include in our conclusion to make it a really successful piece of writing.

And you'll be able to look at it and refer back to it when you're writing your conclusion, to make sure you've got everything you need to include.

So let's have a look.

Firstly, I have written a formal fronted adverbial.

So in the start of our conclusion, a formal fronted adverbial could be something like, "To conclude, to summarise, or in conclusion." I have written a summary sentence.

I have outlined what the report was about.

And finally, I have written a suggestion to the reader to find out more information.

I'm now going to show you how to write the first two sentences of your conclusion using your success criteria to help you structure your writing.

So I've started by sticking my success criteria at the top of my page so I can refer back to that as I write, and I can use it to help me with structuring my writing.

Let's just go through it one more time.

Firstly, I have written a formal fronted adverbial.

I have written a summary sentence.

I have outlined what the report was about.

And I have written a suggestion to the reader to find out more information.

Now, in this shared write that we're going to write together, we'll just write the first couple of sentences, and then you'll be able to independently write the whole conclusion later.

So let's start with our subheading.

Just like before, with our other subheadings, we needed to start with a capital letter.

And then we can neatly underline it.

Our first word of the paragraph needs to start after an indent, so we'll leave a space between the margin.

And we'll start our conclusion with a formal fronted adverbial.

And think back and think about which one I want to choose.

I think I'm gonna go with, to conclude.

Every sentence needs to start with a? Capital letter, that's right.

So we're gonna start our formal fronted adverbial with a capital T.

"To conclude." Now, this is a formal fronted adverbial, so what punctuation mark do we need afterwards? We don't need a full stop 'cause it's not the end of a sentence.

That's right, we need a comma.

"To conclude." So my summary sentence needs to give no new information about the Portia spider, just summarising the key points.

So I want to say that it's a skilled hunter, and that it's been fascinating scientist for years.

So I'm gonna write a compound sentence.

"To conclude, the Portia spider is," and we're writing it in present tense because the Portia spider's still around.

"Is a highly skilled spider." I'm not sure that's quite the right noun, also we've used the noun spider.

"Is a highly skilled hunter or predator." Either would work, I'm gonna go for predator.

"Predator." And because I'm writing a compound sentence, I'm going to use the conjunction and.

"And it has fascinated." That's quite a tricky spelling here, we've got a silent C "Fascinated scientists.

Or biologists, those are the scientists who specialise in natural science.

I'm going to use scientists.

Again, another silent C like in fascinated "Scientists for years." Or, "For many years," actually.

"For many years." Okay, that's the end of my sentence.

So everybody, what do I need at the end of my sentence? A, that's right, a full stop.

As always, I'm gonna read my sentence back to check it makes sense.

"To conclude," comma, "The Portia spider is a highly skilled predator and it has fascinated scientists for many years." Okay, now I need to outline what the report was about.

In our introduction, we said that this report will tell you about, so we've wrote in the future tense.

But we've read the report now, so we need to write this in the past tense.

"This report has informed you.

This report has informed you." A reader has informed you about the appearance." And what was the other sections? "The diet and hunting strategies." I think we need to be a bit more specific about who, about what.

"Of the Portia spider." "Of this." Hmm, I wonder if there's synonym we can use for spider, just so we're not repeating the word spider again.

Ooh, I remember the subject specific vocabulary that we used, and we learned about arachnid.

"Of this arachnid." And then I'm gonna do a full stop 'cause it's the end of my sentence.

Okay, let's just read back and check it makes sense, and if there's any mistakes we need to correct now.

"This report." Ooh, I'm spotting something straight away.

What does every sentence need to start with? That's right, a capital letter.

So I'm just gonna do a neat little cross, and above write the capital T.

Don't need to rewrite the whole word.

"This report has informed you." Oop.

Y, capital Y.

Does that need to begin with a capital Y, is you a proper noun? It's not, is it? So we can get rid of that Capital Y and write a lowercase Y.

"This report has informed you about the appearance, diet and hunting strategies of this arachnid." There's a comma rule we've forgotten to include here.

Which comma rule do you think it is? "This report has informed you about the appearance, diet and hunting strategies." Yes, well done.

Appearance, diet and hunting strategies are nouns in a list.

So we need to have a comma in between appearance and diet.

We don't need to have a comma after diet because we've got the word and instead.

Okay, before we go, we just need to check our success criteria.

Have we written a formal fronted adverbial? Yes, we've done it, "To conclude." So I'm gonna give that a tick.

Have we written a summary sentence? "The Portia spider is a highly skilled predator, and it has fascinated scientists for many years." Yes.

Have I outlined what the report was about? "This report has informed you about the appearance, diet and hunting strategies." Yes.

I have written a suggestion to the reader to find out more information.

We haven't done this together.

I'm going to leave that to you to do independently, so I can't give this section a tick, of my success criteria just yet.

But really great start for writing our conclusion.

Okay, it is time for task B, where you are going to be writing your conclusion of your non-chronological report.

Use your success criteria to help you structure your paragraph.

So I suggest you stick it in at the top of your page really neatly so that you can refer back to it and tick it off to help you when you're writing it.

Pause the video now, and off you go writing final section, the conclusion of your non-chronological report.

Well done, everybody.

I'm sure you've all done brilliantly.

I'm now going to go through a piece of writing, and we're going to check if we've included everything we need to from the success criteria.

I'm gonna read it out loud first, and then I'll go through and check my success criteria.

"Conclusion," my subheading.

"In conclusion, the Portia spider has certain features and has different strategies that have helped it to become an extremely skilled hunter.

This report has informed you about the appearance, diet and hunting strategies of this unique creature.

If you'd like to find out more, visit your local library or use the internet." Okay, have I started my conclusion with a formal fronted adverbial? That's the first point in my success criteria.

Yes, I have, "In conclusion," I can give myself a tick.

Have I written a summary sentence? I have, "In conclusion, the Portia spider has certain features and has different strategies that have helped it to become an extremely skilled hunter." I summarised what the text was about.

I didn't add any new information or share any new facts.

I have outlined what the report was about.

"This report has informed you about the appearance, diet and hunting strategies." Tick, I did that.

And then finally, have I written a suggestion to the reader to find out more? "If you would like to find out more, visit your local library or use the internet." So I can give my final point on the success criteria a tick.

Hopefully you've included everything you needed to as well from your success criteria.

But if you didn't, now's a really good chance to go back through and check through your writing there.

Okay, let's just summarise everything we've done in today's lesson, everything we've learned about writing a conclusion.

Firstly, "The purpose of the conclusion is to summarise the key information from the text and suggest ways for the reader to find out more.

A subheading introduces a section of a text.

A formal fronted adverbial begins the conclusion to signal the writing is coming to an end.

And a summary sentence summarises the key information from the text." Well done, everybody, and really good job writing your final section of your non-chronological report all about the Portia spider.

You should all be so proud of yourselves and your writing.