Hello, my name is Ms. Grant.

I'm so glad you've decided to learn with me today.

We're in the "World At War Short Stories" unit.

Today we are going to turn our attention to writing fantastic comparative paragraphs.

So we're gonna think, well, what pieces of war literature we read, how do we want to compare 'em, and what does that look like in an analytical paragraph when you're dealing not just with one text, but with more than one text.

I'm gonna be your support and guide as we work through today's lesson together.

Let's get started.

So by the end of today's lesson, you are going to have written some comparative paragraphs exploring the presentation of World War I across two texts.

We're going to think what makes really powerful comparative paragraphs.

We're gonna look at them in terms of their topic sentences, so how we start powerful comparative paragraph, and then what do we do in the middle, in the main body of that paragraph.

Can't wait to hear all of your fantastic ideas and the text that you select.

Now, there are some keywords which are gonna be referenced throughout today's lesson.

If you'd like to pause the video now so that you can make any notes of these keywords, have a read through their definitions, then please do.

I'm gonna draw attention to just one of these words, which is the second on the list, the word vacuous.

That is how you pronounce that word.

Vacuous.

And you can see the definition.

It means empty, having no thought or intelligence.

And you could argue that some of the characters presented in some of the examples of war literature that you have read, you might say of them that they are vacuous.

So for example, the older generation in Katherine Mansfield's "The Fly", you could argue that they are presented as vacuous as having no thought or intelligence.

As I say, we're gonna reference these keywords throughout so you will see them coming up during the lesson.

If you'd like to pause the video, do so now.

Our learning outline for today.

We're gonna start off with some planning and we're gonna plan topic sentences and we're gonna select our quotations.

And then in the second learning cycle, we're gonna look at what makes a really good main body paragraph.

And then we are going to write some main body paragraphs ourselves.

Let's start off with planning topic sentences and selecting quotations.

So Jacob prepares to answer this essay prompt.

Compare the exploration of World War I in two texts you have studied.

First he annotates.

He annotates two texts, so he questions himself, what two texts do I want to compare? Compare what are their similarities and differences? That's the next question that he asks himself.

And exploration.

What methods will be the most interesting to compare? Now, methods is one of our keywords.

It's the tools that a writer uses to create their work.

So you might look at language choices or structural choices.

You might look at the form of the text, what type of text have they written? Is it a poem? Is it a memoir? Is it a short story? What have they chosen? So some three really good questions there.

A really nice set of annotations as Jacob prepares to answer this essay prompt just like you.

Now I'd like you to discuss.

Jacob's helped us with the annotations.

Now how would you answer Jacob's questions? This is the essay prompt that we are going to answer today.

Jacob has annotated it for us.

He's given us some questions to think about.

Now discuss how would you answer Jacob's questions? Pause the video and discuss the question now.

Welcome back.

Well done for giving that discussion task the time that it deserves.

It's really gonna help you as we work through today's lesson.

So some people saying, "I would like to compare as Wilford Owen poetry with one of the short stories that I have read," and others saying "No, I'd like to look at the nonfiction accounts.

I've looked at some letters.

I've looked at a memoir by Vera Brittain.

I would like to compare the presentation of an exploration of World War I in those texts." There's no right answer to what texts you want to compare as long as they focus on World War I because that is the focus of the essay prompt.

Lots of people thinking about different methods already that they want to focus on.

So maybe thinking about the form that the writer has chosen, the narrative perspective, is it first person or third person? Some people getting down into smaller methods thinking about the language choices that their chosen writers have picked.

So really, really nice discussion getting to grips with the essay prompt and what it wants us to do.

Now after annotating the question, Jacob draughts two comparative topic sentences following these steps.

First, he starts by creating a topic sentence that states the paragraphs main idea.

"Both Brittain and Mansfield," so he's looking at Vera Brittain's "Testament of Youth", a memoir about her experiences on the home front.

And he's also looking at Katherine Mansfield's short story, "The Fly".

"So both Brittain and Mansfield used their text to explore the impact of World War I on those who remained at home in Britain." So that's a nice topic sentence.

He's drawing a similarity between the two texts and his paragraph has a really clear focus.

It's the impact of World War I on on those who remained at home in Britain.

Then he develops his topic sentence by stating a clear idea about text one.

That's his first text.

Vera Brittain's "Testament of Youth".

"Brittain focuses on her own experiences and the young more generally." Nice clear sentence there.

And then finally, his final topic sentence or development of his topic sentences.

He compares text two to text one.

"By contrast," he's drawing a difference between the two texts, "Mansfield's short story focuses on the older generation." So that is a really nice opening to Jacob's paragraph because he's told us exactly what his paragraph is going to focus on, the impact of World War I on those who remained at home and that he's drawn a difference between the two texts that he wants to focus on.

So using these steps, I would like you to write two sets of comparative topic sentences.

You've had a discussion about the text that you want to explore so you know which ones you want to explore.

And we're going to use Jacob's steps to help us write some comparative topic sentences.

That is, you'll start by creating a topic sentence, stating the paragraph's main idea, maybe starting with that word both.

Then you will develop your topic sentence by stating an idea about text one.

And then you will compare text two to text one using a comparison, maybe, "by contrast", maybe, "on the other hand", maybe, "however".

So pause the video and complete this check now.

You are going to write two sets of comparative topic sentences using the steps in front of you.

Pause the video and complete the task now.

Welcome back.

Well done for giving that check the time that it deserves and following those steps so carefully.

You've now got two sets of comparative topic sentences, a great start to your comparative main body paragraphs.

Now here's another opening from Jacob, another set of comparative topic sentences.

He writes, "Both Brittain and Mansfield develop an idea of anger at the older generation.

Brittain's anger is based on their lack of understanding of the impact of war on the young.

However, Mansfield's criticism is perhaps more extreme presenting the older generation as complacent and vacuous." So you can see he's followed those steps.

He has stated what the paragraph is going to be about.

It's going to be about anger.

Then he's talked about his first text, which in this case is Vera Brittain's "Testament of Youth".

And then he's used that comparison however, and then he moves on to his second text.

He's got a lot of keywords in there.

So he is looking at the older generation.

So the group of people who are older than some of the younger soldiers who went off to war.

He's got that word criticism.

So he's thinking about Mansfield and how she's making a judgement on the older generation.

And he describes the older generation, his interpretation of them in Mansfield's text is that they're complacent, so smug, self-satisfied and vacuous, that word we talked about at the beginning of the lesson, he sees them as empty.

So that is a really, really nice opening comparative set of topic sentences, setting Jacob up for a brilliant main body paragraph.

Now I'd like you to identify in your comparative topic sentences where you have met the checklist one, two, and three.

So your topic sentence with the main idea, your topic sentence about text one, and then that comparison with text two.

Pause the video and identify where you've met the checklist now.

Welcome back.

Well done for completing that self-assessment.

And you can now feel really confident that you've got a set of brilliantly clear comparative topic sentences.

Now Jacob's next step is to find quotations to prove each comparison.

He's got great ideas, but he needs quotations from his texts in order to prove that comparison is valid.

So when selecting quotations, you should select quotations that are rich in methods so you can analyse them, so the choices that the writer has made, maybe a structural choice, maybe a language choice.

You should select more than one quotation from each text so that you are really finding lots of evidence to prove your topic sentences are valid.

And finally, you should make short notes about how you will explore each quotation 'cause if you've got those short notes when it comes to writing your paragraph, you will be in a really secure position.

So here's the start of Jacob's plans.

We've got its topic sentence.

"Both Brittain and Mansfield develop an idea of anger at the older generation." We saw that earlier in the check.

Now with "Testament of Youth", here is one of the quotations that he has selected.

"My mother's middle age acquaintances patronise me." And his note is focus on adjective, middle aged acquaintances.

Brittain doesn't connect with the older generation and she's got some anger at being patronised.

So you can see those short notes.

They make sense to Jacob so that he will be able to write about this quotation when he comes to write his main body paragraph.

Now I'd like you to discuss what is powerful about his first note and what are his next steps.

Pause the video and discuss this question now.

Welcome back.

A really, really nice analysis evaluation of Jacob's first note.

And I completely agree that he has found methods, so that's really, really good for him to do 'cause he knows he can mention 'em in the main body paragraph.

So he's looked at the adjective and he's gonna zoom in on this verb patronised.

What are his next steps? Well, his next step is to find it more than one quotation.

He's got one quotation so far from "Testament of Youth".

He needs more than one quotation from "Testament of Youth".

And of course he needs quotations from Mansfield's "The Fly" as well.

So he's got a bit more work to do, but you have given him some good direction so Jacob knows what his next steps are.

So a check for understanding before we move on to planning our own paragraphs, selecting some quotations which are gonna support those comparative topic sentences we just wrote.

What is the third item missing from the checklist? So when selecting quotations, you should select quotations that are written in methods so you can analyse them.

Select more than one quotation from each text.

What is the third thing that you should do? Pause the video and complete the check now.

Well done if you said, make short notes about how you will explore each quotation.

And we looked at Jacob do that earlier in this learning cycle.

So we are gonna move into our first practise task.

I would like you to select quotations which will support both of your topic sentences.

I would like you to identify the methods in those quotations just as Jacob did and make short notes about their effect.

Pause the video, give this activity the time it deserves.

It's really gonna help you when we move into learning cycle two.

Pause the video and I will see you back here shortly.

Pause the video now.

Welcome back.

It is lovely to see such clear plans in front of me with those brilliant topic sentences that are comparative.

And then I can see you selecting those quotations from your chosen text, the text that you want to use to compare the exploration of World War I into texts.

Now I'd like you to self-assess your quotations by asking and answering these questions.

Do you have more than one quotation to analyse from each of your texts? Have you identified the methods that you wish to explore? So the choices that the writer has made in their text, these might be language, these might be structural.

And have you made short notes by each quotation so you know what you might say about it? Pause the video and ask and answer these questions now.

Welcome back.

Well done for completing that self-assessment with the same energy and drive you did in the earlier practise task.

So some people adding a quotation here and there, maybe making a note of a method that they think, "Oh actually I missed that the first time.

I'd like to explore that." And then just making sure those notes are really, really solid so that when you come to write your main body paragraph, it is easy to rely on those notes.

Alright, we're gonna move on to our second learning cycle using all of that fantastic planning to write some main body paragraphs.

So Jacob writes a start of his first main body paragraph.

He writes, "Both Brittain and Mansfield develop an idea of anger at the old generation.

Brittain's anger is based on their lack of understanding of the impact of war on the young.

However, Mansfield's criticism is perhaps more extreme presenting the older generation's complacent and vacuous." So we saw that topic sentence in learning cycle one.

"In 'Testament of Youth', Brittain creates a clear contrast between those who are young and the old or middle-aged people she comes across.

Brittain develops her anger not only through these adjectives but also through the description of thrusting the money they give her into her tin.

The anger she feels is symbolised through this verb, as is a feeling of impotence about the powerlessness of her position as a civilian at home." Now we've got this topic sentence here.

We saw that in learning cycle one.

Then we can see that Jacob Pierre, he's got quotations from across the text.

Nice short quotations from his chosen text.

And then we've also got highlighted here, the methods that Jacob has explored.

So he's looked at contrast, he's looked at adjective, he's looked at description, he's looked at symbolised, and he's actually also looked at verb.

So I'd like you to discuss what does Jacob need to do next? He's got those great topic sentences.

He's explored "Testament of Youth", the first text that he wants to explore.

What does Jacob need to do next? Pause the video, discuss the question now.

Welcome back.

Well done.

A nice clear message for Jacob.

What he needs to do next is talk about his second text.

So he's going to move on to Katherine Mansfield's "The Fly" short story about the older generation post World War I.

So Jacob continues his paragraph developing the comparison just as you directed him to do.

He writes, "Mansfield's anger is less explicit." So he was talking about Brittain.

Now he's talking about Mansfield.

"Rather than stating her anger as Brittain directly does through her first person memoir, Mansfield criticises the older generation through her characterization.

For example, Mr. Woodifield is compared to a baby and the boss is described as proud, liking to be admired and satisfied.

Whilst Brittain draws attention to the age of the older generation, Mansfield presents them as infantile.

Ultimately both present a divide between the generations during World War I, where the young feel that the older generation somehow escape the worst experiences of the conflict." And that is the end of Jacob's comparative paragraph.

Starting with his topic sentences and then moving to the end, that final word in this paragraph is conflict.

Now we've got comparison throughout this paragraph.

So he's moved on to Katherine Mansfield.

He's looking at "The Fly", but he is still comparing back to Vera Brittain.

So he's saying Brittain draws attention to the age of the older generation, Mansfield presents them as infantile.

Mansfield's criticism is more explicit than Brittain.

So he's comparing throughout.

He continues to focus on an analysis of methods.

So he looks at Mansfield's description, characterization, the presentation of them as infantile, and he compares that to the first person memoir of Brittain.

And obviously he looked at Brittain's methods earlier in the paragraph.

And his final sentence links to the topic sentence, "Ultimately both presented a vibe between the generations during World War I, where the young feel that the older generation somehow escaped the worst experiences of the conflict." Now you remember that his topic sentence was about experiences of anger, feelings of anger, and he's looking at this and linking to it in his final sentence of his paragraph.

So the paragraph is quite a big one.

This is quite a big comparative paragraph.

He started off with that topic sentence.

He explored Vera Brittain.

And now you can see on the board that he has compared to Katherine Mansfield, he compares throughout that second bit of his paragraph.

He continues to focus on methods.

And his final sentence just reminds us who are reading this paragraph that his focus was a feeling of anger at the older generation.

Now check for understanding before we, like Jacob, write some fantastic comparative paragraphs.

What is true of comparative analytical paragraphs? A, you should always compare the same methods from both texts.

B, you should compare throughout the paragraph, not just in the topic sentence.

C, you should use one quotation from each text.

D, you don't need to analyse methods because comparison is the main method.

Pause the video and select what you think is correct of comparative analytical paragraphs.

Pause the video and complete the check now.

Well done if you selected B, you should compare throughout the paragraph, not just in the topic sentence.

So remember that when Jacob moved on to talking about Katherine Mansfield, he kept referring back to Vera Brittain so that he was comparative throughout.

You do not need to compare the same methods for both text.

Writers will use very different methods.

You should definitely use more than one quotation from each text.

And D is incorrect 'cause you do need to analyse method.

Comparison is what you are doing.

It's not a method that the writer has used themselves.

Okay, we're gonna move on to our final practise task.

We're gonna write some of these main body paragraphs.

So using your topic sentences and selected quotations, so your fantastic plan from learning cycle one, write two comparative paragraphs in response to this essay prompt.

Compare the exploration of World War I in two texts you have studied.

You might want to follow Jacob's structure.

So he had the comparative topic sentences.

Remember you've already written those.

He's got an analysis of text one for him that was Vera Brittain's "Testament of Youth".

He's got a comparison and analysis of text two.

For him, that was Katherine Mansfield's "The Fly".

And finally, his concluding sentence links to his topic sentence.

Enjoy writing these comparative analytical paragraphs.

You've got brilliant plans to rely on and we've looked at some really, really nice models to support your writing.

Pause the video and complete this task now.

Welcome back.

Well done for giving that task such energy and really holding yourself to high account of thinking, how are we gonna make sure that this comparison is incredibly rich? Just like the model that we looked at using Jacob's structure to aid you and of course relying on those brilliant plans that you created in learning cycle one.

We are going to do a bit of self-assessment now, and Jacob's paragraph is gonna help us.

So we're gonna look at the final section of Jacob's paragraph.

And this was where he was looking at Katherine Mansfield's text "The Fly", drawing out that comparison to Vera Brittain and concluding his paragraph.

Now remember that this paragraph, it compared throughout, so it compared Mansfield to Vera Brittain.

It still had a real focus on methods and the final sentence linked to the topic sentence.

So looking at this idea of anger at the older generation, that was what his topic sentence focused on as well.

So I would like you just to focus on the final section of your paragraph, which focuses on text two and identify where you have met the checklist.

So just looking at the second half of your paragraph where you've moved on to the second text and just identify where you have met this checklist.

Pause the video and complete this self-assessment now.

Welcome back.

Well done for completing that self-assessment so carefully, holding yourself to such high account and looking and really celebrating those comparative paragraphs.

In summary, the opening of comparative paragraphs could start with a topic sentence, which states the paragraph's main idea.

The next sentences of a comparative paragraph could focus on the differences between the two texts you wish to compare.

Including multiple quotations from both texts is key to a comparative paragraph.

Comparing the methods writers have used can help to develop the comparison.

And the final sentence of a comparative paragraph should link to the topic sentence.

It's been such a pleasure to see your brilliant analytical writing and I look forward to seeing you next time.