Lesson video

Hi everyone and welcome to today's lesson.

Today we're going to be moving on to planning part one of the main body of our persuasive letter.

In today's lesson, you will be able to plan the first main body paragraph of a persuasive letter inspired by a text.

Here are some key words we are going to use.

Main body, specific information, physical health, mental health.

The main body are paragraphs which include key persuasive arguments.

Specific information is clear, exact and particular information.

Physical health is the healthy functioning of the body.

Mental health is the healthy functioning of the mind.

Today we're going to be planning part one of the main body of a persuasive letter.

We're going to begin by learning about the structure and the purpose of the main body.

Then we're going to move on to planning part one of the main body.

The purpose of a persuasive letter is to persuade or convince the reader to change their mind or behaviour around a particular issue.

Persuasive letters use a range of linguistic features and persuasive techniques to help achieve this purpose.

Formal tone is used when writing a persuasive letter.

Our persuasive letter can be structured like this.

We begin with an introduction followed by 0.

1, which is all about physical health benefits of the community playground.

0.

2 is all about the mental health benefits of the playground and finally, we end on our conclusion.

The introduction is the first paragraph of the letter.

It states the letter's purpose, main arguments or points.

The main body paragraphs, explore key persuasive points in detail, backed up by evidence and the conclusion paragraph summarises the key information of the letter and it outlines the next steps.

We've already written our introduction.

Today we are planning main body paragraph 0.

1, which is all about the physical health benefits of the playground.

The purpose of a main body paragraph is to do all of these things.

We want to engage the reader, specify a key argument and give the reader specific information.

Information specific information is factual and detailed.

We can use this visual to help us, remember that information in the main body, should be specific.

Three or false, information in the main should be kept specific.

Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you spotted that this is true, now pause the video again, while you decide how to justify your answer.

Great work everyone.

Specific information is detailed and specific.

The purpose of this letter is to convince your local council to fund a community playground in your local area.

To persuade your reader, we need to clearly outline some key benefits the playground would bring to your community.

We need to write really clearly and concisely in our main body paragraphs in order to persuade our recipient.

By this, we need to make sure we avoid language which could be confusing or unclear.

Our paragraphs in the main body, need to be very clearly structured with a clear specification of what the point is that we are making, backed up by evidence.

When writing persuasively, it's very important to add credibility to our writing by backing up our points with evidence.

The key points we want to make are that the playground would benefit children's physical and their mental health.

Where might we look to find information and evidence to support our points? Take a moment to have a little think or discuss this question with your partner.

Well done if you spotted and have some suggestions.

Here are a few ideas I had.

We could look for NHS data on the NHS website.

This is a good source of information, because it is a trusted source.

Data from mental health charities and personal anecdotes and experiences.

These are really, really valid sources of information, because we can draw on our own experiences to back up our argument.

Here are some examples of evidence we could use to support our points.

Let's read them together.

According to the NHS children and young people, aged five to 18 should aim for an average of 60 minutes of physical activity a day.

A recent NHS England survey shows that one in five children and young people in England aged eight to 25 had a probable mental disorder.

Mind, which is a mental health charity, recommends that spending time in green space or bringing nature into your everyday life can benefit both your mental and physical wellbeing.

Many pupils in my class have reported how having time to run around outside, helps them focus in their lessons.

These are all examples of sentences that we could use across our main body paragraph one or paragraph two to support the points that the playground would benefit children's physical or their mental health.

But you don't need to stick to just these sentences.

You could spend some time finding additional research and evidence to support these points.

You could also include personal anecdotes and experiences to show how access to outdoor space can benefit physical or mental health.

Make sure though that you are quoting from a trusted source, so from a registered physical or mental health charity or somewhere like the NHS, which has got the national statistics for mental and physical health.

Why does including evidence and personal anecdotes help to support persuasive arguments? A, is it that they're a way to confuse our reader? B, that they back up our points with facts and statistics, making our points more credible? Or C, they make our paragraphs longer? Pause the video while you decide.

Great work everyone, well done if you spotted that the correct answer was B, they back up our points with facts and statistics, making our points more credible.

We can structure the main body paragraph like this.

We begin with an introductory sentence, followed by specific information sentences and finally a linking sentence.

The introductory sentence states the main argument of this paragraph.

Remember, we want to make sure our reader, clearly understands what point we are making, so the introductory sentence has got to be really clear.

Then we follow this with specific information sentences that add further explanation and evidence to support the point.

And finally, we add a linking sentence which links onto the next paragraph.

Remember, the next paragraph here, will be main body paragraph two, which is all about the mental health benefits of the playground.

Match the parts of a main body paragraph to their functions, pause the video while you do that.

Well done, if you spotted that, an introductory sentence, states the main argument of this paragraph, specific information sentences add further explanation and evidence to support the point and the linking sentence links onto the next paragraph.

Now, it's time for your task.

Sort the points into those relevant for main body paragraph one, which is all about the physical health benefits and main body paragraph two, which is all about the mental health benefits.

Let's read through them quickly together.

Develop confidence.

Encourage children to be physically active, opportunities to make new friends, time in nature.

Opportunities to develop skills such as climbing.

Provide a safe space to play and foster strong community relationships.

Pause the video, while you complete your task.

Well done everyone.

The physical health benefits include that they encourage, the park would encourage children to be physically active.

It would provide opportunities to develop skills, such as climbing and it would provide a safe space to play.

Mental health benefits of the playground would be that it would help develop children's confidence, give them opportunities to make new friends, spend time in nature and foster strong community relationships.

It's really important that we understand that these are two separate arguments and we don't want to start bringing mental health benefits into our physical health but main body paragraph, because we want this point to be really clear and structured for our reader.

Great work, everyone.

Now, we're going to move on to planning the main body.

When we plan, we use notes.

Notes are concise and they capture subject-specific vocabulary and information.

The purpose of notes is to help the writer to organise information easily for future use.

We use bullet points when note taking and they look like this.

What is in a plan? Pause the video while you decide.

Well done if you spotted that in a plan, we need to include, bullet points for notes and subject-specific vocabulary.

Let's review the structure of this main body paragraph.

So, first we start with our introductory sentence and this states the main argument of this paragraph.

Remember, the main argument of this paragraph is that the community playground, would bring lots of benefits for children's physical health.

The specific information sentences add specific detail and evidence to support our point and our linking sentence links onto the next paragraph.

We are going to use the CM structure in our plan, so that when we come to writing, our plan helps support us with writing cohesively and in the correct structure.

Here's the planning format that we are going to use for the main body.

Let's read it through together.

So, we begin with an introductory sentence that states the argument.

Then we include specific information which provides further explanation and evidence.

Remember, this can be from your own research or personal anecdotes.

And finally, our linking sentence links onto the next paragraph.

The next paragraph is all about the mental health benefits that the playground would bring to our community.

Now, it's time for your task.

Plan in note form and using bullet points, the introductory sentence of your main body, paragraph one, which is the physical health benefits.

I've included our visual to remind you that we want to keep the information here specific and detailed.

Remember, your introductory sentence needs to clearly state the argument of this paragraph.

Pause the video while you complete your task.

Brilliant work everyone.

Here's my plan.

Remember, it's going to be a bit different to yours but that's great, because we want to have lots of different ideas.

You can always magpie ideas from my plan and add it to yours as we go along if you would like to.

So, to open my paragraph, I'm going to use either to begin comma or first and foremost comma.

I haven't decided which one I'm going to use right now.

So, I've put them both into my plan and then I can decide when I come to writing.

One primary benefit.

So, one main benefit of the playground would be to children's physical health and wellbeing.

Now remember, the physical health and wellbeing belongs to the children.

So, I need to include an apostrophe for possession here.

Now, we've done our introductory sentence.

We're going to move on to adding some credible support and evidence to back up our point.

So, plan in note form and using bullet points, the specific information sentences of your main body paragraph one.

We're still talking about the physical health benefits here.

Now, this is where you draw on your research or your personal experiences to back up the point that the playground would benefit our children's physical health.

Pause the video while you do that.

Well done everyone.

Here are some of the ideas, I've included in my specific information sentences section.

I would like to open one of my sentences with, according to the most recent NHS data comma, there are higher levels of illness among children and young people.

This could be overcome with increased physical activity.

The NHS recommends at least 60 minutes daily exercise for children.

The park or the playground, would provide a safe playing space.

It would encourage physical activity and team sports.

Pause the video if you need to take a moment to reread through your planning and check that you've got clear evidence to support your point.

You can also magpie some ideas from my plan.

Well done everyone.

Now, let's move on to planning our linking sentence.

Plan in note form and using bullet points, the linking sentence of your main body paragraph one, physical health benefits.

Remember, this links on to the next paragraph.

So, how can we link together physical health with mental health to give our reader that cohesive lead in to the next section of our persuasive letter.

Pause the video while you complete your task.

Well done everyone.

Here's my plan.

The link between improved physical health and improved mental health is well documented and researched.

There are proven links between physical activity and improved mental wellbeing.

So, here I've given my reader a little taster of the fact that if we are physically active and healthy, this is really beneficial for our mental health also.

Take a moment now to reread your full plan and check that you are happy with everything you've got in there.

Well done everyone.

Brilliant work everyone.

That now brings us onto the end of our lesson where today we have been planning part one of the main body of a persuasive letter.

The key purpose of the main body paragraphs is to clearly state the most important and persuasive arguments for the writer's opinion.

Specific information should be used in the main body paragraphs to further explain the writer's points and to add supporting evidence.

Plans should be written in note form using bullet points.

I am so impressed with the level of planning and research that we have completed today.

I feel really confident that these plans will set us up for some really successful writing outcomes in our next lesson.

Well done everyone and I'm so looking forward to seeing you again soon.