Lesson video

Hi everyone, I'm Miss Reid, and welcome to our first of two essay writing lessons.

Now, if you haven't completed the lessons throughout this unit on Buddhism, it would be a great idea to stop the video now and make sure that you've completed all six lessons prior to these essay writing lessons, because you need the knowledge in order to write your essay.

If you haven't done that, stop the video and go back.

If you have done all of those lessons and completed all of the learning, then you're ready to start our essay writing.

Of course, the first thing we need to do is plan, but let's have a look at our learning objective.

So our learning objective for this lesson is to plan and write an essay about Buddhism.

Now we're ready to get on with our lesson.

Let's have a look at the things we'll need.

You will need an exercise book or a piece of paper, potentially a few pieces of paper, and a pencil and of course your brain.

You can pause the video now, so you can go and get those things if you don't have them already.

Now you've got everything you need, let's have a look at an overview.

So we're going to be thinking about what an essay is, then we're going to be planning paragraphs one, two, and three, and then we're going to be writing.

So, what is an essay? Well, an essay is a piece of writing that focuses on a particular subject.

For example, it might be about sharks, for example, different types of sharks.

It might be about the different aspects of World War I.

It might be about the Amazon Rainforest, mediaeval monarchs, or like this one about Buddhism.

As an example, or an extract from an essay, and you can see that it's split into paragraphs, each paragraph is about a different idea.

The first thing we need to do before we get started with planning the essay is we need to draw a table, and this is our planning table.

Each row should be about eight to 10 lines so that you can fit all the information in because we're going to be writing notes.

Pause the video now, so that you can draw your own table.

Great work everyone.

Now we can move on.

So, here is the information that I've given you.

I've given you the paragraph and the link to the lesson.

So the first paragraph is all about the first lesson, and our first lesson was, of course, all about who is Siddhartha Gautama.

You can see in this slide, there are some images from the first lesson to help jog our memories.

You've also got the key vocabulary that I've given you.

Now, the first thing that you're going to do is you're going to record the key vocabulary into your own table, and I'm going to show you how to do that.

Let's quickly Have a look at that key vocabulary.

So here we've got the key vocabulary section, we've got the word Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama, Indian/Nepal, four sights, meditation, the Buddha, which means the enlightened one, enlightenment, and bodhi tree.

I'm going to show you how I'd like you to record the key vocabulary before we look at the images.

So the first thing I need to do is record the key vocabulary.

And just like you, I've got the key vocabulary in front of me on my screen, and so I'm going to start writing those down.

So the first word is Buddhism, and then Siddhartha Gautama.

And I have to remember that that's a tricky word to spell.

So I'm making sure to check as I go along, because I don't want to keep spelling his name incorrectly throughout my essay.

And then we have India slash Nepal, Four sights, meditation, the Buddha, it's also known as the enlightened one, the enlightened one.

I've got the word enlightenment, enlightenment, and finally bodhi tree.

Now I've recorded all of the key vocabulary.

Let's go back and have a look at the images on the screen.

Great, now you know how to record the key vocabulary, you're going to do that for yourself.

Pause the video now so you can record the key vocabulary.

Now you've recorded the key vocabulary.

Let's have a look at the images to give us a reminder of what we should be including within this paragraph in note form.

So I can see here that this is an image of Siddhartha Gautama, and I can see that this is an image of when he was a prince living a life of luxury.

I can also see that this image shows me the map, which shows me exactly where Siddhartha Gautama's kingdom was, around about where the kingdom is thought to have been, which is now on the border of India and Nepal.

Of course, that border didn't exist then.

I can also see that we've got four sights, one, two, three, four, that Siddhartha witnessed when he went on his walk for the first time outside of the palace, and we can see here the week old man, the sick man, the corpse in the funeral parade or procession, and the holy man.

And those are the four sights that changed Siddhartha Gautama's life and caused him to give up his life of princely luxury.

And finally, we can see Siddhartha Gautama here, sitting under the bodhi tree, where he meditated for six days and six nights before he reached enlightenment and became the Buddha or the enlightened one.

I'm going to show you exactly how I am going to turn the images into note form so that you know how to do it for yourself in the next few paragraphs.

Okay, so just like you, I've got the images on the screen in front of me, and I've got my key vocabulary section.

And I've already written all over those words, and those will help me when I'm writing my notes, my key information.

So the first image I can see that that is Siddhartha Gautama.

And I remember that Siddhartha Gautama was a prince at around 500 BCE.

So I'm going to say, thinking about my spelling Siddhartha Gautama, was a prince at around 500 BCE, squashed up in there because I want it to fit on one line, 500 BCE.

Second images in map, and that shows me that his kingdom was on the India/Nepal border what is today the India/Nepal border, then it was simply a kingdom that wasn't separated into two countries.

So, his kingdom was on the India/Nepal border, and I can specify that in my essay.

So the next clue I have as the four sights, and I can see the four images on the screen in front of me.

And I remember that he lived a sheltered life, and this was the first time that he'd gone out of the palace walls to go for a walk.

So four sights, I'm just going to write in note form, four sights on a walk, and I'm going to write what those four sights were in brackets.

So the first image I can see the week old man, he'd never seen old age before, and he was shocked that this suffering was a part of life.

And the next sight he saw was a sick man.

And again, he'd never seen sickness before, and he was surprised to see that sickness was a part of life, another suffering.

The third sight he saw was a corpse in a funeral parade, and he'd never seen death before, and that was a shock to see that that was a part of the suffering of life.

And then finally he saw a holy man.

And the holy man was content, despite having all this suffering going on around him, and this made Siddhartha Gautama want to change his life.

So he left his life of princely luxury to be a holy man, so I'm just going to write here that he left his life to become a holy man.

And then that last image shows me that after becoming a holy man, and after spending six years studying and learning from lots of other holy men, he decided to use meditation, he meditated under the bodhi tree for six days and nights, and that led him to become the Buddha or the enlightened one, he reached enlightenment.

So, he became the Buddha or otherwise known as the enlightened one.

So now I've got my notes, and I've used my key vocabulary and the images in front of me.

It's your turn.

So we're going to go back to the screen showing the images so that you can use them and the key vocabulary to write your own notes.

Now you've seen me turning the images into notes, you're going to turn the images into note form yourself.

Pause the video now so that you can turn those images into notes.

Great work everyone, I'm going to show you how I've turned them into notes in written form.

You saw me model it, but it's quite nice to see it on the screen in case you missed anything.

Have a closer look and pause the video so if you can record anything you've missed.

Now you've got all the key information for the first paragraph, let's move on to the second paragraph.

So again, the first thing that you need to do is record all of the key information.

Pause the video now, so that you can record the key vocabulary before we look at the images.

Now that you've recorded the key vocabulary, let's take closer look at the images.

So I've got my pointer.

Now, here, we can see that this paragraph is based on lesson two, what is the sacred text of Buddhism? Now, I can see that this is the Buddha, and the Buddha is seen here, teaching others about Buddhism.

Now, if you remember, the Buddha didn't write any of his teachings down, they were passed on through word of mouth.

Now, here, this is the symbol for the Noble Eightfold Path which doesn't come into this particular lesson necessarily, but it gives us a clue that the Buddhist teachings are called the Dharma.

Now, the Dharma were written down in the Tipitaka, and this is the sacred text of Buddhism.

And there are three separate baskets of wisdom, and these are the three different sections of the Tipitaka.

And we've got the first section, which is the Basket of Discipline, which is all about the rules of Buddhism.

The second basket is the Teaching Basket, and this includes the stories about the Buddha or the life of the Buddha.

And then we've got the Higher Doctrine Baskets, and this section or basket are the explanations of the stories from the Teaching Basket, that's why we've got why we have the symbol of the basket here.

And finally, we have this image, and up here in the key vocabulary section, I can see the word Nirvana, and that's because Buddhists use the Tipitaka so that they can learn about Buddhism and hopefully reach Nirvana through following Buddha's teachings.

Now that you know how to use the images and the key vocabulary to record in note form, pause the video so you can write notes on this particular paragraph.

Great work, now that you've recorded your own notes, I'm going to show you my notes so you can compare and contrast and add anything that you didn't include.

Here at my notes, take a closer look.

Pause the video so that you can include anything you missed.

Excellent, let's move on to our third paragraph.

And this is the last paragraph we're going to look at for today.

So, here we can see that this paragraph is about lesson three and all the things we learned in lesson three.

It's all about, why do Buddhists meditate.

If you remember in this lesson we practised a mindfulness activity so you should be quite good at this particular task.

Let's have a closer look.

The first thing that you need to do is record the key vocabulary.

Pause the video now so that you can record the key vocabulary which will help you with your note taking.

Great work everyone.

Now we're going to take a closer look at the images so that you can record your notes based on those images.

So, here in the key vocabulary section, I can see the Threefold Path.

And the Threefold Path or three sections of the Threefold Path are ethics, meditation, and wisdom, and I remember the Buddhists use the Threefold Path to help them live a good life.

The next thing I can see on the key vocabulary section are the Four Noble Truths, and here we've got the Four Noble Truths.

And the Four Noble Truths are the four key rules that Buddhists remember, or the four key truths that Buddhists Remember to help them to live their life.

Number one, all existence is dukkha.

Number two, the cause of dukkha is craving.

Number three, the end of the dukkha comes with the end of craving.

And four, there is a path that leads from dukkha.

And remember, dukkha means suffering, you've got that definition here in the First Noble Truth.

I can also see down here, that there's an image of the mind.

And I can see that meditation or I remember that meditation is all about focusing the mind.

And from the image next to it, I can see that when Buddhists meditate, they have a straight back, they close their eyes, they have their hands in their laps, they cross their legs, and they sit on the floor.

And finally, that image of the flower, well, that's all about the Passana, because sometimes Buddhists use a flower to focus on when they meditate, and Vipassana means special seeing, it's all about focusing the mind.

Pause the video now so that you can use the images and the key vocabulary to write notes about this paragraph.

Extra work everyone.

Once again, let's compare my own notes with your notes.

Pause the video now, so that you can add in anything that you've missed.

Great work everyone, you've now got everything you need in terms of notes to write your essay.

You're going to have this slide in your own worksheet slides so that you can refer back to any of the notes that you've missed when you're writing the essay.

Now, every good essay needs an introduction.

An introduction introduces the essay, it tells the reader exactly what the essay is going to be about.

Now, I've given you three different introductions that you can choose from.

You can choose one of these or you can adapt the introduction to make it your own.

We're going to read through them now.

A, Buddhism is a unique religion that originates from around 500 BCE, thousands of people worldwide follow it and meditation practises have been adopted by nonreligious people.

B, This essay aims to outline some of the unique features of the Buddhist religion.

Emerging as around 500 BCE, Buddhism has grown to include follow followers all over the world.

Read on and learn more about this fascinating religion.

C, the Buddhist religion is unique for many reasons, such as the fact that its followers do not worship a God, but instead, meditate to try and reach enlightenment.

It emerged at around 500 BCE and today has millions of followers worldwide.

I'm going to show you how to begin your essay.

So the first thing we need to do before we write our introduction, and before I choose my own introduction, is every essay needs a title.

And the title of this essay is of course, How is Buddhism Unique? You might want to write How is Buddhism a Unique Religion or What Makes Buddhism a Unique Religion, it's up to you, you can adapt the title to make it your own.

Now, I'm going to choose the first introduction, introduction A.

So I'm going to write that leaving a line underneath my title.

So, Buddhism is a unique religion that originates from around 500 BCE.

Thousands of people worldwide, thousands of people worldwide follow it, and meditation practises, and meditation, have to go to the next lines don't have enough space, and meditation practises, practises with a C not an S because it's the noun, a type of practise, meditation practises have even been adopted by nonreligious people.

That's my introduction.

I'd like you to pause the video now, so that you can write your introduction based on the introduction on the screen, choosing one of the three, or you might choose to adapt your own introduction based on the three introductions that I've written.

Pause the video now so you can write your own introduction.

Now you've seen me write my introduction and you've had a go at yours, I'm going to show you something called a structure strip.

A structure strip gives you questions to help guide the router or path of your essay.

I'm now going to show you exactly how I'm going to use the structure strip and my notes to write the first paragraph so that you know how to continue your essay when you're independently writing paragraphs two and three.

Now, I'm going to use the structure strip, and I'm going to use the notes that I wrote earlier, which I've got here, to write the first paragraph of my essay.

Now, this first paragraph is all about Siddhartha Gautama.

And I'm going to fold my notes so that I can have them above my essay.

So I cover up my introduction, I need to remember, of course, to leave a line in between my introduction and my first paragraph, so I'm just going to put a little dot there to remind myself that that's where I'm going to start.

So, the first question on the structure strip to help me write my essay says, who was Siddhartha Gautama, and when did he live? Well, I've got that key information up here.

So he was a prince, and he lived at around 500 BCE.

So I'm going to write, Siddhartha Gautama was a prince who, needs to make sure I put a comma before who, adding a relative clause, extra information, Siddhartha Gautama was a prince who lived at around 500 BCE.

You can see I've got the answer to that first question.

Okay, so the second question says, where was Siddhartha Gautama's kingdom? Again, I've got that information here, but I have to be careful because India and Nepal didn't exist as they do today, so I just have to specify that to my reader so it gives them the right information.

So his kingdom, I can even use, was situated, was situated you could say, was positioned, his kingdom was situated on what is today the border between India and Nepal.

The third question says, what did he see when he went for a walk? So remember this was the first time he'd been out of the palace, and I could specify that, so I could say, the first time that, I'm just going to use his last name here because sometimes when we've given the full name once already, we can refer to the person using their last name, the first time that Gautama, you might even want to write Prince Gautama.

The first time that Gautama left his palace he saw four sights.

Let me, going to use a colon here because I'm about to give a list of those sights.

A weak old man, a weak old man, a sick man, a semicolon, a corpse in a funeral, I'm going to write parade, you might want to write procession, in a funeral parade, and a holy man.

I'm just going to add a little bit more information for my reader here, I'm going to say, these four sights changed Gautama's life, and I'm going to use another colon 'cause I'm going to explain how they changed his life.

He learned that suffering is a part of life but spirituality can help to overcome that suffering.

So I've given a little bit more explanation than I did in my notes and that's the whole point of an essay, is to expand on the notes you've got.

So I now need to write about, how did you decide to live his life? Well, he decided to leave his life of princely luxury and become a holy man.

So I can carry on writing, as a result, so as a result of what he saw, as a result, comma, he left his life as a prince and became a holy man.

So he studied as a holy man for six years, and that's something I remember from the lesson.

So I'm going to write, after six years of living as a holy man, comma, he decided to meditate alone.

And remember he meditated under the bodhi tree, comma, under the bodhi tree for six days and six nights.

And after that, of course, he became the Buddha.

He became.

In fact I'm going to write, he reached enlightenment and became the Buddha, comma, which means the enlightened one.

So that is my introduction and my first paragraph.

So I've used my notes, my key vocabulary, my structure strip to help me to write that, and that's what you're going to do now.

Excellent, now you know how to write an essay, it's time for you to have your turn.

But quickly, let's go through some steps to success that will help you when writing.

One, writing full sentences.

Two, include key information and key vocabulary, you'll have that because you'll have your plan with you.

Three, leave a line in between each paragraph that will show the reader that each paragraph is separate and about a different idea.

Four, imagine you are explaining the topic to someone who's never learned about it before.

This is really key, you want to add extra information when it's needed, don't just rely on your note form notes and turning those into full sentences, sometimes you need to expand a bit.

I'm really excited for you to take up this challenge, an essay is a really difficult thing to do, but you have worked so hard throughout this unit and you've got everything you need to get started.

You've got a separate worksheet that includes all of the notes, the structure strip, the introduction and the steps to success.

I'm really excited to see how well you do, and this is only the first half of the essay.

In the next lesson, we'll be looking at the second half of the essay.

If you'd like to share what you've learned, you can ask your parent or carer, to share your work on Twitter @OakNational with the hashtag #LearnWithOak.

I'd love to see the first half of your essay, but you might want to wait until you've got a full essay to share with everyone online.

Great work today everyone, I'm really excited to see you take on this challenge.

See you next time.