Lesson video

Hello everyone.

It's Mr. Brown here with your English lesson for today and we are going to be generating points, generating points for us to use in a persuasive letter all about school uniform.

So let's get generating, shall we? The outcome for today's lesson is I can generate points to use in a persuasive letter about school uniform.

The key words are generate and points.

Let's say this together, generate, points.

Perfect.

Generate means to produce or create something.

A point is an idea or reason to support your opinion.

The lesson outline, we will start by understanding points, and then move on to generating points.

So what is persuasion? Persuasion is a noun and it's the action or process of trying to change someone's mind or behaviour.

Persuading someone to agree with you all starts with a persuasive point.

A persuasive point is giving an idea or reason to support your opinion.

An opinion is what you think or believe.

Let's look at these examples of points.

I believe that children should not have to do homework because it will decrease the time they'll have available to play with their siblings.

I think the books are better than movies because the reader can use their imagination more.

I believe that football is the best sport because it can be played with large groups of people.

I think that maths is the most important subject at school because it prepares pupils to understand money.

There is a word that will usually appear when someone makes a point.

Did you spot it? It was a word that's appeared in all of those points.

That word is because.

I believe the books are best their movies because the reader can use their imagination more.

Or I believe that football is the best sport because it can be played with large groups of people.

Which word will often appear when someone makes a point.

Is it A, and, B, but, or C, because? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back.

Okay, A, B, or C? Well, well done if you said C.

It is because.

Because is the word that is used at a point.

I believe the best food is pasta because it is quick and easy to cook.

Alex is giving a point.

Now that point is simply one reason to justify their opinion using the because.

So he thinks that the best food is pasta.

That's his opinion and he thinks that the one reason he's giving to justify that opinion is because it's quick and easy to cook.

A point can be just one sentence long and that's the example.

Making a point is giving a reason to justify your opinion.

Is that true or is that false? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back.

Okay, so making a point is giving a reason to justify your opinion is true.

Well done if you said true.

Now let's justify our answers.

A point means giving as much detail as possible over several sentences, or a point is simply one reason to justify your opinion using the word because.

Pause the video and justify with A or B now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's see.

How would you justify your answer? Well, well done if you said B.

A point is simply one reason to justify your opinion using the word because.

That's all that point is.

If you look at A, a point means giving as much detail as possible over several sentences, no, that's not a point.

A point should be one sentence, very short, sharp, concise, clear.

That's what a point is.

Time for a practise task.

Finish these points by adding a reason to justify each opinion.

I believe that playtime in school should be increased because.

Add a reason to justify that opinion.

I think that all children should attend after school clubs because.

What would be a reason why all children should attend after school clubs? These are opinions and your job is to justify them with a reason.

Over to you.

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

Welcome back.

I am so intrigued to see how you justified these opinions.

Let's have a look at how I justify them.

I believe that playtime in school should be increased because it would allow children to have more time being active.

And that's it.

That's my point.

I will then move on in the future to explain that point, maybe to add some evidence, some proof.

I'll summarise it, but that will all come later.

It all starts with a point.

Let's have a look at number two.

I think that all children should attend after school clubs because this would help to support working parents.

Absolutely.

What a great way to justify that opinion.

Both of these, when I look at them, I think, yeah, these could be strong arguments.

You could definitely spend time explaining, adding detail about these and that will all come in the future.

Let's move on to generating points.

Generating means to produce or create something.

Before a writer can start writing a persuasive letter, they need to generate points to use for their persuasive arguments.

Points contain a reason or idea to support an opinion.

They are one sentence long and use the word because to give one reason for that opinion.

Let me check your understanding.

Select the statements that are true about making points.

Is it A, they contain an opinion, B, they use the word because to give an opinion, C, points give lots of information and specific details.

Select the statements, so there's more than one, that are true about making points.

Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back.

Let's see if you found the right answers.

Well, well done if you said A and B.

They contain an opinion and they use the word because to give an opinion.

C, lots of information, specific details, that all comes later.

That all comes in your explanation section.

First, you just make a point.

First, the writer should generate a list of ideas for potential points that they could use in a persuasive letter.

It might be that only two of these points will actually be used in the letter, but they should be the best two points which have the most potential to engage and persuade the reader.

So we're gonna make a list of points and we'll probably only use two of them, but that's okay because the list will help us to look through and decide which two are the best.

We are preparing to write a letter to persuade the prime Minister to make school uniform compulsory.

However, for this practise exercise, we'll use a different example.

Let's generate points for a persuasive letter asking your school Head Teacher to increase the length of your playtime.

Remember, we are just generating lots of ideas for points at this stage.

They do not need to be fully worded yet and can be written in note-form.

We are not writing the whole point out.

This might just be two or three words which help us to remember what this particular point is all about.

Can you generate five points for a persuasive letter asking your school Head Teacher to increase the length of your play time? And you can do this working with a partner.

Now here's an example, more time to be active.

So health and fitness.

Why don't you pause the video now and work with the person next to you to try and generate five points or more if you even can for a persuasive letter asking your school Head Teacher to increase the length of your play time.

For example, doing that, increasing the length of play time would give you more time to be active, and we can link that to health and fitness.

And you can see I've written that just in note-form, more time to be active, and then in brackets, health and fitness.

That's clearly not written fully, is it? Okay.

Pause the video, work with the person next to you and try and generate as many points as you can, at least five for a persuasive letter asking your school Head Teacher to increase the length of your play time.

Pause the video now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's see how you got on.

Let took us some more examples.

So we said more time to be active.

Social development.

Of course, that's a really good point.

Time with siblings.

Of course, your siblings are unlikely to be in your class.

So more time at playtime will mean you can play with your brothers and sisters more.

Time outside, which you get vitamin D from the sun.

So I can talk about being outside and how that impacts your health.

Nice.

I like this one, brain breaks.

So mentally recharging for the next lesson because we can link that to education, can't we? And say the benefit that this will have on people's learning.

Gives teachers more time between lessons.

Of course, teacher will be able to mark books or set up for the next lesson if they had a bit more time.

Increases time spent on PE activities.

I think your PE teacher would be keen for you to have more time outside perhaps as a way to be able to top up the time spent doing PE.

And more opportunities to eat and drink.

So being able to have a snack at playtime or get a drink, how that would help maybe recharge you and get you set for the next lesson.

So we've got more time to be active, social development, time with siblings, time outside, brain breaks, give teachers more time, increased time on PE, and more opportunity to eat and drink.

A strong point should be persuasive and easily expanded into a full argument.

So which of these points are the strongest? Which of these points would you consider to be the strongest and why? Take your time, talk with the person next to you.

Have a discussion.

Which of these points could be easily expanded into full arguments? Pause the video and have a discussion now.

Welcome back.

How did you get on? I wonder what are your thoughts? And the amazing thing about this task is there's no right or wrong answer.

It's what do you think? I think there are some points that are stronger than others, but every point could have the potential to be expanded into a full argument.

Let's take a look at an example of how these notes for points can be turned into a full point.

So let's take the point, social development.

This would sound like, I believe the school playtime should increased because it would give children more time to spend with friends, which would help their social development.

So you can see the notes, and there's just two words, social development has been turned into a full, fully-formed point.

Time for a practise task.

Generate as many points as you can that could be included in a persuasive letter to the Prime Minister asking for school uniform to be compulsory.

So everybody has to wear uniform.

You are just generating lots of ideas for points at this stage.

They do not need to be fully worded and could be written in note-form.

Here's a start, would help with cost for families.

So if everyone had a uniform, they wouldn't have to buy lots of different clothes.

Potentially children wanting fashionable clothes or football kits.

So this would help with the cost for families.

You can see it's written just as notes, would help with cost for families.

There's no capital letters, full stops.

It's not written every single word, not fully formed.

How about this one, would stop competitiveness.

So if all children were wearing the same, there wouldn't be a competitive nature where children might be wanting to wear better clothes than someone else, wear more expensive football kits than someone else.

We would take that element away by wearing a uniform.

So your job is to try and think of all the positives of having a school uniform, how it would impact as many children as possible in a positive way.

Remember, just notes.

Okay, pause the video and write your list of points now.

Welcome back.

How did you get on? How many points did you generate? Well, let's have a look at some examples.

So it would help with cost for family.

We talked about that.

You then need to buy one or two sets which stop competitiveness, and we can link that to bullying.

Speed up morning routines for families.

So no clothing decisions to be made.

We know what we're wearing.

Pupils always in appropriate clothes, recognisable on trips.

That's a good health and safety one.

We can see which children are in our classes if they're all wearing the same.

Teaches discipline and pride in appearance.

Prepares pupils for the working world.

That's a nice one.

So when you leave school and you get a job, lots of jobs require people to wear a uniform.

Same as school.

Promotes equality.

So everybody would feel included.

Everyone would feel equal if they're all wearing the same.

Time to summarise the learning that we've done today.

Persuading someone to agree with you all starts with a persuasive point.

A persuasive point is an idea or reason to support your opinion.

Points will usually contain the word because, which is used to give a reason for an opinion.

Superb work today, lots of points generated, and we'll use those in our future lessons.

I will see you very soon.