Lesson video

Hello, everyone, it's Mr. Brown here with your English lesson for today.

and it's a really nice one.

We are going to be planning our persuasive letter today, which involves lots of orally, giving our opinion.

So speaking, I love that and I'm sure it's going to be a great lesson for you too.

Let's get started.

Okay, so our learning objective for today is, to plan a persuasive letter.

In this lesson, of course, you will need an exercise book, a piece of paper or something to write on, a pencil or pen or something to write with.

And your brain.

You're going to be doing lots of independent thinking.

I'm going to be asking your opinion a lot.

You definitely need your brain.

Okay, we're going to start with a warm up.

We're then going to look at how to structure a persuasive point.

And then we're going to have a look at orally rehearsing your argument.

So having a chance to actually go through practising some of the sentences using your notes.

But before we do any of that, let's get warmed up.

And today's warm up is all about justifying your opinions.

I love the word justify, it means that you are explaining why you think something and your best friend when explaining why you think something is always going to be the word, because.

I always remember spelling because as b-e-c-a-u-s-e.

It always helps me to remember 'cause it is a tricky word to spell.

Now, in these examples, you're going to be saying, I think, and you're going to tell me what you think, because and then you're going to explain why.

That's the template we'll be using.

Now I've got four topics that we're going to discuss here.

Four proposals, if you will.

The first one is that homework should be banned.

We should get rid of homework.

We shouldn't be doing homework.

anymore.

And there's lots of reasons why that would be a really excellent idea.

You will then say, I think homework should be banned because and you will give me one reason why you think homework should be banned.

And it needs to be a good one because if I'm going to make the decision to ban all homework, you need to persuade me really well.

Your next option is, children should have PE everyday.

Seems like a good one, doesn't it? PE should happen every day in school.

But why? Why would that be a good thing to do? Our next example is, all schools should be same sex and that means that boys would all go to one school and girls would all go to one school, there wouldn't be mixed sex schools, boys and girls.

Then your last one is a bit of a controversial one.

Books are better than movies, books are better than movies, whether you agree or not with that, I wonder if you can come up with a reason why you think books are better than movies.

We're going to be doing that a lot in today's lesson.

Trying to put ourselves in the opinion of perhaps someone who disagrees with us but so that we can find justification for their opinions too Okay, so let me give an example.

Let's go for the homework one.

I think homework should be banned because children could be using that time to spend with their families.

Seems like a good one, okay.

So can you have a go at each of these? Homework, PE everyday, same sex schools and books are better than movies.

Saying I think one of those because, and then give me a good reason why.

You'll need to pause the lesson.

I think this would be great if you could do it out loud, it'll be a good chance to practise your speaking skills.

If you've got a family member or carer, a friend, or older or younger brother or sibling, brother or sister or sibling, that's what they're called.

Then ask them to join you and have a chance to give your justifications to a real person.

I think that will be very beneficial.

Okay, pause the lesson and have a go, now.

Okay, I wonder how you got on.

I think there's a good chance, if you want to extend this even further, you could switch each of these proposals round, couldn't you? You could say, I think homework should not be bad because children should not have PE every day.

I think movies are better than books.

You can have a go flipping that around, certainly something to do after the lesson.

Okay, let's move on.

We're going to start now, looking at how to structure a persuasive point.

And structure just means putting something in a certain order, a certain way of doing something.

Okay, structuring a persuasive point.

First of all, my question to you is, why do we need to structure and plan our points? Why don't we just go for it, have an idea, just have a rough kind of, sort of solution of where you're heading and just go for it.

Why do we need to plan and structure? What do you think? Well, certainly one reason is that it helps us to be clear and make sense.

We want to make sure that we are being very clear and concise, is something I always tell children whenever we're doing any speaking.

You want to get your point across straightaway.

You don't want to keep talking, talking, talking, going all the way around the houses, and then it gets a bit unclear, a bit muddle of what your actual point was.

So structuring and planning is going to help to make our points super clear and to help them to make sense.

The next one is essential, to ensure nothing important is missed.

We want to structure and plan our points to make sure that all our best examples our best pieces of evidence, they're all in there.

When you're trying to persuade someone, and you're arguing with someone, you're making an argument, every carefully considered point that you have is a bit like a weapon in a battle, isn't it? You wouldn't want to go into a battle without your best weapon.

And that's kind of what we're looking at here.

We're making sure that we know everything, we have all those tools that we're going to need.

Okay, to end your point in a strong way.

You really want to make sure you finish in the strongest position you can and structuring a point will allow you to do that.

Okay, so P.

E.

P.

S, p-e-p-s P.

E.

P.

S is the planning structure we're going to be using to help us structure our points, our ideas, make sure we understand when we need to say each part.

Let me show you what P.

E.

P.

S stands for.

The P of P.

E.

P.

S is for point, you must clearly make your main point using that word that we started from our warm up, what is it? Because.

So this is very similar to our warm up, you're going to say what you think, because and then you explain why you think it.

But only give you a main point.

This is not where you're go into long explanations where you give your proof and your evidence.

That's going to come later.

Okay, next thing, explanation.

That's what the E in P.

E.

P.

S stands for.

This is where you explain your reasons for believing this.

So this is different to when you use because and you justify your opinion.

This is where you explain all of the reasons why you think something.

For example, if I was going back to our warm up and I was saying that we should ban homework, that I could say, you know, my point would be, I believe that homework should be banned, because it would allow us to spend extra time with our families.

Okay, that's my point.

My explanation is we're talking about all the pressures on modern families to be able to, you know, get any time together with parents and carers working, school and after school clubs taking up more time.

When you get home, you basically just have time to eat, and then go to bed.

So I would explain all that and give examples in this section because that's what the P is for in P.

E.

P.

S, it's proof, evidence.

And this is when you have actual instances that support your arguments.

So times, preferably in your life.

I think always, proof is best when it's coming from your own life, your own experiences.

You'd give actual proof of when, there have been times that support your argument.

So if I'm talking about the homework, I will talk about how maybe my children have clubs two or three days a week, so therefore I don't get to see them much, then if they're doing homework, that means they're also needing to focus and I can't spend that much time with them, you might talk about.

Okay, the S, what do you think the S stands for? Point, explanation, proof.

What if I did this? Point, explanation, proof, and then we're back up to the top, what do you call it? A word beginning with S, where you get all the way around and you start to talk about that first thing, again, not in so much detail, you are just some.

Summarising, you're going to make a summary where you summarise your main points at one more time.

And to summarise something means you're just going over it in not as much detail.

For example, if you were summarising the plot of a book or a movie, you would say, "Oh, let me just summarise what happened".

Sometimes you actually summarised at school, don't you? Someone might be asking you.

"Oh, can you tell me what happened in the playground today?" Perhaps if someone was upset, we need to know what happened.

You might say, "Okay, let me just give you," "I'll summarise what happened." Summarise.

Okay.

Let's go through it.

Proof, point, explanation, proof, summary.

Say it again, point, explanation, proof and summary.

Good.

Okay.

Now some people use P.

E.

E, point, evidence, explanation for your planning, that's absolutely fine.

If you use that you're used to it and you want to continue using that, that's fine.

I personally feel that a little bit of summary at the end really makes a difference, really makes a difference.

I also would like having an explanation before you give your evidence.

Okay.

Here's an example.

Why should children have PE everyday? We talked about children having PE everyday, didn't we? In our warm up.

So it's back around again, we're going to use that as another example and I'm going to show you how to make my P.

E.

P.

S structure work for you.

Okay, point.

I believe that children show up every day, because, there is that word justification, because it will help to increase their fitness levels.

Good, really solid, clear point.

It's going to increase their fitness levels if they're happy everyday, definitely don't think you can argue with that, can you? And increase in fitness levels is a good thing.

Well, that's what I'll do in my perhaps explanation and explain that a bit more.

Okay, children are spending more and more time indoors watching television and playing computer games, PE offers them a chance to become fitter and more active.

So I'm explaining that in the modern world that we live in, there are lots and lots of temptations for children to just stay inside and sit down.

Computer games are everywhere.

And they are so addictive that children spend a lot of time sitting down, just playing on a computer game, not getting physically fitter and are more active.

That's where this will come in.

Good, so that's a nice explanation.

I like that point.

It's good as well, because it's quite emotional, talking about children not being fit.

I think it provokes an emotional reaction in the recipient, the person that am writing to.

Okay, my proof, many children in my school say that PE is their favourite lesson.

But they wish they could have more PE lessons, good example of but.

Let's just go through that again, many children in my school said that PE is their favourite lesson, but they wish they could have more PE lessons.

Okay, good.

That's a nice example again, why we should have PE every day.

And then to summarise, that means I'm going back to my main point and I'm just glossing over in a slightly different way.

Moving to having PE lessons every day is an easy way to help support thousands of children to become fitter and healthier.

Good.

Okay.

The only issue is, remember, this is just a plan.

You can use notes.

You don't have to write full sentences.

Everything I've highlighted in grey actually could go, and my plan would look like this.

Which I think for me personally, is easier to read and easier to pick out the key things that I need to get into my letter.

You don't have to write full sentences in your plan.

Because if you do that, you're actually just writing your letter, but in a plan format.

Planning should be all about getting everything clear in your head, making notes and then rehearsing it as well, which we're going to do later today.

Okay, let's switch back to last lessons task.

If you didn't do last lesson, you might want to stop this lesson and go back and do it first.

If not, we're going to work through that here for you.

I asked you to try and generate explanations and evidence or proof for each of our chosen points.

And I said this will help you to prepare for planning our persuasive letter.

Here we are, planning our persuasive letter.

We had a go at no competition between pupils.

So here is an example of some explanation and proof that I came up with.

My explanation for having a school uniform is going to stop competition between pupils.

I've said that children can feel left out if they don't have the latest clothes.

Nice, again, good emotional punch with that one.

Parents and carers can feel pressured to buy a new outfit for school as children want to keep up with their friends.

Definitely a nice example again, that emotional punch parents and carers feeling pressure because their children want the latest clothes so they can wear to school to show off to their friends.

And then the last one, the big one, children could be teased about their clothes.

This is where I actually could start to talk about bullying in school and the effect that that can have on children, which is a huge emotional punch, isn't it? What I mean by emotional punch is the way it delivers, that kind of, you can't help when you're hearing about things like children being teased and maybe bullied to feel sympathy for those children, that emotional punch, and that's something that we're always looking to deliver in a persuasive letter.

Okay, and then my proof, I talked about on non-uniform days, some children at my school often wear new clothes such as the latest football kits, which are very expensive, and this leads to other children feeling jealous.

So I can talk there about on a non-uniform day, I've seen kids come into school in the latest, amazing football kits.

And there's other kids who feel that they don't have any clothes that they can come into school wearing, and end up wearing their uniform because they feel embarrassed.

That, to me, doesn't seem right.

If schools don't have a uniform, that's going to happen every day.

Definitely a good example of some proof there.

Okay, let's have a go now.

Putting that into a P.

E.

P.

S structure.

I put my first one in, because it can help stop competition between pupils who are judging and comparing each other on their clothes.

So I just add a little bit more than just competition.

I've talked about judging and comparing as well.

Again, not in a full sentence, is it? That's absolutely fine, just notes.

My explanation.

Having the latest clothes can be very important to children.

And then I've just put a little dash because I know I'm going to move on to a slightly different thought.

Children's social groups can change regularly.

Nice talking about how children find it difficult to maintain a strong social group.

Often someone's best friend one day is not their friend the next day.

And this could be very tricky if we bring the clothes element into it.

There's lots of reasons to be comparing each other's clothes competition, good.

And then my last little point in the explanation could be teased and that's where I can open up and talk about any proof.

My proof, non-uniform day like I'm taking it from my plan here, I'm just taking it from it from my ideas.

I'm putting it into a P.

E.

P.

S structure.

On non-uniform day, some children still come to school in they're uniform as they feel they don't have clothes they feel they want to wear and then summarise.

Difficult enough being a child in school, being told what to wear each day will be a big weight lifted, I think my summary there, I can start to feel it's quite an emotional speech that I'm making here, quite an emotional part of my letter and writing.

So let's use the summary to talk about how difficult it is being a child in school.

It's not easy.

And being told everyday what to wear, not having to worry about choosing an outfit will be a big weight lifted.

Okay, what I want you to do now is, you're going to pause the video and you're going to have a go completing a P.

E.

P.

S structure for our other points.

That uniform is cheaper for parents and carers.

Again, I want you to take your time with this.

Have a good long think.

Speak to any friends, family or carers if you can and discuss their opinions too.

The more opinions you get, the better and more persuasive your letter is going to be.

Here is some notes for you to use.

These are the notes we've created before and you've got the P.

E.

P.

S structure there, point, explanation, proof and summary.

On your page, you can just write down points and then make your notes, explanation.

It doesn't have to be a neat table like mine, but you can use a ruler to draw a neat table if you wanted to.

Okay, it's over to you.

Take your time with this, there is no rush to come back and start the lesson again.

Make your P.

E.

P.

S structure for, uniform being cheaper for parents and carers.

That's your points.

Give me the explanation, the proof and the summary.

Off you go.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope that you took your time there to really get your opinions right and to put your point, explanation, proof and summary in place.

Let's have a go at looking at an example.

My point.

We know that it's going to be cheaper for parents.

That's what we're talking about, because it will be much cheaper for parents and carers as they wouldn't have to buy lots of different clients.

Yep, really clear.

My explanation.

Parents and carers only need to buy one to two sets of uniform, uniform could be handed down.

That's a good thing to talk about.

And we're going to talk about money being better spent on books or healthy food.

My proof.

Many children would want to wear football kits, which have an average cost for a new kit and I've looked this up, I've done some research.

An average cost for a child in year five will be 100 pounds for a new kit.

That's shirt and shorts and socks.

With the shirt alone, costing 55 pounds, just the shirt.

Really quite shocking.

That amounts of money and it's going to play such a big part in my persuasive letter.

Okay, my summary.

Parents and carers have so many things they need to buy for their children.

Money will be better off spent elsewhere.

So I'm just kind of reinforcing that what I touched on in my explanation.

Going back to my point talking about we've got to spend this money on better things than just buying clothes.

Okay, it's now time to orally rehearse our argument and that just means to practise out loud and I think this is so crucial.

Anytime you do any writing, whether it is a persuasive letter, a narrative, it could be, you're writing a diary entry.

Always best if you out loud, orally rehearse your sentences first.

So let's have a go at already rehearsing for, point one, cheaper for parents, using our P.

E.

P.

S structure.

Okay, so I know my notes for my point is because it will be much cheaper for parents and carers as they wouldn't have to buy lots of different clothes.

So that's going to be quite an easy one because I can just add before, the because, I think, I believe, maybe I believe is stronger.

I, wait, I strongly believe, I strongly believe that school uniforms should be compulsory because it would be much cheaper, it will be so much cheaper for parents and carers if they only had to buy school uniform.

Hmm, It'd be so much cheaper for parents and carers as they wouldn't have to buy lots of different clothes.

Yeah, I guess that works actually.

Can you see what I'm doing? As I'm rehearsing it in my head, I'm chopping and I'm changing and I'm adding words and I'm taking things away.

That is great.

That's what the rehearsal process is all about.

Let's try that one again.

Was it I strongly believe that school uniforms should be compulsory because it would be so much cheaper for parents and carers as they wouldn't have to buy lots of different sets of clothes for their children to go to school wearing, for their children to wear to school.

Full stop.

Nice, good.

Again, chopping, changing, editing as I go.

Let's try the explanation.

So what have I got? Parents and carers only need to buy one or two sets of uniform.

Okay, let's put that to sentence.

Let's use an if sentence for that.

Okay, if school uniform were to be compulsory, comma, parents and carers would only need to buy one or two sets of uniform, full stop.

Nice, good.

Okay, my next part of my explanation in my notes is that uniform could also be handed down, okay.

Furthermore, uniform could also be handed down to younger siblings once a child grows out of it.

Nice, good.

Okay, last thing, money will be better off spent on books or healthy food.

Okay, let's use some of our persuasive techniques.

Presumption.

Okay, good.

I'm sure someone asked.

Oh, actually, I'm combining presumption and flattery.

Let's do this.

I'm sure someone as intelligent as yourself can clearly see that this money would be better off spent on books or healthy food for their children.

Nice, good, okay.

Proof.

Many children want to wear football kits.

Talk about the average football kit.

Okay, great.

Let's do a bit more presumption then, shall we? I'm sure you can imagine that many children would want to wear a football kit to school if there were no school uniform in place.

Full stop, nice, I like that.

Okay, let's get some shocking stuff in there.

So shockingly, comma, the average cost of a new football kit for a child in year five would be around 100 pounds, full stop.

I think actually an exclamation mark will work there, wouldn't it? It'd be 100 pounds.

And I think I could just keep that as a short sentence.

With the shirt alone.

I'm thinking of a sentence starter with the shirt alone.

Maybe if I used furthermore, in addition to this, 'cause I'm talking about the same thing.

In addition to this, comma, the shirt alone would be costing their family roughly 55 pounds, full stop.

Nice, good.

I might even add a question there.

I haven't got it my plan, but I'm just rehearsing it as I'm going.

I feel like a question to the recipient would be nice here.

Do you think this is a suitable amount of money for families to be spending on items of clothing? Nice, okay, that's quite good.

Okay, and then my summary.

Parent have got much better things.

Okay talk about spending their money on other things.

Okay.

You can actually even, for a summary, you can even start your summary with to summarise my point.

To summarise my point, I believe that parents and carers have so many things they need to buy for their children, that their money would be much better spent elsewhere.

Full stop, good.

So I haven't written anything extra down.

Anything that I've come up with now is kind of just there for rehearsal processes.

But it's so much clearer in my head, so much clearer in my head.

What I want you to do now is have a go at point two.

Have a go at taking the point of, it helps us competition between pupils, using our P.

E.

P.

S structure and our notes, to orally, out loud, rehearse your letter.

I think this is something that you will need to try.

Again and again and again, you can see my process, I was constantly editing, chopping, changing, moving things around, you will need to take your time with this.

So this is probably something that's best done after this lesson, over time.

If you want to, you can take a screenshot of this planning structure, or you should have something pretty similar written in front of you, you can copy it out if you want to.

So you can maybe take this around your home, practise when you're sitting in bed at night, practise when you're off to the park.

This will help get it really clear in your head.

Okay, well done.

You know what your task is to do in between this lesson and your next lesson.

I look forward to seeing you then.

Well done, everyone.

A really, really good lesson.

Definitely feeling much more confident about writing our persuasive letter.

The difference between having a go out loud and not having a go is huge.

Definitely orally rehearse your sentences, it will make a huge difference to your confidence.

Okay, I'll see you next time.

Take care everyone.

Bye bye.