Lesson video

Hi, welcome back.

It's grammar, with myself, Ms. Richards.

We're now on Lesson 6 of our unit.

Can you believe how much we've covered? You've done so well.

Today, we're going to be looking at how we round off our work and create our conclusions, which is brilliant 'cause you're going to have a completed piece of work by the end.

Absolutely fantastic.

Before we can start though, make sure you've got your work from last time so you can see how it's all coming together.

Try and sit somewhere nice and quiet.

Turn any notifications off on your devices so you've got no distractions, and make sure you've got pen and paper to work on today.

Press pause if you need to, if not, let's get going.

If you haven't gone and grabbed everything you need, pause the video at this point to get yourself set up.

Press play when you're ready.

Let's have a look at our overview of today's lesson then.

We're going to recap subordinating conjunctions from last time.

We're going to talk about something called fragments today, which is another area of grammar that you might have heard of, you might not of.

Normally, you're told about fragments as mistakes, but we're going to be using them deliberately today.

It's kind of breaking the rules a little bit.

Then we're going to look at conclusions and what they do, what they're for, and you'll get a turn to add a conclusion to your piece of work.

As always, finishing with that quiz.

Here we go then.

On our tracker that we've been following each lesson you'll see that we've reached the end.

We're on that conclusion and a call to action.

Let's start then by recapping subordinating conjunctions.

That was these with our independent clause, our subordinating conjunction and our subordinate clause.

So all dogs must be kept on leads because there is livestock in the fields.

And what's so important that we remember is that we can invert the order here.

So we can place our subordinating conjunction at the start followed by subordinate clause.

If we do that, we must put a comma in.

Because there is livestock in the fields, comma, all dogs must be kept on leads.

And again, we have to remember to change our capital letters there.

If the pronouns are the same, we can change the pronouns.

In this case, they're not, so that's fine.

And here is our lovely big list of subordinating conjunctions.

Now, I know we use them to create balance last time.

You can use them in any section of your writing.

They're really, really important, really useful at creating an interesting sentence structure, giving you some different options in what you're adding to your writing.

You should have this list in your notes from last time so you don't need to write it down again.

If you didn't write it down last time, do add it down, do get it written down because it will help you with future pieces of writing too.

Here's another example then.

All dogs must be kept on leads until they are safely in the dog park.

If I invert that, until they are safely in the dog park, comma, all dogs must be kept on leads.

Now this is one where I can change my pronouns as well.

Let's have a go at a task then.

Again, I've kept with the same independent clause but I'm going to ask you to fill in the subordinate clauses for each of these three.

For number two, I brought the subordinate clause to the front already, and remember that comma for punctuation.

Pause the video now, have a go, press play when you're ready.

How'd you get on? These were my ideas.

Yours might look different and that's okay.

Students should borrow a book from the library unless they have remembered their book from home.

Although they must return it by the school holidays, students should borrow a book from the library.

Students should borrow a book from the library until the end of the school day.

If you've got something different, that's okay.

Just check that you've got your punctuation in place and that what you've written is your subordinate clause.

Okay, let's look at fragments then.

Well, you might've heard them called minor sentences.

It's the same thing.

They're just two different names for them.

Now these are often called mistakes.

We're often told that we shouldn't write a fragment.

You might've seen when you're typing, if you're using a Word document or something like that, you sometimes get that little squiggly line and it tells you that you've got a fragment.

What does that mean? Well we're going to look at it today but also, we're going to look at how we can use them deliberately in our writing, so they become deliberate mistakes.

We said in the last lesson that our independent clause has a subject, a verb, and an object.

A full sentence needs these three elements to work.

It must have a subject and a verb as a minimum and it must make sense by itself.

So some sentences do with just a subject and a verb but most will need an object.

They'll need some extra information to help there.

I always go back to the simplest, silliest, easiest sentence.

The cat sat on the mat.

The cat is my subject, the verb is sat, and on the map is my object.

This is the one that I always remember 'cause it's such an easy sentence and it just really helps me remember subject, verb, object, and then I can apply it to any other sentence.

So here's me applying it then.

Frustrated school students initiated a protest at the proposed rise to the cost of school dinners.

So I've got my subject.

I've got my verb, initiated in this case.

And the object is a protest.

I've given the extra information too at what they were protesting at but that's in a subordinate clause.

So here we go then.

There's it broken down.

And I can invert that too.

I can make the protest the subject.

A protest was initiated by students frustrated at the proposed rise.

So these are all a full correct sentence.

I've got my subject, verb, object, the extra information that helps it make sense.

Great, this is exactly what we should be doing in our writing.

Let's start there then.

I'm giving you three example sentences.

You want to pause the video and break them down into subject, verb, object.

Press play when you're ready.

How'd you get on? Let's have a look.

Here are the answers for you.

So you can pause the video to tick now and check.

The students is the subject, raised is the verb, money is the object.

Cake sale was the subject, was is the verb, and at breaktime is the object.

The headmaster is our subject, held is our verb, and object is the assembly.

Okay, we know our subject, verb, object.

Here we go, we must act now.

There's our subject, we, must act is our verb phrase, and now is the extra information just to help us.

So what's a fragment then? A fragment or a minor sentence is something that doesn't have a subject or a verb in it.

It is incomplete and is not a full sentence.

However, some fragments and some minor sentences do make sense by themselves.

In this case, I've used a single word must.

That's a repetition from the earlier sentence.

We must act now.

Must.

I put that in for some additional emphasis to really show how important is that we act.

So my fragment is must because it doesn't have a subject, it's just that part of the verb phrase.

It's incomplete and it doesn't make sense by itself.

I can't just say must on its own.

It would have no meaning.

So my minor sentences only work when they follow a sentence that makes sense and they kind of mimic or replicate it.

And we use them really to add impact, to make a very quick easy statement that your audience can take away.

But it's a fragment 'cause it's incomplete, it's a fragmented part of a sentence.

Every child deserves access to education.

There's my subject, verb, object.

And here it is now with a fragment and a minor sentence to add that impact.

No exceptions.

No exceptions doesn't make sense by itself.

I say it and people know what I mean but I must have it connected to something else.

It doesn't have a subject or a verb so we don't know what we're talking about, but I can use it as a minor sentence, an incomplete sentence to add impact to that statement.

Again, teachers should listen to their students.

Always.

Single word doesn't make sense by itself but just adds a bit of a punch to my writing.

I don't need to add just one fragment or minor sentence.

I can use the rule of three, which is where you have three things for effect to be really, really punchy, to really give a sense to the reader or the listener of the action that I want them to take away and how important this is.

So in this one, we must act now to save our planet before it's too late.

For us.

For our children.

For their children.

I've used a rule of three in my minor sentences there.

For us, for their children, for our children are all incomplete.

They don't have a subject, but working together following that independent clause works really, really well to motivate or rally my audience.

Here we go.

Here's another rule of three with the same independent clause.

We must act now to save our planet before it's too late.

Today.

Tomorrow.

And every day after.

So I'm saying about how we must act today.

We must act tomorrow and we must act every day after.

Minor sentences/fragments do not need to be single words, and every day after is still a minor sentence 'cause there's no subject or verb there, and I've started with the word and.

We can do that in our fragments and minor sentences 'cause they're incomplete.

They aren't a full sentence and they aren't correct.

We've kind of taken an element of it.

So it's okay our fragments start with and.

Okay, your turn then.

I've given you three sentences that you might use in your non-fiction writing.

What I'd like you to do is copy them down and add a minor sentence and a fragment to each of them.

You might just add one, it might be a single word.

You might add something slightly longer.

You might even put in a rule of three.

Can you now pause the video and have a go at adding those minor sentences? Press play when you're ready.

Here's what I said for number one then.

How much time do we need to wait before someone helps? A day? A week? And I've made those as questions because it fits in with the questioning how long we should wait.

You might've done something different and that's absolutely fine.

What about number two? It's so important that students feel supported and safe at school.

Every day.

Now both of these are minor sentences that use time.

You didn't have to, that's just what worked for me.

Number three, we must remember that it is our future so stop waiting for the adults to step up and take responsibility.

We must.

We can.

We will.

That's a really nice rule of three, isn't it? Except we must, we can, we will, they've got subjects and verbs, so they actually work by themselves.

So what we can do to make these fragmented is get rid of the pronoun we and just keep the must, can, will.

It looks like this.

We must remember that it is our future so stop waiting for the adults to step up and take responsibility.

Must.

Can.

Will.

It's a really punchy call to action for all the young people to step up there, and it's really imperative that they must, they can do it, can really motivate them and they will.

You're giving them that final instruction with no doubts.

That's why I've included fragments and minor sentences in this lesson because our conclusion is about calling us to action.

And if we do a fragment or a minor sentence right, we really can call our audience to action.

We can really inspire and motivate them and we get to break the rules while doing it.

Let's have a look then at these conclusions.

They are our final takeaway for our audience.

They are the thing that we want the audience to remember, and it's normally what they can do to help.

It's that final light bulb for them that yes, they're going to get involved, or yes, they've really learned something.

And a motivational punch for them to really inspire them to get going and join us, particularly when we're arguing and persuading.

So if my topic was that reading for pleasure is the most important thing a student can do, which I fully believe it is, so that would be what my whole speech or article was on, and I need to conclude it.

Quite often we start by saying, "In conclusion." Well that doesn't really work for an article, and for a speech you can still make it sound a bit like you're writing an essay.

So my first example was, in conclusion, you should read lots because it's important to help you improve your vocabulary and spelling.

So I finished with why it's important, what I want my audience to remember but I sounded a little bit like I'm writing an essay.

So I've got rid now of in conclusion and I've kept the reading lots is important because it helps you improve your vocabulary and spelling.

It's a really nice final bit of information I want my audience to take away.

Still not very punchy, though.

So now I've inverted to bring the importance to the start.

The importance of reading for pleasure is huge.

It'll help you improve your spelling, vocabulary, ooh, vocabulary, spelling, mental health, and lots more.

So now I want my reader to really focus on taking away why it's important.

And all those things are true, reading for pleasure is really important.

But can I keep improving to make it punchy? I cannot emphasise how important reading for pleasure is.

For spelling.

For vocabulary.

Mental health.

The list is endless.

Now I could have listed those using commas and we practise that a couple of lessons ago where we list our nouns with our commas, but by doing it this way I've made them into minor sentences which means when I'm delivering it as a speech or when my reader is reading it.

For spelling.

For vocabulary.

Mental health.

Those full stops really helps the reader or the listener, and they make such an impact on these individual items. It allows the reader or the listener to take in each one individually rather than a list where they run in together.

So this is where we can really deliberately use those minor sentences.

So we're calling our reader or our listener to action.

We're thinking about what our final takeaway points are and really inspiring them to act.

Your turn then.

This is what you're going to do.

We're still focusing on our task.

At this point, it's probably really helpful to reread what you've written so far.

You can read through your speech, make sure it's aimed at the local council and that you're arguing for more spaces and activities for young people.

I want you to think about what are your key points that you'd want the local council to take away.

What are the key elements of your argument? To help you plan that, I want you to answer these questions first before you write your conclusion.

So let me run through them before you pause.

Read through your speech and find out what are the main ideas throughout your writing.

What is the most important point that would persuade the audience to your point of view, whether that was for or against? And what idea do you want them to keep thinking about when you finished delivering? Read through your speech now, and then write down some bullet points and a plan to each of these three items. Pause the video, press play when you're ready.

Okay, this is going to be the final part of this task.

It's going to be the last time you see this task as something for you to do.

Here we go then.

There should be more spaces and activities available for teenagers in their local community.

You are going to write your conclusion.

Remember the examples we looked at: try and avoid starting with in conclusion, try and just think about the most important elements, and add in those minor sentences, as a rule of three if you can.

Don't use tonnes, but just a rule of three done once or one or two minor sentences scattered throughout your conclusion to really add an impact for that local council that would inspire them to take onboard all your ideas.

Press play when you're ready.

Well done.

You've now done an entire extended piece in response to that, so fantastic.

Hopefully, you're feeling quite confident about non-fiction writing.

But, next lesson, we're going to look at how you mix it up and how you get to make all the decisions on what your structure is, what your points are, and you're going to build your own piece.

Can't wait so you really get an independent chance now to show off your non-fiction.

Before we can get to that though, you need to do today's quiz.

I'll see you next time.