Lesson video

Hello everyone, it's lovely to see you today.

Welcome to this lesson on planning and effective article.

My name's Dr.

Clayton and I'm here to guide you through your learning journey today.

Today we're gonna be planning an article on an issue that's important to teenagers.

So we're gonna spend a bit of time at the beginning of the lesson gathering ideas.

Then we're going to think about how we can map our plan on the form of an article.

So you're ready, grab your pen, laptop, whatever you use with this lesson and let's get started.

So by the end of the lesson, you'll be able to come up with a main argument as well as ideas for three main paragraphs as a plan for an effective article.

So we have five words today we're gonna focus on as our keywords.

They've been identified in bold throughout the learning material, and I'll try to point them out as well so you can see them being used in context.

Our first key words article, which is a piece of writing include with others in a newspaper, magazine, or other print or online publication.

Today we're planning an article that gives your opinion on issue that's important to teenagers.

Our second key word is argument, and this means a reason or set of reasons given the support of an idea, action, or theory.

We're going to be considering which ideas you might use in your article to support your argument and how you might organise them.

Our third keyword is alliteration, which the occurrence of the same letter or sound at beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

We're going to be using the technique of alliteration and the latter past the lesson, think about how we might create an effective headline.

Our fourth keyword is form, which means a way of categorising literature based on its structural purpose.

We're going to be looking at the specific form of an article and how you might construct the different elements necessary to write in the form of an article.

Our final keyword rhetoric question, and that means a question asked not to create a dramatic effect or to make a point, rather than to get an answer.

This is another technique we're going to be looking at in the latter part of the lesson in order to create effective headlines.

So I'll just give you a moment to write down those keywords and the definitions.

So pause the video, write them down now.

Fantastic, let's get started with the lesson.

So we have two learning cycles in our lesson today.

For our first learning cycle, we're going to think about what the theme of our article is going to be.

So we're going to explore issues that might be important to teenagers.

Then we're gonna zoom in on a central theme and think about how we might construct an argument around it.

For our second learning cycle, we're going to think specifically about the article form and how you might construct the specific elements of an article and map them out onto your plan.

So today we're gonna be planning an article on a theme that's important to teenagers.

Specifically, we're planning an opinion article and opinion articles and article where writers present their perspective on a topic whilst trying to get readers to agree with them.

In order to get readers to agree with you, you need to present an argument about why they should agree with your opinion.

So we need to present a set of reasons as to why the reader should agree with you.

That's what the focus of this first learning cycle is going to be.

We're gonna think about what issue we're going to talk about, how we feel about that issue, and how might we get other people to agree with us about the issue.

So our first steps, think about what the overall theme of our article might be.

So what I'd like you to do is think about what your initial thoughts are about what you might want to write about.

So what issues do you think are important to teenagers? Now, if you're working through this with someone else, you might talk about ideas with them.

If going through this by yourself, you might just think about ideas.

So pause video, take a few minutes to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

Let's talk through what you might have said.

So you might think you could write about issues affecting school life, such as uniform, homework, absence, exams. Maybe you want to write about how uniform or homework are important or should be abolished.

You might write about the way schools treat absence, especially if there's a particular report on issue in the media at the moment.

Or you might write about exams, what your opinions are about them.

You might also look beyond school and write about environmental issues such as climate change, recycling, pollution, perhaps an article about what you think people should bring more of or what innovations you think should be invested in.

Or perhaps you might write about social issues, just housing, pet ownership, voting age, social media.

Typically we think of issues such as housing and pet ownership as affecting adults, but they absolutely affect teenagers too.

And you might write about policy changes that you'd like to see or you might write about social media, particularly with the proposed ideas around banning smartphones for under 16s that are being put forward in several countries.

Now these are just some ideas.

You're free to write about any topic you think might be important to teenagers.

Now, some tips for choosing a central theme are to choose a theme that you're familiar with.

So choose a theme that you know a lot about is you'll need to write sustained opinion on it that includes at least three paragraphs.

To choose a theme you have an opinion on, construct an argument about.

So make sure it's a theme you have a relative strong opinion about rather than something you feel on the fence about.

Finally, choose a theme of multiple points to make about.

Remember, you need to construct a sustained argument.

So at least three points to make in favour of your argument.

So now for a quick check for understanding.

What I'd like you to do is fill in the gaps to complete the tips for choosing a theme.

So some tips for choosing a central theme are, choose a theme that you are with, choose a theme that you have a opinion on and construct an about, and choose a theme you have points to make about.

So pause a video, take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

Now the correct answers are, some tips for choosing a central theme are, choose a theme you are familiar with, choose a theme you have an opinion on and construct an argument about and choose a theme you have multiple points to make about.

So very well done if you've got those right.

So now that we've talked about a few options, what I'd like you to think about is what could your main topic and your main argument be? So what are you going to write about and what do you want the reader to think about it? As before if went through to someone else who might talk about ideas together, if went through this by yourself, might just think about ideas.

So pause the video, take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone, some great ideas there.

Now I'm gonna share the ideas of one of our own pupils, Izzy.

So Izzy says that she's going to write about the timings of the school day, and she's going to argue that school should start later in order to improve teenager's wellbeing and health.

Now, what I'd like you to consider is what do you think about Izzy's argument? Do you agree or disagree? Why? Pause the video, take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

It was great to see some different opinions there.

Some people welcomed it and said it would help them feel rested and motivated for the day, while other people weren't so sure as they thought it might lead to an extension of the school day in the afternoon.

These are opinion articles, we all have different opinions.

Our job is to construct a convincing argument about our opinion in order to try and make other people agree with us.

So in order to make a convincing argument, we need to have multiple points to make so that people can see our point of view.

So now that we have our argument, what I'd like you to think about is what ideas you have that support your argument.

Pause the video, take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone, some fantastic ideas there.

Let's talk through what Izzy said that she might say in support of her argument about why we should start the school day later.

So Izzy said that teenagers need eight to 10 hours sleep.

Now the average adult needs six to eight hours, but actually teenager's brains are going through vast amounts of development and therefore they need more sleep than that.

However, most teenagers get far less than that.

Izzy asked her classmates, she found that actually only one or two of them regularly gets that amount of sleep.

The average school day starts at half past eight, and that doesn't give people a lot of time in the morning to get ready properly.

The fact that teenagers get less sleep than they're supposed to means they may suffer from sleep deprivation and that can cause negative impacts on health, wellbeing, mood and concentration.

Izzy also knows that adults working patterns throughout society are starting to change and become more flexible.

So perhaps this should set pupils up better for their working lives.

A rush start to the morning means no time to have a healthy breakfast, and that can result in unhealthy eating habits.

Izzy noticed she always sees teachers stressed in the mornings and perhaps a later start for them would offer them more time to get ready and have a bit more flexibility.

And finally, she noticed that some teenagers have long commutes.

This means they have even earlier starts and more stressful days given the early school start.

So now we have our main argument and our ideas.

We need to think about how we're going to organise them.

Ideally, an article should have three paragraphs.

Therefore, we need to organise our ideas into three distinct sections.

So what I'd like you to do is first think about how you think should go about organising our ideas into sections.

Pause a video, take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

You might have said, you consider what your three main ideas are, you can then think about which ideas fit cohesively together.

We want to make sure the reader can follow our argument, and part of that is making sure the reader isn't jumping around between ideas as that can become confusing.

So we need to place them in clear categories the reader can easily understand.

We also might wanna consider dropping in ideas that don't fit cohesively into the sections.

Sometimes we need to be ruthless in our planning, I think about what isn't going to add to our argument.

So now for a quick check for understanding.

What I'd like you to do is tell me whether the following statement is true or false.

So is it true or false? As long as you have great ideas, it doesn't matter how you organise them.

Pause the video, make a selection now.

Welcome back everyone.

The correct answer is false.

Now I'd like to tell me why it's false.

So pause the video, take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

You might have said that part of writing a convincing argument is create cohesive argument.

That means organising ideas a distinct section so the reader can follow your argument easily.

So farewell done if you've got those right? Amazing work so far everyone for the first task of the lesson? So now we have an idea of our main argument and what ideas we have in support of it.

What I'd like you to do is complete the table to organise your ideas.

So I'd like you to add the main idea for each paragraph and then add your accompanying notes.

A moment to think about which ideas are going to compliment each other within the overall argument of the paragraph.

So pause video, complete the table now.

Well, welcome back everyone.

Now let's take a look at how Izzy organised her ideas.

So you can see an example of what the table should look like.

So Izzy's main argument was that school day should start later.

So that would benefit students' health and their wellbeing.

For paragraph one, Izzy thought she'd focus on ideas of sleep deprivation.

Should the accompany notes might be around ideas of sleep.

Now teenagers need eight to 10 hours, but most get far less and that sleep deprivation has negative impacts.

So we can see here Izzy's chosen ideas that specifically focus on ideas of sleep in order to create a cohesive paragraph.

For her second paragraph, she thought she'd focus on how a later school day would allow good start to the morning.

She might use ideas for the average school day starts at half past eight and that means a rush out of the door, especially with public transport involved.

And the later start also gives a chance for a healthy breakfast, the chance to relax and spend time with family.

For our third paragraph, Izzy thought she might focus on ideas of flexible working and think about how ideas of society in general.

It's becoming more open to flexible working and how later school start might also mean that teachers have the option of more flexible day and that might stop so many from leaving the profession.

So now we have a structure for ideas, we're going to now think about how we can map out our plan in a way that fits with the article form.

Amazing works from everyone.

For the second learning cycle, we're going to think about the form of an article and how we might create the elements of the article that match our ideas.

So the article is a type of non-fiction writing that's a specific form.

By form we mean the way the text is structured and organised.

So an article begins with a headline, then a strapline, then it a paragraph, then we have a subheading and the main paragraph.

Now we're gonna spend the rest of this learning cycle thinking about the specific ideas of headline, strapline and subheading and what each one of those might look like.

So let's begin with the headline.

Your headline is the title of your article.

So the headline should grab the reader's attention.

Articles appear in newspapers most generally, and newspapers are full of stories.

It's unlikely that people read every single article.

So you want to make sure the reader feels intrigued enough to read your article.

It should convey the main theme of the article.

You want to give the reader an idea of what the subject is, notable again, give them a reason to read it.

You should also hint at your argument, but don't give everything away.

So give them an idea of what you think about the theme without giving everything away as you want to go on and read the of the article, not just the headline.

So what I'd like to think about is what techniques might you use to grab the reader's attention in the headline.

Pause video, take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

You might have said you could use alliteration and that means the occurrence of the same letter or sound beginning with adjacent or closely connected words, you might use rhetorical questions and they mean a question asked nor to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer.

Now these are not the only techniques you could use, but they are effective in grabbing the reader's attention.

We're gonna spend a little bit of time now practising those techniques and thinking about how we might use them to grab the attention of the reader in a headline.

So let's have a go at practising those techniques.

So Izzy's article is all about the timing of the school day.

So let's begin by thinking at what sort of words or phrases Izzy might include in a headline to make it eye catching that relate to ideas about a later school day.

So pause the video, take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone, some great ideas there.

Now you might have said you could use images of an alarm clock, a zombie and a snooze button.

All of those ideas offer ideas about sleep.

They specifically hint around ideas of not getting enough sleep.

Now what I'd like you to think about is how might is in corporate alliteration or talk questions into a headline.

So how might she use words that start with the same letter or sound within the headline? Or how might she ask a question that doesn't require an answer for a dramatic effect? So pause a video, take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

Now here are some of the ideas you might have had.

So for alarm clocks you might have said, do you dread the buzz of your alarm clock? So here we've used a rhetoric question.

It doesn't require an answer.

Very few people look forward to their alarm clock going off in the morning.

We'd all love a few more moments in bed.

For zombies you might have thought, should schools be teaching zombies? Again, it's rhetoric question for effect.

It doesn't require an answer.

No one thinks that schools should be teaching students so sleep deprived they can't function.

For snooze button you might have thought save the snooze button.

Here we use alliteration with a repeated S sound note to make the headline sound more appealing to the reader.

So now for quick check for understanding.

Which of the following should the headline do? Should a, grab the reader's attention, b, summarise the article in a sentence or two, or c, hint at your argument.

Pause the video, make your selections now.

Welcome back everyone.

Now the headline is the title of your article.

It's designed to grab the reader's attention and hint at your argument in order make them intrigued enough to actually read the article.

So very well done if you've got those right.

So now let's think about the strapline.

The strapline is supplementary heading or caption newspaper or magazine.

So it appears below the actual headline and offers more information about the article to the reader.

So a strapline should summarise the whole article in one or two sentence.

Tell the reader who, what, when, and why.

So should offer them a contextual information about the article and the themes within it.

So for example, "Gorilla recaptured after escape at London Zoo" is the headline of the article.

And the strap plan is, animal reportedly shot with tranquilliser dart after zoo said it was managing an instant.

So here the strap plan offers more information, tells the gorilla was recaptured with a tranquilliser dart, and it gives a quote from the zoo not to give more context to the article.

So now let's have a go practising the strapline.

So Izzy's argument is the school day should start later as this will benefit students.

So what I'd like you to think about is what could Izzy's strapline be? Remember strapline starting to summarise the main argument to the reader.

So pause the video, take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

Let's talk through what you might have said.

So you might have thought, in order to improve students' physical and mental wellbeing, the school day should start later, or by allowing them a lie-in, teenager performance of school and their general willing will be greatly improved.

In both these examples, we've summarised Izzy's main argument, as she wants a school day to start later, so it'll benefit teenage health and their wellbeing.

Now for a quick check for understanding, what I'd like you to do is tell me whether the following statement is true or false.

So is it true or false? The strapline of the article should grab the read's attention.

Pause the video, make a selection now.

The correct answer is false.

Now I'd like to tell me why it's false.

Pause the video, take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

You might have said the strapline is supplementary to the headline.

It's designed to summarise the article in one or two sentences and offer explanatory information to the reader.

So very well done if you got that right.

Now, in order to create a convincing argument, you want to have at least three points to make to the reader.

That means your article should have at least three paragraphs, one point per paragraph.

The subheading appears before each paragraph and offers a summary of the main idea within the paragraph.

So now let's have a practise and think about how we make great subheadings.

They offer a short summary of the main ideas within the paragraph.

So Izzy's three main points are, teenagers need more sleep than adults around eight to 10 hours a night.

A less frantic morning will lead to healthier habits and the world in general is moving towards more flexible patterns of work.

So what I'd like to think about is what could Izzy's subheadings be? Pause video, take a few moments to consider.

Welcome back everyone.

Let's talk through it might have said.

Now these first paragraphs about teenagers and less sleeping habits.

So perhaps the subheading could be, are teenage getting enough sleep is a second paragraph.

It's about a more relaxing morning, now that cultivates healthier habits.

So perhaps the subheading could be setting up the day well.

Finally, the third paragraph is about how adults' working patterns are changing, becoming more flexible.

Therefore, the subheading might be, Flexible working patterns.

In each of these examples, we've told the reader what the main focus of each of the paragraphs will be.

Now for a quick check for understanding around the purpose of subheadings.

So what I'd like you to do is fill in the gaps to complete the information about subheadings.

The subheading appears each paragraph and offers a of the main idea within the paragraph.

Pause video, fill in the gaps now.

Welcome back everyone.

The correct answers are, the subheading appears before each paragraph and offers a summary of the main idea within the paragraph.

So very well done if you've got those right.

Fantastic work everyone.

We are at the final task of the lesson.

So what I'd like you to do is take your ideas from the first learning cycle and use to integrate the following article components to compliment your main argument and your sub points.

So what heading could you create that shows the main topic of your argument that'll grab the reader's attention.

What strapline could you create to summarise the main argument of your article.

And what subheadings could you use to summarise the main points of each your paragraphs? So pause the video, take a few minutes to complete the table.

Welcome back everyone, some amazing work there.

Now what I'd like you to do is share your work with a peer and consider the following questions.

Would the headline catch your attention? Does the headline give you an idea of the theme of the article? Does the strap plan offer a summary of the article and do the subheadings give you an idea of the three points the argument has? So pause a video and peer assess each other's work now.

Well welcome back everyone.

Now I know sharing your work with a peer can feel intimidating sometimes, but it's such a good habit to get into because we're craft writing in order to elicit reactions to other people.

So it's great to get feedback on how other people respond to your ideas, whether it's creating a reaction you thought it would.

You all did amazingly well today everyone, here's a summary of what we covered.

An opinion article is an article where writers present their perspectives on a topic whilst trying to get the readers to agree with them.

You should aim to choose a topic you're familiar with and can make multiple points about.

You want to create something you can write convincingly about and something you could write about for a sustained amount of time.

The form of the article is the headline, a strapline and subheadings for each paragraph.

The purpose of the headline is to grab the reader's attention.

You might use alliteration or talk of questions to achieve that.

The purpose of the strapline is to summarise the main argument of the article.

I really hope you enjoyed the lesson everyone and hope to see you for another lesson soon.

Goodbye.