Lesson video

Welcome everybody.

It's Mr. Dyke here, with end of the English lesson based on the Tempest.

Before we begin, make sure you've got a pen there ready, a pen of a different colour that you can mark and improve your work with.

Clear away any distractions that you might have, and also bring any notes that you've got and have them nearby.

Cause they might come in useful for your learning in today's lesson.

When you've done all of those things, just write down today's title, which is on the slide.

Evaluating Prospero's moral principles.

Just make sure that's done now.

Okay now, before we begin, I've got to remind you what the definition of evaluation is.

This is something we have touched upon before, but it's something which you might want to be reminded of.

And you might also want to write the definition down again.

If you, for example, don't have it.

So an evaluation is making a judgement about the amount of value on number of something, and it's seen as an assessment.

So it's about making judgements, weighing things up is a nice way to think about evaluation.

Think about some scales and weighing things up.

So first of all, let's make sure we're really happy with some of the words that we're going to be dealing with in a question today.

So the first word is moral or morals, okay.

And the moral is something concerned with the principles of right and wrong behaviour.

So that's to do with what you feel personally is right.

So if you behave in a morally right way you're behaving in a way which most people think is the right way to be is good.

And if you're immoral and the opposite, it's in a way which generally people think is bad, okay.

So that's the best way of thinking about morals.

So when we talk about Prospero's morals, you going to be thinking about is this bad, good, or bad and when, and then principles are essentially a fundamental truth that serves as the foundation for a system or belief of values.

So you will have specific principles in your life that you probably live by and which may not, you come across in a certain way.

So for example, if you feel like you're a good person, you probably do several things everyday always and have a certain attitude, which demonstrates that goodness, and those are your principles.

So for example, you know, always using your manners and always being polite, that might be a key principle in being a good person, or morally right person.

So just make sure you've got those definitions written down.

And in order to just make these words really memorable for you.

Just have a little girl writing, using the words in a sentence and maybe writing about the words in the context of Prospero for example, or any of the characters in the Tempest and just practise writing out the definitions in order to really cement those.

So just pause now, and to make sure you've done that.

Okay, so here is our question and this question, is what we're to be working on today.

So I'm going to read it to you first, before we do anything.

So out at the end of the play, actually, no, sorry.

I'll stop right at the top.

Students having read Act five and Prospero's epilogue said, "At the end of the play, "Shakespeare clearly demonstrates "that Prospero has excellent moral principles.

"He fully redeems himself after enslaving others "and abusing his magical powers." So just write down the question for me, first of all.

Now let's pick the question.

So let's just work with what we've seen and read in a question.

Cause it's quite complicated, isn't it? So I've highlighted some different things we need to think hard about, okay.

So the first thing we need to think hard about is excellent moral principles.

So I'd like you to do in a moment.

I'd like you to write underneath your question, or maybe you want to annotate your question.

What are the excellent moral principles that Prospero demonstrates? How do we know he is ultimately good at the end of the play? What does he do? Okay.

So that's your first job.

Your second job is to look at the second in bold that fully redeems himself.

How do we know he redeems himself and does he, so can you think of some examples and reasons for arguing that particular idea that he redeems himself.

How do we know.

Finally, the other two sections there, we've got enslaving others and abusing his magical powers.

So not only is he good at the end of the play, he has been bad a little bit sometimes.

That is what the student is saying.

So can you think of examples of where he's being maybe saving others or he's been abusing his powers.

So just annotate the question on your page with your initial ideas.

Pause now and do that.

Okay.

Now we've started to really think hard about the question.

Essentially we've got these two things.

So an evaluation is about weighing up and making a judgement.

So what we've got to decide is which one is the strongest, because we've definitely got a bit of both, haven't we? So we do know on the left, Prospero has good morals and does what's right.

That is true about Prospero.

However, on the right hand side, Prospero abuses his power.

Now that is also sometimes a bit true, isn't it? So what we need to decide is which one is the strongest, why that might be, and what examples do we have.

So on your page, you're going to write these two headings down either side of your page on the left and on the right.

And then I want you to make a list of all the different examples you can think of which supports that heading.

So my first one is, Prospero treats Ariel with respect and praises him.

That's an example of Prospero having good morals.

And then my other example, Prospero keeps Caliban locked away.

That's an example for me, of him abusing his power.

Pause now, just spend three or four minutes writing down all the examples you can think of, for each of these two headings.

Okay, do you have all of these? So if you're missing any, you can add them in.

Maybe I've even forgotten one.

I hope I haven't, but I think I've got plenty to go with anyway.

So I've got quite an even spread, but let's look at good morals first of all.

So obviously we've got the top one about treating Ariel well, we've got evidence that Prospero once looked after Caliban.

So it was good to Caliban once upon a time, which demonstrates his good.

Prospero accepted Ferdinand's love for his daughter.

So the fact that Prospero ultimately, and is happy about Ferdinand's love and he trusts Ferdinand.

Then that is a good thing.

Prospero made sure no one died in the storm.

He didn't want to cause any harm there.

He just wanted to bring them to the Island to punish them.

Prospero forgave Antonio and all at the end of the play.

The end of the play is definitely a really strong example of Prospero having good moral principles.

Cause he demonstrates forgiveness and he reconciles.

He doesn't try to take revenge too much, he doesn't.

He didn't act in a violent way or he doesn't try to harm anyone for his revenge at all.

Now let's look at the other side.

So Prospero abusing his power.

We've already seen that he keeps Caliban locked away.

So that was something rich, you might not like.

So that's abuse of power.

Prospero is angered by Ariel's plea for freedom.

So we do see him be very authoritative towards Ariel and he snaps Ariel a bit, doesn't he? We've got Prospero letting Alonso believe his son was dead.

So for quite a long time, Alonso thinks his son is dead.

and Prospero uses that as a way of punishment, doesn't he? So you could say that's a little bit hard, little bit harsh.

Prospero will use his power to create a devastating storm.

So he has caused a bit of trauma, hasn't he? And Prospero is prepared to do that.

So we've got quite a lot, now in terms of numbers, there's probably more good morals than abuses of power, but maybe you can think of any of this that is up to you.

So just make sure you've got all of these added into your list, alongside what you already had.

Now's the time to complete your plan and be ready to write.

So I want you to make sure you've got some strong reasons, why Prospero has good moral principles and some strong reasons as to why he sometimes abuses his power too.

Okay, let's start to write.

Now as always, we're going to do it step by step.

So we're going to start by creating a bit an introduction.

So I've got the question at the top of the screen now.

So that's a reminder of the question we are answering.

So if you actually look at the question, it's about, do we agree with that? So it's about if we go to evaluate, do we agree with the student's point of view? So this student's point of view is that, he has excellent moral principles and he redeems himself.

So he makes up for the fact that he does a abuse of magical powers earlier in the play.

That is the basic opinion of the student.

So you have to decide now, do you fully agree with that statement? Do you completely agree with that? That's fine if you do, do you partially agree? Well I say, ooh yes.

That's okay if you do too.

And do you disagree? Now disagree is probably the one which is the hardest to argue for, because I think we all pretty much do have to agree to a certain extent, but maybe you disagree with most of it and only agree with a small part of it.

That's fine if you do.

So I'd like you to do is start using one of the starting statements there, fully, partially or disagree.

And I want you to just write a couple of sentences explaining why, okay.

So you decide and try and write a couple of sentences explaining why.

And then I'm going to show you an example.

So pause now, just spend two or three minutes doing that.

Okay, here's my example.

So you might want to add further detail to yours once you've seen mine here.

So I've said, I partially agree with this statement.

So I'm a bit in between, like I do agree with that mostly or partially, but I'm going to bring my own views to the table too.

I partially agree with the statement as Prospero has redeemed himself because he has freed Ariel who he enslaved previously.

Also he has forgiven his treacherous brother and is willing to free Caliban Trinculo and Stephano, which is admirable.

So my argument is that actually he does have good moral principles because he doesn't want to punish anybody ultimately at the end.

However, his behaviour at the beginning of the play, was far too immoral to be considered forgivable.

So I've said, okay, I've given some reasons why.

And then I've said, however, and I've given a reason for the opposite.

So what I want you to check is if you don't partially agree, how have you kind of used and talked about both sides.

If you've don't fully agree, you need a few reasons as to why you fully agree, okay? So pause now, just make sure your introduction is excellent.

Okay, now are going to complete the analysis.

This is where we're going to complete at least two strong paragraphs for answering this question.

Now because we've lots of analysis already.

You should be quite confident being able to piece together a good paragraph.

So I'm going to just give you the structure to work with first.

So as you can see, you're going to start with firstly, because that's a really good sequencing conjunction, which means that you're saying this is my first idea.

And after firstly you're going to write your reason.

So firstly, what do you think? What reason do you help the Prospero being morally good or not being very morally good and being a little bit that.

Then you're going to need a quotation, okay.

So you're going to have to rifle through some of your old notes and find some quotations which will support the idea.

And then you'll go to explain the quotation with either suggests or implies, okay.

Then you're going to zoom in on a technique or word clause which we've practised before and explain what that emphasises or what that connotes, what that communicate to you? And how does that demonstrate, Prospero is good or bad the end.

So you've got to make that link at the end of your paragraph.

So it demonstrates that Prospero is morally good because it's demonstrates that Prospero is abusive of his powers because, okay.

Pause now, I want you to spend 10 to 12 minutes writing at least one paragraph to begin with.

When you resume, I will show you an example paragraph.

Okay, well done for completing your paragraph.

Here is my example.

So what you might want to do is check, you've got a few things that I point out, but also use some of my ideas, if you feel like that will be helpful.

So we've got a firstly when Prospero speaks to Ariel about Caliban, Trinculo and Stephano so there's my reason.

That's my example, okay.

So I want you to tick if you've referred to an example, and then I've got a quotation, which I won't read to you, it's just in purple there on the screen.

So give yourself a tick if you've written a quotation down, this suggests that Prospero is using logic and empathy rather than being fueled by anger and seeking revenge.

So I've actually taken a quotation from his final words at the end, where he's basically saying that he doesn't want to have revenge, but he wants to be the good person.

So I've explained that, give yourself a tick, if you've explained your quotation and then I've zoomed in the alliteration in virtue than in vengeance.

So have you zoomed in or rather word clause or phrase have you quoted it.

Give yourself ticks if you have.

This highlights how Prospero has changed his outlook on how to treat others.

He wants to do the morally right thing rather than following his good instincts as he would have done earlier in the play.

So again, I've explained what really tells me.

There's one final section we need to make sure we've included.

And that is the link to how this demonstrates Prospero is good or bad.

So here Shakespeare almost seems to be using Prospero as a role model for the audience, instructing them how to behave morally when someone angers them.

This clearly establishes that Prospero has excellent moral principles at this point in the play.

Even if his behaviour may have been questionable previously.

So I've made that link as to how and why that demonstrates he has good moral principles as a character.

Okay, now you'll notice that there's one tiny phrase left.

We've talked about one side of the argument.

We've talked about one side of evaluation.

I want you to make sure that you address the other side too.

So we're going to start with, however, because that is a contrasting conjunction, it points us towards an alternative idea.

However, it could be argued that.

So I want you to go into the paragraph and in that paragraph, you're going to try and argue the other side.

So you might say, sometimes he's morally bad or sometimes he does abuse his powers.

And this is an example of where that is.

And I want you to have a go at the other side as well, okay.

Pause the video now, Have another 10 minutes or so writing on that second paragraph.

Okay, thank you very much for your focus as always.

And I look forward to our next lesson.