Lesson video

Hi, everyone.

My name is Miss Dhillon.

And in this lesson, we are going to plan and write an essay about Christianity.

You will be using all the key information and knowledge you have acquired over the course of this unit to plan and write this essay.

Let's start by looking at the structure of today's lesson.

First, we're going to recap what an essay is.

Then, we are going to plan and write paragraph four, paragraph five and paragraph six.

And we're going to finish the lesson by writing our conclusion.

For this lesson, you will need some paper.

Make sure you have enough of it because you will need some to write your planning on, and the other piece of paper to write your essay on.

You will also need a pencil and a ruler.

So let's recap on what is an essay.

So last lesson, I mentioned an essay is a piece of writing that focuses on a particular subject.

For example, sharks, World War I, the Amazon rainforest, mediaeval monarchs, or Christianity.

And on the right hand side, you can see an example of an essay.

If you haven't had the chance already, you might want to read it so that you can see what an essay looks like, but also how to write a good essay.

I would now like you to pause the video so that you can draw out your planning table.

You will need three columns with the key information being the largest column so that you can put lots and lots of information in that column.

And for each row, you need to aim for 8 to 10 lines.

Remember, you can always use the back of a piece of paper or use another sheet of paper.

So please be generous so that you have enough space to do your planning.

Pause the video now to draw your planning table.

The question for our essay is, how is Christianity unique? Unique means what makes it special or unlike anything else.

For the fourth paragraph, you will be answering the question, what is the sacred text of Christianity? Look at the images on the screen.

Now, I'm going to recap some of the key information using the images that you have just looked up.

The sacred text in Christianity is called the? Good job, the Holy Bible.

Great recall.

This is split into two sections.

These two sections are called the? Good job, the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The New Testament was written after Jesus died and is all about Jesus' life and his teachings.

The Old Testament, the clue is old, gives you lots and lots of stories, and was written a very, very long time ago.

The first book of the Old Testament, the Book of Genesis, tells us the creation story.

In this story, the world was created by God in how many days? Good.

In seven days, well done for remembering.

First, God created light, then the sky, then the land and the plants, and then the sun, moon and stars.

On the fifth day, he created the sea animals and birds.

And on the sixth day, he created land animals and mankind.

Finally, on the last and seventh day, God rested.

Some Christians think this is literally true, and this is literally how the world was made, but others think it was just a story to help them understand God.

Now that we've had a recap, I would like you to pause the video and write down all the key information in bullet points and write the key vocabulary for paragraph four.

Pause the video now.

On the screen, you can now see all the key vocabulary that I could think of.

If you've missed any of these, then pause the video to add on any other key vocabulary to your column.

This is what the finished planning grid might look like.

Remember, you should be writing the key information in bullet points to keep them short and concise.

If you've missed anything, you might want to pause the video and add it to your planning grid.

Before we start writing our essay, I wanted to remind you of the steps to success.

Number one, write in full sentences.

Number two, include all the key information and as many keywords as you can.

Number three, leave a line between the paragraphs.

And finally, number four, imagine you are explaining this topic to someone who hasn't learned about it before.

Now, I'm going to model writing the first paragraph for you.

So we're going to do the paragraph four together so you can see how you can write a good paragraph.

Let's start by looking at the planning grid.

So have your planning grid in front of you when you're writing your essay, as this will help you stay on track.

Now for paragraph four, we are writing the answer to the question, what is the sacred text of Christianity? I want to start my paragraph by introducing the holy text for Christians.

So my first sentence will be, the Holy Bible is the sacred text in Christianity.

Now, at this point, I might want to also mention that it has two sections because that is a key information.

So let's continue writing.

It has two sections.

The Old Testament and the New Testament.

So I'm going to pause there and I'm going to read what I've written just to double check that my spelling is correct, my sentence makes sense, and I haven't made any errors.

The Holy Bible is the sacred text in Christianity.

It has two sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Can you spot a mistake in my writing? Good, if you pointed it out.

So as I'm going, I can edit my answer.

So I can see here that Old Testament needs to be capital, but 'the' should just be a small T.

So it's good to notice your own mistakes and correct them as you go along.

Okay, now I know I'm ready to continue.

So let's tick the information and vocabulary I've used so far.

So I have used the Holy Bible just here.

I've said the New Testament.

I've used the Old Testament and here I've said that there are two sections.

Okay.

So I've done that now, so I can see I'm already making a lot of progress.

Now, I want to give more information about the New and the Old Testament as this sentence has introduced the two sections.

So let me continue.

In my planning, I can see that it says that New Testament was written after Jesus died.

So that's the information I want to give the reader.

So let's write our sentence.

The New Testament was written after Jesus died.

And I might want to give the reader an information as to what the New Testament includes.

And here, I can see that it includes stories of his life and teachings.

So I'm going to add to that sentence.

So the New Testament was written after Jesus died and contains the stories of his life and his teachings.

So let's look at the planning.

So his life and teachings, and the New Testament's written after he died, and his life and teachings.

So now I need to move on to explaining what the Old Testament is.

So the New Testament was written after Jesus died.

However, the Old Testament I know was written a very long time ago, so I might include vocabulary to contrast the two.

So let's think carefully.

So I'm going to say the Old Testament.

And when we're comparing, I might say in contrast, because it is different.

So in the Old Testament, in contrast, was written a very long time ago.

So now I can tick that off.

Now I've talked and introduced the Old Testament and said, it's written a long time ago.

I now want to start to introduce the Genesis, which is a creation story.

And I want to include that it explains that the world was created in seven days and the seventh day was rest day.

So that is the next sentence I want to include.

So going back to my essay.

The first book, the Book of Genesis contains the creation story.

This tells how the world was created by God, in how many days, call it out? Good, in seven days.

So it's up to you.

Maybe at this point, you want to give a bit more information about the creation story, that is your personal choice.

I am going to move on.

And at this point, I now want the reader, who might not know a lot about this, to know the different interpretations of this story.

So I'm going to write how some Christians believe that it's literally true, and then others think it's just a story to help them understand God.

So to turn that into a sentence, some Christians, remember, we're not saying all, we're just saying some.

Some Christians believe that the world was literally made in seven days.

Now, I'm going to use a special key word, and it's however, because I want to present the other side of the argument.

However, other Christians believe it is just a story to help them understand God.

Okay, so now we're finished.

What do you think I need to do now, when I finish my paragraph? Good job.

If you said, read it over, well done.

So I'm going to read it together with you so you can follow with me.

The Holy Bible is the sacred text in Christianity.

It has two sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The New Testament was written after Jesus died and contains the stories of his life and his teachings.

The Old Testament, in contrast, was written a very long time ago.

The first book, the Book of Genesis, contains the creation story.

This tells how the world was created by God in seven days.

Some Christians believe that the world was literally made in seven days.

However, other Christians believe it is just a story to help them understand God.

So as far as I can see, there's no other mistakes that I need to correct and now I am ready to move on.

But before we do that, just checking our planning, did I miss anything out? So I used the Book of Genesis, the creation story and literally.

I didn't say it was a rest day, but I did say about seven days and some think it's a story and some think it's literally true.

So you can see that there's some bits I missed out and that is absolutely fine.

You can't include everything in a paragraph.

So you need to make the decisions, as a writer, what you want to include and what you might not want to include in that part, okay? So it's okay if you haven't ticked all of these, that is absolutely fine.

This is just here to guide you to write your paragraphs.

I would now like you to pause the video and write your own fourth paragraph.

You can continue writing where you left off last lesson, or you can start a new piece of paper.

Pause the video and write your fourth paragraph.

Restart once you're finished.

Now, let's have a look at paragraph five.

In this next paragraph, you will be answering the question, where do Christians worship? Let's have a look at the key information and have a recap of all the key knowledge.

Christians can worship anywhere at any time, but they normally go to church on a Sunday because it is a holy day, also known as a Sabbath day.

On this day, they worship or they rest.

At the church, there are a number of activities which occur.

Christians pray together.

They sing hymns.

They listen to sermons or teachings from the priest.

They listen to readings from the Bible, and finally, they eat a wafer and drink a sip of wine, which is known as the Eucharist.

And that is the image on the screen right now.

This is because they are remembering that Jesus died for their sins.

Churches come in all shapes and different sizes.

Very large churches are called cathedrals.

Two very famous churches are Westminster Abbey and St.

Paul's Cathedral.

A lot of churches are designed so they look like crosses when seen from above.

Inside churches, there are four key features.

The nave is where people sit.

The font is what holds the holy water and is used often for baptisms. The pulpit is a raised booth from which the priest delivers the sermons.

And finally, the lectern holds the Bibles from which the people can read from.

Now that we've had a recap, it is now your turn to fill in the planning grid.

So pause the video here and write down all the key information using the pictures on the screen.

Don't forget to also include the key vocabulary.

On the screen, you can now see all the key vocabulary that I could think of.

Now, if there's anything that is missing, please add it to your own planning grid.

This is what the finished planning grid might look like.

If you've missed anything, that's okay.

You can pause the video and add it in now.

On this page are some sentence stems that you could use to start on your fifth paragraph.

You can use these to help you get started.

I would now like you to pause the video and write your fifth paragraph of this essay.

You can always go back to the previous slide if you want to use any of the sentence stems that you just saw.

Once you've written your paragraph, you can restart the video.

Now, let's look at the sixth paragraph.

You will be answering the question, what are the Christian celebrations? For this section, we are not going to summarise all the celebrations because there are five.

Therefore, you will need to pick a celebration that you want to explain in a little bit more detail.

Now, let's recap the key information.

There are five key celebrations in Christianity, all of which celebrate Jesus' life.

These are Advent, Lent, Christmas, the Holy Week and Easter Sunday.

Advent means coming and celebrates the birth of Jesus.

Lent is when Christians give up something they enjoy for 40 days to remember the time when Jesus went without food in the desert for 40 days.

Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus and Christians often go to the church and remember the story of their nativity.

They also decorate trees in their homes, exchange gifts with other people, and spend lots of time with their family.

In the Holy Week, Christians celebrate Palm Sunday, which is when Jesus arrived at Jerusalem, the Last Supper, and Good Friday, when Jesus was crucified.

Finally, Easter Sunday remembers the resurrection of Jesus when he rose from the dead.

And people give each other chocolate eggs, which represent a new life and new beginning.

Now on the screen, you can see a world map.

The world map represents that Christianity is a global religion, which means that all these celebrations can be celebrated all around the world.

And because they're celebrated all around the world, over time, different traditions have emerged.

For example, in Italy, La Befana, who is a witch, delivers all the presents.

Whereas in England, we know that Santa Claus delivers the presents.

Now I would like you to pause the video so you can look at the pictures one more time and write down all the key information in that column.

I would also like you to write all the key vocabulary for paragraph six.

Pause the video to do that now.

On the screen, you can now see all the keywords that I could think of.

If there are any that you missed, you might want to pause and include these keywords into your own planning grids.

This is what a finished planning grid might look like.

If you've missed anything, I would like you to pause the video and add it into your planning grid now.

Here are some examples of sentence stems that you can use for paragraph six.

I would now like you to pause the video and write your sixth paragraph.

Remember, you can go back to the previous slide to use one of the sentence stems on the screen.

Once you've finished writing your sixth paragraph, you can restart the video once you're done.

Finally, we are now on the conclusion of our essay.

In our final paragraph, we want to conclude or finish our essay by addressing the question.

The question is, how is Christianity unique? The sentence stem that you are going to use is: in conclusion, Christianity is unique because.

Let me share a model example with you.

Let's read it together.

In conclusion, Christianity is unique in its view of God.

It is a religion that teaches that there is one God who exists in three persons, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

This is very different to other religions.

Now that you've seen an example of a conclusion, you can see I've tried to draw out something that makes Christianity unique and different to other religions.

Now let's look at the final part, which is the conclusion.

I would like you to pause the video and write your conclusion using the sentence stem on the screen.

Great job today, team.

Once you've completed your essay, I would like you to read it aloud to someone at home or to your screen if that's not possible, because reading aloud is really useful to make sure all the sentences make sense.

Well done for your concentration and hard work in today's lesson.

And I've thoroughly enjoyed teaching you for this unit.

Bye, everyone.