Hello and welcome to a lesson today on understanding and planning open letters.

I'm Miss Sutherland and I'll be teaching you today.

Our learning outcome for today's lesson is to explore the various purposes of an open letter and use examples of open letters to inspire our very own open letter.

We have four keywords for today's lesson.

They are hobbyist, galvanise, conquest, and complacence.

A hobbyist is a person who pursues a particular hobby.

A computer hobbyist is someone who works with or learns about computers as a hobby.

Galvanise.

To galvanise is to shock or excite someone into taking action.

A lot of activists want to galvanise the public.

Conquest.

Conquest is the act of taking control or possession of land.

And complacence.

Complacence means a feeling of calm satisfaction that prevents you from trying harder.

I'll give you a moment to reflect upon these key words now.

Great.

We have two learning cycles today.

In the first, we're going to be looking at some famous open letters.

We'll be learning exactly what an open letter is and we'll be exploring the possible purposes of open letters.

And in our second learning cycle, we'll be considering ideas for our own open letter, which I'm really excited about.

Open letters are a perfect opportunity to talk about something that you care about, so that's going to be really exciting and interesting.

Let's begin now with exploring the purpose of open letters.

Here are some examples of open letters.

Siegfried Sassoon's 1917 open letter, "A Soldier's Declaration".

Martin Luther King's 1963 letter from a Birmingham Jail addressed to my dear fellow clergyman.

Gandhi's 1939 letter to Hitler.

Bill Gates 1976 letter to computer hobbyists.

Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate's letter to the Global Media.

And Emma Watson's open letter to Savita Halappanavar who died after being denied an abortion.

Now after looking at six example open letters, what do you think an open letter is? Pause the video and discuss.

An open letter is a letter with an intended recipient but made publicly available for anyone to read.

So all of these letters were written to a particular person or organisation, but the public has been able to read every single one of these letters because they haven't been made private, but they've been made public.

Discuss now why might someone choose to write an open letter rather than a private letter? Pause the video and discuss.

So here are some possible reasons someone may wish to write an open letter rather than a private letter.

If the topic being written about is a public concern, an open letter might galvanise the public to take action.

Open letters can also raise awareness of issues the public may not have been aware of in the first place, so they might reveal or expose in an incident.

And open letters may also be used when leaders or businesses want to be transparent with citizens or customers.

So they take so they make their ideas and plans public.

So there we have some possible reasons that someone might choose to write an open letter.

Open letters, although we've seen them being written by perhaps activists and political leaders, open letters can be written by anyone to anyone.

For example, we could write an open letter to our local bus company, an open letter to all Olympic athletes, and an open letter even to people with no manners.

Sometimes open letters are published to be enjoyed by the public rather than actually read by the person or perhaps thing that they are addressed to.

For example, an open letter to the guy at the gym who hogs the equipment, an open letters to my younger self, and an open letter to coffee.

Those three open letters are not intended necessarily to be read by the person or thing they're addressed to.

Indeed how can your younger self read a letter and how can coffee read a letter? They can't.

So sometimes open letters are written just to unite the public, to make the public laugh, or to provide some lighthearted reading.

Now let's check your understanding of what we've talked about.

True or false.

Open letters are always addressed to the people in powerful positions.

Pause the video and answer, is that true or false? Off you go.

Well done if you said false.

Open letters are not always addressed to people in powerful positions.

Pause the video and justify your answer.

How do you know that is false? Off you go.

Open letters can be written to anyone or indeed, anything.

Some open letters often published in newspapers for entertainment need not be read by the person or thing they're addressed to.

And we saw that when we looked at the open letter to coffee, the open letter to my younger self.

Those letters were not addressed to people in powerful positions.

Now I want you to read the open letter, "A Soldier's Declaration" by Siegfried Sassoon in the additional materials.

Siegfried Sassoon was a poet and served as a soldier during World War I.

Your five questions to answer as you read that open letter are who is Sassoon writing to? What is Sassoon writing about? Why do you think Sassoon wrote this letter? Which phrases or sentences stand out to you in this letter and why? And why do you think Sassoon chose to write this particular message as an open letter? Pause the video, get reading, and answer those five questions now.

Off you go.

Great effort there in unpicking Sassoon's open letter.

Let's go through some of the answers.

Who is Sassoon writing to? Now it's not entirely explicit who Sassoon is writing to, but we can assume that he may be writing to British military leaders.

What is Sassoon writing about? Sassoon is writing about his opinion that World War I ought to be over.

Why do you think Sassoon wrote this letter? Sassoon may have written this open letter to raise awareness about the soldiers suffering and to galvanise people to put an end to the war.

We see how he talks about the prolong.

We see how he says to prolong war is evil and unjust.

And how he says that he thinks that they are no longer fighting for the cause in which he signed up for.

Which phrases or sentences stand out to you in this letter and why? I picked out the phrase, "I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends, which I believe to be evil and unjust." I picked that out as a powerful phrase as it is shocking.

The immersive language really shocked me.

And perhaps this sentence has the ability to stir up disapproval of war in the reader.

And finally, why do we think Sassoon chose to write this message as an open letter? Perhaps Sassoon chose to write this as an open letter because he felt that the British public needed to be aware of his opinion on the evil and unjust nature of war instead of being complacent.

So perhaps Sassoon wanted to expose the true reality of what the men were fighting for and perhaps he thought that this truth was being concealed from the public.

So he needed to let everyone know what the reality of war was and perhaps that's why he made this letter public.

Now we've unpicked Sassoon's open letter and we've explored exactly what the purpose of an open letter is.

It's now time for us to consider ideas for our very own open letter.

Discuss.

Despite all of the examples of open letters being written about completely different topics and addressed to different people, communities, or things, what do you think links all open letters? So what do all open letters have in common despite the differences in who they're addressed to and differences in the topics they discuss? Pause the video and discuss.

Regardless of the topic or addressee, open letters seem to be prompted by the writer's strong feeling about something.

Discuss then what type of strong feelings do you think prompt one to write an open letter? Pause the video and discuss.

Open letters may be prompted by negative feelings like hate, jealousy, or injustice or positive feelings such as awe or admiration.

So as long as someone has a strong feeling about something, they can write an open letter.

Because open letters are usually fueled by some sort of strong emotion or passion, whether positive or negative.

Let's take a range of open letters written by different people for different purposes.

An open letter to the woman who told my family to go back to China.

An open letter from unpaid carers to the Prime Minister.

An open letter to anyone battling with self-worth, and an open letter to Mondays.

I want you to discuss what might be the intended purpose of each of these open letters.

Pause the video and discuss.

So we might say that the open letter to the woman who told my family to go back to China is an open letter intended to shock the reader, to cause outrage in the reader, and perhaps to expose racism in society.

An open letter from unpaid carers to the Prime Minister.

This open letter seems to be one that is a call to action, one that demands justice and payment for the work that is done by carers.

An open letter to anyone battling with self-worth.

This may be an open letter to inspire hope, to give love and support to the reader.

And an open editor to Mondays might be one that complains or amuses the public.

Discuss now which open letter would you most like to read and why, out of the four on the screen? Pause the video and discuss.

Thank you so much for sharing which open letter catches your interest.

Everyone is going to find different topics interesting.

And that's the beauty of writing, and that's the beauty of being able to enjoy different pieces of work.

Everyone is going to be intrigued or captivated by different ideas.

And that leads us nicely onto considering what we may want to write about, what is special or important to us.

True or false now.

Open letters are always written to complain about something.

Pause the video and answer that question, is that true or false? That is false.

Open letters are not always written to complain about something.

I want you now to pause the video and justify your answer.

How do we know that's false? Open letters can be written to shock, complain, encourage, provide hope or celebrate.

Open letters can be inspired by any strong feeling and can have a range of purposes.

Therefore, open letters are not always written to complain about something.

Now I want you to answer the questions below to explore ideas for your very own open letter.

There are five questions.

Let's go through them.

Number one, make a list of things you feel strongly or passionately about.

This list can involve social, environmental, and political issues as well as places, people or things.

Number two, which issue or topic are you desperate to address? Which one can't you get out of your head lately? And which one stands out as one the public also needs to hear about? Because remember, this topic should be of interest to the public since you're going to make the letter publicly available.

Number three, based on these ideas, who would you address your letter to? Who is best placed to listen, respond, or act upon your feelings? Remember, your recipient doesn't necessarily have to be a person.

Number four, what exactly do you want to say to the person or thing you are writing to? And number five, what will the purpose of your letter be? Do you want to galvanise? Do you want to entertain? Do you want to shock? Do you want to inspire? How do you want people to react to your open letter and your message? Pause the video and answer those five questions to explore ideas for your own open letter.

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

Off you go.

Here are some ideas from our Oak pupils.

Jun wants to write an open letter to education leaders.

He thinks exams are an unfair depiction of young people's talents.

Laura wants to write an open letter to self-proclaimed influencers because she thinks it's really important that young people have positive role models.

And Izzy wants to write an open letter to Shakespeare.

She wants to tell Shakespeare how she feels about his work.

And Izzy assure that other young people will relate to the content in her letter.

There are some really imaginative and interesting ideas from the Oak pupils.

What purpose do you think each Oak pupil has chosen? Pause the video and consider how each of the Oak pupils differ in the purpose of their open letter.

Let's go through what you may have said.

Jun is writing to show the public how exams are not effective at showcasing our talents in hopes to change the education system.

So Jun is raising awareness and potentially hoping to galvanise support from the public in reforming the education system.

Laura.

Laura is writing to make social media celebrities aware of how they impact our self-esteem.

And Laura's hoping to inspire a more positive social media space and to help young people feel heard.

And finally, Izzy.

Izzy is writing to amuse her reader and help them feel that they're not alone in battling the complex language of Shakespeare.

So each Oak pupil has a different purpose and that different purpose will affect the way in which they craft their open letter.

Reflect on your own ideas now.

Have you properly reflected on the specific purpose of your letter and who you want to impact? If you need to refine some of your ideas, do so now.

Pause the video and reflect upon your purpose of your open letter now.

Great job today in planning your open letter.

I really can't wait for these open letters to come to fruition very soon as you write the whole letter out.

Here's what we've learned in today's lesson.

Open letters are letters with intended recipients that made publicly available for anyone to read.

Open letters may be written to raise awareness on topics or galvanise the public.

Open letters can be written by anyone to any person, group, or indeed thing.

Open letters have various purposes such as entertain, complain, encourage, or provide hope.

And open letters are usually inspired by a topic that the writer feel strong, positive, or negative emotions towards.

As always, thank you so much for joining me in today's lesson.

I hope you've enjoyed learning more about open letters.

And I hope you're excited about crafting your own open letter.

I hope you feel inspired and I hope you feel excited about writing an open letter of your own.