Lesson video

Hi, everyone.

Welcome to another lesson with me, Ms. Chu.

In this lesson, we are going to be gathering evidence for a newspaper report.

So, today, we actually have to pretend or imagine that we are journalists and we are going out there into the world, and we're trying to gather as much information as we can so that we can write our own newspaper reports.

So, when you're ready, we may begin.

Use this opportunity now to go and grab the things that you will need.

So, you will need something to write on, something to write with, and also, because we are journalists today, you have to have your thinking head switched on even more than normal.

So, go and get those things, pause the video, and go and get your things.

The agenda for today.

We're going to start with a quick writing warm-up.

Then we are going to have a look at where we get usually gather evidence from, if we were journalists in real life.

Then we're going to take some notes, because we need those notes to write our report.

And then at the end, we'll do a little quick sentence level activity.

The writing warm-up for today is you're going to write a complex sentence with a relative clause.

We've talked about relative clauses a lot, and I'll just quickly recap what a relative clause is.

So, a complex sentence has two clauses in it, one subordinate clause and one main clause.

And the relative clause is the subordinate clause, so it's the part of the sentence that doesn't make sense on its own.

What makes a relative clause is that it has the who pronoun in it.

Okay? If we're talking about a person.

If we're talking about an object or an animal, then it would be which.

Let's look at this example on the screen.

It's a picture of Spider-Man swinging through the streets.

Steve Glub, comma, who was walking home from work, comma, commented that he saw a dark figure swinging through the air from building to building.

So, our relative clause here in pink, both highlighted for you, relative clause.

And then in the sentence is demarcated with the two commas on either side of it, because the main clause is Steve Glub commented that he saw a dark figure swinging through the air from building to building.

And then the additional information that we're giving is in the pink.

The relative clause gives us additional information about the noun, who is Steve Glub in this example.

He is our noun, he's the subject.

Now, it is your turn to write a complex sentence with a relative clause.

I want you to tell me who it is that you're talking about in the front.

It doesn't have to be a bystander or a witness.

It could be Spider-Man.

Spider-Man, comma, who was, and what was he doing? And then something else he was doing.

Okay? Spider-Man, comma, who was chasing the suspects, comma, was swinging from building to building, Pause the video and have a go at writing your own one.

Now we are on to the next part of our lesson, which is gathering evidence.

Where, if we were journalists, where do we gather evidence from? So, one place would be, we would gather evidence from police statements.

So, sometimes, after a scene of a crime or something has happened, a major event, the police might release a statement to the general public, and that's somewhere where we could find out extra information, so that's one place.

We could also go to the police station and have a look at some police reports, because at the time of the event, the events would have been recorded in chronology by the police, maybe the timings of things that have happened and possibly what people have seen would have been recorded, so that is a really good place, another good place that we would go to get our evidence.

We would also get some evidence from, if we could, from a forensic laboratory, from a forensic lab, because that would have all the evidence bagged up and analysed, and we would get confirmation of things there, like fingerprinting, specimens.

Another place we could go to get our evidence is an emergency switchboard, so where the emergency services are, they would have received calls at the time of the event or an incident, and they would have recorded or written down things that people would have said as evidence.

Also really important is to speak to the people who were there at the time.

Those witnesses would have first-hand accounts of what they saw at the scene.

Note taking.

When we are note taking, we need to make sure that we write in bullet points, so that it is really clear, when we come to look at our notes, what we have written.

If we write in full sentences and in a huge paragraph, it's really difficult to see all the main ideas or the main points that we need to pull out of there.

So, if we write in notes, we normally do it in bullet points.

One bullet point for each fact or note.

We also only want to use key words and phrases, so we're not writing in full sentences.

We are only writing key words and phrases, so that when we look at those notes, we know immediately what those mean.

Also, it really helps when we're writing a recount or a newspaper report, that we write things in chronological order, so from when it first started, the event or the scene, the crime, and we write down the time and what's happened thereafter.

We wouldn't want to say or write down something that's happened in the middle, and then jump to the start and then jump to the end and then go back to the middle, it's too confusing for us.

If we're making notes, we want to make it as clear as possible for us writing the report.

So, the first piece of evidence we're going to look at is a police statement and appeal.

We've gone to the police station, or we've gone to a press statement and we've written it down or we've got someone to transcribe it.

And now we've come back into our offices where we usually work, and we're now going to break down the statement and look at it in note form, see if we can make notes from it.

So, I'd like you to pause the video now and read through it yourself.

Then once you've done that, press play and I will read it to you.

I'm going to read it to you now.

I can confirm that early this morning, following a difficult car chase, the so called Diner Bandits were apprehended.

I know that the public will be relieved to hear that these renowned criminals, who have threatened the peace and security of our city streets, are now safely in prison.

We are now launching a public appeal for information to help us establish the exact details surrounding the chase.

We have reason to believe that an anonymous figure was involved in helping the police catch these dangerous criminals, and we would like to speak to anyone who witnessed anything at the scene.

Lots of information there to take in.

If I were you, I would pause the video now and just pick out some key things from this.

So, you do not want to write in full sentences.

You are picking out just words, singular words or phrases, they could be a group of words together, onto your paper, so that when we look at the notes, we know what we mean by our key words.

This is an example of what I've done.

I've picked up the word confirm, because that, to me, means they know for sure who those people are, who those suspects are, so I want to use the word confirm.

And I'm also going to write down Diner Bandits, because that's the name of the suspects that were caught.

They are given a name, and the reason, and the word apprehended means caught, so they've definitely been caught, so I want to write apprehended down.

And the reason why I want to write down Diner Bandits is because they are now known to me and the general public that they are renowned criminals.

They aren't just people that have just decided to commit this act.

They have been committing these unlawful acts for a while, because they are known to the police.

They are renowned criminals.

Everyone knows who they are.

And I want to write down the word prison, because I know now they have been caught and they're now in prison, they're safely in prison.

Maybe you could highlight the word safely as well.

And then in my third paragraph, I've highlighted the words anonymous figure, because that is something that the police are now trying to figure out who helped them.

So, for me, that's quite important.

So, somebody was involved in helping the police.

So, I want to write anonymous figure, because I know that they played a big part in helping the police apprehend the suspects or the Diner Bandits.

And I want to highlight the word helping, because that shows me when I look at my notes that they helped them.

So, in my notes or your notes, you may pause the video and you may read it.

And now I'm going to read it to you.

I have confirmed as my key word, Diner Bandits renowned.

So, I know when I look at it, it is confirmed that the Diner Bandits were the suspects and they're renowned criminals.

You might even want to use the word criminals.

You could pop that in, if you wanted to.

Then in my second bullet point, I've written apprehended and in prison.

Third point, which is separate, anonymous figure helped police.

Those are my notes.

Pause the video and have a look at your notes to see if they're similar.

The second place where we could gather our evidence is we could look at a police report.

As I mentioned before, a police report could state the times of which things happen.

And also, they would have written theirs in note form too, so we're making notes from notes, which is fine, because our notes only have to make sense to us, nobody else, nobody else needs to see our notes.

Our notes are specifically for us.

The police report.

Pause the video now, and I want you to read through each line and pick out the key words or phrases that you think would be important for your own notes.

Okay, now I'm going to read it to you.

17:20, first emergency call from Malibu Coffee Shop.

17:30, over 72 emergency calls received.

17:45, 10 police cars dispatch from Belgravia Station.

17:50, a helicopter launched.

18:10, emergency call reported further sightings of suspects in silver convertible Mercedes driving erratically.

18:20, gunshots fired from assailants' car.

18:25, several reports of sightings of a so-called Spider-Man.

18:35, emergency calls reported severe car crash involving police cars.

One car was suspended in net above Oxford Circus tube station.

The key words that I've picked up from this I've highlighted now.

I wanted to highlight the word first, because when I'm writing my report, I want to give the readers the impression that the first call was at 17:20, so I want them to know that was when the first call was made, so they know when it started.

I also want to highlight the word Malibu Coffee Shop, because I want to say that that's where the first incident or the first robbery happened.

I didn't really want or care to know about how many other calls were received yet.

Maybe I might want to go back to this report later, but at the moment, it's not important to me.

Then 10 police cars were dispatched, that might be important for the reader, because they then know that's what started, that first call started the police chase.

And then a helicopter was launched, again, not so important to me.

I want to know what they were driving in, silver convertible Mercedes, and that gunshots were fired, because gunshots, to me, sounds very serious and I would want the public to know that that had happened.

And then, obviously, a really important part of the report would be to mention that some people saw sightings of a so-called anonymous figure, Spider-Man.

So, Spider-Man is known to the police, because they've written it down as Spider-Man.

So, he is known to the police as someone, perhaps as being a hero, someone that helps them, or maybe they don't know anything about him, but they know his name.

And then I want to say that there was a car crash later, and that involved a car being suspended in the net.

So, now, that is important to me, the net is important, because that might have links with Spider-Man.

So, these are my notes.

You can pause the video now and read through my notes, and now I'm going to read them to you.

My first bullet point I've written is first call, Malibu Coffee Shop.

Second bullet point.

About 25 minutes later, so I haven't given the exact timings yet, but I might want to go back to that.

I've just said about 25 minutes later, police cars dispatched.

Remember, I'm not writing in full sentences.

I'm still just writing in phrases.

Bystanders sighted silver convertible Mercedes.

Gunshots fired from Mercedes.

Sightings of Spider-Man.

Police car suspended from net after crash.

All of these notes are going to help me when I come to write my report.

So, they've got to make sense to me, and hopefully your notes make sense to you.

Pause the video and you can write down a few more things that I've got, if you haven't got these.

The next slide shows evidence from a forensic lab.

So, I have gone to the laboratory and I've said, "Is there any evidence here that I can gather?" And they've said, "Yes.

We found this netting that was taken from the car." So, there's a picture of the netting holding the car up.

So, I'm going to find out from the scientists what this webbing is.

And they have confirmed, actually, that this webbing actually comes from a spider, it's a type of spider.

So, maybe again, that has links.

We're going to make links with the webbing and the spider web to Spider-Man.

They also found fingerprints on the gun, or the guns that the suspects were using, and they did a match of the fingerprinting to some data that they had on the system.

And it matched the fingerprints of the Diner Bandits, who are well known to the police.

So, we're going to have all of that in mind when we write our notes.

Pause the video now and read through the notes.

Okay, now I'm going to read the notes to you.

Spider web specimen found from police car.

Second bullet point, high strength web.

It was high strength because it was able to hold the car up.

Fingerprints on gun match the Diner Bandits.

Brilliant.

Can pause it again, if you would like to write down a few notes that I've made.

Brilliant, we are now onto sentence level learning.

We are now going to write a sentence using brackets.

Brackets, which are shown by the two curves within the sentence, they give additional information to the noun or to something that you're talking about.

So, in this example, we're giving extra information to the police cars.

It is almost used in the same way as a relative clause.

It has the same function.

It's giving extra information.

So, let's have a look at the sentence.

One of the police cars, which was involved in a crash, was found suspended in the air by a high strength, comma, sticky substance, later identified as a type of spider's web.

So, here, the first part of the sentence, which was involved in a crash, it's giving extra information about the police car.

The next part of the, the second part of the sentence with the brackets, later identified as a type of spider's web, is giving extra information to the high strength, sticky substance that we're talking about.

So, brackets gives extra information.

I would like you now to write a sentence using brackets, and here I've got a picture.

It's the same picture as before, of a car being suspended in the air by the webbing or the net.

And I'd like you to give me extra information about the police car.

A police car was found.

Pause the video and have a go at writing your sentence.

Amazing, well done.

We've come to the end of the lesson.

And in this lesson, you have learned in your writing warm-up how to write a complex sentence with a relative clause.

We have looked at different places where we gather evidence to write a newspaper report, and we have also looked at how we gather the evidence.

How do we make the evidence make sense to us when we make notes? And then lastly, we practised using brackets within a sentence.

Congratulations, you have come to the end of your lesson.

If you'd like to share your work with a parent or carer, you may do so.

I look forward to teaching your next lesson.