Lesson video

Hi everybody and welcome to lesson six on writing about purpose as a non chronological report.

I really hope you've enjoyed what we've done so far.

I'm really looking forward to this lesson, because it's kind of going to start getting us getting started on the planning and then the writing.

This unit you might feel like we're going through it very slowly but it's actually a great opportunity for us to do a planning a paragraph and writing a paragraph then planning a paragraph and writing a paragraph.

It means that you really understand the purpose of each paragraph, I can really focus on creating high quality ambitious sentences, rather than stressing about getting all the way from the top to the bottom In one day.

We're slowly but surely going through it which will mean that the hopefully, the outcome is even better.

So let's get started.

Okay, so I looked at learning objective today.

It's to plan the opening paragraph of non chronological report.

We're going to plan it today and then the next lesson we'll write it.

So this is really good opportunity to gather our facts together and to start to think about what we would include in the opening.

on the agenda, we've got a writing warm-up to start with.

Then we're going to discuss the purpose of an opening.

And why we have to have one in a non chronological report.

And then we're going to start creating the plan for opening which will be able to use when we do the writing.

In this lesson, you're going to need an exercise books and paper, a pencil, and most importantly, the notes you made from the research lesson when we watched the films and read the extracts.

We read the fact sheet with all the facts about the pandas, because you'll use these notes to help you create a plan.

So if you haven't got those with you now, now is the chance to go and get them and bring them back.

So you need to, pause the video.

Okay, so if you're writing warm up, you're going to need a pencil, pen and some paper.

So, what is a formal conjunction? Think back to any lessons you've done in the past at school or maybe online, on the academy lessons and try to recollect what it means by a formal conjunction.

So, there are three types of formal conjunction.

The first or the more formal versions of the conjunction, and.

For example, in addition to this, moreover, furthermore, and as well as.

These usually come at the beginning of a sentence and always as you can see followed by a comma and they usually to link this sentence with the previous sentence.

So pandas have got black and white fur, in addition to this, this fur is thick and willy to keep them warm in the winter.

So it's building on from a previous sentence or clause.

There are also informal versions of the but conjunction.

But conjunction contrasts, to ideas.

If you're to be using it informal language in a non chronological report, you could use, however, despite this, on the other hand, again.

All followed by a comma and if they come at the beginning of a sentence, they've got to have that more important capital letter.

And finally, causal conjunctions.

These are, again, be very careful to not read that as casual but the causal conjunctions are when one thing causes something else.

So as, and you would use maybe as a result, due to this, consequently, in order to and these are really common in things like information texts and chronological reports, because you're looking at the facts and why something is the way it is.

So pandas have a very strong wrist bone as a result, they can crush the bamboo.

You're going to be using lots of these in your writing.

And so everything now about something you would like to include in your writing warm up.

So your writing warm up is, can you write a sentence about this picture using a formal conjunction? I've given one example.

Despite a panda having carnivorous teeth, bamboo makes up 99% of the animal's diet.

Even though the panda has teeth just strong enough to be able to eat other animals.

They survive of bamboo plant.

Guess they use the conjunction despite this to link those two clauses together.

I want you now to pause the video, get your pen and pencil, pen or pencil and paper ready and write your own version of a sentence using a formal conjunction.

Hopefully you've all written a sentence using a formal conjunction, now is the time to check it.

If you need to go through it with a little pen tick it and that's a really good idea.

So, maybe you'll have written a sentence a little bit similar to this, but I'm going to check it to see I've got everything I need.

Did I use the correct punctuation? So did I start with a capital letter? Yes.

Due to bamboo being their primary source of food.

Do I have a comma at the end of that subordinate clause? Yes, I do.

Due to the bamboo being the primary source of food, comma, and then the main clause.

Pandas have to eat 38 kilogrammes a day of the plant.

Full stop at the end and no capital letter after that comma.

Check back through your work.

Have you got the correct commas in the correct place? Have you got full stop at the end? Have you got a capital letter at the beginning? These are all things you can check yourself.

Okay, now we going to be discussing the purpose of an opening.

Why do we have to have one in a non chronological report? Okay, so now I'm going to ask you to pause in a second and think about the power of the opening.

And specifically the opening, rather than the whole non chronological report.

What is the purpose of that introductory paragraph? So, in a second, you'll pause and you'll think about the purpose of the opening, the audience, the language, what language we expect to see, the layout, and any punctuation.

Pause the video now and have a think and maybe jot down some ideas.

Okay, so hopefully you had a good little thing maybe even chatted to a parent or carer, the purpose of the opening.

It's to tell you really what is the report about, isn't it? And why you should read it to convince the reader to read on.

It could be really easy for a reader to just read the introduction and think, this isn't interesting and stop.

But a good opening will keep the reader hooked and want them to read on encourage them to read on.

The audience is focusing on thinking about who is going to be reading this report and trying to write it so that they're interested for that particular audience.

Probably in a report about pandas, people are going to be reading it or people who are interested in the environment and nature and animals.

Language, just like the rest of report, really, it's going to be formal language.

Probably factual, is going to have some facts involved.

And there won't be any opinions.

At no point including the opening.

The layout, the important things to know are the title, which will be underlined, perhaps in bold and the indent.

If you don't know what that means.

It's when the line starts a bit further in to the page, a bit further away from the margin and it's just to signify the beginning of a new paragraph.

And then punctuation, perhaps you'd see a colon, may be a question mark at the end of a rhetorical question.

These are all things that you would expect to see perhaps in a opening.

Something that's really important to note about an opening is that it mainly includes general information.

We're not at this point going into that really specific detail about the pandas.

That comes later on in the report.

Your opening is a general introduction about what pandas are, or what the subject is about, and maybe a fact or two.

A couple of facts, but again, general information rather than going into the specific detail that would come later.

So that is a quite a familiar and visual is the idea of starting broad and general and then narrowing down into more specific information.

So let's have a little think about that.

Now, are these pieces of information general or specific? Dolphins live in water.

The bottlenose dolphin lives in the sea.

The future of the honeybee is under threat.

The honeybee is at risk of becoming extinct due to climate change.

We need to pause the video and have a think.

Are these statements general? Or are they really specific? Dolphins live in water, a general statement or a specific statement? Yeah, that's pretty general, isn't it? It doesn't say what kind of water or what type of water.

So lake, river water and it also doesn't even say what type of dolphin.

So it's a pretty much it's a very general statement that you could maybe find in the opening.

The bottlenose dolphin lives in the sea.

Yeah, that's a bit more specific, isn't it? Talks about the specific type of dolphin and the fact that it's in salt water, sea water rather than lake or river.

So it's more specific.

The future of the honeybee is under threat.

Pretty general, Isn't it? It doesn't say why it's under threat or how severe this threat is, or what's causing it.

What's causing this threat, it just says that it's under threat.

It's a general statement.

The honeybee is at risk of becoming extinct due to climate change.

Yeah, that's more specific, isn't it? It says, why.

Because of the climate change.

And it says that and it even says about the threat is causing them to be at risk of extinction, rather than just saying, you know, they're under threat.

That is a lot more vague.

So this is a more specific fact.

Well done, everybody.

So now let's just look at an example as an opening.

So you can actually see what I mean about the opening being general rather than specific.

And as a way of enticing the reader to read on.

So we're looking back at that introduction of the Loch Ness Monster, in non chronological report.

So you've got your title at the top, underlined, and then you can see In the layout, but it's got that in depth.

And the first line starts a bit further into the page than the rest of the paragraph.

The Loch Ness Monster, which many people doubt exist.

Was first discovered by scientists in 1912.

Did you know that is in fact a crucial part the food chain of the Scottish lochs and as a vicious Carnival, which will eat any creature that is unfortunate enough to enter its habitat? Inhabiting Loch Ness on the west side of the hilly Scottish Highlands, this beast is able to survive due to a range of fascinating adaptations.

This report will reveal the marvels and mysteries of this mythical animal's habitat, appearance and diet.

So you can see that that opening does give some information.

It doesn't just say the Loch Ness Monster is a mythical beast.

It gives us more than that.

But It leaves us wanting to read more because it doesn't tell us everything.

It says towards the end that it's able to survive due to a range of fascinating adaptations.

I want to know what those adaptations are.

It doesn't tell us exactly and that's going to come later on when your report becomes more specific.

It's also got a great signposting sentence at the end of the opening.

This report will reveal the marvels and mysteries of the mythical animal's habitat, appearance and diet.

It's telling the reader what to expect from the rest of the paragraph.

And that is crucial from the opening.

You want the reader to know.

Okay, this is what the reports about and I want to keep reading.

So we've had a little look at an example of an opening and we feel about the purpose, now's the time to plan our own opening for an introductory paragraph of our report on pandas.

So what you'll need to do if you haven't got your notes from the research lesson.

Is to pause the video and gather those now.

If you've got those ready, let's think about what type of general pieces of information do you think needs to be included in that opening? You almost need to imagine that the person who's reading the report has never heard of a panda bear.

So that introduction is introducing them to a creature they might never have heard of before.

And so that means your information almost needs to seem quite basic.

Something you might think, Oh, I swear they'd already know that, but you can't assume that.

So your general information might even be the type of bear, that it's a mammal.

Maybe that it's found in Asia.

And the general kind of idea that it is an endangered species.

Not going into the specific details, though, about why it's endangered and what's causing that risk of extinction.

So pause the video now and have a look back through your notes to think about what type of general information what general information you want to include in your introduction.

The subject specific vocabulary we could include in opening subject.

Specific vocabulary means vocab that is really specific to the subject of the report.

Ours is the panda.

So it's going to be vocab that is relevant to the panda.

I had a little think and I thought Central Asia is probably something that would come up.

Mountainous, because the area which they live is the mountains.

It's described as mountainous.

Species.

A panda is a type of species that's a good alternative noun when you refer to the noun in a different way.

So you're not always repeating the word.

Panda, Panda, Panda.

Maybe you could call them a species.

Mammal, similar to that.

They are a type of mammal.

They're also a type of bear.

And distinctive I've included because I think panda is so often recognised because of its black and white fur, that you could describe it as a distinctive features of a distinctive black and white panda.

Fur of the panda.

It's a nice gentle introduction, but it's not going into huge amount of detail about its appearance.

Just a general fact that it's black and white fur.

That it has black and white fur.

So your writing task, you'll need to pause the video, gather everything you need, including your notes from the research lesson.

And then you're going to get read through your notes and collect three to five general facts to include in your opening.

You're going to write down any key vocabulary you'd like to include.

And then you're going to have to keep these notes safe for when you write the opening, because they're going to essentially be your plan.

And use this time to get really clear idea about the general information you want to include.

And then you're going to feel really confident and ready to write your opening next lesson.

So we've had a great lesson.

We've done a writing warm up, we looked at relative clauses, we discussed and examined the purpose of an opening and then we have created our own plan ready for writing.

But for a great lesson.

I hope you've enjoyed it and looking forward to seeing you soon.