Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to today's lesson.

My name is Ms. Watson, and I'm delighted that you have decided to join me today.

We are going to be having a wonderful lesson, in which you are going to learn how to write humorously.

I hope you enjoy the lesson, let's go.

So let's look at the outcome of today's lesson.

By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to identify, and also use a range of techniques for creating humour.

We will start by looking at the keywords, you can see there, that there are five keywords all really essential for unlocking your learning for today.

We will start with satire.

Now that is the use of humour or exaggeration to criticise or mock social practises or ideas.

If you want to make your opponents seem as if they are ridiculous, their ideas are ridiculous, you might satirise them.

Hyperbole, that's another word for exaggeration.

And these exaggerated statements or claims are not meant to be taking literally.

Irony, now that is a form of deliberate mockery, in which one says the opposite of what is obviously true.

It can be seen as quite close to sarcasm.

And bathos is a sudden change from a really beautiful or important subject, to a silly or very ordinary one.

Or it might be a sudden change from a very grand, magnificent sort of self-important tone to a really everyday tone.

And if we parody something, we copy the way that somebody speaks, or writes, or does something in a humorous way.

Again, it's another way of mocking somebody or something.

Now if you would like a little bit more time to familiarise yourself with the keywords, please just pause the video and do that, and then rejoin me in the lesson when you're ready.

There are two learning cycles in today's lesson, we are gonna start by identifying humorous techniques in a model answer, and then you are going to plan your own humorous answer.

So I'd like you to read the title of an article.

It is "How to look busy while doing absolutely nothing." And I would like you to discuss what topics do you think the article will cover? And how do you think it will be written? By how, I mean what kind of language might it use, what kind of tone it might use, what stylistic techniques it might use.

So pause the video while you have that discussion, and if you are working by yourself, just pause the video while you make a few notes.

Off you go.

Welcome back.

Let me share with you some of the things that the Oak pupils said.

Aisha thought that the article would be humorous and ironic, but she also thought it might actually have quite a serious point, and be satirising the pace of modern life.

And Jun thought that the writing might be structured like a numbered list, or maybe a step-by-step process.

So compare your ideas with those of the Oak pupils.

And then when you're ready, we'll move on.

So now it's over to you to read the article, "How to look busy while doing absolutely nothing," you will find the article in additional materials.

And as you read, I would like you to consider the following.

What are the key ideas? How does the writer structure the text to make it easy to follow? By structure, I mean how are the key ideas organised, and what adjective might you use to describe the tone of the text.

So when you are ready, find the additional materials, and off you go, happy reading.

Welcome back, I hope you enjoyed reading that article.

I'd like us now to have a check for understanding.

There are six questions.

So according to the article, Number 1, when are people most likely to feel overwhelmed? And Question 2, what should you do at your desk in order to look busy? 3, what are peer-to-peer revision sessions actually used for? 4, you get bonus points for putting what in your binder? 5, what is a good excuse for wandering about aimlessly? And 6, what might be even more rewarding than pretending to be busy? You can pause the video while you check that you know the answers to those questions and then I'll reveal the answers when you're ready.

Off you go.

So welcome back, and I hope you enjoyed reading that article.

Let's check you got the right answers.

So according to the article, Number 1, when are people most likely to feel overwhelmed? Well, the answer is really, all the time, because he says, "Monday to Friday there's too much to do, and also the weekend gets overwhelming too." So all the time.

What should you do at your desk in order to look busy? Essentially, it's tidied up over and over again and the writer gives you some ideas about what you should tidy, and how you should tidy.

What are peer-to-peer revision sessions actually used for? The answer is gossip.

And 4, you get bonus points for putting what in your binder? And the answer here is color-coded dividers and plastic folders.

And what is a good excuse for wondering about aimlessly? "Just clearing my head," makes it sound as if you've been so busy, and you've just popped out for a little bit of fresh air.

And what might be even more rewarding than pretending to be busy? Genuine effort and real productivity.

So I'm sure you can see that the writer adopted a different tone in the last paragraph.

Well done, let's move on.

So now we're going to look at the article in a little bit more detail, and I would like you to discuss this question.

What is the content, structure, and tone of the text? Pause the video while you have that discussion or if you are working by yourself, just pause the video and make a few notes.

And welcome back, what a great discussion.

Let me share some ideas that the Oak pupils had.

Izzy said that, "It's really supportive of the idea of being lazy, which is the opposite of the usual advice." We are always encouraged, aren't we, to be productive.

and busy, and organised, and getting down to things? And Jacob noted that, "The numbered list sounds organised," and he liked the way, I think, that it contrasts with the laziness.

And Jun said that, "The tone is humorous, full of irony and parody." Are your ideas similar to those of the Oak pupils? Let's move on.

So what we're going to do now is look at the first paragraph, and at the methods that the writer uses to create a humorous tone, the how of what the writer does.

So, "There are days when too much is expected of you.

Those days are Monday through to Friday.

And the weekends are pretty demanding too.

The problem is that the moment you get out of bed and sit down for a well-deserved rest, someone comes along to ask you to do something.

study, tidy your room, write a thank you note, take the dog for a walk, or move your trainers from the hall where everyone is tripping over them." So let's look at the methods, and we are going to be drawing on some of the keywords that you learned earlier in the lesson.

So, "There are days when too much is expected of you." Now that is satirical, it is mocking the idea of being permanently busy.

We all know people who say they are so busy, they want too much on, and they are kind of mocking that kind of attitude.

"And those days are Monday through to Friday." Now that's an example of bathos, it's an anti-climax because we don't get a difficult day, we just get a regular Monday to Friday week.

"And the weekends are pretty demanding too." Well, that builds the humour by adding on the weekend.

And the overall effect of these three sentences is hyperbole.

And then we have irony here.

"The problem is that the moment you get out of bed and sit down for a well-deserved rest." Well, going from bed to a chair is not a problem, it's the very opposite of a problem.

And then we have an example of parody, "Study, take tidy your room, write a thank you note, take the dog for a walk, or move your trainers from the hall where everyone is tripping over them." Now that is written to sound like someone, maybe a parent nagging at you.

So now we're gonna have a check for understanding.

I'm going to read the following five statements out to you, they are all definitions of the techniques that we have been studying.

And I want you to listen to the statement, the definition, and then decide what is the name of the technique that is being defined there.

So Number 1 is when a statement means the opposite of what is actually said.

That's right, it's irony.

And Number 2 is criticising ideas or issues using humour to mock societal issues.

What's that one? Satire.

Number 3 is anticlimactic shift, for example, from the grand to the everyday, that is bathos, very good, and exaggerated statements that are not meant to be taken literally, hyperbole, very good.

And if you are copying someone's speech in order to mock them, you are using parody, you are parodying them.

Very good if you've got those right, let's move on.

Now it's over to you.

This is what I'd like you to do.

Choose another paragraph from the text, read it carefully.

Identify and annotate the techniques, so that's satire, hyperbole, irony, bathos, and parody.

I'd like you to explain the effect of them.

Why does it make the text humorous? Why do they make the text humorous? And I'd like you to think about the whole paragraph, about how the sentences work together.

For example, do they build an idea? Like the first paragraph, where the exaggeration is built up, or sometimes they make a contrast.

Now you will need to pause the video while you do that.

So get ready, and off you go.

Welcome back, and it is a big thumbs-up from me for your focus in that task.

Now what I would like you to do is to swap your work with another pupil, and check that they have annotated the following, hyperbole, satire, bathos, irony, parody, and also that they have explained the effects.

And if you are working by yourself, just pause the video and do that to your own work, to make sure that everything, that you have seen everything that you need to see in the paragraph.

So off you go, pause the video, and then rejoin me for the second half of the lesson.

So now we are gonna move on, and you are going to bring with you everything you've learned about humorous techniques and plan your own humorous writing.

So here are some ideas, prompts, and I would like you to discuss how might you plan a humorous article on one of the following topics? How to take the perfect nap, or how to make your room look tidy without actually tidying it.

So have a bit of a chat about that, and which one would you pick and why? And then come back to the lesson and I'll share with you how you would go about planning it.

So before we start planning, I'm gonna share with you what the Oak pupils thought.

Laura thought she would choose tidying the room.

She thought, "That topic would resonate with people my age, and I could parody someone nagging me.

I would satirise people's obsession with order." And Andeep preferred the other one, the napping one.

And he said, "He would use hyperbole to exaggerate the importance of sleeping a lot," which is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing, we're not meant to sleep all day long.

"An irony would make the napping seem challenging." Really good, and I really like the way that Laura and Andeep have not just identified which one they're gonna write, they know the techniques that they are going to use.

So here is the one that Andeep picked, "How to take the perfect nap," have some ideas, have a bit of a discussion, mindmap some ideas about what he could include in that article.

If you're working by yourself, just make some notes.

Either way, pause the video and mindmap some ideas.

Well, let me share with you what I think you might have said.

You might have said that you would have a description of napping, in a way that makes it seem very difficult, like it's a huge challenge to get the nap just perfect.

And then you could list different places to nap, and write the pros and cons of each, so you can see you're taking it very, very seriously here.

And you could have some dialogue about how to justify so much sleeping.

When someone asks you, you know, "Why are you lying there, it's the middle of the afternoon, haven't you got something better to do?" You can have some interesting dialogue explaining why you need that much sleep.

And you could go on to explain that excessive napping is good for you.

So in these ideas, what techniques might Andeep use? Have a think about what techniques he might use.

Well, you might have said something like this that he might use hyperbole here, and then he would build the hyperbole with that list, lists are often really effective at showing the amount of difficulty or how much you have to consider.

And the dialogue would be really a good opportunity to parody a conversation.

And then irony, to explain why excessive napping is good for you.

Because I'm sure we're not supposed to think that excessive napping is good for us.

And what element from the model answer is missing? Remember, the model answer about how to look busy while doing absolutely nothing, Andeep hasn't used that one, what is missing? The model answer ends with a twist.

Remember, it goes from doing absolutely nothing, to actually maybe being a little bit less lazy and moving around more.

Maybe Andeep could do the same.

Maybe he could end with a little bit more activity, so that his answer ends with a twist.

Really good, let's move on.

Let's have a check for understanding.

Is it true or false to say that writing humorously often setting up and then undermining the reader's expectations, true or false? Have a think.

It's true, but why is it true? Think about the techniques that you have been studying, and consider how do they set up expectations, and then undermine them? Well, examples of manipulating the readers' expectations are bathos and irony.

With bathos, there is an anti-climax.

It starts grand and then falls down.

And irony involves this gap between what is said and what is meant.

So they're both examples of techniques that set up and undermine the readers' expectations.

So now it's over to you.

I would like you to plan your own humorous writing, and mindmap a plan for the following article, "How to make your room look tidy without actually tidying it." And when mindmapping the plan, you should consider what you might include, what you might choose to describe, how you might structure your writing, for example, list or step-by-step, and whose speech or who's writing you might parody.

So it's time to get ready, gather all your thoughts and ideas and any notes that you have made, pause the video, and off you go and make your plan.

Welcome back, well done for excellent focus.

Now, before we end the lesson, I would like you to reflect on your plan, and I've got some coaching questions here that I would like you to use.

Were you making a serious point as well as being humorous? Was it clear what you were satirising? Which technique did you find easiest to think of? And which technique did you find hardest to think of? Pause the video while you reflect on your plan, and then rejoin me for the end of the lesson.

Now, before we say goodbye, I would like to summarise what you have been learning today.

When we satirise something, we use humour to criticise it.

And you've been learning that humorous writing involves carefully deploying specific writing techniques.

And the techniques for humorous writing include, irony, parody, bathos, and hyperbole.

And that a how-to-article can be structured in the form of a list or a step-by-step guide.

And that when planning your humorous writing, it is important to identify the techniques you will use as well as the ideas.

So once again, thank you for coming to today's lesson.

It has been a real pleasure to teach you.

I wish you a brilliant rest of the day, and look forward to seeing you in another lesson about nonfiction teenage kids, bye, for now.