Lesson video

Hello, everyone and welcome to our next RE lesson.

And today we are going to be continuing to write our essay all about humanism.

And throughout this unit we have learned so much about the worldview of humanism.

And today we are going to put all of that knowledge together to writing a really fantastic essay.

So let's get started.

So our learning question today is; can I write an essay about humanism? And within our lesson today, we are going to recap those core humanist beliefs that we have covered throughout our RE unit.

We're going to have a recap of our essay plan, and we worked really hard on those essay plans last lesson.

And so we've got loads of information that we're going to recap before we get on to writing.

Then we are going to choose our introduction, and an introduction is a really important part of an essay, because it's the first thing the reader is going to encounter.

So we've got to make it really eye catching, really informative as well.

And then we are going to get going on the big challenge of writing our essay, which I'm so excited for.

So, before we get stuck into our lesson, we are going to make sure we've got everything we need.

So for this lesson, you're going to need, a piece of paper or a notebook, and you're going to need your plan that you wrote last lesson as well.

So hopefully you've got that in front of you.

You're going to need a pen or a pencil, you're going to need a ruler, and of course, you are going to need your amazing, intellectual, inquisitive, creative, curious brain.

If you haven't got one of those things in front of you, or if you want to just find a really nice quiet space where you can focus and concentrate for our lesson today, then you can pause the video now and get ready for the lesson.

Okay, awesome work everybody.

So, let's get on to that recap of what humanist beliefs do we know so far? And these are going to be really important because we can include all of these within our essay today.

First of all, we know that humanists believe humans were not created by a god, they don't believe in god, and they believe that we evolved through science and they know that through scientific evidence.

They also believe that we should look to science and evidence to find truth and to work out what to believe.

rather than having faith in a supernatural power, like a god or gods.

Humanists believe that people should use reason and empathy to decide what is right or wrong.

So rather than having a set of rules to follow, or rather than having a religious text to guide them, humanists use reason, so thinking carefully about each situation and empathy, considering the feelings of other people to decide what's right and what's wrong in particular situations.

Then we know that humanists do not believe in life after death, and so they believe that we should make the most of the life we have because it's the only one we're going to get.

And finally, we know that humanists celebrate lots of different life events, just like religious people do.

However, they do it in a slightly different way.

So they might have non-religious marriage ceremonies, naming ceremonies when a child comes into a family, and funerals to commemorate those who have died as well.

So that's just a little recap of all of the things we're going to be discussing in our essay.

So our essay title is, "What makes humanism unique?" And we're going to recap our essay plan.

So we're going to be writing an essay, which we know is a longer piece of writing about a certain topic.

And our essay is going to be all about humanism and what makes humans unique.

So we're going to write an essay to show what we know and to show off all of the amazing knowledge that we've gained throughout this unit.

And in this essay, we're going to have an introduction, three main paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Now, if you haven't yet completed the planning lesson, where we planned our essays, then I advise you to stop the video now, go back and complete the planning lesson.

It's really important that you have a really strong and detailed plan in front of you before we begin writing today.

So our plan looks like this.

So we drew three columns onto our piece of paper, and those those three columns show the paragraphs, they show the key information and the key vocabulary that you're going to include in each section of your essay.

Remember that the key information is the widest column because that's going to be the most detailed bit of writing that we do.

And within our plan, we've got the introduction, we've got paragraph one, paragraph two, paragraph three, and the conclusion at the end.

So, if you haven't got your plan in front of you, pause the video now and make sure you've got it ready to go.

Okay, fantastic.

Now, in order to help us in our essay, planning and writing, here is a list of all of the different questions that we are going to be answering in each paragraph.

So if at any point today, you get stuck for what to write in a certain paragraph, you can go back to this part of the video and see this slide, and check that you've answered all of those questions within your paragraph to make it include all of the information about humanism.

So take a moment, pause the video now, look at your plan you've got in front of you on your paper, and look at the questions on the screen to make sure that you have all of the information and you've answered all of those questions within your plan.

Pause the video now, just take a check.

Okay, awesome work, everybody.

So we are ready to get going with our essay.

And the first part of our essay is the introduction.

That's the first paragraph.

And an introduction is really, really important in an essay, because it's the first thing the reader is going to see.

So within an introduction to an essay, it needs to tell the reader what the essay is going to be about, and we need to give them a brief introduction to humanism and some of the key beliefs that humanists hold.

So that's the most important thing that we need to include in our introduction.

So, I want show you three examples of introductions.

Now, you could choose to use one of these examples in your essay, or you might want to magpie or take little bits from each one and combine them into a different paragraph.

That's okay.

So you can choose to use one of these introductions in your essay, or you might choose to write your own introduction, and use little sentences or little bits here and there.

That's okay.

But this is just to help you to give you an idea.

So I'm going to show you the three different examples of introductions that I've got here.

The first one is, "Humanism is a non-religious world view." I'm going to make it bigger so that you can see it nice and clearly.

"Humanism is a non-religious worldview.

It is unique because humanists do not believe in a god or gods.

Instead they base their beliefs on science and evidence.

In this essay, I will discuss the key beliefs and ideas behind humanism." So you can see that within that example, we've got a brief overview of what humanism is and some of the key beliefs that humanists have, and then it says what we're going to discuss within the essay.

Let's have a look at the next example of an introduction.

This is our second introduction.

"Have you ever heard of humanism? Unlike many world religions, humanism is a non-religious worldview.

humanists would describe themselves as atheist, which means that they do not believe in a god.

However, there are many beliefs which make humanism a unique world view.

Read on to find out more." So again, we've got that brief overview of what humanism is.

this introduction also starts with a rhetorical question, which is a question to get the reader thinking.

So that might draw them in and make them want to read on and find out more.

So maybe that's something that you want to include in your introduction.

Then let's look at our next example.

"Humanism is a non-religious worldview based on freedom and equality.

Humanists do not believe in a God and also do not follow a set text.

Instead, they base their beliefs on reason and logic.

This is just one thing that makes humanism unique.

I will discuss more elements of humanism in this essay." So again, we've got that brief overview of what humanism is, some key beliefs, and what we're going to discuss within this essay.

So you might want to choose one of these examples to use as your introduction to your essay, or you might want to write something different and make up your own introduction.

But what you can do, is you can use the information that you've got in your plan.

So check through your planning sheets, that key information, that key vocabulary, that you can use in your introduction.

So, I'm now going to show you how I would write my introduction.

So you can see that I have my plan in front of me, and I'm going to show you how I would use my plan to start writing my essay.

So within my plan, I have my paragraph I'm writing, I've got the key information I want to include, and I've got the key vocabulary to include in each paragraph.

So you need to make sure you have this plan handy and whilst you are writing your essay.

So, let's get started.

So the first thing I'm going to do, is I'm going to begin by writing the title of my essay.

And I know the title of our essay is called, "What makes humanism." Now, humanism doesn't need a capital h, it can just have a small h here.

"What makes humanism unique?" That's the question.

So I'm going to add a question mark in there.

Now I'm going to use my ruler to underline it to make it super neat.

Perfect.

So I've got my plan in front of me and I know the first thing that I need to write is my introduction.

Now I'm going to choose one of the example introductions that I showed you before.

So I'm going to choose introduction C, and it's going to begin; "Humanism is a non-religious worldview based on freedom and equality." And I'm going to put full stop at the end of my sentence.

"So humanism is a non-religious worldview based on freedom and equality." So I've already said one of the key beliefs of humanism there.

And then I'm going to add in, that "Humanists do not follow a set text and do not believe in a god." Then I want to add in that other key belief of humanists that they should and base all of their beliefs on facts and evidence.

"So instead," we're going to add a comma after instead.

"Instead, they base their beliefs on reason and logic." Then, as my final sentence, "This is just one of the things that makes humanism unique.

"This is just one of the things that makes humanism unique." And then I'm going to add in a comma, "I will discuss more elements of humanism in this essay." So there I've written my first paragraph, my introduction of my essay.

The first thing I did, was write the title of my essay and underline it neatly with a ruler.

And then I've chosen one of the three examples of the introductions that I showed you on the screen.

Now you can choose one of those three introductions to use in your essay, or you can make up your own that is absolutely fine.

And you can use that key information in your plan to help you to do that.

So, here are your three examples of introductions that you might want to use in your essay, if you don't want to use one of these and you want to make up your own, and that's also fine.

Pause the video now and write the introduction to your essay.

Okay, so now we are getting on to the really exciting part.

We've already got a really informative and exciting introduction written down to our essay.

And now is the best bit because we get to write the whole thing.

And we're going to use our plan for each paragraph to write our essay and to make our paragraphs really interesting, really informative, and using all of the information that we've learned throughout this unit.

So, take a quick look at your paragraph one plan, look at the key information that you are going to include and have a look at the key vocabulary that you're going to include in that paragraph.

So, I'm now I'm going to show you how I might go about writing my first paragraph.

Now I've completed my introduction, I am going to look to paragraph one of my plan.

And I know that in paragraph one, I am discussing where do humanists find their truth? Where do they find their truth? So, I'm going to look through my plan, look at those key points here, and then look at the key vocabulary that I have got in my plan, and I need to make these bullet point notes into full sentences.

So, I want to include first of all, I'm going to make sure I include the word atheist and agnostic in this first sentence, as well as supernatural.

So, after my introduction, I'm going to leave a line blank, and then start my first paragraph on this line.

The reason I do that is to keep my paragraphs nice and neat, and to make my essay really nice and clear and easy to read.

So my first paragraph is going to begin by discussing where humans come from.

So, "Humanists are atheists," One key vocabulary word already, "Or agnostic." And then I'm going to add a comma and add another clause "Which means they do not believe in a god or supernatural creator of the world" So that's my first sentence.

"Humanists are atheists or agnostic, which means they do--" Oh, I made a mistake there and is double check.

"They do not." That's why it's so important guys to read over your work and make sure that you haven't missed out any cheeky words there.

"So humanists are atheists or agnostic, which means they do not believe in a god or supernatural creator of the world.

They base that beliefs on a fact, and scientific evidence.

Therefore, they believe that humans were not created by a god, humans were not created by a god but that we evolved over millions of years." I have put a full stop at the end of my sentence there.

So, so far I've got; "Humanists are atheist or agnostic.

Which means they do not believe in a god or supernatural creator of the world.

They base their beliefs on facts and scientific evidence.

Therefore, they believe that humans were not created by God, that we evolved over millions of years." So then if I look back to my plan, I can see that I've already included this point from my plan.

So I'm actually going to give it a little tick, so that I know I've included that point.

I've also already included the word supernatural, the word evidence, and the word atheist and agnostic.

So I've already in my first sentence, included lots of those things.

I've also discussed how they base their beliefs on science and on evidence.

So the next thing I can talk about in this paragraph, is the fact that they don't believe things on faith, and that means believing things, even without evidence, and that humanists can change their beliefs based on new evidence.

So as you go through each paragraph, really look carefully at the points that you've got down in your plan, and see if you can make them from bullet point notes into full sentences to make a full paragraph.

So there, you've got an example of how I would start my first paragraph and after my introduction.

Now, in just a moment, you're going to have a go at writing your essay.

But first of all, let's go through some steps to success.

So things that are going to make your essay really, really amazing.

Firstly, you're going to write in full sentences.

So within your plan, you might have just written some notes using bullet points or key words, but now you're going to put your plan into full sentences to write your paragraph.

You're going to be include key information and key vocabulary.

So using all of those things in your plan, you might want to have your plan in front of you, and when you include one of your bullet points, maybe you could give it a tick on your plan, so you know, you've included that piece of information that's going to help you as you're writing.

Our next step to success, is making sure that you leave a line between each paragraph.

That way, your work will be really nice and neat, and your paragraphs will be really clear.

And finally, throughout the essay, I want you to imagine that you're explaining this topic to somebody who's never learned about it before.

So imagine that you need to explain humanism to somebody who's never heard of humanism before, and has never studied humanism.

So you've got to make your arguments really, really clear and precise.

So those are our steps to success, and it's now time for you to have a go at writing your essay.

So before you write each paragraph, I want you to check through your plan, look through the key information and the key vocabulary that you are going to include for each paragraph.

Okay? This is going to be a big challenge to you, but I'm so, so confident that you can all do it really, really well.

And if you get stuck, have a look back to this table, which shows you all of the questions that you need to answer within your essay.

So using this, using your plan, and using your amazing brains, you are going to have a go at writing your essay.

So pause the video now and have a go.

Wow, fantastic work today team.

I am so excited for these essays.

I really hope that you've managed to write a really wonderful essay.

And I bet you have.

I bet you've used all of that amazing knowledge in your wonderful brain and put it all into a fantastic essay.

This' going to be super interesting to read.

Writing an essay is a really, really tricky thing to do, but it's so important if you can master this now and become an expert on it.

Now while you're in primary school, then when you get older, it's going to be super, super easy, and you're going to be amazing at doing this throughout your school career.

So, well done from me for your hard work today.

And if you are really proud of the work you've done, and you should be super proud, then you might like to share that work with the Oak National team.

If you want to do that, you could ask a parent or carer, to take a photo of your work and upload it to social media using the #LearnwithOak and tagging @OakNational.

That way, your Oak teachers could see the wonderful work you are doing at home.

And I would absolutely love to see any of the essays that you have written about humanism.

So, awesome job today guys.

Give yourself a pat on the back.

Well done.

And I will see you next lesson where we're going to be looking at some of the elements in our essays and seeing how we can edit and improve.

So I'll see you then, bye.