Hi everyone, this is Mr. Chandrapala and I'm really looking forward to be working with you today.

We're gonna be having a look at war literature and propaganda, specifically within trench warfare.

Propaganda is a really interesting ethical conundrum within war poetry and war literature as a whole because we have to be able to understand the difference between the reality of war and actually how war is presented by maybe government or media organisations to maybe manipulate people's feelings sometimes to feel like they should go fight.

It's a really important thing for us to understand not only in terms of our understanding of war literature, but also in our own critical thinking and our understanding of the world as a whole.

Let's dive in.

So for today's lesson, we're going to be able to explain the importance and impact of wartime propaganda and trench warfare in World War One.

To do that, we need to understand our keywords.

So our first keyword for today is the noun propaganda.

That's communication which is designed to influence its audience.

It's information which is often misleading.

We've then got the term trench warfare.

This is a type of war fought on land.

So deep ditches are dug and occupied by each warring side who will take turns, almost trying to attack the other side.

It's quite territorial and it's really attritional.

It takes a long time to sort of make trench warfare work usually.

We're also gonna be having a look at the poet Wilfred Owen, who was a British soldier and poet, best known for his poems about World War One.

His life is really, truly one of the most interesting that I've come across in terms of World War One poetry, but also really quite tragic.

So I am really looking forward to exploring his work with you today.

We've got the verb symbolise, which is when something is used to represent something else.

So often trench warfare has come to symbolise World War One because it's so synonymous with that particular conflict.

And finally, we have the term no man's land.

I talked about the two trenches and different sides having to sort of move towards each other to start an attack.

And they would do that over no man's land.

No man's land was the area of land between enemy trenches, unclaimed land.

It was a dangerous place where soldiers would often be killed.

Sometimes it was a stretch of a kilometre that would be strewn with bodies and would be incredibly dangerous.

Occasionally there would be landmines there.

And just running out into it in, bearing in mind that it's an open field usually would mean that you are very easily seen to very easily become a target.

So we're going to start off today's lesson by understanding propaganda against the horrors of war.

So what do we already know about World War One? We're gonna start off with this.

What I'm gonna ask you to do is just to write the term World War One into the middle of your page, maybe about two thirds down the page.

And I want you just to draught any ideas that you can remember about World War One.

So that may be linking to what I've already spoken about.

Any knowledge you know about what sides took place, who was involved, why the conflict started, how it ended, when it ended.

Pause the video now.

Any information that we can have to begin with.

Some really good knowledge being shown there.

I loved how many of you were getting historical with it.

So 1914 to 1918 the Allied forces, so sort of France, England were working against Germany and Austria and trying to make sure that actually that they defeated for a conflict that was primarily staged in Western Europe.

So a lot of it taking place in France and Belgium.

Here are some of what of our Oak pupils said.

So several have pointed out the fact that it lasted four years from 1914 to 1918.

Germany and its allies fought Britain and other countries from what was then the British Empire.

So Britain wasn't just solely relying on its own resources, it was also relying on the resources of the Empire.

And then finally, the fact that Izzy has read the World War One book, "Regeneration" by Pat Barker, which explores soldiers who lived with shell shock, which is when soldiers experience PTSD.

So post-traumatic stress disorder because of the experiences that they had seen and it was experienced during and after the war, and actually is a really important element for us to consider as we discuss Owen today.

Is there anything else though, that you would want to add or add to these ideas or develop further? Pause the video now and see if you could add anything.

You may want to even add some of these ideas to your own mind map.

When you've done that, hit play.

Really good work, everyone.

Some really great additions being made there.

So one way to think about World War One is as a war of contrast.

One of the biggest contrasts was between the wartime propaganda, which glorified war and encouraged men to fight and the reality and the horror of actually fighting.

So if we consider these examples of war where we have two posters of some 54 million that were created during World War One, we can see that both of them are presenting war as being almost brave, courageous.

The fact that actually the empire on the right hand side in the yellow poster, it's calling people young lions, is really interesting.

The fact that actually it's presenting young soldiers as lions, linking them immediately to that idea of bravery.

Similarly, we've got the use of the images as well, don't we? Which shows sort of like these really potentially quite exciting landscapes which are so detached from the reality of what we know World War One to have actually been like.

So how do these posters present the experience of war? Why might they be effective pieces of propaganda? Pause the video now and see if you can draught any of those ideas.

Once you've done that, hit play.

Well done, everyone.

I really like the fact that some of or all of you were thinking about the fact that we've got those imperatives being used, enlist now within both posters.

So suggesting that actually there's like this imperative that they have to do it.

There's a command being used.

There's even the fact that every Fit Briton and the brave men at the front.

So we're really relying on like playing on that idea of courage within the text.

There weren't only propaganda posters though.

Other literature did encourage men to enlist.

So for example, we have two sections of a poem by Jesse Pope from a poem called "Who's for the Game," which was written in 1915.

In it, she compares war to a game.

So in the "Who's for the Game," she begins with, "Who's for the game, the biggest that's played, The red crashing game of a fight? Who'll grip and tackle the job unafraid? And who thinks he'd rather sit tight? Who knows it won't be a picnic - not much - Yet eagerly shoulders a gun> Who would much rather come back with a crutch Than lie low and be out of the fun?" I want you to pause here and actually discuss with the person next to you or maybe get down some ideas onto your page.

How does this poem present the experience of war and why might it be an effective piece of propaganda? Pause the video now and see if you can jot down any ideas.

Some really interesting thoughts there.

I really liked the way that people were thinking about the sort of emphasis on that idea of actually you're missing out if you don't go to war.

Why would you rather sit tight? Why would you rather miss out on this fun? It's clearly suggesting that actually you aren't taking that opportunity.

You're not realising the true capability of this moment if you don't go and fight.

So this use of propaganda was part of a huge push from the government to encourage men to volunteer for the war, and it really did work.

In the first weekend alone of the war, 3,000 men volunteered, and by the end of 1914, over a million men had enlisted to fight.

However, the horrific reality of World War One quickly contrasted the wartime propaganda.

Letters and poems were a common way for soldiers to report their genuine experiences.

So if we consider the first stanza of this poem by Wilfred Owen, we may get a better account of what the real horrors and reality of war were like.

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Til on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep.

Many had lost their boots, but limped on blood-shod.

All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas shells dropping softly behind." So here I want you to actually have a look at this short extract from "Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori," the poem by Wilfred Owen we're having a look at in this moment.

how does this poem present the experience of war? How does it contrast to the wartime propaganda? Pause the video now.

See if you can pick out any of those key images and when you're ready, hit play.

Some really interesting ideas there.

I really liked the fact that people are immediately looking at the idea that the soldiers themselves are clearly in a lot of pain.

They're bent double, they're knock kneed, they're coughing, so they're really unwell.

And also the fact that they are really poorly looked after, the fact that many had lost their boots, they're drunk with fatigue.

They're actually so tired that they don't even realise the danger that they're in.

This isn't the fun that Jessie Pope suggested that they would be having.

So just a quick check for understanding here.

True or false, the government tried to use propaganda in World War One, but it wasn't successful.

Selecting our answers in five, four, three, two, and one.

Well done, everyone.

We know that actually it is false.

But how? Is it because option A, option one, that the number of people who volunteered to join the armed forces shows the incredibly powerful effect of wartime propaganda? Or was it the fact that option two, option B, the poems of World War One showed the brutal reality of war and this was the most effective propaganda in terms of trying to end the war.

Selecting our option in five, four, three, two, and one.

Well done, it is option one.

So what we're now going to have a look at is we are going to have a look at our practise task for today.

So I'd like you to complete the sentence stems using the prompts to support.

As you can see on the right hand side, we have the same beginning of the sentence ending with because, and then on the left, sorry, on the left hand side, we've got all of those sentence stems, which are very similar ending with because, but, also.

So the different conjunctions.

And then on the right hand side, I've got the different things I want you to consider as part of your ideas.

I'm gonna give you a couple of minutes to do that now.

So pause the video and start completing those sentences.

When you're ready, hit play.

Well done, everyone.

Let's take some feedback.

So I want you to self-assess using the questions to guide you.

So for wartime propaganda was effective because, have you managed to make specific reference to the type of tactics that were used? Have you managed to discuss maybe the use of the imperatives, the use of that metaphorical language around lions or even the sort of imagery that was conjured through the pictures.

The wartime propaganda was effective but, have you referenced the true horrors of war? Think about what actually we looked at in Wilfred Owen's poetry.

What were the issues with actually going to fight? And then finally, wartime propaganda was effective so, have you recalled key statistics about how many people enlisted, how many people chose to join the war even on the first weekend.

And then by the end of 1914, how many people had joined? Pause the video now and make sure that you've actually included those details and when you've done so, hit play.

Well done, everyone.

Really diligent feedback.

That's really gonna put us in good stead for the rest of the lesson.

So we're now looking at trench warfare, specifically.

Trench warfare came to symbolise the horrors of World War One.

Here we've got a image of a trench, which is a deep ditch dug by soldiers, and we can see that it's not a particularly clean place.

It's quite crowded, it's very cramped.

Actually, we can see that there's also just a huge amount of almost like rubble everywhere.

It's incredibly dirty.

And you can see that actually because it's exposed, so there's not anything covering it, during the winter months, it would often get quite wet.

Here, the ditch would protect soldiers from enemy fire.

But because the trenches were made of wood, mud, sandbags and barbed wire, they were also incredibly dangerous and quite unhygienic places.

Men would wait in these trenches before going over the top, which means to charge at the enemy.

So they'd be kept in these really tight spaces, unable to really do anything.

They often were their living quarters.

The space between trenches was known as no man's land.

And that was a true place of danger.

As I said earlier, that was where there would be maybe mines going off.

There would be grenades thrown.

There would be, you would have a very easy line of sight to see if anyone was approaching you and therefore you would, that person would become a very easy target.

The conditions in the trenches, as I have already mentioned, were appalling.

The mud and water could kill you, both through drowning or infection.

There were rats and lice everywhere.

These were really poorly kept spaces and you were exposed to the weather, which could be harsh and unforgiving.

The winters during 1914 to 1918 were consistently talked about as being some of the harshest during that early part of the 20th century.

And naturally, for soldiers to have been out in those conditions would've been incredibly challenging even before the fact that they didn't have the proper sort of equipment, even boots to survive them.

There was constant bombing and the threat of death was contrast with long periods in which nothing happened.

I want you to consider two stanzas of another poem by Wilfred Owen.

This poem is called "Exposure," and it's about the condition of being in a trench and waiting for enemy fire.

"Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us.

Wearied, we keep awake because the low night is silent.

Low drooping flares confuse our memories of the salient.

Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous, but nothing happens.

Tonight, this frost will fasten on the mud and us, Shrivelling many hands, and puckering foreheads crisp.

The burying-party, picks and shovels in shaking grasp, Pause over half-known faces.

All their eyes are ice, but nothing happens." So what does this poem reveal to us about living in a trench? Pause the video now and see if you can work anything out.

Maybe annotate some key lines, maybe jot them down.

Make sure to discuss them with your partner.

And when you've done that, hit play Some really lovely ideas there, everyone.

Let's take some feedback.

So the fact that actually we've got that, but nothing happens at the end of both stanzas show that it's actually, even though it's an incredibly stressful space, it's also an incredibly, almost quite nervous space because of the fact that there's long periods where they're just waiting.

There's a futility to their waiting.

Then we've got the fact that they're struggling to sleep and they're really nervous about the fact that they're, about what's going to happen.

We've then also got the fact that our brain's ache in the merciless iced east winds, the frost that fastens on the mud.

The weather conditions are appalling and really threaten the men's livelihoods.

So just to check our understanding here, why might Owen repeat the line, but nothing happens in his poem, "Exposure"? Is it A, he's using propaganda to try and show how trench warfare isn't always terrifying and difficult.

B, because he is exploring how unusual it is for there to be periods of boredom in a trench, usually a place of intense action.

Or C, because he's exploring the long periods of inaction in the trench, which could be difficult as, which could be as difficult as the periods of action.

Pause the video now and select your choice in five, four, three, two, and one.

Well done all of us who said C.

So it is the fact that actually there were long periods when nothing seemed to happen and that became a really troubling element for the soldiers because they were left with their own thoughts rattling around in these really awful spaces.

And that in itself was really terrifying.

So we're gonna practise using our understanding of trench warfare by reading the story, "Propping up the Line" by Ian Beck, which explores the horror of trench warfare.

I want you to read lines one to 75 of Beck's short story.

And then I want you to complete the table using the details from the text.

On the one side, you've got physical experience of being in a trench, and then the other side, you've got the emotional experience of being in a trench.

Find key details that you would want to include and maybe just give a quick explanation of what they show.

Pause the video now and start doing that.

And when you're done, hit play.

Some really careful reading there, everyone.

Let's take some feedback.

So I want us to have a look at Izzy's notes and I want us to add anything that we see that we maybe haven't gotten, but we would like to add.

So the fact that Izzy has written that Beck writes anger, hate, loss, pain and boredom as a reason for Alfred's anger with the rat, presenting a number of negative feelings.

He's not just fearful of death.

What's really good about Izzy's work is the fact that she's included a quotation from the text and has made sure to include a brief exploration of that quotation.

I want you to self-assess your own notes and to make sure that you are doing a similar thing where you've got quotes from the text and making sure that you are exploring what they show.

Pause the video now and make sure to add those in a different colour pen.

When you're ready, hit play.

Superb work there, everyone.

I really liked the fact that people were being really careful about the quotes that they're using and were actually making sure that they were trying to use a range of quotes, really short quotes to develop their understanding.

Excellent work there.

So we've reached the end of another lesson, this time looking at World War One propaganda and trench warfare.

So let's just have a look at our summary for today.

So we've learned that wartime propaganda was used to encourage recruitment and persuade the population that war was necessary.

Wartime propaganda also promoted the idea that fighting would bring glory upon soldiers, but the reality of war was quite different and quite a bit more horrifying.

Much of World War One, for example, was fought in the trenches and the conditions in the trenches were appalling with soldiers living in mud, alongside rats, having to deal with consistent shelling and actually being traumatised by the gore and inactivity of the places they were staying in.

Much of war literature attempts to evoke conditions in the trenches and to show actually the horrors of that situation.

You've dealt with a really difficult topic really impressively today, and I've been so pleased with your ideas.

Thank you very much for joining me and I look forward to working with you again very soon.

Bye for now, everyone.