Lesson video

Welcome to today's English lesson.

I'm Mrs. Crompton.

Before we begin our learning, let's make sure we have everything we need.

You will need a pen and paper.

Take a moment to make sure you've cleared any distractions away and have everything you need at hand.

To begin with, then, let's have a little think about what each one of our individuals has achieved.

So how did each one of them push beyond their limits? What did they do? And what qualities did they demonstrate? If you just pause while you have look at the screen and jot down your responses.

So what did Aron Ralston do literally? And then what did you find inspirational about his behaviour, his actions, his attitude, et cetera? And have a little think about each of the characters.

So I'll just leave that to you to work through one by one.

Pause the screen as you're doing so.

And when you're ready, I'll be waiting for you.

And welcome back.

So let's add to this, then.

We're going to try and work out who has inspired us the most.

So I want to give you a little bit more structure around your thinking.

Let's start with the following.

The word "inspiration" comes from the Latin "inspiratus," and it means "to breathe into, inspire." I really like that image of something being breathed into you, the idea that this person's actions have actually ignited something inside you, have brought something to life.

Which one of them matches that definition? A second bullet point for you to consider: What qualities would you be looking for in an inspirational individual? You need to know what you're looking for, don't you? So can you name what those qualities are? And that's another measure against which you can decide who your inspirational person is going to be.

And then the third bullet, the third suggestion, is for you to consider what you have learnt from any of these individuals.

So I've got three prompts for you.

Pause again, think through, and just start to refine some of your ideas.

And it might be that you want to write a sentence in response to this: "The qualities I'm looking for.

." "The person that has inspired me the most is.

." Just start playing around with some of those ideas in response to the thinking prompts.

Over to you.

As soon as you are ready, we'll have a look at the next step.

Welcome back.

So what we're going to do now is just to take it from a slightly different angle, and we're going to look at an evaluative comment about the three individuals that I've written.

And we're just going to work through the layers of evidence you might need in order to be able to be comfortable in having enough material to back up your argument as to why either Ralston, Simpson, or Isabella Bird are your favoured individual in terms of being inspirational figures.

So here's a statement from me: "All three individuals demonstrate admirable qualities, "taking on canyons, mountains, and volcanoes, "but it is Bird who must be considered "the most inspirational.

"Not only are her physical actions bold and daring, "but she is a pioneering female "who pushes beyond the social limitations placed on her." So I've put together a paragraph, an argument as to why I choose Bird.

Oh, I've chosen Bird just for the sake of this exercise.

I can actually see really strong qualities in each of the individuals, and I want to know what you think.

But we'll take that as our starting point, okay? And what I would like you to do is to draw our ovals onto a fresh piece of paper.

So the outside rectangle represents your piece of paper in a landscape format.

And you're going to draw me your two ovals so that we can use this as a planning frame.

I shall now close my eyes and not see your oval drawing while you do that because this is always the messiest part.

And when you're ready, we will move on to the next step.

Now, I'm sure your ovals are delightful.

Let's look at the next step, and let's actually look at what we're going to do with our planning.

So I'm giving you a few ideas to play around with and to argue for or against, okay? So you don't have to agree with this.

We're not going to be writing an evaluative response.

I actually want this to be quite free and personal in terms of writing style.

This is about your thoughts and feelings.

So I'm here at this point just to help you with your thinking.

So if we have this statement, "All three individuals demonstrate admirable qualities, "taking on canyons, mountains, and volcanoes, but it's Bird "who must be considered the most inspirational," your first response might be, "No, she's not." So you write that down in the green space, your response to that and why.

"Not only are her physical actions bold and daring, "but she's a pioneering female "who pushes beyond the social limitations placed on her." So again, you think about that part.

You decide what your thoughts are.

You might agree; you might disagree.

You could be refining your response to your own individual as you go along.

But use that as something to argue against, to start generating ideas, and to start thinking about how to frame the qualities that are required of an inspirational person.

Do they have to be bold and daring? Is it a physical thing that we're looking for from an inspirational person, or is it a moral thing, okay? So think about the statement and what ideas you would like to challenge, add to, counter-argue, et cetera.

And place those in the green space.

When you have finished that, then move on to the next screen.

But pause for now, complete that, and then move on to the next screen.

So for our next section, we're going to fill in the orange oval or the donut in the middle there.

And now we're going to think of examples.

Now you might be thinking, "Mrs. Crompton, I can't remember the details." That's fine.

There will be details generally in your mind that are key moments.

And then what I will be giving you in a moment is an opportunity to have a look at all three texts, but obviously, particularly the one that you're interested in.

And you can get your supporting detail then.

So right now, we're thinking about examples of actions.

And then you can expand on that later with some concrete evidence.

So again, freeze the screen for now.

Resume when you are ready.

Final comment.

So in my statement, I've said that she is a pioneering female who pushes beyond social limitations placed on her.

And I'm trying to push towards this bigger-picture idea.

If you're going with that, that's brilliant.

And then you can put in any additional big-picture ideas in a final overview statement as to why Bird is your inspirational figure.

If you have been arguing against that, again, think about your framing comments and what you're going to put into the central section now as this overview.

And this is what your argument is going to be hung on.

These are your main ideas.

So again, freeze the screen, think through your ideas, and then try and get the phrasing just so, trying to extend out to those big-picture concepts too.

Welcome back, everybody.

So now, what you're going to see are all three texts.

So that's a lot of slides.

And they're going to be broken up with this purple screen so it's really clear where one text begins and the other one ends.

So what I'd like you to do is to select the one that is relevant to you, to reread it, and really refresh your memory about the reasons why that person is inspirational to you.

Now, the angle that I'm going at is very different to things that we have discussed.

This isn't about analysing the language.

This isn't about looking at his perspective.

This is about how you have engaged with this extract.

And it's about you telling me what you really liked about the way they handled a certain aspect of this event and what you've learnt from that behaviour and how that person has ignited something in you, okay? So think about those examples that really touch you, that really inspire you, that really talk to you as a message.

That's your task now.

So we're going to go through.

Fast-forward any bits that are not relevant to you.

So if you're not interested in Aron Ralston, then skip on.

It's going to go in order: Ralston first, then Simpson, and then Isabella Bird, i.

e.

, the order in which we have read them previously, just so that you know where to track.

But you are now in control of the screen to find and locate your individual and to really get together your evidence.

So have you got lots of ideas? I hope so, and I'm really, really keen to see who you've chosen and how this actually pans out now and to find out who has inspired you.

And if you'd like to share this with me, please do get permission from your parent or guardian and share this via Twitter or social media using #LearnWithOak and let me see what you've written.

I would really love to know.

Make sure you've got those permissions.

So let's have a little look at how we're going to write this up.

So we're going to do it as a slow write.

And I'm just going to talk you through the slides.

And then I'm going to hand it over to you.

So we're going to start our essay.

Because it's now a personal essay, we're going to define what an inspirational person is for you.

What does it mean to be inspirational? And you can use the Latin term that we looked at earlier on, the idea of igniting something within you.

Have a little pause then.

Within the main body and the sequencing of it, I want you to talk about what your person did, how they made you feel, and what you have learnt.

And here you also need to decide on any evidence or details that you've picked up on and how you're going to combine them.

You want to make it engaging.

This is not about writing a factual essay, where you are saying, "This piece of evidence suggests.

." I want you to write from your heart with this section and tell me, what did that person do? When Ralston made that final decision, when Isabella Bird does X, when Simpson realises he's on his own and still doesn't give up, et cetera.

I want you to really think about sharing the inspirational detail.

So the sequencing of that will bring it together.

And then finally, that final detail in the conclusion.

Link back to your beginning, so think about how you started it.

And think about the idea of inspiration.

What is it that inspiration does? Inspiration doesn't just inspire you for a moment.

It inspires you for a lifetime.

And then finally, what big-picture ideas did your person's story tackle? This could be a good place to put it in terms of what messages, what teachings you get in terms of mankind and human nature.

By reading this story, what have you taken away from it? And welcome back.

As I said, I would love to see what you have written, but equally, I think it would be incredibly inspirational and the best assessment of your writing if you were to read that to somebody else within your household.

Maybe send it to your teachers, who I know are thinking of you because I am thinking of my students.

But share that piece of writing.

Think about what you've taken from the experiences of these individuals, what they have ignited in you as an individual.

Thank you for your focus today.

Thank you for your hard work this week.

All that remains for me to say is enjoy the rest of your learning and your weekend.