Lesson video

Welcome to today's English lesson.

I'm Mrs Crompton.

Our focus today is comparing perspectives and methods.

And we will be working with our two texts; Journey to the Source of the Nile by Christopher Ondaatje and The Bazaars of Baghdad, Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan by Isabella bird.

You will need a pen and paper.

Take a moment to make sure you've cleared any distractions away and have everything you need at hand.

To begin with, let's start by warming up.

Both of our texts deal with explorers, individuals who want to learn from their experiences.

We've got picture of Isabella Bird there on one side.

And then we've also got a picture of the source of the Nile.

That's the experience that Chris Ondaatje was so desperate to have to trace the source of the Nile and everything that was associated with it.

Pause the video at this point to list as many similarities and differences as you can between the two explorers and their motivations for travelling and what they wanted to get from their explorations.

Okay, over to you.

Pause, resume when you're ready.

Welcome back.

So our next step is to revise synthesis.

Synthesis is where we take ideas from two different texts, and we combine those ideas and offer an interpretation or a conclusion.

So let's have a look at the examples on the screen.

What literal comparisons can you make across the two texts.

And as an example I've said, both Ondaatje and Bird have placed themselves in unfamiliar surroundings.

That's one synthesised idea about the content.

Underneath, as a little bit of an extension and a little bit more challenging is number two, what big picture inferences can you make? So what do the two texts teach us about? What do we learn from them? So second point in terms of combining and synthesising our ideas, is to think about the big picture interpretations.

Once again, pause to complete the task.

Resume when you're ready.

And welcome back.

So today, what we're going to do is actually to spend the whole of the lesson, thinking about the planning and thinking about how we're going to work with the text, finding all of that evidence, and getting ourselves ready for writing the perfect answer.

In order to do that, we need a question.

So here is the question we're going to be working with.

Compare how the writers present their different perspectives and feelings about travel.

So their perspectives, that's their angle, and their feelings, that's going to be how they are actually responding to the situations they're in.

That's a big picture question.

Underneath, we've got bullet points to help us focus our attention.

We need to compare what happens on their travels and how they react.

We need to think about the methods the writers use, and analyse those, comment on them and think about how they convey the experience.

Finally, we need to make sure that we are supporting our answer with reference to both texts, okay? So at this point, it's really important that you pause and make sure that you have the whole of the question written down so that you can refer back to it and checklist against all of the criteria and the bullet points.

Over to you.

Pause, resume when you have the question.

Welcome back.

So in terms of the question, let's break it down a little bit further, and think about the success criteria.

When we are comparing the attitudes, the perspectives, the feelings, can't put all of that in the box at the top.

What we need to do is to think about the following skills.

We need to be able to give a thoughtful overview of everything.

We need to be able to say, ultimately, Bird is motivated by X and her dominant feeling is Y.

So we need to have a sense of an overview.

We need to think about the specific similarities and differences between the two texts in terms of attitude and experience.

We need to take into account any changes within the extra.

This is a really quite important detail.

We want to make sure that if there is a slight alteration in feeling that we capture that.

We don't want to gloss over really key detail.

So making sure that we're looking for changes in feelings, thoughts and emotions.

We certainly have that with the Ondaatje extract.

And we also need to offer a synthesis of ideas, particularly in terms of big picture interpretations.

So all of those things come under the comparison column for the content.

Then we move on to selecting evidence.

I would like us to work with a model of selecting three bits of evidence from the text, three from each, okay? Aiming for a mix of supporting and rich quotations.

Finally, in terms of methods, we need to cover that that was on the bullet point list.

So the rich quotations will allow us to do that initially, we'll be able to analyse those because that's the whole point of a rich quotation.

However, think about the other features of the writers style.

For example, Isabella Bird is quite factual in her account and remember why.

Remember the form of Victorian travel writing, and its primary function of instructing and educating.

So think about all of those elements.

Everything comes into this final response.

Okay, pause the video at this point, so that you can check down the success criteria and make sure you're happy with what we have there.

Okay, pause, resume when you're ready.

Welcome back again.

Now, this again is the grid that we are going to use to help us plan our response.

So we're going to end up with this written down.

And you might want to just get this down in an abbreviated format so that you can see it.

And you might want to scrub out Christopher Ondaatje and Isabella Bird and just have source A and source B, because every time you do a comparison response perspectives, you can use this same grid.

And what we need to include within our answer is a statement identifying the viewpoint.

We need to have our two pieces of supporting evidence minimum, minimum with all of these.

We need to explain that evidence.

We need to ensure that we've got some rich evidence and we're commenting on method, and we need to explain the methods.

So those are the skills that need to be demonstrated.

That is the information that we need to find when we read the text for the first time.

We then need to think before we move on to the second text about similarity and difference.

So when we start to work with source B, we are building an answer.

So we're always thinking similarly, also, in contrast, on the other hand.

So we've got the comparative language there to help you build the next part.

When it comes to source B, even though it might pre 1900.

And the language might seem a little bit more complex, you're actually in a better position, because you know what you want to compare to.

So you've already got the Christopher Ondaatje extract and you are now selecting points of similarity and difference for this final response.

Format's the same.

Statement identifying the viewpoint, supporting evidence times two.

Make sure you explain that thoroughly.

Zoom in on a rich evidence quotation on pick explore and think about the method there.

Okay, so now that you've got that general grid, pause, make sure you have got that general grid.

We can then move on.

So I'll just give you a moment to pause if you need to.

And welcome back.

So at this point, we are now going to start working with the text and this is going to now be over to you.

You need to make careful notes using the planning frame.

You might want to redraw the planning frames so that you've got plenty of space to start recording your ideas.

Compare how the writers present their different perspectives and feelings about travel.

At the end of the response, and you can see now you're going to get the whole of the text.

So take your time, pausing at the end of each screen, thinking about whether it helps you communicate the ideas about travel.

How does he feel about travel? How does he feel about his experience? Think about why he wanted to go.

Think about what we can then pick out as our evidence to show perspective and feelings.

Okay, over to you.

You're aiming to fill in the first part of your grid in relation to source A.

I'll be waiting for you with the next step.

And welcome back.

So now we're on to source B, we've got the first section filled in.

So this should make it easier for you now because you are thinking in relation to source A's findings, and we are building either similarities or differences in attitudes to travel and the experiences they encounter.

Okay? So compare how the writers present their different perspectives and feelings about travel.

Over to you, work your way through, and by the end of it, the whole grid will be completed.

I'll be waiting for you with the next step.

And welcome back.

So your answer should look like this.

Everything filled in now, we've got our planning grid, and it's now ready.

That careful planning will pay dividends when it comes to writing up.

And if you can be systematic in your planning like this, your responses will become stronger and stronger because there's no way you're going to miss out on any of the criteria.

Well done for your hard work today.

Thank you for your focus.

All that remains for me to say is please bring this planning grid with you to our next lesson.

In our next lesson, we'll be using the planning grid to write up our final response.

And we will be examining a model answer to finish our response to perspectives and methods, and comparing our two texts.

Thank you for your focus again.

Don't forget to do the exit quiz; and enjoy the rest of your learning today.