Lesson video

Hi there, Mr. Barnsley here.

Fantastic to see you today and thank you so much for joining me as we continue diving deeper into J.

B.

Priestley's "An Inspector Calls".

Now, in today's lesson, we are going to be planning an essay response.

So you are gonna want to make sure you have a copy of the text at hand because you're gonna be wanting to find evidence from the text to use in your plan to support your arguments.

You may also want to make sure you have the worksheets in front of you, 'cause that's got a plan on there that you can be filling in.

Don't worry if you can't access the worksheet though, you will be able to kind of draw an essay plan alongside the lesson if that's your preferred way of doing this.

Alright, I'm ready to get started if you are ready to get started, let's get started.

Okay, our outcome and by the end of today's lesson, you are gonna be able to create a detailed plan for an essay on social societal expectations in "An Inspector Calls".

Some keywords we're gonna be looking at today.

And these are all words that are really useful in thinking about how we plan.

So the first is our thesis, and that's gonna be our overarching argument to an essay.

And it's gonna always gonna be supported by the text as a whole.

It's gonna be kind of more wide ranging.

A topic sentence is the first sentence of an individual paragraph within our essay.

And this states the paragraph's main idea.

Concise, well we're always aiming to be concise when we are writing.

And this is giving a lot of information clearly, but in a few words being brief and being to the point.

So not wasting our words.

And finally concluding sentence.

This is the final sentence of a paragraph.

And this draws together the main ideas in our writing, in our paragraph, and it always links to the writer's intentions.

So let's keep an eye out for these four words and phrases as we move through today's lesson.

So there are three learning cycles in today's lesson where we are planning an essay.

We're gonna start by thinking about thesis and topic sentence.

We're also going to be moving on to adding supporting details to our plan before those concluding sentences, which we'll make kind of the final part of our plan.

So let's start by thinking about thesis and topic sentence.

So in today's lesson, you're gonna be planning an answer to this question.

How does Priestley examine the effects of societal expectations of gender and class in "An Inspector Calls"? Now one of our Oak pupils Sofia Anna takes this question, always a good place to start.

Think about what is this question asking of me? And first she underlines that word, how, and that's a reminder that we're gonna be wanting to focus on Priestley's dramatic methods.

So dialogue and language techniques we see in that, but also other dramatic methods that we see as part of stagecraft perhaps.

She's also underlining the theme, kind of the the main focus of the question.

And that's some societal expectations of gender and class.

So this is giving us a theme, it's giving us a focus.

It's not giving us a character here.

Sometimes we might see questions give us a character, this one isn't giving us a character.

It's saying, I want you to talk about gender and class and the societal expectations around them and how they are presented in "An Inspector Calls".

So Sofia breaks this question down into further planning questions.

Things that she wants to ask herself is, okay, which methods and quotations then really link to ideas around societal expectations of gender and class? Hopefully throughout her reading of the play and her study and analysis of the play Sofia has been learning some quotations by heart.

Now she needs to start needs to thinking, she needs to start thinking about which of these link most closely to the theme of the question.

She also needs to think more widely of the key plot points that link to this theme.

So the things that happen in the play that you could make really good connections to this idea, these ideas of gender and class.

She also needs to be reminding herself, well, what does she think Priestley's viewpoint is? Whenever we are writing and analysing a text, we always want to bring it back to a writer's intentions and we need to be thinking about what is Priestley's view and what's he trying, what messages he is he trying to get across to his audience.

Now I said that this question doesn't have a character focus, but of course we are going to want to talk about some of the characters in the play.

We can't analyse a play without talking about the characters, but also at the same time, we probably don't want to try and talk about every single character in the play because it will mean our essay lacks focus.

So what Sofia's doing, I think this is a great question to ask yourself when the question is focused on theme rather than character, is which characters can I choose to explore the theme of the societal expectations and why? So, which characters best allow me to kind of talk about Priestley's viewpoint, Priestley's message, and the methods and quotations that he's used.

So really clever questions here from Sofia to really help her think carefully before she starts planning her essay.

Before she starts writing anything down, she's just starting to think about what is it that I want to cover in this essay? So over to you to do the thinking on Sofia's behalf, how would you answer Sofia's questions? If you've got a partner, you can discuss this with them.

If you're working by yourself, you can just think through this independently.

Pause the video, have a think and press play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back, I hope you started to get some really good ideas for this essay plan that we're gonna be making in today's lesson.

So once Sofia has these ideas, she's gonna start by drafting her thesis statement and her three topic sentences.

Now remember these were key words from the beginning of the lesson.

So let's break down and remind ourselves the differences between these things.

They are not the same.

So a thesis statement is your overarching argument, is your argument that runs throughout your entire essay, whereas your topic sentence explains the purpose or the individual argument within that paragraph.

Okay, so thesis statement, entire essay, topic sentence, individual paragraphs.

So that means our thesis statement must be supported by the entire text.

If we've got an argument, we want to be able to think of different elements from across the text that kind of can support that viewpoint.

Whereas a topic sentence is often supported by very specific moments in the text or a specific character, but it's gonna have a real kind of clear focus.

Now we'd find our thesis statement in our introduction and of course it will be revisited as well as part of our conclusion.

But it really needs to be prominent at the beginning of our essay outlining what your argument is going to be.

Whereas your topic sentence is going to be found at the start of each main body paragraph to say, this section of my essay is gonna be focusing on this moment or this character specifically.

So let's pause for a moment, check to see how we are understanding our learning so far.

Which of the following are features of a topic sentence? Is it A, that it can be found in the introduction of an essay? Is it B that it will introduce the main idea of a paragraph? Is it C, it will have a clear focus linked to the essay question? Or is it D, it can include detailed analysis.

Pause the video, have a think, select your answers and press play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

Well done if you said B and C, a topic sentence will introduce the main idea of paragraph and it will have a clear focus, but it will still be linked to the essay question.

Alright, then another check, which pupil has created a thesis which answers the question that we are looking at today.

Is it Laura A, who said through Mrs. Birling's refusal to take responsibility in act two, Priestley exposes how societal expectations uphold class privilege and reinforce injustice? Or is it Jacob, B, who says Priestley uses his play to critique the rigid societal expectations of gender and class urging audiences to embrace social change and responsibility.

A or B? If you need to pause the video to read them again, please do so now.

Remember to press play when you think you have an answer.

Welcome back.

Well done if you said B, Jacob's.

That is a thesis.

It talks about the play as a whole.

But Priestley here is using the play as a whole to be critical of the really rigid expectations of gender in society.

And he's urging his audiences to embrace social change and responsibility.

This is a much wider message showing an overarching argument.

Laura's response is great, it's just not a thesis, it's a really strong topic sentence.

You can imagine this making a part of Laura's answer, you know, at the beginning, going at the beginning of a paragraph which focuses specifically on the character of Mrs. Birling and her behaviour very specifically in act two.

So great answer from Laura, but not a thesis, just a really strong topic sentence.

Well done if you've got that correct and that you notice Laura's answer was a topic sentence.

Alright, so throughout our tasks in today's lesson, we are gonna be building up a plan to an essay.

And this is a planning bridge which can be found on the worksheets, but if you can't access the worksheets, don't worry.

You can always draw this out yourself.

So we are going to be planning as part of our first task today, our thesis statement, and we're gonna write three different topic sentences.

Again, just a reminder of the question that we're focusing on today.

How does Priestley examine the effects of societal expectations of gender and class in "An Inspector Calls"? So this is what your planning grid looks like if you're using the worksheet, but you can draw this out for yourself.

You want the thesis right at the top and it stretches across to acknowledge that this is an argument that stretches across our entire essay.

And then underneath we're gonna break it down into three topic sentences, three different kind of more focused ideas that all are gonna support that overarching argument.

Alright, over to you to bring together all of your knowledge of the text as a whole.

And to start planning your answer.

Pause the video, give this a go and press play when you're ready to continue.

Alright, welcome back.

How was that for you? Why don't we take a moment now to reflect on the thesises and the topic sentences that we've been writing.

So here is Aisha's thesis.

She wrote Priestley presents societal expectations of gender and class as a key theme, particularly through the characters of Sheila and Mrs. Birling.

Let's think, does this meet our success criteria? So our success criteria is that it'll be an overarching, overarching argument of the entire essay and it'll be supported by the entire text.

Do you think this meets our success criteria? Yes? No? Why? Why not? Pause the video, have a think, press play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

Tricky one here, but well done if you said this didn't meet at at thesis kind of, it's not really an overarching, well it isn't an overarching argument, isn't it? It's stating a fact that that this is a theme of the play, but that's not an argument.

It's not telling us what Priestley feels or thinks.

You know, and she's being very specific here by saying, I'm going to talk about Sheila and Mrs. Birling, which they might be the key characters that you want to zoom in on here, but it feels like this is being very specific and not supporting the entire text.

So Aisha redrafts the thesis and she writes this.

Priestley presents societal expectations of gender and class as a means of shaping identity.

In this way he makes his audience consider how these expectations influence self-perception and personal growth.

Now this is so much better.

Okay, there's an overarching argument here that societal expectations of gender and class are shaping individual identity.

And there is this argument that goes even further, which says, our audience should be considering how these rigid expectations at the time the play was set can really influence personal growth.

And that's, we know that's a theme that is supported by the entire text, 'cause we see some characters like Sheila, like Eric having their own personal growth.

Whereas we see other characters like Mr. And Mrs. Birling who don't have that personal growth.

So this focus of personal personal growth still allows Aisha to talk about characters like Sheila, like Mrs. Birling, but it's much more focused on the text as a whole rather than zooming in too early on individual characters.

So why don't you take a moment now to self-assess your thesis against the success criteria you can see on the screen.

Pause the video, reflect on your thesis, and if you want to make any improvements, now's the time to do so.

Welcome back.

Now let's just do a quick reflection on topic sentences.

So here's one of Aisha's.

She said, through Gerald's treatment of Eva and Eric's rebellion against his father, Priestley highlights how societal expectations of masculinity reinforce power and entitlement.

Now she's identified that her topic sentence does this, it has a really clear focus, it's gonna focus on the character of Gerald and how he treats Eva and Eric.

So this is a focus on two of the younger men in the play and it links to this question going back to these ideas of rigid expectations.

And here it's the expectations of masculinity and how they reinforce power and entitlement.

Why don't you now check your topic sentences, have a clear focus and they link to the question.

Pause video and do that now.

Alright, it's now time for us to add some supporting details to our plan.

So an important part of the planning process is deciding which quotations and supporting details you are going to include.

A reminder, your quotations should always support your topic sentence, come from across the play.

You know, we want to show across our essay, we understand the play as a whole, so we're not just gonna focus all of our analysis on act one and it should be divided into main quotations and supporting quotations.

So what do you think the difference is between supporting quotations and main quotations? What do you think the difference may be? Pause the video.

Have a think, press play when you've got some ideas.

Welcome back.

Well done if you said that main quotations are those quotations that are really juicy, really analyzable, we're gonna analyse them in depth, we're gonna focus on the dramatic methods.

We're gonna think about how they make the audience feel.

We're gonna think about why Priestley has included them.

Whereas a supporting quotation is often much shorter.

It's embedded into sentences and they're not there to be analysed.

They're just there to help prove the argument that we are trying to make.

So we're not going to kind of analyse them in detail, we're just gonna embed them to show that we know this text well, we know quotations from this text, but at this point I'm just using this at this to kind of as further evidence from my argument, but I don't need to do any analysis of it.

So supporting details on our plan should include references to the text which support our topic sentences.

We want to identify methods and keywords.

We want to choose which main quotations we're gonna analyse and which are gonna be our supporting quotations, which we're gonna simply use as further evidence.

However, we don't want to spend hours and hours planning.

So we want our supporting details to be really concise, short, sharp, to the point, and therefore written in note form.

So Sofia begins planning her supporting details and it looks something like this.

She writes in her supporting details.

Gerald's treatment of Eva is shown when he refers to her as beautiful and kept indicating that he saw her only for her looks and as someone he could control.

This shows how women were treated poorly by men during this time.

Now Sofia could make these notes much concise.

She could do this by identifying methods and keywords.

She could do this by including, which are her main quotations she wants to analyse and she could write this in note form rather than in full sentences as she has done here.

So using this feedback, Sofia edits hers, her supporting details, and now it looks like this and we can see that she has now chosen the details that link to her topic sentence really clearly.

She has identified keywords and methods like characterization, dialogue, power dynamic.

She's identified, which are gonna be her main quotations.

And this is the bit from act two.

But she's also identified some supporting quotations like innocent and kept and she's written in note form.

Okay, so she's not spent loads and loads of time doing this.

She's not kind of started writing her answer in her planning grade.

She's written it in note form so it'll be there to remind her when she starts writing.

But you know, she's not doing this task twice, she's not writing the essay twice.

Alright, let's check.

We understand all about supporting details.

So supporting details should be A, found from across the play.

B, identify main and supporting quotations.

C, identify methods and keywords.

D, written in full sentences.

Pause your video, answer this question and press play when you're ready to continue.

Yeah, well done if that, if you've got A, B, and C there, all of those things are what makes supporting details excellent.

Obviously the one thing we do want to avoid is writing them in full sentences.

Alright, back to our planning grids, which should either be on your worksheet or if you've been creating one yourself, then you are gonna want to continue this by adding supporting details in the three columns underneath your topic sentences.

A reminder those references in should always support the topic sentences.

We want to keep these really focused, each of our paragraphs really focused here.

Make sure you are supporting details and identify those methods or keywords that you want to use, which are gonna be your main quotations, which are gonna be your supporting quotations.

And of course written in note form.

Pause the video, continue creating your plan and press play when you are ready to continue with the lesson.

Welcome back.

Before we move on to finalising our plans, let's just take a moment to reflect on the work we have just done now.

So I want you to use the questions on the screen to self-assess your supporting details.

Do they support each of your topic sentences? Do they come from across the play? Have you identified keywords and methods? Have you selected main quotations and supporting quotations? And is your planning concise, clear, and written in note form? Alright, over to you.

Press play and pause the video and press play when you are done.

Right.

Welcome back, it's time to move to the final part of our plan, which is concluding sentences.

So here is Sofia's plan and she's already added a really successful concluding sentence.

Okay, so we've looked at some of her plan before.

Let's look at this concluding sentence.

In this way, Priestley uses Eric's character to demonstrate how societal expectations not only shape behaviour, but also create internal turmoil, ultimately urging audiences to reconsider the damaging impact of rigid gender roles.

Let's have a look at that in more detail and think about why it's so successful.

Well, firstly, it makes clear that the paragraph has reached its conclusion.

So it uses kind of a discourse marker there to say, Hey look, I'm starting to wrap up this individual point.

So Sofia in this case is used in this way.

She focuses though on the writer's intentions.

We want the writer's intentions kind of woven in, kind of throughout all of our argument.

But the concluding sentence is a really great moment to take, to stop and think, what is Priestley trying to do here? And he's using the character of Eric to demonstrate something.

Okay, so that tells me this is all focused on what Priestley is trying to do, what his intentions are, what does he want his audience to think? And really importantly here, it links to, but definitely doesn't repeat the topic sentence.

So it's summarising.

And you know, a really good concluding sentence should be summarising what has been said.

And if, and if everything in that paragraph has been really tightly linked to the topic sentence, then actually we should see some mirroring, some reflection between that topic sentence and that concluding sentence.

So here we see it linking to, but not repeating the topic sentence of this paragraph.

So let's check.

We understand all about our concluding sentences.

A pupil has written a paragraph exploring ideas about societal expectations, which would serve as the strongest concluding sentence? Is it A, ultimately Priestley illustrates how societal expectations dictate characters' actions and beliefs, urging the audience to consider the consequences.

Is it B, the inspector's exit at the end of the play challenges the societal expectations of class and social responsibility? Is it C, all the examples provided demonstrate how Priestley uses societal expectations to explore class and gender struggles.

Pause the video, have a think and press play when you've got the answer.

Great job if you said A there.

I really like A, it's got that discourse marker.

Ultimately, I'm summarising here, I focus, or this person focuses on Priestley's intention here.

What he's trying to illustrate and how he's trying to make the audience feel.

This is by far and away the best concluding sentence on the screen.

Right.

I think you can probably guess what our final task in today's lesson is going to be.

You are going to now finish your plans by writing three concluding sentences for each of your paragraphs.

Okay? Make sure they are, it is very clear that the paragraph has reached its conclusion.

Make sure you are focusing on Priestley's intention and link back to, but definitely do not repeat your topic sentence.

Alright, I know you can do a really fantastic job with this.

So it's time for you to pause the video and give this a go.

Welcome back.

I hope you're really proud of the plan that you have in front of you.

I'm sure you should be.

You've done some excellent work today.

Alright, final bit of feedback and reflection before we move on.

I want you to self-assess all of your concluding sentences using the questions to guide you.

Have you made it clear that each paragraph is reaching a conclusion? Have you focused on Priestley's intention, and have you linked your concluding sentence to your topic sentence? Alright, time to take a moment to pause and reflect.

And if you want to make improvements, now's the time to do so.

Pause your video and press play when you are done.

Right.

That's it.

We've reached the end of today's lesson and what a fantastic job you have done today.

You should be so proud of yourself.

On the screen, you can see a summary of all the learning that we've covered.

Let's quickly go through it so we can feel really confident before we move on to our next lesson.

So we've learned that thesis statements are clear, overarching arguments.

Topic sentences are different to thesis statements.

They give us the focus of individual paragraphs.

When we're planning supporting details of our essay, we need to make sure we're being concise.

These should identify key words, methods, and supporting and main quotations from across the play.

And finally, we always want to plan our concluding sentences, which really focus on writer's intention and draw our paragraphs to a close.

Great work today.

I hope to see you in one of our lessons again in the future.

See you all soon.

Bye-bye.