Lesson video

Hello, I'm Ms. Chu.

Welcome to a really great English lesson with me today.

I know you can't wait, so let's get started.

Today's learning outcome is, I can use my plan to write a section about Ancient Greek religion.

Here are the key words.

My turn to say it, and then your turn.

Subheading.

Fronted adverbial.

Text flow.

What do these words mean? A subheading is a word, phrase or sentence used to introduce part of a text.

A fronted adverbial is a sentence starter followed by a comma.

Text flow is how a text is written to keep the reader engaged.

This is our lesson outline.

When writing a section about Ancient Greek religion, we will be splitting it into two parts.

First part is we're going to prepare to write, then we're going to actually write the section.

A non-chronological report is structured into four sections.

We have the introduction, then we have the first section, which is the section on religion, the second section, which is on warfare, and then our final section, or paragraph, which will be the conclusion.

Today, in this lesson, we are writing section one, religion.

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

Plan and say each sentence before you write it.

Use punctuation, it could be this, it could be a comma, 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 finally, we always check and improve our writing when we think we have finished.

Let's look at what a subheading is.

A subheading is used to introduce a section of a report and to signal to the reader what that section or that main bit is about.

A subheading can be written as a question, like this example: What were the religious beliefs of the Ancient Greeks? A subheading can be underlined to make the section clear for the reader, just like this.

Let's do a quick check for understanding.

What helps to make the subheading clear for the reader? Does the subheading just have capital letters? Is it written in bubble writing, or do you underline it? Pause the video and point to the right answer.

Okay, so the answer is in three, two, one.

Underline.

Well done.

Underlining helps to make the subheading clearer for the reader.

As part of our preparation to write, let's look back at the plan for writing section one on religion.

We split our plan into two parts.

The first part was gods and myths.

What did we say about them? Well, under that, we said it was a polytheistic belief system around gods and goddesses, it played a significant role in their daily lives, and their myths featured gods, heroes and supernatural beings.

The second part of the plan was about festivals and games.

And under that, we said that they celebrated numerous religious festivals, and that the Olympic Games were dedicated to Zeus, and that they held a series of sporting events and competitions.

Your first talk task is to say the first sentence aloud using your plan.

So the first part of our plan is about gods and myths, and we're just going to focus on the first bullet point about the polytheistic belief system around gods and goddesses.

And here is a sentence scaffold to help us to say our first sentence.

The ancient Greek Religion was a, mm, centred around, mm, and, mm.

Look at the first bullet point to help you to say your first sentence aloud using that sentence scaffold.

Pause the video and have a go at saying your sentence.

Okay.

Let's have a look, shall we, to see what the sentence would look like in full.

The Ancient Greek religion was a, mm, polytheistic belief system centred around gods and goddesses.

Okay, let's continue to use our plan for writing section one.

We have written about the polytheistic belief system around gods and goddesses.

So we can give that one a tick and we're going to cross it off.

Now we're going to focus on the second bullet point which is about the significant role that the belief systems had in their daily lives.

Let's use a fronted adverbial from our plan to help us to say our next sentence.

The next sentence will be about the significant role that it played in their daily lives.

So I think.

And we want to link the first sentence with the second sentence.

And I think the best fronted adverbial to use for this bullet point would be "significantly" because we are saying something that is significant.

This time, you're going to say your second sentence aloud and it needs to be a compound sentence, using a viewpoint fronted adverbial from your plan.

We're going to focus on the second bullet point, and we're going to try and make sure we link it with the first point.

Use the sentence scaffold to help you.

Mm, this religion played an important role in the, mm, of the Ancient Greeks.

And seeing as we're going to write a compound sentence, we need to use a coordinating conjunction to link our two main ideas.

And it influenced their world view.

Pause the video and have a go at saying this compound sentence.

Okay, let's have a look at what that sentence should have sounded like.

Significantly, this religion played an important role in the daily lives of the Ancient Greeks and it influenced their world view.

We've already said our sentence about the polytheistic belief system.

We've said our second sentence which is about the role that it played in their daily lives.

So now we're going to focus on the third bullet point which is around myths.

Let's use a different fronted adverbial from our plan.

So it needs to be something that's going to introduce the facts about myths featuring gods, heroes and supernatural beings.

And we need to link cohesively from the second sentence.

So I think "intriguingly" would be a good fronted adverbial to use for this bullet point here.

In this talk task, you're going to say the third sentence aloud again.

This time, you will make it a compound sentence, again, and you're going to use a viewpoint fronted adverbial from your plan.

Here is a sentence scaffold that you can use.

Mm, Greek mythology was an integral part of their religious beliefs and they typically featured what? It's in the notes.

Mm, mm, and mm.

Pause the video and have a go at saying this third sentence.

Okay, let's have a look at what that sentence should sound like.

Intriguingly, Greek mythology was an integral part of their religious beliefs and they typically featured gods, heroes and supernatural beings.

Let's keep on using our plan to help us to write the next section.

This time, we're going to move on to festivals and games.

And we're going to take the first two bullet points of that part.

They celebrated numerous religious festivals.

Olympic Games dedicated to Zeus.

Let's use two fronted adverbials from our plan this time.

"Furthermore" and "as a result." In your task, you're going to say the next two sentences aloud.

Use the second part of the plan on festivals and games.

Use a formal fronted adverbial.

I chose "furthermore." You can choose your own.

Use a fronted adverbial of cause to link those two bullet points.

Mm, they celebrated numerous religious festivals such as the, mm.

Then use your fronted adverbial of cause.

Mm, they showed their dedication to the god Zeus.

Pause the video and use the sentence scaffold to have a go at saying the next two sentences aloud.

Good luck.

Okay, let's have a look at what those two sentences should have sounded like.

Furthermore, they celebrated numerous religious festivals such as the Olympic Games.

As a result, they showed their dedication to the god Zeus.

Okay, we're now on our second part of the lesson.

Writing a section.

We are going to use this success criteria to help us to structure our section and to make sure that our section is the best that it can be.

Let's go through it together.

I have written a question as my subheading and underlined it.

I have written several facts about Ancient Greek religion and kept them grouped by feature.

I have written two different sentence types: simple and compound.

And the last one, I have written three types of fronted adverbial: viewpoint, formal, and fronted adverbial of cause.

I'm going to write the first part of section one using the success criteria to help me.

And I want you to look out and spot for anything that I've missed.

I am ready to write.

I have actually already written my question as a subheading and I've underlined it using my ruler.

So that's what I need you to do.

Make sure you remember the question mark at the end.

What were the religious beliefs of the Ancient Greeks? And because I've done that, I can now tick off the first thing in my success criteria.

The second part of my success criteria is about writing facts and grouping them by feature.

So let me just have a quick look at my notes over here.

The first part of my notes talks about the gods and myths so I want to give a little bit of an introduction as to what that is.

So I'm going to say that the Ancient Greek religion was a polytheistic belief system.

I'm going to start with my indent here and then start with my capital.

The ancient.

Oh, silly me.

I just noticed that I should have put a capital, so I'm going to cross that out and change that into a capital.

The Ancient Greek religion was a.

And I need to make sure that I spell this word correctly.

It's a bit of a long word.

I'm going to follow my plan.

Poly-, and I'm going to break it up, the-is-tic belief system centred around gods and goddesses.

I need to check that I've got the right number of D's and S's.

God-dess-es.

Perfect.

Full stop at the end.

And I can't tick that one off just yet because I haven't written all my facts, so I'm going to leave that for now.

Can I tick this one off? I've written two different sentence types: simple and compound.

Well, I've written a simple sentence, so for that one, I can put a tick there.

And I think I'm going to actually use this part of my success criteria to help me to structure my next sentence.

I'm going to use a viewpoint fronted adverbial.

I'm going to use the one "significantly." Because we've already practised using it, I'm going to use it now in my writing.

Significantly, this religion played an important role in their daily lives.

Well, I might add, actually, of the Ancient Greeks.

Of the Ancient Greeks.

Full stop.

So I've got my viewpoint fronted adverbial.

Oh, I am missing my comma.

Yeah, silly me.

I need to make sure that I am focused and not make these silly mistakes.

This religion played an important role in their daily lives.

Is it "their" daily lives or "in the"? It's "the," so I need to cross that one out.

In the daily lives of the Ancient Greeks.

Full stop.

Now I do need to write a compound sentence, so I think I might just take off my full stop, use my coordinating conjunction "and" and link it with the next idea.

And it influenced.

Oops, write that one again.

Influenced their world view.

Full stop.

So now I can tick off my compound sentence.

I've got my coordinating conjunction "and" linking my two ideas.

I've still got to use a formal fronted adverbial and a fronted adverbial of cause.

And I think I'm going to do that in my next two sentences using my plan.

But I'm going to stop there because I'm going to let you have a go now at trying to write your own section now that you've seen me do mine.

Now it is your turn to write your section.

The first thing you need to do is you need to write a question for your subheading and underline it.

Then I want you to indent the first sentence to start your first sentence.

And then use the success criteria to help you to plan and structure the rest of that section.

Good luck, and I can't wait to read your section after you have finished writing it.

Let's have a quick look at my section, which will be different to yours.

I'm going to just look at my success criteria and make sure that I've done the things on there.

I have written a question as my subheading and underlined it.

What were the religious beliefs of the Ancient Greeks? Yes, I have.

The second part is about grouping each of the facts by feature.

So the first part is about gods and myths.

Yes.

And then second part is about festivals and games.

So I can tick that one.

I have written two different sentence types, simple and compound.

So the first sentence, "The Ancient Greek religion was a polytheistic belief system centred around gods and goddesses," is a simple sentence.

Great.

I can tick that one.

And then my compound sentences, I've got two there.

"Significantly, this religion played an important role in the daily lives of the Ancient Greeks and it influenced their world view.

Intriguingly, Greek mythology was an integral part of their religious beliefs and they typically featured gods, heroes and supernatural beings." Great.

So I can tick the third part of my success criteria off.

And the final thing I need to check is, have I used three different types of fronted adverbials in my writing? Yes, I have.

I've used "significantly" and "intriguingly" which are viewpoint fronted adverbials, "furthermore" is my formal fronted adverbial, and "as a result" is my fronted adverbial of cause.

So I can tick that one off.

What I would like you to do now is read back your writing to check that it makes sense, edit any punctuation or sentence structure errors that you come across, and then do the same as I have, tick each box when you've completed the success criteria.

Pause the video and have a go at doing that now.

To summarise, notes from plans are useful to write coherent sentences, saying sentences out loud before writing them helps them to make sense, success criteria is useful to check our writing, improving our writing by editing punctuation errors and language choices ensures our writing is the best that it can be.

I really hope that you enjoyed writing a section about the Ancient Greeks.