Lesson video

Hi, my name's Miss Speakman.

This is a stand alone lesson which is helping us to structure discuss and evaluate questions for the GCSE.

I hope you'll find this really, really useful for your upcoming GCSE for trying to improve on structuring and answering these longer questions and hopefully give you a little bit more guidance on what sort of things are best to include and what sort of things are recommended, so some top tips.

So in our lesson today, we're going to learn how to structure a discuss and evaluate question and try and be as inclusive of exam boards as possible, though of course, because I teach AQA, I know that there may be some errors or small errors in what I say today.

But I'm going to do my to be as inclusive of exam boards as possible.

It's always best though to check with your teacher which exam boards you are with and then when we're practising , whether or not this is the right sort of thing for your exam board.

I'm also going to complete a question together.

So I'm going to sort of walk you through how I would answer a question on the GCSE paper.

So, let's make sure that we are ready for our lesson today then please.

We need a pen or a pencil, a piece of paper and an exercise book, and a different coloured pen for corrections.

You're also going to need a nice quiet working space.

So TV and music off, phone to one side if not using it for the lesson.

That means that you can focus really, really well on what we're doing today.

And then if you haven't got a clear working space, or a nice clear desk space, please get yourself ready now.

So if you need to get yourself ready at all, can you please pause the video and unpause when you're ready to start learning.

Okay, so brilliant, let's go.

So these discuss or evaluate questions, the reason why I've put discuss/evaluate is because you'll see that command word in different exam boards.

The longer questions are either worth 12 or 15 marks in the GCSE, will either have the command work 'evaluate' or 'discuss.

' They're pretty much, they're very similar in what their expecting and so we're going to sort of do it all together today and I will specify for you which exam boards are which, but you'll probably find that, essentially, they are very, very similar apart from how many marks they're worth.

Like I said before, it's really important that you ask your teacher which exam board you are sitting, so you know, sort of, where to place all of this within your head and within your structure of your GCSE.

As I said, I will be trying to be as inclusive of exam boards as possible, it may be that I've missed something which is important for one certain exam board and therefore that's why it's really important to check with your teacher which exam board you are sitting and perhaps maybe they have some added advice as to what they would say for that particular exam board you are sitting.

So I hope that I will cover everything, even if I don't, the things that we'll be doing today will be useful for all exam boards and will be important for revision and for structuring questions in general.

So I really hope it will be helpful for you.

So when we're looking at the discuss and evaluate questions we have OCR, Eduqas and WJEC where the questions will be worth 15 marks.

In AQA and Edexcel this question will be worth 12 marks.

So how they are answered will be very similar, but of course you'll see different command words discuss or evaluate and you'll also see a different amount of marks for this type of question.

But like I said, it will be very, very similar.

There are some teachers which give you a set structure in terms of, like I would use P chains for the 4 and 5 mark questions with my students in AQA, which is like point evidence explanation.

There are some teachers who give specific structure for the 12 mark or the 15 mark like that.

So if your teacher does have that, it would be a really good idea to ask them how they think you should structure within them.

But the exam boards themselves don't give a particular preference as to how you structure answer.

So I always say, really, you could answer the question in a number of different ways, but there are some top things you should be including in your answer.

So I would say don't stick necessarily to a set structure, but your teacher may say differently.

So what type of things need to be included? So I said about, you know, they're not including structure, necessarily, but what type of things need to be in the answer for it to be a really, really good answer.

So reference to scriptures, teachings, sources of authority and wisdom, stories, facts, figures, anything that we might sort of class as evidence.

Now I talk about this quite a lot with my students because they are like really, really keen to include as many quotations as possible from scripture and well that's great, of course, learn new quotations and include those, but having a range of different types of evidence is also really important.

That shows a really good knowledge, so, for example, being able to refer to case studies that are sort of in the news at the time; being able to give paraphrased stories within religious texts; facts and figures, especially for thematic units where you might be talking about things like divorce or sex outside of marriage, or abortion, et cetera.

Giving like facts or figures, so, for example, this is not a real fact and figure, I'm just taking it off the top of my head, 45% of marriages end in divorce, that's a piece of evidence; you're using something to support the points of view that you are writing about.

So being able to refer to that all the way through your answer looks really, really good.

Not, of course, just dropping a quotation in there and leaving it, but being able to explain how that supports the argument that you are writing about.

You need to have a range of different views within this type of answer.

Many exam boards cap you at a certain amount marks if you haven't got both sides of the argument, but it also, of course, looks better.

If you're looking for a discuss or evaluate question, it's very hard to discuss and very hard to evaluate, if you don't have a range of different views to discuss and to evaluate.

And you need to have what we call a justified conclusion.

It's really common for people in any subject, really, when we have a conclusion just to sort of write "In conclusion, there are lots of different views." That's not really what we're looking for in this type of question.

Because this is a discuss and evaluate question, you needs what's called a justified conclusion.

You need to talk about which side of the argument is the stronger side of the argument and give reasons why.

Now I sort of talk about it in terms of, when I'm teaching my students, this idea of debating, when you're having a debate with someone, not an argument because debating is more sophisticated.

You've thought through the arguments, et cetera.

When you have a debate with somebody, you don't just say "Here's my view" and they say "yeah, here's my view" and then at the end you go "that's cool, we've got different views." Usually, it's the case that you'd go back and forth as though you might say "I believe this" and you say "well actually, I've got these things "that tell me that this is wrong" and then you go back and forth until you get to this point where you say "Well I think my side of the argument is stronger "because of these reasons." That's the sort of thing we want to be doing with this type of question.

So my top tips for writing a really, really good answer for a 12 or a 15 marker: Include your range of views.

If you're able to write different denominations within Christianity, for example, within Islam, or any of the other religions you may be studying.

If you're able write different religions within the same questions, if you're able bring non-religious views, if you're able to sort of discuss why some Christians or some Muslims might agree, and why might some disagree.

All of those things are really, really useful.

Including a range of teachings or pieces of evidence.

Having more than just quotations.

So, like, stories, facts and figures, et cetera.

That just looks really, really good.

It shows you have a wide range or wide understanding of that religious tradition or that non-religious tradition.

Considering the strengths and weaknesses of teachings as well.

So, perhaps, maybe if you've included "Some Christians believe this" and then you've given a verse, right, and then you might say "this shows this" and then you might say "actually, this a strong argument "or a weak argument because of these reasons" because we often have that sort of viewpoint when we're looking at a range of views.

For example, you might look at a new story and then think "I don't like that argument, "that has some flaws to it." Use that here, in these sorts of questions too.

Being able say "this is a strong argument" or "this is a weak argument because." And then sort of give your reasons behind it.

Having an evaluative conclusion is really important; being able to think about the strengths and weaknesses of the whole argument, the whole statement that you're discussing and coming to a clear judgement.

Not just saying, for example, "In conclusion, I think this is really good, "there's lots of different views, the end." Doesn't really work like that, so something like "the strongest argument is," "this is because of these reasons," "the other side of the argument "has some flaws to it," et cetera.

That looks really, really good.

And not being in the middle either, having an evaluative conclusion means taking a stand, having a set position.

Doesn't mean you personally have to agree to it.

As well as it is a really good idea to consider structures that allow for more sort of discussion to take place.

So in our lesson today, we're probably going to focus on how to structure a paragraph itself, but it's also a really good idea to try and think about how we can consider a structure that allows for more discussion to take place.

So, for example, having an agree paragraph, like some Christians will say this, for a number of reasons, however some Christians may disagree and say this, blah, blah, blah.

Then they may be respond by saying this and also Muslims would agree.

Having that sort of back and forth is a really good way of having, just like you would have a discussion in real life.

What I'm going to do is show you an example structure within our paragraphs, then after that I'm going to go through with you a type of question, that's discuss and evaluate question, how I would go about answering it, what sort of things I would like to include, giving some model paragraphs so you can see what it looks like.

You will have a go a writing some yourself, so that by the end of the lesson, you will have had a completed 12/15 discuss/evaluate question.

Hopefully you'll feel more confident with it, and then, of course, after that you are free to go back and practise as many as you want.

I always say to my students that practising them as much as you can just makes it a lot easier.

At first people find these really hard, which I understand, I found them hard at first when I was doing them.

Believe it or not, when I was your age, a long time ago.

But they do get a lot easier the more you practise them just because you're used to them, you know exactly what you want to write, you know the structure you're going to use, you're not sitting there thinking about "oh what do I include" or "how do I write this." So what we're going to do, is I'm going to give you a set structure that we're going to use for today, doesn't have to be one that you use all the time, but I'm going to show you an example of a structure that you might want to use.

So, I'm going to disappear for that and then we'll have a go at having a look at a question.

So I've talked about how you might want to have a discussion style question in terms of like a structure which allows you for more discussion.

Here's my top tip for how you might do this.

So you might have, for example, "Some Christians would agree with.

." and then you would use the wording of the statement.

Don't just put "they would agree with the statement." That doesn't sound as great as writing "some Christian's would agree that "sex outside of marriage should never happen, because.

." then you'd give a short reason or a short explanation.

Then, you would then say "this is supported by.

." then you'd give reference to evidence.

"This shows.

." and then you'd explain what that verse shows about that statement and why it essentially agrees or disagrees with it.

You could then also, if you're looking to include more verses or you think actually there's a lot of stuff within Christianity that would support this view.

You can then say "this view is also supported by.

." then you give more teachings which show, et cetera, then explain it.

Then, after that, you can say "However, there are teachings within bible, "which would lead some Christians to disagree, "for example.

." then you'd give those teachings.

"This shows.

." et cetera.

Then you can say something along the lines of "This is a strong or a weak argument because.

." and then explain that strength or that weakness.

So what I think this is really useful for is thinking about how do I include as much as possible in terms of teaching and how can I make it as discussive as possible.

Otherwise we sort of see paragraphs as agree, disagree, conclusion.

It doesn't sound as discussive as sort of going back and forth.

So like, here's some arguments for however some people would disagree with this.

Then there's something else within Christianity that says this, et cetera, et cetera.

It just sounds better, it sort of flows better.

If you'd like to make any notes on this, please pause the video.

If you wanted to perhaps, maybe, write down some sentence starters that you think would be really useful, or you wanted to write down the whole example, that's completely up to you.

So please pause the video now if you'd like to then afterwards we're going to move on to what the question is and we're going to start practising.

Okay, we're going to start off with this question which is "Only Christians go to heaven.

"Evaluate or discuss this statement." I've put evaluate and discuss, because obviously we could use these interchangeably depending on the exam board, but the question is "Only Christians go to Heaven." This question would be from the Christianity beliefs unit, so we need different points of view within Christianity.

As it's within the Christianity unit, you can only refer Christian teachings.

That would be the same for the Islam paper, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, et cetera.

You will only be able to discuss it within that religion.

When we get to the thematic units, then, of course you can bring in different religions, and different teachings, but with this question, which comes from the Christianity unit, we only want to be referring to Christian teachings.

You will also, of course, need a justified conclusion.

What I'd like you to do first of all, for me please is to pause the video and write down that statement for me, please and then unpause when you're ready to start thinking about we'd answer it.

Okay, thank you, hopefully you've written down the statement you've got it, and you're ready.

I know some people get really nervous about writing these longer answers.

I can sort of see it.

There's a lot of stuff to write, and there's usually a lot of stuff to include, but if we take it one step at a time, break it down, make it easier, so that hopefully you feel a bit more confident with them.

So you need to make sure you've got different points of view say, why some Christians might agree that only Christians go to Heaven or why some might disagree that it's not just Christians who get to go to Heaven, and then you come to a justified conclusion.

So let's start doing this together.

I'm going to disappear and then we'll talk through it together, okay? You can do it.

So the first thing I'd like you to do is to write some bullet points as to why people might agree with the statement that only Christians go to Heaven.

I want you to try and include as many religious teachings as you can; so perhaps quotations would be really really useful if you can just jot a couple down if you know some.

So pause the video now, spend about 4 minutes on this, write some bullet points as to why people might agree with the statement only Christians go to Heaven.

Okay, here is my bullet points.

So you can see here I've written a fair bit for the last one but I've just essentially now just written down some bullet points of quotations I think would be really useful or I've talked about some things that I think would be really useful in general.

So "Jesus answered him, 'I am the way, the truth, "and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me.

'" "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life.

"Those who believe in me will live, even though they die.

'" And then the idea that "Salvation is not something we can earn ourselves.

"Instead it is a graceful gift from God.

"It is through Jesus' sacrifice that they are redeemed.

"All a person needs to do is accept the gift, "which means believing in the power of God's sacrifice.

And I've got the quotation: "'For sin pays its wage, death; but God's free gift "is eternal life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.

'" Now these 3 ideas are my bullet points as to why some Christians might agree that only Christians go to Heaven, because we have the teaching from Jesus which suggests that it's only through Jesus that people get to Heaven.

So believing in Jesus and his sacrifice.

And the second one says "I am the resurrection and the life.

"Those who believe in me will live." And essentially this is referring to some Christians believe those who believe in the sacrifice of Jesus will be the ones who go to Heaven.

And lastly, many Christians believe in this idea of grace.

This idea that God gives this grace freely, nothing you can do to earn it, and that salvation, being saved from your sins, is a gift from God and all you have to do to get that free gift is to believe in the power of God's sacrifice.

That last verse, here, is the idea that when you sin, the wage for it so what you get paid for it is death, eternal death, Hell.

But God's free gift, grace, is eternal life in union with Jesus Christ, essentially.

Heaven.

So these three verses seem to suggest that only Christians go to Heaven.

If you think any of these would be really useful for you, then you can note them down in a moment.

It's absolutely fine if you've got other things too, there could be plenty of other reasons why some Christians might believe only Christians go to Heaven.

But what I'd like you to do, is to pause the video now, please, and jot some of these down if you'll find them useful.

Then unpause when you're ready to move on.

Okay, so, moving on.

I want you to now do the same for the disagree side of the argument.

So I want you to write some bullet points, please, as to why some people might disagree with the statement only Christians go to Heaven.

See if you can include as many religious teachings as you can.

Spend about 4 minutes, bullet pointing your ideas, and then unpause when you're ready to look through mine as well.

So, here's my disagree.

I've got my agree on the left hand side, but I've got my disagree here.

Some would argue that God is all loving, he would not want to send anyone to Hell for eternity.

God's unconditional love for humans means that he wants to have a relationship with everyone.

And I've got a verse here which says "There are many rooms in my Father's house, "and I am going to prepare a place for you." This is a bible verse which is referring to there being lots of different places in Heaven.

Some Christians would interpret this to mean there's a place in Heaven for everybody.

Second point, those who do good deeds will go to Heaven regardless of their faith.

The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats says "I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the "least important of these members of my family, "you did it for me." Many Christians would say those who do good deeds, especially following the teachings of Jesus, but other people who do good deeds too, can get the option to go to Heaven.

And some Christians believe only Christians who have faith and do good deeds, so not just Christians who believe, but Christians who do good deeds too.

"So it is with faith, if it is alone "and includes no actions, then it is dead." Some Christians might criticise the idea that you just have to believe in the power of the sacrifice and not do good deeds.

They'd say, actually those need to come together, otherwise you can't go to Heaven.

You can't just have a Christian who goes "oh yeah, I believe in Jesus" but doesn't do any good deeds in their life.

So if you think any of those points would be really useful for you, you need to pause the video in a moment and write them down.

It's absolutely fine, again, if you've got your own views.

If you've got some things which you perhaps think correct too, that's absolutely fine.

These sorts of answers are really, really good when people have all sorts of different views.

So pause the video now, write anything down if you need to, and then unpause when you're ready and we'll start writing answers.

Okay, so I've got an example agree paragraph here.

I've taken one of my points and then I've explained it in the way that I'd like to see it be done in an exam question.

I don't want you to do anything with this other than read along while I'm reading it out, just so you can see what it looks like in practise.

I think it's sometimes really hard to look at your points of view that you've bullet pointed and then what does this look like when I actually write this out.

So I've given you an example agree paragraph.

Some Christians may agree that only Christians go to Heaven as they are the only ones to accept the free gift of grace.

Those Christians would say that salvation is not something that we are able to earn ourselves and it is only through Jesus's sacrifice that they are redeemed.

All a person needs to do is accept the gift, which means believing in the power of God's sacrifice.

This is supported in the Bible when it says, "For sin pays its wage, death; "but God's free gift is eternal life "in union with Christ Jesus our Lord." This verse is explaining that the payment for sin is an eternal death, but God's free gift of grace is Heaven with Jesus.

Therefore, some would believe that you have to have the belief in Jesus's sacrifice in order to go to Heaven, which non-Christians will not have.

Now you'll see there at the beginning, I haven't just said "some Christians will agree will agree with this statement." I said "some Christians may agree "that only Christians go to Heaven." I've used the wording of it.

It sounds better, doesn't it? It sounds like it flows better.

I've used a verse.

I've explained it.

And I've explained what sort of influence this will have then on the statement.

I've linked it back at the end.

I've said some would believe that you have to have that belief in order to go to Heaven, which non-Christians will not have, which directly refers to that statement at the beginning.

So, I hope that you've found this bit useful, because now I'm going to get you to have a go at using your bullet points to write your own agree paragraphs.

So, moving on.

I'm going to get you to pause the video on the next slide.

I'm going to give you your instructions for starting to write out your own agree paragraphs.

So I've got my points here, but of course you can use your own ideas too.

The better that your answers are, will be to do with what you believe you can really really write about really really effectively.

So I want you to write some paragraphs for this side of the argument.

There isn't really a set structure, you can see there what I did before.

It is, maybe, a helpful structure and different teachers will give different advice for you, how you might want to structure it.

You will need to use, though, and this is to do with any sort of question, you need to use logical chains of reasoning.

You need to write in full sentences.

You need to fully explain.

You need to include quotations or teachings.

Consider how strong or weak a point is.

Explain in full, link back to the question.

And you may want to consider having arguments to agree, then counter arguing these with a disagree point.

This is something you might want to practise more after this lesson.

So what I'd like you to do is pause now, and maybe take 2 or 3 of the things you've got bullet pointed and write some agree paragraphs for me, please.

This probably should take you, because we're doing it broken down like this and probably one of the first times you've done it in this way, spend about 8 to 10 minutes on it.

Usually these sorts of questions should take you a mark per minute, so 12 or 15 minutes, but we're going to take it a little bit slower today, just so we get more used to it.

So pause the video now, please, and have a go at writing your agree paragraphs.

Unpause when you're ready to move on.

Okay, so here's my example disagree paragraph and then we're going to have a go at writing our disagree paragraph ourselves.

Some Christians may disagree and argue that only Christians going to Heaven does not fit with God's nature as being omnibenevolent.

If God is omnibenevolent, then surely he would want everyone to go to Heaven and for no one to suffer in Hell for eternity? They may support this with the Bible teaching, "there are many rooms in my Father's house, "and I am going to prepare a place for you." In this verse, Jesus is implying that there is space in Heaven for everyone.

This, however, is a weak argument because as well as being omnibenevolent, Christians believe that God is just, so it is fair for him to send some people to Hell, especially if they have done evil actions.

Now you'll see this time, I've added whether or not I think it's a strong or a weak argument.

I think this is a really useful way of engaging and discussing throughout your answer.

Again, if you find this useful, you can pause now and take some notes down for it.

If not, we're going to now have a go at doing our disagree paragraphs ourselves.

So pause now if you need to, unpause when you're ready.

Okay, so, you've already written some amazing agree paragraphs.

So now we're going to write some amazing disagree paragraphs.

So you're going to pause the video on the next slide.

I've got my points for the disagree up there.

You've got your own.

We can do it! So, here are my disagrees.

Again, you're going to use these or you can use your own or a mixture of these, use a couple of them to write your disagree paragraphs.

Using your logical chains of reasoning, considering strong or weak points, you can do it.

Spend about 8 to 10 minutes on it and then unpause when you are ready.

Okay, you are almost there.

You have almost completed an amazing 12 or 15 mark question.

Are you impressed? I think you should be impressed, you've worked super, super hard so far.

Now, a really good conclusion is so important.

I think, often, people get to the point, when their doing these questions, they say "oh, I've just got to do my conclusion, "a couple of sentences, done, brilliant, done, move on." Actually, your conclusion is so important.

In many of the exam boards, you get a certain amount of marks capped if you don't have a conclusion and a certain amount of marks capped if that conclusion is not really evaluative.

So when you think about how do we write a really good conclusion to make sure we get into those top bands.

So you need to make sure you've got a clear judgement on the statement.

So not just saying, "Oh I don't really know, "there's lots of different views, both are pretty good." So being clear.

It doesn't mean that you have to necessarily agree or disagree with what you're saying, but making sure you've got a clear judgement.

And give at least 2 reasons to support this judgement.

Often people ask me "am I able to bring in "my own views, or am I able to bring in views "I didn't use before in the the answer," and the answer is, yes.

In ARI, it's more than possible for you to bring in different views that you haven't used in the paragraphs to support that judgement.

I often say, if you're running out of time, and you hadn't included something you really wanted to include, this is the way to do it.

So, you need a clear judgement and 2 clear reasons to well explain.

So, I'm going to give you a structure and we're going to practise write one together so that you've now completed your answer.

So again you're going to pause the video in the next slide to complete your task.

I'm going to give you a structure for the conclusion.

So, I want you to use "Overall, the strongest argument is.

." "This is because.

." and then you need to give reason 1.

"and then also.

." give reason 2.

It's probably a really good idea to start it off with "Overall, the strongest argument is.

." rather than "I think.

." It just sounds better, it sounds more evaluative.

Usually any conclusion that starts with "I" won't be as strong as one that starts with "Overall, the strongest argument is.

." I want you to pause the video, please.

Have a go at doing this and then I will give you an example conclusion.

Pause, and then unpause when you're ready.

Okay, my model is: Overall, the strongest argument is that it is not only Christians who go to Heaven.

Although in the Bible Jesus says, "no one goes to the Father except by me" which implies needing faith in Jesus, God is meant to be just and it would be unjust for someone who has led a good life to spend eternity in Hell.

As well as this, there are teachings such as the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, which talk about those who do good deeds having a place in Heaven.

This could mean non-Christians too.

You can see there, that it's actually quite a lengthy paragraph, isn't it? A conclusion should be a substantial length.

This allows you to really go into depth and to really explain.

So, well done.

If you've now finished your conclusion, you've essentially got a nice, completed answer, haven't you? Well done! So you have a completed discuss/evaluate question.

How do you feel? You should feel really impressed! I find usually that students struggle with this type of question the most, they find them really hard, don't know where to start.

So, at the very least, even if you're not feeling 100% confident with them, you have made a step today in getting yourself better at these types of questions.

I really hope it's been useful.

I really hope you've taken something away from today.

And I really hope that you continue to practise these, because practise makes permanent.

What I mean by that, is the more you practise, the more permanent it gets in your long term memory and the easier it is to write one of these sorts of questions.

My best top tip is: you need to know your stuff.

So to be able to answer these questions really really well.

What I mean by that is, the more you revise the content, the more you know your content really well, the better you can engage with it and the quicker you're able to write an answer to this question without think about "oh what's the verse say again?" Et cetera, et cetera.

So when usually I do one of these types of questions with my students, I might often say to them, you have 15 minutes to write and I'm going to write in that time too, and usually I finish about 5 minutes before they do.

And that's just because I know my content inside out, because I'm a teacher, I'm supposed to know my content inside out.

And therefore, I'm quicker at writing one because of the fact that I don't have to sit there and think about what I'm going to put into it.

And because I've practised this structure and what I expected to see from it and what I want to see in the answer, the conclusion, et cetera, so many times.

The more you do these practise questions, the better you will get at them, and the more that you know the content, the better you will get at them.

I think my top tip is, all throughout your GCSE, whenever you can, write an answer to one of these questions, hand it to your teacher, say please mark this, and your teacher will be like "oh amazing, you're completing these questions!" Some of my students, I think, sometimes give me some that they've done and think like "oh, I'm giving her more marking "she's going to be cross." and I'm like, "No, yay, GCSE questions!" I love marking them, because I really love seeing the progression that people make with these sorts of questions.

And I really love that feeling when I'm teaching, at the beginning of the year when they're like, "I could never do this, "I can't write an answer in 15 minutes.

How's it possible?" And at the end of the GCSE, them going "Oh, okay, I can't believe that I found "that so hard at the beginning of the GCSE." And I'm like "I know, it's happened countless times." Anyway, I'm waffling.

I'm sure you want to get off and do something else.

Perhaps you want to get away and do some more practise questions, that would be brilliant.

So I want to a huge, huge thank you for working so hard today.

I know it was a tricky thing to do.

I really hope you've enjoyed it and I really hope you found it useful.

Thank you, good bye.