Lesson video

Hello, year six, and welcome back to history.

I'm Mr. Hutchinson, and we're learning all about 20th century conflicts.

Now, last lesson, we started to write our essays.

It was hard work but satisfying seeing all of that knowledge come together and just how much you can write about this topic now that you're real experts in this fascinating, fascinating period of history, of countries fighting each other because they want their ideas to dominate.

They want their countries to be in charge and the horror and carnage and death that resulted from that.

Super-interesting stuff.

And you are super interesting.

We're going to be planning our essay and writing it, the final three paragraphs.

So last week we, sorry, not last week.

Last lesson, we did the first few paragraphs, first three paragraphs.

Today we're doing the final three paragraphs based on our learning, based on our lessons.

So to do that, we're going to check back in with our knowledge organiser, and remind ourselves of what we're trying to do by writing an essay, then write the next three paragraphs, plan them and then write them.

So here's our knowledge organiser.

Pause the screen, read it through, make sure that you remember everything that you need to about this period.

Pause the video now and read.

Awesome.

Lots of you are making flashcards.

I've seen you sending those in.

Well done.

Make a flashcard, check it, try and remember, check it.

Do that frequently, all the time.

It takes about 10 seconds.

Once you've made them, you can just have them knocking about your house and just quickly quiz yourself.

The more often you quiz yourself, the stronger in your long-term memory that information gets, that knowledge gets.

And the more pieces of knowledge in long-term memory you have, they connect together like a web.

Psychologists call it a schema.

And the more pieces of knowledge you have, the bigger and more complex your schema, until you are an absolute expert in it, because you just know so many things about it and how they join up and connect with each other.

And that's sort of what we're doing in our essay, right? We're sort of bringing everything together in our essay.

So let's get started with it.

The first thing that we're going to do is recap what we're trying to do with an essay.

This is from one of our year five children at my school.

And you can see, first of all, they're really clearly organising their work.

So each paragraph is one clear idea.

Their using technical vocabulary.

They're writing in nice full sentences.

And it's all about this one topic, this one nonfiction topic.

They've got lots and lots to write about.

We can write essays about anything.

We're writing one about the First World War and the Second World War.

And good essays explain that topic really well.

And they convince the person reading it about something.

In your essay, you're trying to convince them that the Treaty of Versailles was responsible for the Second World War or something else was.

Or there was a combination.

You might say it was a combination.

So the question is, the Treaty of Versailles was responsible for the Second World War.

To what extent do you agree with that? And you might say fully.

I fully agree with that.

That's completely right.

I think that it was responsible.

You would have to justify it.

You'd have to say why.

What are your reasons? What's your evidence? You might say, no, it wasn't responsible at all.

It wasn't the Treaty of Versailles.

It was this other thing or these other things.

And you would have to justify it.

And if it's a good essay, you'll persuade the person reading it.

I'll read your essay, and I'll think, yeah, you're right.

You've got it absolutely right.

I agree with you.

This is a good essay.

You might think it's a mixture.

You might say the Treaty of Versailles was a bit responsible.

It was partially responsible, in part, but there were other things as well, and they were all connected.

They all interlinked with each other.

Your essay, you'll make your argument.

But to do it, we're going to have to write about these three things.

How Hitler rose to power, what life was like in Nazi Germany, and whether World War II was inevitable.

So let's do this first.

First of all, let's make, make sure that you've got this written down, this plan written down.

So, remember, we write it in our books just like this.

You need to make sure that you've got those three columns.

The key information is the bigger column, about eight to 10 lines for each row.

So I'm just going to show you how to do that in case you've forgotten.

I've got my piece of paper here.

It takes about 20 seconds, and it means you've got a nice organised plan.

So I'm going to write key information.

Key vocabulary.

And spending just a few minutes planning really gives you a much better essay.

And, also, it makes the essay quicker to write, 'cause you've already got your ideas down.

So you know what you're going to write about in each paragraph.

As soon as you finish one sentence, you can quickly check your plan and get an idea of what you're going to write next.

Keep it neat and organised.

A scrappy plan will not help you.

So it's going to be paragraph four, 'cause you've already written the first three paragraphs in our last lesson.

Paragraph five.

And paragraph six.

We are organised.

We're ready to go.

Great.

Pause video now and make sure you're organised.

And you've got your plan written and ready to go.

Super.

So just like last lesson, we're just going to quickly run through what we were put in each of those paragraphs, so you know what you're going to be putting in your plan.

So in this first lesson, it's the first paragraph that we're writing today.

It's asking us how Hitler rose to power.

How did Hitler rise to power? And that might give us some clues about whether the Treaty of Versailles was responsible for the Second World War or not.

So if you think, "I've got loads of ideas about that.

I remember that lesson well, or I've read back my notes, and I know all the different things." You can pause the video and just complete that box now.

If you want to just watch me have a go at one just to remind you of how to fill it out, then that's fine as well.

I'm going to do that now.

So pause the video if you're ready to write, and everybody else, you can watch me.

So how did Hitler rise to power? Well, I'm going to remember that World War II had finished.

So, sorry, World War I had finished, World War I had finished and there was a new government in charge of Germany.

And, actually, it was called the Weimar Republic.

Do you remember, called the Weimar Republic? That's a technical piece of vocabulary, so I'll put it there.

Make sure I put that in my essay, 'cause it's a really good piece of technical vocabulary.

And there was a new government because the kaiser had to resign 'cause they lost the war.

There was a new government, and that meant there was new political parties.

And one of those political parties was the Nazi party, Hitler's party.

So I'll draw a picture of Hitler.

He had this sort of side parting, that sort of like boxed moustache.

I'm not a very good artist, as you can tell, but that's okay because all this is doing is just reminding us of what we're going to write about.

So Hitler formed this new party, the Nazi party.

And they actually tried to take over the Weimar Republic.

They try to march in and through violent means takeover in what was called the Beer Hall Putsch, so the Beer Hall Putsch.

Hitler and his friends marched on the Weimar Republic to try to take over.

So we're going to draw sort of like a mug of beer here with the foam on the top.

And the Beer Hall Putsch, but it wasn't successful.

And Hitler got put in prison.

So let's put him behind bars.

Hitler is in prison! And he got put in prison in 1924.

While he was in prison, he wrote a book.

Can you remember what book he wrote? About everything he thought about his life and everything he thought about what was wrong with Germany.

What was the book called? Well done, it was called "Mein Kampf." Mein, my, kampf, struggle.

"Mein Kampf." You can see as you remember one thing, it brings other things back to mind.

'Cause in "Mein Kampf," he blamed the Jews for the First World War and everything else that was wrong with Germany.

He hated the Treaty of Versailles and wanted revenge on France.

I'm going to have a cross to say he hated the Treaty of Versailles and, by extension, France.

And had his own plan to make Germany great, especially with an Aryan super race in charge.

After this, so the book sold well, but people didn't really vote for Hitler still.

He didn't get much political power.

But about this same time, there was hyperinflation in Germany.

Money was becoming really worthless.

So hyperinflation means they need to print more and more money, because it wasn't really worth anything.

So you could have a billion dollar note or a billion Deutsche Mark note, and it wouldn't even buy you a loaf of bread, because nobody really valued the money anymore.

And that meant that people didn't really have anything, the things that they needed.

They couldn't buy food very easily, and they couldn't really get jobs.

The USA was helping by giving loans to Germany, but, in 1929, we got the Wall Street Crash.

In 1929 in America on Wall Street, all of that money became worthless.

And across the world, people lost their savings and their homes.

And there was a Great Depression.

The Wall Street Crash, Wall Street Crash, and then the Great Depression, when nobody had any money or jobs, because of the Wall Street Crash.

Hitler capitalises on this.

We're in 1929, and Hitler says, "Look, this is the political leaders' fault and the Jews' fault, and I've got the solution." He was a great orator.

Orator, person that speaks, give speeches.

He was a great orator.

And he gave great speeches, and people started to listen to him.

He also made posters or propaganda, not necessarily true, but made propaganda, propaganda, which is where you use different kinds of messages in the media, so it could be films. It could be the radio.

It could be posters or leaflets to get your idea across.

And he said that he could make Germany great.

Only he could make Germany great.

These things all end up being successful.

And in 1933, he does get the most seats in the Weimar Republic.

And he becomes chancellor, which is like the prime minister in Germany at the time.

And he immediately calls himself not just chancellor but furor or leader.

And really what he meant was dictator, because he said he didn't have to speak to anybody else.

Only his decision mattered.

And he immediately started to lock the other political leaders away.

I've got my plan for my first paragraph, and I am ready to write.

In fact, I'm not ready to write.

I'm going to plan paragraph five and paragraph six first.

So let's make sure that you've got all of those ideas down.

You can edit or improve or add to yours, but you need to get down those different ideas.

Paragraph five.

What was life like in Nazi Germany? Can you remember about what Hitler starts to do once he was furor in the 1930s? How did he make life in Nazi Germany? What did he start doing? Pause the video and see if you can draw some pictures and jot down some notes for that paragraph.

Super.

Hopefully you got that he had that strength through jugendfuror, Hitler youth, where he trained all of the boys to basically be soldiers to be ready to be the next leaders.

And also indoctrinate them to hate Jewish people, to hate people of colour, to hate gypsy travellers, disabled people and say that the Aryan race is the only pure race.

They're the only pure Germans.

And that's what we should be going for.

He taught that in the schools through his eugenics and race science programme, this awful idea that there are better and worse races and that people are fundamentally different if they're different races.

We know that that's nonsense.

We're all just humans.

And we know that what Hitler's saying is incorrect, but that's what he was teaching children.

You should look to other people, and if they're Jewish, then you should hate them.

And they're worse than other people.

And we should get rid of them, which he ended up doing throughout the Second World War and the lead up to the Second World War, systematically murdering those groups of people by the million.

So make sure that you've got all of those pieces of information down.

And we're going to go into, if you want to, you can pause and add to your notes.

And finally, we're going to go into paragraph six.

This is going to be very, very important to answer your question of whether it was the Treaty of Versailles that was at fault for the Second World War, 'cause paragraph six is where we go to our last lesson on was the Second World War inevitable? Was it always going to happen? How did it happen? And was it inevitable? So pause the video and jot down everything that you can remember about the Second World War and whether it was inevitable and the lead up to it now.

Super.

So, hopefully, you have written about how Hitler, as soon as he becomes in charge of Germany, he starts building up the army.

He actually makes the economy a lot better.

But he immediately starts breaking the Treaty of Versailles.

One of the first things he does in 1935, sorry 1936, is that he marches into the Rhineland, which is supposed to be demilitarised.

Treaty of Versailles said you're not allowed any soldiers in there.

That's too close to France.

We don't trust you, so you're not allowed in there.

Hitler says, "I don't care.

I'm sending soldiers and tanks in anyway." And nobody does anything! He also unites, through Anschluss, he unites Austria and Germany.

He goes into Austria and says, "I should be in charge of all of Austria as well." The Treaty of Versailles said no, Austria and Germany need to stay separate.

We know what happened last time you teamed up, we had that First World War.

You need to stay separate.

That's what the Treaty of Versailles says.

Hitler says, "No, I want to be in charge of Austria as well." He was Austrian as well.

"I want to be in charge of all of Austria and Germany." So he does Anschluss.

How do we respond to that? How did Great Britain respond to it? Neville Chamberlain uses this policy of appeasement, where he says to Hitler, "Well, okay, you can invade Rhineland, but don't do anything else.

Oh, okay, you've done Anschluss, but don't do anything else." And he kept appeasing him, thinking if he gave him what he wanted he would stop.

But we know that he didn't stop.

He invaded Czechoslovakia, first the bits on the outside and then all of it.

And he invaded Poland.

And, finally, once he'd invaded Poland, Great Britain, France said enough is enough.

We're going to war with you.

We're now at war with you because you're taking over too many countries.

And so the Second World War started.

So once you've jotted down those, once you've got a plan for those three boxes, your plan should look something like this.

Take a moment to pause and fill in any bits that you're missing, so that you're really prepared to write a great essay.

Awesome.

So now there's nothing left to do but to write this essay.

So as you're doing it, you might want to remember these key steps.

These are your steps to success.

Remember to write in nice full sentences, using key information and key vocab.

You can use your plan, just like we practised in the last lesson, I showed you in the last lesson.

Look at the picture, turn it into a full sentence, and then you can tick the picture off.

You can tick the key piece of vocabulary off.

Every time you start a new paragraph, leave a blank line so it's well-organized.

And just imagine as you're writing it, you're explaining it to somebody that hasn't studied this before.

Would they understand it? Are you explaining it in enough detail and clearly enough? If you want to challenge yourself, make sure that you're giving good arguments back to the question about the Treaty of Versailles and whether the Treaty of Versailles was leading to the Second World War or other things were involved instead.

Pause the video and write your essay.

Good luck.

It's going to be great.

I can't wait to read it.

Pause the video, and write the essay.

Then unpause it, and we're just going to do the conclusion together.

Super.

So now you have a nice full essay, an introduction, six paragraphs, or maybe even more than that, because some of you are writing more paragraphs for each section, I know.

You should have a really long, comprehensive essay.

We just need to tie it all up, bring it together by writing a conclusion, where we're just really, are really clear with what we're arguing and what we're saying.

So our conclusion might say something like this.

Looking at the question, you might say clearly there were many factors that could be considered responsible for causing the First World War.

Overall, I believe that mm was most important because.

So the question is asking you was it the Treaty of Versailles that was responsible? Do you agree with that? And you might say, "Overall, I believe." And you might say it was the Treaty of Versailles.

"Overall, I do believe it was Treaty of Versailles that was responsible." Or you might say it was something else instead.

It's not the only type of conclusion you could write.

You could also write something like this.

Although mm did contribute to the Second World War, it wasn't as important as mm.

This is because.

This is because, give reasons, okay? It's not good enough just to say, "Oh, I think it was appeasement.

I think it was appeasement.

That was the most important thing." Why? You need to justify it, okay? Give those reasons.

You've got all that knowledge in your head.

Use it to make that argument.

If you want to, you can copy down those.

Or you can write your own conclusion if you've got your own ideas for how you want to conclude your essay.

Pause the video and write your conclusion.

Well done.

You rock.

Amazing, you got a full essay! Some people think that year sixes can't write essays.

They think it's too hard.

You've just proved them wrong.

Well done.

I'd love to read it.

I want to read it, so, please, ask your parents to, or your carers, to take a photo of it, and put it onto Twitter @OakNational, #LearnWithOak, #ONAYear6.

If you ask your parents or carers to take a photo and put it up, I'll be able to see it, because you spent all that time writing it, I'd love to read it so that I can see the amazing work that you've done.

I'm really proud of you.

You should be proud of yourself.

Thank you so much for coming along to these lessons.

In our next set of lessons, we're going into the Second World War.

We're going to see exactly what happened once Hitler's in charge.

And now the world has waged war with him, or he's waged war with the world.

We're going to look at what happens during the Second World War.

And then we're even going to go beyond that.

We're going to look about how after the Second World War, countries continued to struggle and fight with each other for whose ideas should run the world.

And we got what's called the Cold War, and the western states versus Russia and the Soviet states or the communist states.

It's fascinating stuff.

It's the world we live in, and you are becoming experts in it.

Well done.

I will see you next time.

Bye-bye.