Hello and welcome to today's lesson.

My name is Ms. Halliday and I'll be your teacher for today, guiding you through the learning.

It's an absolute pleasure to have you all here, and I can't wait to begin discussing "A Christmas Carol" in more depth with you.

So let's get started.

So today's lesson is called "A Christmas Carol, a hopeful tale." And by the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to analyse the extent to which you think "A Christmas Carol" is a hopeful tale.

So let's crack on with that.

Here are some keywords before we begin the lesson that you will need in order to access today's learning.

So we've got inspirational, social responsibility, didactic, injustice, and propaganda.

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

Please do feel free to jot the definitions down if you think you might struggle to remember them later in the lesson.

So first of all, something inspirational is something that makes you feel encouraged or hopeful.

Now, somebody that believes in social responsibility is somebody who invests in their community and supports those in need.

Something didactic is intended to teach a moral lesson.

Injustice means a lack of fairness or a lack of justice.

And propaganda is information or ideas that are spread in an attempt to influence other people.

So here's our lesson outline for today.

I'm going to give you a question and you're going to have a look at planning your argument.

We're then going to write our arguments up.

But let's start off as always, with the very first step in writing any response, which is planning your argument.

So, having read "A Christmas Carol," our amazing pupil, Izzy, stated, "I just love 'A Christmas Carol' because it is a hopeful tale." And I must say I have to agree with Izzy.

I also really love "A Christmas Carol" for many reasons, one of which is because it is such a hopeful tale in my opinion.

And Sophia responds, "Well, what do you mean a hopeful tale?" And I'm going to throw this question over to you and I'd like you to try and tell Sophia, what you think Izzy means, when she says, "A hopeful tale," what does that actually mean? So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video, while you try to answer Sophia's question.

Off you go.

Fantastic! Some very, very clear explanations there.

Many of you definitely have a future career as a teacher.

So well done.

So Izzy's going to answer, and I heard this answer from many of you, so well done.

And Izzy states, "Well, I mean that the lessons it teaches us are inspirational and give me hope for a better future, not only for myself, but for others too." And what a fantastic definition of hopeful tale that is.

So this idea that the novel inspires us in some way and kind of paves the way for a brighter future, not just for the individual, but for society as well.

So taking Izzy's idea, I'd like to discuss, well, what lessons does the novella teach us? Okay, so Izzy talks about these inspirational lessons, but what actually are those lessons? So again, I'm gonna invite you to pause the video, while you consider what Dickens' lessons that he's teaching us in this novella are.

Off you go.

Again some fantastic contributions there and it's lovely to see how well many of you have really understood and grasped the concept of the kind of morals of this story.

So really well done there.

Here's some things you might have said.

You might have said that it teaches us the importance of Christian values like, kindness, empathy, and charity.

It teaches us the importance of social responsibility.

It teaches us that it's never too late to make positive changes.

It teaches us that anybody can have hope for redemptional or transformation.

And finally, that human connection and/or time is a real gift.

So those are just some of the lessons that Charles Dickens is teaching us through this novella.

Now, there are many ways in which you could approach this question of, to what extent is "A Christmas Carol" a hopeful tale? As that's the question you'll be answering today.

So what I'd like you to do now is the first stage in any planning, it's the brainstorming part.

So I'm going to ask you to discuss and make notes because you'll need them for your planning on the following question, do you think it's a hopeful tale? Why or why not? And to help you consider this, I'd like you to think, well, what is it a 'tale' or a 'story' of? Where is 'hope' given or shown in the novella? And who is the novella inspirational to and why? So hopefully those questions will help you to kind of organise your ideas and get some kind of ideas generation going in the first place.

Now, in terms of discussing this, I really am keen for you to discuss this with other people.

We are just brainstorming at this point.

So I want you to get as many ideas as you possibly can together, as this will make your response much stronger.

So please don't be shy to steal other people's ideas 'cause that's what discussion and in fact English is all about.

It's a sharing of ideas, so please don't be shy.

Sharing is caring.

Take as much as you want from other people and make sure you're writing notes.

So pause the video and start brainstorming with people around you.

Off you go.

Well done! It doesn't matter how you've presented it, I can just see so many notes, which is absolutely fantastic 'cause that tells me that you've really engaged with this discussion task and you've made productive use of the time that I've given you before you start planning.

So really well done.

Now we're gonna hear from some of our Oak pupils about how they might approach this task.

And again, if you see anything or they say anything that you really like the idea rather and you think you might want to use in your essay, get it down! Because remember, sharing is caring.

We're brainstorming at this point and there's absolutely no harm in borrowing other people's ideas and using them in your own work.

That's absolutely fine.

So let's hear first from Izzy, who says, "Well, I think it's a hopeful tale for society because Dickens outlines the key virtues and values or the key ingredients to create a fairer and more equal society." And Alex states, "Well, I think it was a hopeful tale for upper to middle class Victorians, who were turning a blind eye to the suffering of the poor.

It is their hope for transformation and redemption." Again, a really nice idea there and Alex being very specific about exactly who this is a hopeful tale for in society.

And finally, Laura adds, "This novella is literally a hopeful tale because Dickens hoped that its didactic message of social responsibility would save society." So even in its very purpose, it's a hopeful tale.

Dickens wanted people to read this and have hope for a better future for society and for themselves.

And he really wanted this novella to have a long lasting legacy because of the messages that it imparts to its readers.

So thank you to our Oak pupils and if you want to feel free to pause the video and bullet-point what our pupils have said, so that you can use their ideas later.

We're now going to move on to you planning your own response to the question using the ideas that we've already generated in this lesson.

I'm going to quickly remind you of how to plan using paragraph outlines.

So as always, with any response, we have to begin with that thesis statement, which is our overarching evaluative argument.

So then within each paragraph you will have this topic sentence, which outlines your argument for each paragraph individually.

And it includes the key question vocabulary.

So you're trying to stay at this moment, in this paragraph, what you are trying to demonstrate or prove.

Your supporting detail is your key language form and structure and your contextual detail.

So that will need to include your quotations, any contextual information you feel is relevant and key vocabulary that will help you to be really specific with your response.

Your summary sentence summarises your argument in each paragraph with a really sharp focus on Dickens' purpose.

So why did he write this novella? And we've talked loads about this already, so you should absolutely smash that part of your essay.

And finally, your conclusion is that conclusive summary of the writer's message, which again, we have done loads of this lesson.

So you will be able to absolutely finesse in your essay.

Now, let's check for understanding before we move on.

Some students were discussing summary sentences and conclusions.

Who gives the correct explanation? Is it Aisha or is it Jacob? I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you read both students' explanations and decide which you think is the correct one.

So pause the video and off you go.

And well done if you correctly identified that it is in fact Jacob, Jacob states they are very similar.

However, the conclusion outlines your overarching argument, whereas the summary sentence reiterates your ideas within your overarching argument.

Okay, so the conclusion is kinda holistic.

It kind of reinforces and restates your holistic argument, whereas the summary statement restates your kind of idea for that paragraph.

So one is whole essay level and one is kinda paragraph level, if that makes sense.

So well done if you selected Jacob as the correct explanation.

Fantastic work.

So handing over to you for the first task of the lesson, passing the baton if you will, as you are going to be completing the planning grid for the 'hopeful tale' question.

So this will be your plan for your response.

So I've given you a very basic plan here that you will need to populate.

So remembering you will need a thesis statement that outlines that overarching argument.

You'll need three topic sentences that outline each of your ideas per paragraph, your supporting detail.

You'll need to find quotations to evidence your ideas.

You'll need to think about Dickens' methods and what you're going to say about those quotations, as well as any relevant contextual information.

It might also be clever to plot your key vocabulary so that you are being really specific and concise.

You will need to plan your closing sentence in full.

So you'll need to make sure that you are again, restating your idea for that paragraph and linking back to the writer's intentions.

So why did Dickens write this text? And finally, as we've said, the conclusion is kinda that summary of your holistic overarching argument.

So what were you trying to prove? And then that link back to Dickens' purpose in writing the novella.

The planning is just as important as the writing.

So make sure that you are giving it the respect that it deserves.

If you do this plan really well, you'll be in the best position possible to absolutely smash your response out of the park.

So make sure that you are really investing the time and energy that you need to make this plan the best it can possibly be before you start writing.

As you are planning this, I hugely recommend that you have your notes wide open, that you are constantly flicking back and looking at what you've covered and that you have your a copy of "A Christmas Carol" wide open as well, so that you can find that evidence that you'll need to support your opinion and your argument.

I'm going to invite you now to pause the video and take the time to really nail this plan.

Put yourself in the best position possible before writing.

Enjoy it! And I look forward to seeing your completed plans in a moment.

So pause the video and off you go.

Fantastic work and real resilience demonstrated there.

Really, really well done.

Now we're going to undertake some self-assessment, again, to make sure that your plan is the absolute best it can be.

So I've given you some coaching questions that will enable you to assess and then improve the quality of your plan.

So here they are.

I'd like you to ask yourself, well, do you have an interesting thesis which focuses on Dickens' intentions? Do all of your topic sentences support your thesis? Do you use a range of supporting details from a variety of moments across the novella? Do you use context as part of your supporting detail? You've not just whacked it in to show that you know what Dickens' life was like.

Is it actually going to be used purposefully? Do your summary sentences really link back to the question? Is your conclusion focused on to what extent the novella is a hopeful tale? And finally, do your ideas building complexity from that foundational kinda basic knowledge, introductory knowledge to a really personal response where you give your ideas and opinions that you have formed of the text, yourself independently.

So I'm going to give you a few moments now to pause the video while you undertake that self-assessment and make any necessary changes to your plan.

I would recommend you make the changes in a different colour, so you can see your own improvements.

Pause the video and off you go.

Excellent work.

I think you're ready to write now.

So, now, onto my favourite part of the lesson where I get to see you working really hard on writing your responses up.

And I can't wait to see what you come up with.

So let's quickly remind ourselves of the essay title.

We've got, to what extent is "A Christmas Carol" a hopeful tale? And here are some thoughts that you had from earlier in the lesson.

It's a hopeful tale for society, it's a hopeful tale for up to middle class Victorians.

And it's a hopeful tale for Dickens because it is one of his many attempts at sociopolitical propaganda.

So those were some of the ideas that you came up with earlier on today.

So we're going to do some work on vocabulary as that's really important in being concise and specific.

So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to show you a list of words and you are going to choose five of the following words that you think would be the most useful in your response.

And you're going to explain to somebody else how you might use them.

So here are your words.

We've got redemption, morality, immorality, philanthropy, social responsibility, hero, parable, Christ-figure, salvation, injustice, miserly, illusion and didactic, so lots of different words there.

Now you might be thinking, "I don't really understand what she wants me to do here." So I'm going to show you an example.

So for example, I would select the word redemption and I would want to use that when I was talking about Scrooge's change and how he transforms across the novella.

And when I'm exploring Dickens' message of spiritual hope.

So I would be really using that word to be very specific about Scrooge's journey of transformation and salvation.

And I've actually just used another keyword there, so two points to me.

So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video and pick your five words and explain to somebody else, how you think you might use them in your response.

Off you go.

Fantastic and it was lovely to see so many of you experimenting with words that I've not seen you use before and being really kinda bold and brave and challenging yourself to use different words.

So massive, well done.

So let's check for understanding of keywords.

I'd like you to match the keywords from today's lesson with the definitions.

So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you do just that.

Fantastic! I can already see many people have got three out of three.

So really well done.

Let's just run through the answers together to make sure we're all on the same page.

So first of all, inspirational means something that makes you feel encouraged or hopeful.

Injustice is that lack of fairness or justice and didactic means that it is intending to teach.

So well done if you've got three out of three, excellent work.

Now, a success criteria is a list of things that you need to include to make your essay the best it can possibly be.

And I'm going to challenge you now to write your own success criteria for the essay that you are about to write.

So in order to do that, you'll need to consider, well, what does make an interesting and thought provoking essay? How should evidence and context be used? And how can you structure your essay to make it really coherent? So I'm challenging you now to write your own success criteria for the essay you are about to write.

You can discuss this with the people around you.

Pause the video, and off you go.

Lovely, thank you.

And it's great to see so many of you have such an in-depth understanding of what you need to be doing in your response.

So that's really positive to see.

If you're not quite sure, here's what you could have said.

You could have said that, "A coherent and conceptualised response follows the same line of argument." "A good essay also has a really detailed focus on the writer's methods." So it explores how the writer achieves their aims. "A concise essay also uses the most specific vocabulary accurately." And we've already practised that today, so you should absolutely smash that part of the essay.

"A great response also uses really precise and embedded quotations," and it uses short quotations because we don't often need the entire sentence.

So it's often very selective about which part of the quotation we actually need and only includes that by embedding it within the sentence.

And finally, a detailed essay constantly links back to the writer's intentions and discusses why the writer wrote the text, what is their didactic message.

So thank you to our pupils for reminding us of what makes a fantastic essay.

So over to you now, you've got everything that you need to write the best essay that you've ever written in your lives, and you're going to go and do it now.

So you're going to write your response to the essay question using your notes to help you.

And here's your question again, to what extent is "A Christmas Carol" a hopeful tale? You should be including an introduction with a really interesting thesis statement, at least three analytical paragraphs which have really clear topic sentences and a detailed focus on Dickens' methods, selective use of embedded quotations, analysis of language, form, and structure, which is really tightly focused on your argument.

Your context should be integrated throughout with a really sharp focus on Dickens' purpose.

So we're not adding it on at the end just to show that we know that, we're using it purposefully.

And finally, that really precise and specific use of vocab that we have already practised today.

So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you write your response up, making sure it is the best response that you have ever written.

I can't wait to see your writing, off you go.

Fantastic work! I was absolutely blown away by the effort, the resilience, the amount you wrote, you've absolutely smashed this out of the park and really impressed me.

So, massive well done! We're going to undertake some self-assessment now to see how you can improve your work.

I'm going to ask you to assess your work by identifying the following.

First of all, where have you included an introduction with a really interesting and critical thesis? Where have you used clear topic sentences? Where have you used embedded quotations? Making sure you've only used a really relevant part of the quotation and not just included the whole sentence.

Where have you interwoven analysis of language, form and structure that's really tightly focused on Dickens' use of methods? Where have you integrated context with a really sharp focus on Dickens' purpose? So the reasons as to why he wrote this novella.

And finally, where have you included a conclusion which summarises your ideas about how this novella is a hopeful tale? So to show where you've met the success criteria, it might be a nice idea to highlight your response and then label each aspect of the success criteria in the margin so that you can see that you've done absolutely everything that you are supposed to do in your response.

I'm going to give you a few moments now to undertake that self-assessment.

So please do pause the video and have a go at assessing your work using the success criteria on screen now.

Off you go.

Fantastic self-assessment! And some really reflective practise there.

A huge well done from me.

You've done yourselves really proud this lesson.

To summarise the learning from today, "A Christmas Carol" can be considered a hopeful tale about redemption because the novella teaches us about the importance of social responsibility, empathy, generosity, and charity.

In the novella, Dickens outlines the key virtues and values required to create a fairer and more equal society.

We know that a detailed essay constantly links back to the writer's intentions and that a coherent conceptualised response follows the same line of argument throughout.

And finally, a really good essay has a detailed focus on the writer's methods.

Thank you so much for coming to today's lesson.

It's been absolutely fantastic to see all your amazing responses and see how much you've progressed throughout the course of the lesson.

Massive well done! You should be really proud of yourselves.

I'll see you next time.

Have a lovely rest of your day.

Thank you, and bye.