Hello and welcome to today's lesson.

My name is Miss Halladay and I'll be your teacher for today.

Thank you so much for joining me.

It's an absolute pleasure to have you all here, and I'm really looking forward to hearing all of your incredible ideas and suggestions.

Let's get started.

So today's lesson is called Constructing an Argument about the Ghosts.

And by the end of today's lesson, you will have planned an effective argument being really selective with your ideas and evidence.

But first, here are some keywords that you'll need for today's lesson.

We've got selective, social responsibility, mouthpiece and to impart.

Let's have a look at what these keywords mean.

So first of all, being selective means choosing something really carefully so that it fulfils an intended purpose.

In terms of social responsibility, while somebody who believes in social responsibility invests in their community and supports those in need.

A mouthpiece is a person or character who speaks on behalf of another person or organisation.

And finally, if you're imparting something, you're communicating information to somebody.

I'd like you to keep an eye out for these keywords in today's lesson.

Here's our lesson outline for today.

We're going to start by looking at how to be really selective with ideas and evidence.

And then you're going to end with planning your own response.

But let's start with being selective about ideas and evidence.

So by now, you shall have an absolute wealth of knowledge about "A Christmas Carol." But unfortunately in an essay, you can't possibly include it all.

Now I think there's this quite big misconception sometimes with students around academic writing, and many students think that in order to write a really good essay, they need to include as much knowledge as possible and they need to kind of throw down everything that they know about the text.

But actually what makes a really good essay is when you read it and you can tell that a student has thought really carefully about exactly what to include and not how much to include.

And there's a real difference there.

Because being selected with your ideas shows an ability to evaluate because you're effectively evaluating which ideas you think are the most appropriate and the most interesting in response to the essay question that you've been given.

So being selective and being judicious in the planning stages is a really important thing to do.

And let's see how we can do that now.

So Andeep raises a really good point and Andeep says, "So how do I choose what to include then? If I've got all this knowledge, then how do I be judicious and how do I be selective about what I choose to discuss?" And in response, Jun says, "Well, what you include has to be led by your essay question.

Show me your essay question and I'll help you to plan it." So here, Jun's been really kind and he's offering to walk Andeep through the planning process.

So we're going to watch Jun do that now.

So Andeep goes back to Jun and says, "Well, the question that I've been given is, how does Dickens use the ghost in "A Christmas Carol" to deliver his message of social responsibility? I just don't know where to start." And here comes Jun to the rescue.

"Well, first of all, you need to brainstorm your ideas.

How do the ghosts deliver Dickens' message of social responsibility? We've done lots of work on this recently.

Think about what each ghost teaches Scrooge and how this links to Dickens' message of social responsibility." So what I'd like you to do now is just pause the video while you discuss, well, at this point, can you give Andeep any ideas? So how do the ghosts deliver Dickens' message of social responsibility? So pause the video while you discuss that question with the people around you.

Or if you're on your own, please do feel free to just jot your answers down on your own.

Off you go.

Some fantastic discussions there and people interacting really respectfully with one another.

So well done.

Here's some of the ideas that you might have got.

So you might have given Andeep this idea that the Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge the Cratchit family and their struggles with Tiny Tim's condition.

And this makes Scrooge realise the difference he could make.

So he starts to consider the role of responsibility in the lives of people just like the Cratchits.

You also might have raised the idea of ignorance and want and how they teach us the message of social responsibility because they represent the failings of a society that is not concerned with social responsibility.

And obviously they are linked to the ghosts because they kind of reside under the robe of the Ghost of Christmas Present.

And he brings them out right at the end of stave three and explains that these are the children of mankind.

You know, these are kind of the byproducts of people's selfishness, avarice and greed in society, and a lack of social responsibility.

You also might have talked about Dickens' use of illusions, especially in relation to the Grim Reaper through the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, because we've talked a lot about how the Grim Reaper kind of represents this figure of death or sickness.

And actually because he appears at the point of Scrooge's metaphorical death, that could be suggestive that either Scrooge is sick from a lack of responsibility or actually society is sick from greed and injustice, and that social responsibility could be the cure for that sickness.

So well done if you've got any of those ideas.

Great start to the lesson.

So let's go back to Jun who's guiding Andeep through his planning.

And Jun's taken all these ideas that Andeep's presented to him and that you've presented to him.

And he's said, "We've got some great ideas there, Andeep.

You can't use them all though.

So now's the time to start being really selective with which ideas you take forward." And Andeep replies, "Sounds good.

So how do I narrow my ideas down? Which ideas should I prioritise?" And that's a really good question from Andeep.

Because I do think that's a struggle that many students face is, well, I've got all these ideas, but I really don't know how to decide which one is the best.

So I thought that you could give Andeep a little bit of help alongside Jun here.

So what I'd like you to do is discuss, well, what advice would you give to Andeep at this point? How do you prioritise which knowledge to include in your essays? So pause the video while you discuss with the people around you what advice you'd like to give to Andeep at this point.

Again, some great discussions there and some really useful and practical advice for Andeep there.

So let's see what Jun advises him to do.

So Jun says, "Well now you've got to pick three or four of the strongest, most relevant ideas to the question that you feel best illustrate Dickens' message of social responsibility." And Jun advises, "Well try to pick a selection of moments from across the text if possible." And I agree with Jun because I think if you're picking moments from across the text, you're demonstrating that you know that text really well and you're presenting a holistic argument.

So I would agree with Jun that Andeep should be aiming to choose a wide variety of ideas from a range of moments from across the novella.

So Andeep's gone away and he's thought really long and hard about exactly which of his ideas he wants to choose.

And he's come back and he's said, "So I've chosen these four ideas." First of all, the idea of Marley's ghost and Dickens' use of symbolism with the chains that he carries.

Okay, so the fact that he carries those keys, cash boxes, ledgers, deeds, they all represent his sins in life.

And his sins come largely from the fact that he didn't take responsibility for other people.

And therefore Marley's punishment and Marley's regret allows him to impart this message of social responsibility most poignantly through this quotation, "Mankind was my business." Because that really perfectly summarises the lesson that Marley's ghost has learned.

And it's this idea that he should have taken responsibility for other people.

He should have invested in his fellow human beings and tried to ease their load a little bit or the burden, make the burden of life a little bit easier as Dickens states.

Andeep's also chosen to talk about the Ghost of Christmas Present and how he shows Scrooge the Cratchit family and their struggles with Tiny Tim's condition.

And Scrooge is encouraged to take social responsibility to help those in need, particularly Tiny Tim.

And indeed we do see him take responsibility for Tiny Tim in stave five and become like a second father to him.

So clearly this is a really key moment in the novella where Scrooge kind of understands the impact that taking social responsibility can have on a family and a person.

We could also talk about ignorance and wants.

Andeep's chosen that idea and this idea that they represent the consequences of a lack of social responsibility.

And you could also link that really nicely to Dickens' childhood and his fears for society if children were not treated fairly and justly, and if they were not shielded from the injustice of the world in the way that Dickens felt they should be.

And Andeep's final idea is Dickens' use of illusion with the appearance of the last ghost, so the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, and the fact that it is reminiscent of the Grim Reaper.

And again, it suggests that this idea that society might be sick from injustice and that the medicine or the cure for that is social responsibility, is people looking out for one another and taking care of people, especially in difficult times.

So I think that Andeep's chosen four really strong ideas there that he can take forward to his planning stage and think more carefully about exactly what he's going to say.

So let's check for understanding.

Which is the first step in essay planning? Is it A, using the question to brainstorm ideas, B, planning paragraph outlines, or C, choosing three to four strong ideas to include in the essay? I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you make your answer selection.

And well done if you said it is in fact A.

It's really important to use the question to brainstorm all the possible ideas that you might discuss and then refine them so that you're definitely picking the most appropriate, the most relevant and the strongest argument to take forward.

Well done.

So Andeep presented his ideas to Jun and Jun states, "Great work.

Some of those are very big ideas though, Andeep.

You want to make sure that you can cover them in enough detail.

I think you should lose one." And Jun raises a really important point here because during that planning stage, it is really important to consider how long you think it's going to take you to kind of discuss each of your ideas in enough depth and to make them clear enough and to be explorative enough with your evidence.

So you've got to think about the time that you've been given to write your essay and realistically how much you think you're going to be able to cover.

And you need to make sure that your plan is reflective of that.

So Andeep responds, "Oh, they're all good ideas though.

It's going to be so hard selecting one to drop." And Andeep's right.

All four ideas were really strong ideas that he could take forward to write a really, really convincing analytical argument.

However, he just doesn't have the time to cover them all in enough detail to make the essay convincing, and therefore he is going to have to drop one.

So what I'd like you to discuss now is, well again, what advice would you give to Andeep about how to choose which of his four ideas to drop? What is it that makes a really thoughtful essay? What different kinds of ideas and evidence might you include? So I'm going to invite you to pause the video while you discuss that question with the people around you.

Off you go.

Again, fantastic discussions and some really useful and practical advice being given to Andeep there.

So Jun kind of summarises the advice that he heard being given and says that, "Remember that in an essay, there's primary evidence that you can't avoid not talking about, and then there's that secondary lesser-discussed evidence and there should also be some kind of personal response too." So Jun, again, gives some really good advice there.

So your first task of the lesson now is going to be, using Jun's guidance, I'd like you to advise Andeep as to which idea to drop.

And I'd like you to justify why he should drop that one.

In order to do this, you'll need to consider which ideas correspond to Jun's components of an essay.

So which of Andeep's ideas, for example, which I've put on the screen for you, correspond to that primary evidence? Which might be the secondary evidence? And which could be the personal response? And you'll have to drop the one that you think doesn't necessarily fit into that structure.

So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you use Jun's guidance to advise Andeep as to which idea you think that he should drop from his essay.

Off you go.

Fantastic work.

And Andeep was very, very grateful for all of your advice and help.

And following your advice and his own ideas, Andeep has decided to drop the second idea about Scrooge seeing the Cratchit family struggles, and this is the justification that he gave.

"The point about Marley's ghost's regret is unavoidable.

Marley's ghost introduces the idea of social responsibility to Scrooge so we can't not talk about him.

He's my primary evidence." The idea about ignorance and want is also really important and can be used to make references to other characters like Mrs. Dilber and Scrooge in stave one.

So it can kind of be used as a springing board from which to kind of catapult around the text and bring in different moments.

So Andeep wanted to keep that because he said that, these are lesser-discussed characters and that they therefore will form his secondary evidence.

He also stated that the last idea about Dickens' use of allusion was his own personal response to the text.

He says, "I came up with that idea on my own.

So I want to include it to show my reader my engagement with and enthusiasm for the text and to bring something new to the discussion about the text.

It will also allow me to focus really keenly on Dickens' message for society and it allows me to talk about social responsibility in a wider context than just Scrooge." So perhaps bringing in some context about Dickens and his political campaigns.

And Jun replies, "Fabulous Andeep! So why did you decide that the Cratchits' idea wasn't as relevant as the other ideas?" And Andeep replies, "Well, the point about the Cratchits might be more widely discussed and therefore it will be difficult to contribute anything new to this discussion.

Also, arguably this is more about employer responsibility rather than social responsibility.

In my opinion, social responsibility is more about taking care of people you don't know.

Scrooge already knows the Cratchits so this could be a different kind of responsibility." And I'm really impressed with Andeep's insight here because I think he's made a really good point about distinguishing between employee responsibility and social responsibility.

And I think that there is some truth in what he's saying in terms of, you know, Scrooge already knows Bob Cratchit, and technically if Scrooge was to take more responsibility for Bob, that would just be him being a better employer and making sure that Bob is paid more fairly and that he's looking out for people he knows.

And that would fall maybe more under employer responsibility.

And perhaps Dickens' idea of social responsibility also encompasses looking out for people that you don't already know.

So I really like how much Andeep has thought and evaluated here, which of his ideas that he thinks he might want to drop.

So well done to Andeep.

It's great to see his progress across the learning cycle.

And Jun agrees with me and says, "Great work, Andeep, I completely agree with you.

Now all you need to do is plan your paragraph outlines." So onto the second part of the lesson, where we're going to follow Jun's advice again and look at using paragraph outlines to plan your response.

So you are going to plan a response to the same question that Andeep was given.

And here's a reminder of that question.

It was, how does Dickens use the ghosts in "A Christmas Carol" to deliver his message of social responsibility? Now, from the ideas that we gave to Andeep earlier or using your own ideas, I'd like you now to select three ideas that you want to include in your work.

So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you look back over your notes and choose the three strongest ideas that you want to take forward in your planning.

Fantastic work.

Now these ideas now need planning in more detail in the form of paragraph outlines, just like Jun advised.

So here's a quick reminder of how to plan using paragraph outlines.

So first of all, you need your thesis, which is your overarching evaluative argument.

You then need your topic sentences.

And these outline the arguments of each individual paragraph and they include the key question vocabulary.

You're looking to give roughly four points in your supporting detail.

And this could be key language, form, structure or contextual detail as well as the evidence that you're planning to use.

So the quotation from the text.

Your closing sentence or your summary sentence will summarise the argument in each paragraph with a really sharp focus on the writer's purpose.

So always linking back to Dickens' intentions and why he wrote this novella.

And finally, your conclusion is a conclusive summary of the writer's message that should link back closely to your thesis statement and kind of restate your overall argument and your opinion.

So there's a reminder of how to plan using paragraph outlines.

So here's an example of one of Andeep's paragraph outlines from his plan.

And thank you to Andeep for letting us use this.

So Andy's topic sentence is going to be, "Dickens uses Marley's ghost as a mouthpiece for his own views on social responsibility.

Through the ghost's regret, we see the importance of looking after the welfare of others." Great topic sentence there.

Really kind of summarises Dickens' purpose in the role of Marley's ghost.

Now, to support that idea, Andeep has chosen this quotation, "I wear the chain I forged in life." And he's kind of pulled out that he's going to talk about that pronoun I and how it shows the responsibility that Marley's ghost has taken even though it is too late.

And unfortunately, he is now doomed to wander the earth in purgatory.

He's also going to talk about the symbolism of the chains and how they represent the greed and avarice that Marley exhibited in life.

And the fact that the greed has now become a burden to Marley in the same way that it was a burden to those around him in life.

Andeep's going to pull out this verb forged and talk about how it shows the willful ignorance that Marley exhibited to the suffering of others.

And finally, Andeep is going to tie all this to Dickens' own life and his own experience of poverty and the fact that he condemned the lack of social responsibility that exacerbates inequality and injustice in society.

Now, Andeep's closing sentence, which again is reflective of his topic sentence, is this idea that Marley's ghost serves as both a cautionary warning figure against selfishness and a harbinger of hope who urges Scrooge and readers alike to reevaluate their behaviour and make more socially-responsible choices.

So as I'm sure you can see, Andeep's closing sentence and his topic sentence are very, very linked to one another and focus keenly on Dickens' purpose in writing the novella.

So thank you to Andeep for letting us look at that as an example.

He's done some really excellent work there.

So let's check for understanding.

Some of our other Oak students were discussing topic sentence and thesis statements, and I'd like you to decide, well, who is it that gives the correct explanation? So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you read both students' explanations and decide which you think is the most accurate.

Off you go.

And well done if you identified that Jacob's is the best explanation because Jacob states, "They are very similar.

However, the thesis statement outlines your overarching argument, whereas the topic sentence defines your ideas within your overarching argument." So well done to Jacob.

What a fantastic explanation of the difference between the two.

So onto the last task of the lesson now where you're going to complete the planning grid for your question from earlier in the lesson about how Dickens uses the ghosts to illustrate his message of social responsibility.

So here's the planning grid that you'll be completing.

Remember that you'll need to populate every box and think really carefully when it comes to planning your supporting details, exactly which evidence you're going to use from the text and what you're going to say about it.

And it's often a good idea to plot really key vocabulary to help you be as concise and precise as possible.

So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you have a go at planning your response.

Good luck and off you go.

Fantastic work.

I'm seeing some really full plans there, and it was absolutely lovely to see so many of you with the book wide open as you're planning, constantly referring back to different moments that you wanted to discuss.

So excellent work.

That's exactly how we should be planning in English.

So what I'd like you to do now is a little bit of self-reflection.

So I'm going to ask you to use these coaching questions to assess and improve the quality of your plan.

So first of all, I'd like you to look back over your plan and think, well, do you have an interesting thesis that focuses keenly on Dickens' intentions? Do all of your topic sentences really support that thesis statement? Do you use a range of supporting detail from a variety of moments from across the text? Do you use context as part of your supporting detail? Because remember that context really needs to be embedded and not used as a bolt on.

Do your closing sentences link back to the question? So remember that the closing sentence and the topic sentence should be very, very linked to one another.

Is your conclusion focused on Dickens' message of social responsibility? So have you gone back and really explained how you have answered that question at the end of your essay? And finally, do your ideas build in complexity from that foundational knowledge to that personal response? So have you thought about which evidence would be your primary evidence that you can't not talk about? Have you thought about which evidence is lesser discussed and would therefore be your secondary evidence that you can perhaps bring something new to the discussion of the text about? So do your ideas really build in complexity as your essay progresses? So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you evaluate the success of your plan against the success criteria and make any necessary additions or changes to it.

Off you go.

Fantastic self-reflection.

And it was lovely to see so many of you adding to your plans in different colours so that you could see your own improvements.

Lovely work.

So to summarise the learning from today.

When you're first given an essay question, you can use the question to brainstorm all of the possible ideas that you might include.

You can then refine your ideas by choosing the three to four strongest ideas.

It may be necessary to further reduce the amount of ideas down depending on how chunky your ideas are.

So you'll have to look at them again and think, realistically can you complete and can you do these ideas justice in the time that you've been given to respond to the question? It's also important to be selective about which evidence and ideas that you will include.

Ideally, you want to include a range of moments from across the text that all support your thesis statement.

You should try to include a personal response to the text to show your reader your engagement with it and understanding of it.

And finally, as illustrated today, paragraph outlines are really useful when planning your response.

Thank you very much for attending today's lesson.

It's been an absolute joy to have you here and I've really enjoyed seeing how much your planning has developed over the course of the lesson.

So thank you for all your contributions and engagement.

I look forward to seeing you next time.

See you later.