Lesson video

Hi everyone and welcome to today's lesson.

Today we're going to be planning and writing section one of our essay.

In today's lesson, you're going to be using your research to plan and write the first section of an essay about early Islamic civilization.

Here are some key words we're going to use.

Specific information.

Explanatory sentence.

Subject-specific vocabulary.

Relative complex sentence.

Fronted adverbial.

Specific information is clear, exact and particular information.

An explanatory sentence provides the reader with specific information to develop a point.

Subject-specific vocabulary is words and phrases associated with a topic.

A relative complex sentence is a sentence formed of a main clause and a relative subordinate clause.

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

Today we're going to be planning and writing the first section of an essay about early Islamic civilization.

We're going to begin by planning section one, and then we're gonna move on to writing it.

Essays often follow the same structure and layout.

They have a title which is framed either as a question or a statement.

The introduction is the first paragraph that states the argument and introduces the reasons to be explored.

The sections contain paragraphs of information related to the particular reasons that support the argument.

And finally, the conclusion is the last paragraph that summarises the information from the text and restates the argument.

So far in our unit, we have already written our introduction, and today we're going to be focusing on section one, which is all about the Abbasid dynasty in the early Islamic civilization.

That's what we're going to be planning and writing today.

The purpose is the aim of the text, and the purpose of section one is to do these things: we want to engage our reader, and we want to give the reader specific information about the chronology of early Islamic civilization and the Abbasid dynasty.

When we were writing our introduction, we kept the information general, but now we're onto section one, our information is going to be more specific.

The paragraph in this section gives the reader specific information about the chronology of early Islamic civilization and the Abbasid dynasty.

The paragraph follows a clear structure.

We begin with an introductory sentence, then we have explanatory sentences, and finally a linking sentence.

The introductory sentence introduces what the paragraph will be about.

The explanatory sentences give the reader specific information which explains this point in further detail.

And finally, the linking sentence links on to the next section.

Match each part of the section one paragraph to its function.

Pause the video while you do that.

Great work, everyone.

The introductory sentence introduces the reader to what this paragraph will be about.

The explanatory sentences give the reader specific information which explains the point in further detail, and the linking sentence links on to the next section.

Let's review what we've learnt about the chronology of early Islamic civilization, because this is what we're going to use to help us write our section one today.

The Prophet Muhammad was born in 570 CE.

This marked the start of early Islamic civilization.

Early Islamic civilization ended in 1258 CE.

So in 570 CE, the Prophet Muhammad was born, and in 1258 CE, we mark the end of early Islamic civilization.

This is illustrated here on this timeline.

The Prophet Muhammad was born in the city of Mecca in a region called Arabia around 570 CE.

This region is now known as Saudi Arabia.

In 610 CE, Muhammad received his first revelation from God.

He began to preach that there's only one God, and this was the beginning of a new religion called Islam.

In 622 CE, hostility made Muhammad and his followers move to Medina.

In 630 CE, Muhammad and his followers reclaimed Mecca during the March on Mecca.

In 632 CE, Muhammad fell ill and died.

His followers chose Abu Bakr, his father-in-law, as their new leader or caliph.

The rule of the first four caliphs after the death of Muhammad is known as the Rashidun Caliphate.

The armies of the Rashidun caliphs extended Islamic rule throughout Arabia and began to push outwards into Western Asia and North Africa.

In 661 CE, the last of the Rashidun caliphs, Ali, was attacked by a rebel.

One of the Muslim army's most powerful generals, Muawiyah, declared himself a caliph.

He was a member of the Umayyad family and was the first caliph of the Umayyad dynasty.

A dynasty is the term we use when we talk about leaders who belong to the same royal family.

By 730 CE, the Islamic Empire had reached its greatest size.

In 100 years, Muslim armies had conquered 15 million square kilometres, around 10% of the Earth's land area.

Nearly one third of the world's population was ruled by the caliphs.

In 750 CE, the Umayyads were overthrown by another family called the Abbasids.

The Abbasids were deeply influenced by the Qur'an's teaching about the importance of education, charity, and good government.

Islamic civilization moved into what historians call the Islamic Golden Age.

A golden age is a period of great happiness, prosperity, and achievement.

Now we're gonna move on to planning section one.

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.

Use your knowledge of the origins of Islam and the leadership of the Islamic Empire to make notes and to note down subject-specific vocabulary in your plan.

Your first section of your plan is all about the origins of Islam, and the second section is all about the leadership of the Islamic Empire up to and including the Abbasids.

Pause the video while you complete your task.

Great work, everyone.

Here's an example of my plan.

My plan might have some of the same ideas as yours, and it might be also slightly different.

If you see anything on my plan that you would like to magpie for your own planning, you can do that now.

In my origins of Islam section, I've noted down in 570 CE, the Prophet Muhammad was born.

In 609 CE, Prophet Muhammad had the first revelation from Allah and began spreading the word of Islam throughout Mecca and the Arabian region.

In my second section of my plan, I've referred to the four caliphs, the Rashidun Caliphate, who followed after Muhammad's death.

And that they extended Islamic rule throughout Arabia and began to push outwards into Western Asia and North Africa.

I refer to the Umayyad dynasty and that they took over Islamic rule.

And by 730 CE, the Islamic empire had reached its greatest size.

By 750 CE, the Umayyads were overthrown by the Abbasids, which led to the Golden Age.

Great work, everyone.

Now we're going to move on to writing section one.

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

We plan and say each sentence before we write it.

We use punctuation when we know the rules.

We showcase each sentence type we know.

We write letters neatly on the line in joined handwriting.

We use spelling strategies to spell words accurately.

And we check and improve our writing when we think we've finished.

This is the success criteria we will use to write today.

Let's read it together.

I have followed the appropriate structure for this paragraph.

I have used relevant subject-specific vocabulary.

I have used at least one relative complex sentence.

I have used fronted adverbials to enhance text cohesion.

Let's review what a relative complex sentence is, as this is a key part of our success criteria.

A relative complex sentence is a sentence formed of a main clause and a relative subordinate clause.

The main clause can be interrupted by a relative clause.

Let's read this one together.

"The Islamic Empire, which had grown rapidly, ruled almost one third of the world's population." Here, the relative clause is "which had grown rapidly." It begins with "which" as the relative pronoun, and it interrupts the main clause, so it has a pair of commas either side.

We can also add a relative clause to the end of a main clause.

"Islam originated in the city of Mecca, which was in a region called Arabia." Here the relative clause is, "which was in a region called Arabia." It begins with "which" as a relative pronoun, and it goes at the end of the sentence.

Pause the video now while you identify the relative clause in both of these sentences.

Well done if you spotted that in sentence one, the relative clause was, "who received revelations from Allah." In sentence two, the relative clause was "which were royal families." Now let's review what fronted adverbials are.

A fronted adverbial starts a sentence and it's followed by a comma.

Types of fronted adverbials include all of these: formal fronted adverbials, viewpoint fronted adverbials, and fronted adverbials of cause.

We can also use fronted adverbials of time and place.

So for example, "in 570 CE" and "years later," these are fronted adverbials of time.

Or place, such as "in Mecca" or "across the Middle East." These explain when and where things happened.

Match the fronted adverbial types to their examples.

Pause the video while you do that.

Great work, everyone.

A formal fronted adverbial is "in addition to this." A fronted adverbials of cause is "as a result." A viewpoint fronted adverbial is "of significant note." A fronted adverbial of time is "after Muhammad's death." And a fronted adverbial of place is "throughout the Middle East." Now we're gonna move on to writing our section one.

First, I'm going to show you how to draught the introductory sentence, and you're going to help me check that I've used my success criteria.

Hello everyone and welcome to our shared writing.

I've stuck in my success criteria, as you can see, and now I'm going to write my introductory sentence to section one.

So remember, the purpose of the introductory sentence is to explain what this section is all about.

So I've got to remember my indentation in from the margin, and I'm gonna be writing in my best handwriting.

In my introductory sentence, I want to mention the leadership of the Islamic Empire.

I'm going to go with, "The leadership of the early Islamic Empire." So, capital.

"The leadership of the early." Now I need to remember capital I for Islamic, 'cause it's a proper noun.

And capital E for Empire, 'cause Islamic Empire is the title of this time period, so it's the proper noun again.

"Was marked by." I've got some passive voice in there.

"Marked by strong rulers." I could say leaders, but I've decided to go with rulers because I've already said leadership.

So think if I did leadership and then leaders, it'd be a bit repetitive.

So, but "it was marked by strong rulers," comma, "who guided the growth and success of their empire." Now, this empire is not a proper noun.

I'm just talking about an empire, so it does not need a capital E.

Let's reread this together.

I wonder if you can spot which success criteria I have met.

"The leadership of the early Islamic Empire was marked by strong rulers, who guided the growth and success of their empire." In this introductory sentence, I have used some relevant subject-specific vocabulary, such as "early Islamic Empire" or "rulers." I've also used a relative complex sentence, "who guided the growth and success of their empire" is an example of a relative subordinate clause.

It begins with that "who" relative pronoun, and I've remembered to separate it from my main clause using a comma, so I can tick this one off.

Thank you so much for your help.

Thank you so much for your help just now.

Now using your success criteria and your plan to guide you, draught your introductory sentence.

Pause the video while you complete your task.

Great work, everyone.

Did you use your success criteria to help you? And did you use your plan? Here's an example of an introductory sentence.

Let's read it together.

"In 609 CE, the Prophet Muhammad received his first revelation from Allah and began to spread the word of one God.

At this point, Islam was born." In this introductory sentence, I have included a fronted adverbial of time to tell my reader when something happened.

Also, I have included subject-specific vocabulary, such as Prophet Muhammad and Allah, therefore, I've also met this success criteria.

Take a moment now to check which success criteria you have already met in your introductory sentence.

Great work, everyone.

Now I'm going to show you how to draught the explanatory sentences, and you can help me check I've met my success criteria.

Okay, everyone.

So we've done our introductory sentence.

Now we're going to give our explanatory sentences.

This is where I explain the point I've just made in my introductory sentence, or explain the topic of this section.

So now I'm gonna give some chronology.

A really good way to do this is to use fronted adverbials of time.

I'm gonna start with the death of Prophet Muhammad.

So I'm gonna go with, "After the death, the death of." Now, Prophet Muhammad is a proper noun, so I need a capital P for Prophet, and a capital M for Muhammad.

M, Muhammad.

Now, I've got a fronted adverbial of time.

"After the death of Prophet Muhammad," I need a comma here.

"His close companions took over leadership." We could also refer to them as his followers.

"His close companions took over leadership." Okay, now I'm gonna explain who these close companions were.

So the first four caliphs, if you can remember what they're referred to as, "The first four." I'm gonna write that as the word four, not the number four, caliphs.

So there's an example of some subject-specific vocabulary again, caliphs, comma, "who were known as." Can you remember what that term was for those first four? Well done if you can.

"As the Rashidun caliphs." So capital R for Rashidun.

Well done.

Caliphs.

"Led with wisdom and fairness." Oh, whoops.

"Led with wisdom." Oh my goodness.

Let's try that again.

"Wisdom and fairness." Okay, now let's reread that sentence quickly.

So, "After the death of Prophet Muhammad," comma, I've got a fronted adverbial, so I'm gonna give that a tick.

"His close companions took over leadership.

The first four caliphs, who were known as the Rashidun caliphs," comma.

Well done, I remembered my first one, but I forgot the second one.

This is a who relative clause, it's interrupting the main clause, so it's got to have a pair of commas.

"Led with wisdom and fairness." Great.

Now I want to explain a little bit more about the next set of leaders, so that is now going to be the Umayyad dynasty.

So, "Under the Umayyad dynasty." Now again, Umayyad was the name of the family, so we need a capital U.

And I've got to be really careful with spelling these names correctly, double Y in Umayyad.

"Under the Umayyad Dynasty." Again, more subject-specific vocabulary here.

Comma, "The empire expanded further." Again, I'm not referring to it as the Islamic Empire, I'm just calling it an empire, so I don't need a capital letter for empire.

"Expanded further," comma, "reaching into North Africa and Spain." Well done if you spotted what type of complex sentence this is, even though it's not in our success criteria, "into North Africa and Spain." Well done if you've spotted that this "reaching into North Africa and Spain" is an example of a non-finite subordinate clause.

This is actually a non-finite complex sentence, which we will be using more in our next section.

"Under the Umayyad Dynasty," comma, got my comma after my fronted adverbial, "the empire expanded further," comma, "reaching into North Africa," capital letters, "and Spain," capital letters for these proper nouns.

Okay.

Now I'm going to finish my explanatory sentences with referring to the Abbasid dynasty.

I'm gonna use a fronted adverbial of time here.

When did they rise to power? It was 750 CE.

So, "In 750 CE," comma, "the Abbasid dynasty rose to power." Abbasid needs a capital A because it's the family's name, "dynasty rose to power," comma, "bringing." Now we know that they brought lots of prosperity, "a new era of prosperity," full stop.

Lovely.

So, "In 750 CE, the Abbasid dynasty rose to power, bringing a new era of prosperity." Great.

Again, I've got my fronted adverbial of time here.

Now, let's reread just our explanatory sentences.

"After the death of Prophet Muhammad, his close companions took over leadership.

The first four caliphs, who were known as the Rashidun Caliphs, led with wisdom and fairness.

Under the Umayyad dynasty, the empire expanded further, reaching into North Africa and Spain.

In 750 CE, the Abbasid dynasty rose to power, bringing a new era of prosperity." Here's another example of a non-finite complex sentence.

Even though it's not in our success criteria, we can still showcase different sentence types we know.

I'm really happy with my explanatory sentences.

I'm not going to be going into any more detail about the Abbasid dynasty's power here, because that's gonna be my next section when I talk about the Golden Age.

Thank you so much.

Now, reread the specific information on your plan, then using your success criteria and your plan to guide you, draught your explanatory sentences.

Make sure to reread and check for edits and improvements you can make.

Pause the video while you complete your task.

Great work, everyone.

Did you use your success criteria to help you? And did you use your plan? Well done if you did.

Here's an example of some explanatory sentences we could have included.

Let's read them together.

"After Muhammad's death, the leadership of Islam was taken over by four caliphs, leaders, who extended Islamic rule throughout Arabia and beyond.

However, Islamic rule was later taken over by the Umayyad dynasty, who grew and developed the Islamic Empire further.

At this point, Islamic rule had spread across the Middle East and controlled almost one third of the world's population.

Despite their power, the Umayyads were overthrown by the Abbasids, who were strongly influenced by the teachings of the Qur'an and they prioritised education, charity, and good government." In these explanatory sentences, I've met a number of success criteria, and I've highlighted them here.

So I have used several different fronted adverbials, such as, "After Muhammad's death," "At this point," "However," and "Despite their power." Also, I have used subject-specific language, such as caliphs, Arabia, Umayyad dynasty, Middle East, Abbasids.

And finally, I have also used some relative complex sentences.

The relative clauses are, "who grew and developed the Islamic Empire further," and "who were strongly influenced by the teachings of the Qur'an and prioritised education, charity, and good government." In my explanatory sentences, I met the following success criteria: subject-specific vocabulary, relative complex sentences, and fronted adverbials to enhance text cohesion.

Take a moment now to check which success criteria you met in your explanatory sentences.

Well done, everyone.

Now I'm going to show you how to draught the linking sentence, the final sentence of our section.

Then you can help me check that I've used the success criteria.

Thank you everyone for your help so far.

Now we need to just include a final linking sentence.

We know that section two is all about the Golden Age, so I'm gonna refer to this with my final sentence.

Let's take a moment to reread everything we've got so far.

"The leadership of the early Islamic Empire was marked by strong rulers, who guided the growth and success of their empire.

After the death of Prophet Muhammad, his close companions took over leadership.

The first four caliphs, who were known as the Rashidun Caliphs, led with wisdom and fairness.

Under the Umayyad dynasty, the empire expanded further, reaching into North Africa and Spain.

In 750 CE, the Abbasid dynasty rose to power, bringing a new era of prosperity." Now I just want to call this the Golden Age, okay? So I'm gonna refer to it as this period, okay? I'm not gonna say "this era," because I've just used the word era.

"This period of Islam's history became known as the Golden Age." Now, I'm gonna refer to Golden Age here within quote marks, 'cause this is a term historians use, so I'm quoting historians whenever I call it the Golden Age.

Also giving it capital letters, because the Golden Age was the name of the time period.

Closing my quotes and ending my sentence.

Now let's reread our entire piece and check off any success criteria we can still meet.

"The leadership of the early Islamic Empire was marked by strong rulers who guided the growth and success of their empire." There is my introductory sentence.

"After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, his close companions took over leadership.

The first four caliphs, who were known as the Rashidun caliphs, led with wisdom and fairness.

Under the Umayyad Dynasty, the empire expanded further, reaching into North Africa and Spain.

In 750 CE, the Abbasid dynasty rose to power, bringing a new era of prosperity." Those sentences were my explanatory sentences.

"This period of Islam's history." Now, the history belongs to Islam, so it needs an apostrophe for singular possession.

"Became known as the Golden Age," full stop.

This is my linking sentence.

I follow the appropriate structure for this paragraph, so I can tick off my first success criteria.

Now, I've met all four of my success criteria.

Thank you so much for your help.

Great work, everyone.

Thank you so much for your help.

Now it's your turn to use your success criteria to guide you and draught your linking sentence.

Pause the video while you do that.

Did you use your success criteria? And did you use your plan? Well done if you did.

Here's an example of a linking sentence.

"Under the Abbasids' rule, early Islamic civilization entered into what historians refer to as the Golden Age." In my final linking sentence, I have used a fronted adverbial, "Under the Abbasid's rule," and I have used subject-specific vocabulary, "historians" and "Golden Age." Now that I have completed my entire paragraph, I can also tick off success criteria number one, which says that I've followed the appropriate structure for this paragraph.

So I've got an introductory sentence, explanatory sentences, and now my linking sentence.

Take a moment now to check that you have met all of your success criteria.

Great work, everyone.

Well done, everyone.

This now brings us to the end of our lesson, where we have been planning and writing the first section of an essay about early Islamic civilization.

The purpose of a section in an essay is to give the reader specific detailed information about a particular aspect of the essay subject.

Text cohesion can be achieved through the use of fronted adverbials and relative complex sentences.

Subject-specific vocabulary can be used to write factually and credibly about a subject.

Plans should be written in note form and contain concise, clear information.

When writing, we should use our plans and success criteria to guide us.

Great work, everyone.

I'm looking forward to seeing you again soon.