Loading...
Good morning.
My name is Ms. Halliday and I will be your teacher for today.
Thank you so much for joining me.
I'm really looking forward to seeing all your incredible contributions in today's lesson.
So let's get started.
So today's lesson is called "Perfect Planning for an Essay on A Christmas Carol," and that's exactly what we'll be doing.
So by the end of today's lesson, you'll have planned a sophisticated response to an essay question.
So let's get started with our learning.
Here are some key words that you'll need for today's lesson.
We've got dire, indifference, harbinger, and meagre.
Here are the definitions for these keywords.
If you'd like to take slightly longer to read them at your own pace, then do please feel free to pause the video and do so.
And here's today's lesson outline.
We're going to start by reminding ourselves of how to use single paragraph outlines.
We're then going to look at planning a response to a given question, but let's look first at paragraph outlines.
So generally we know that critical writing tends to follow a structure a little bit like this.
So we always start with an introduction, where we include a thesis statement in which we outline our overall opinion about the question that we have been asked, and we establish what we intend to prove.
So as an example, if we were being asked about Marley's ghost, we might have this as our introduction or something like this.
Marley's ghost is a catalyst for Scrooge's transformation and reinforces the idea of charity and philanthropy.
Now clearly this is not long enough to be an introduction.
These are just the rough ideas that you would want to include in your introduction because that is there us outlining our argument and what we're trying to prove.
Once we've done our introduction, we would then move on to the first section of our essay in which we would give the first reason for our opinion and why we think what we think.
So again, for an example, we might say that Marley's ghost represents the idea of charity and philanthropy because he shows remorse for his behaviour in life.
Then we would move on to the second reason for our opinion in section two, where we might say, for example, another one of our arguments might be that Molly's ghost delivers a message of philanthropy, again, we would move on to the next reason for our opinion, and that would form section three or reason three.
So again, as an example for our Marley's ghost essay, you might say that Marley's ghost, one Scrooge about his fate.
So what we're looking to do in an essay is give a minimum of three reasons for our opinions.
Once we've done that, we would then move on to our conclusion where we would return to our thesis statement and restate our opinions and then reinforce the reasons for our opinions.
So again, as a very brief example, you might say something like Marley's Goes is a catalyst for Scrooge's transformation and reinforces philanthropy.
Now, you might notice that that is really, really similar to the introduction and intentionally so, because actually in our conclusion, we should always link back to our introduction.
We should not be introducing any new ideas.
The conclusion is basically just a summary and a recap of everything that we've said thus far.
So there's the basic structure to any analytical essay.
Now we are going to focus today on using single paragraph outlines to support the planning of each section of our work.
Now because we're aiming for five sections, our introduction, reason one, reason two, reason three, and our conclusion, we're looking to create one single paragraph outline for each of those sections.
Now each paragraph outline should take no more than five minutes to complete, because remember, you've only got a limited amount of planning time, and actually we need to spend more time on the writing.
But although we need to spend more time on the writing, the planning is absolutely essential and it needs to be given the respect that it deserves.
Here's a reminder of what a paragraph outline looks like.
So we start with our topic sentence, and that basically just introduces the main ideas in our paragraph.
We then have to plan out our supporting details.
Now, supporting details are the information and arguments that you will use to prove your opinion.
So this is any evidence that you can use to prove your viewpoints.
Now this could be quotations, but it could also be contextual information.
And finally, we're looking to give that closing sentence where we conclude the arguments or the main ideas in our paragraph and link back to the topic sentence and how we've proved it within our paragraph.
So there's a reminder of what single paragraph outline looks like and what the individual components do.
What we're going to do now is we're going to reverse plan a paragraph.
So we're going to read the paragraph first, and then we're going to have a look at how it would look as a single paragraph outline.
So as I'm reading, make sure you're listening really carefully.
So this is an example paragraph taken from the essay about Marley's ghost that we modelled previously in the lesson.
So we've got Molly's ghosts visit to Scrooge in Charles Dickens, "'A Christmas Carol' serves as a pivotal moment in the novella, acting as a catalyst for Scrooge's drastic transformation and a dire warning against greed.
During his visit, Marley's ghost informed Scrooge that he wears the chains he forged in life.
Here, the heavy chain of cash boxes, ledges and lock boxes that he now carries symbolise the heavy burden of his punishment for avarice and indifference in his past life.
Dickens' use of the verb forged implies craftsmanship as if Marley intentionally laboured on the chain when alive.
This illustrates his intentional and willful ignorance to the suffering of others, behaviour that dickens following his experiences of hardship and poverty harshly condemns.
In this way, Marley's ghost serves as both a cautionary warning figure and a harbinger of hope who urges Scrooge and readers alike to reevaluate their behaviour and make more socially responsible choices." So as I said, now that we've read that paragraph, let's look at how it would look as a single paragraph outline.
So here we go.
So first of all, our topic sentence, if you remember, always introduces the main ideas in our paragraph.
Now here, the main idea was this idea that Marley's ghost acts as a catalyst for Scrooge's drastic transformation, but he also acts as a dire warning against greed for the reader as well.
So that would form our topic sentence because that's our overall opinion or our idea that we're trying to prove in this paragraph.
We then have our supporting details.
Now again, if you recall supporting details is any evidence that you will use in order to prove your point in your topic sentence.
So here, our supporting details are both quotations and context.
So we have, "I wear the chain I forged in Life." Great quotation, really useful here, improving this idea that he's a warning against greed.
We've got then got the symbolism of the chains.
So Dickens' method here forming part of our supporting details because again, we're looking at why Dickens did this, and it's to warn against greed and avarice and illustrate the burden of greed in the afterlife.
Again, looking further at Dickens's methods, that verb forged shows really willful ignorance here that Marley exhibited while he was alive.
And finally, that bit of contextual information that's needed to evidence our opinion is the fact that Dickens himself experienced poverty and therefore that is why he's condemning greed and avarice.
So as I said, the supporting details are very much the evidence that you need in order to prove your points.
And finally, our closing sentence and remember that the purpose of that closing sentence is really to summarise everything that we've already said and link back to the topic sentence and restate our opinion there.
So here again, we're revisiting this idea that Marley's ghost is that harbinger of hope who urges Scrooge and readers alike to reevaluate their own behaviour and make more socially responsible choices.
And that links directly to this idea that Marley's ghost, if you look in the topic sentence, is a catalyst for screeds transformation and also a dire warning against greed.
So what we've basically done there is said the same thing again, but expanded on it slightly to explain it further.
So the closing sentence and the topic sentence are intrinsically linked together.
So there's how that paragraph would have looked as a single paragraph outline.
What I'd like you to do now is focus really closely on the supporting details and what can go into those and how we can really use those to ensure that we are in the best position possible when it comes to writing.
So I'd like you to read the supporting details again and discuss, well, what do you notice about how context has been included and what do you notice about the vocabulary? And here are your supporting details in order to answer those questions.
So what I'm going to do now is invite you to pause the video while you read the supporting details again and discuss the two questions.
Off you go, Some fantastic discussions, really well done.
So here's some things you might have noticed.
First of all, within those supporting details, we have identified Dickens' methods, okay? Because that is part of proving our point.
We're saying Dickens uses this method to prove this or to illustrate this.
Okay? So it's really important that we map out Dickens' methods.
Again, vocabulary mapping is very, very important.
We're looking to be really concise in any critical analysis, and we're looking to be really specific and precise about our opinions.
And therefore it can be really useful to map out the vocabulary that you intend to use beforehand to make sure that you have chosen the most specific word possible to convey your meaning.
So in this example, we've got greed and avarice to kind of pinpoint how Molly behaving in life.
We've got this idea of willful ignorance and that kind of explains, you know, Marley's selfishness and the fact that he turned a blind eye to the suffering of other people while he was alive.
And then finally, I love this word condemns because that's what Dickens' novella is all about.
It's a condemnation of the way that Paul were treated in society.
So again, a really specific word there to describe exactly what Dickens is doing in writing this novella.
So always a good idea to map your voc about.
And finally, I'm really hoping that many of you identified that actually there is context in the supporting details, and that's because context is an absolutely crucial part of our evidence to support our opinion.
I've not just put the context in to say, "Look, I know some context about Dickens." No, it's got to be more purposeful than that.
It's got to reinforce and support your opinion.
So here we're we're saying that the reason that Dickens makes Marley's ghost a dire warning against grievance, greed and avarice is 'cause he himself experienced poverty and knew what it was like to be at the receiving end of that avarice and greed and selfishness.
So he's saying, you know, I know what it's like and I'm condemning it for that reason.
So here the context forms a really key aspects of my evidence to support my opinion that Marley's ghost serves as a dire warning against greed and avarice.
So well done if you got those in your discussion.
So let's check for understanding, what should your supporting details not include? Is it A, relevant quotations from the text, B, a plot summary of the text, C, contextual information that supports your ideas, or is it D, which of the writer's methods you will discuss? So I'm going to invite you now to post video while you jot your answer down, and well done if you identified that the correct answer is in fact B, we do not need a plot summary of the text in our supporting details as this will not reinforce our opinion.
Well done.
So here's our first task of the lesson, and it's really similar to the task that we've just undertaken together.
I'm going to give you a paragraph and then I'm going to ask you to reverse planet and put it into a single paragraph outline.
So as I'm reading, you need to make sure `that you're listening and following along really carefully.
So this paragraph here would form the second paragraph in our essay on Marley's ghost.
Furthermore, during his visit, Marley's ghost disputes the idea that people should concern themselves with the acquisition of material possessions instead informing Scrooge that unbeknownst to him at the time, mankind was his business.
Here Marley's regret is evident as he wishes he had demonstrated an awareness of his social responsibility when alive.
Dickens' use of the past tense illustrates that Marley's ghost has now learned the importance of charity and goodwill, but that this lesson has regrettably come too late.
We see Marley's ghost lamenting the fact that he neglected his humanitarian duty to help others during his lifetime, instead focusing on inconsequential financial gain.
Dickens uses Marley's ghosts visit to emphasise the novella's central theme of social responsibility and sternly remind his upper middle class readers that they should prioritise compassion and kindness over material wealth.
So now that we've read that paragraph, what I'd like you to do, as I said, is reverse planet into a single paragraph outline.
So your task is to write the full single paragraph outline for the paragraph that you have just read.
Remember that you only have up to five minutes to spend on this, and here's a reminder of the sections that you need to populate.
So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you undertake that activity now.
Fantastic planning, and here's what your single paragraph outline should have looked like.
So remember, our topic sentence is our overall opinion that we're going to argue.
So here it's this idea that Marley's ghost disputes the idea that people should concern themselves with the acquisition of material possessions.
So that's what we're arguing in our paragraph.
Now, how do we evidence that argument in our supporting details? So here we've used this quotation, "Mankind was my business," to illustrate our point that Marley's ghost believes that people should take responsibility for people rather than trying to get more money.
Now again, we need to be picking out Dickens' methods, and here it's this idea of the past tense because that shows Marley's ghost regret and realisation that he did neglect his humanitarian duty to support others when he was alive because he recognises that he should have invested in his community.
Now again, if you notice those words, invest and community, they're really key bits of vocabulary that we've mapped out in our supporting details.
And then finally, again, looking at Dickens' methods, this idea that mankind means charity, goodwill and social responsibility, and this idea that they are the values that Marley's ghost is promoting, not the acquisition of material possessions.
So I'm hoping you can see there that all of those supporting details really allowed us to prove our point about Marley's ghost and what his, what his purpose in the novella is.
And then finally, our closing sentence, which remember interacts really closely with our topic sentence because we are just restating our opinion and reinforcing our viewpoint.
So we'd say something like Dickens uses Marley's ghosts to emphasise a novella's central theme of social responsibility.
And sternly remind his upper middle class readers that they should prioritise compassion and kindness over material wealth.
So again, the same message that we see in the topic sentence, but explained and expanded on a little bit more to make sure that we are being clear.
So well done if your single paragraph outline resembled the one on screen, excellent work.
So onto the second part of the lesson now where you are going to have a go at planning your own response.
So you are planning a response to the following question, how does Charles Dickens present Scrooge in Stave one over Christmas Carol? Now before we can write anything, we need to do a little bit of ideation.
We need to come up with some ideas and decide on our viewpoint because if we don't have a viewpoint, we can't write an essay, can we? So I'd like you to discuss now, well, what is your impression of Scrooge? What do you think of him? What words would you use to describe him and why? And finally, well, what is Scrooge's purpose in the in the novella? Why did Dickens create him as a character? And what is it that Scrooge embodies or represents in the novella? So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you have those discussions and before we share some quick ideas, off you go.
Fantastic discussions.
And here's some of the things that you might have picked out about Scrooge as a little bit of a recap.
So first of all, we see Scrooge embody Mathusian using ideology, and we see his real content for the poor in this quotation.
If they had rather die, they'd better do it and decrease the surplus population.
And again, that shows that Scrooge's real hatred for the poor and his disgust at their state of living.
But we also see Dickens criticising wealthy citizens', lack of empathy and disregard for human life through the character of Scrooge and the way that he treats the poor.
We also see Scrooge as a really stingy and miserly character who is only interested in preserving his own wealth.
And he denies himself luxury and lives a really meagre lifestyle because he doesn't want to spend money on anything including himself.
He lives in darkness and his possessions are old and that shows his miserliness because he won't even replace old possessions.
You also might have identified that Scrooge is a very cold-hearted character with very little empathy for others.
And Dickens uses an extended metaphor of the cold in the quotation thin lips blue, cold within him, frosty rhyme, et cetera, to show his callousness.
And actually this callousness extends even to his own family, okay? He doesn't even value Fred, his nephew, and he kind of shouts at him and says, "You are poor enough." Which again shows that he also hasn't given him any financial aid over the years either.
So here we see Scrooge is that really cold-hearted and callous character.
And finally, in Stave one, we know that Scrooge is represented as a misanthropic Victorian employer who does not accept responsibility in terms of his duty of care towards his employee Bob Cratchit.
And that's exemplified through his treatment of Bob.
The fact that he denies him a generous fire.
The fact that he doesn't pay him very fairly and the fact that he tries to begrudge him Christmas day off are all examples of the fact that Scrooge is a very misanthropic Victorian employer who is not interested in contributing to or supporting the welfare of his employees.
So these are all ideas that you might want to argue about Scrooge in Stave one in your essay.
So make sure you've jotted any useful notes down that you think you might need during the planning process.
So let's check for understanding before we move on.
How many single paragraph outlines do you need to plan? Is it A, one for the whole essay, B, one for each section of your essay? Or is it C, one for each quotation in your essay? So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you select the correct answer.
Off you go.
And a massive well done.
If you said B, you are absolutely right.
Remember, we've got five sections to our essay, introduction, reason one, reason two, reason three, and conclusion.
And you'll need a paragraph outline for each of those sections.
So onto the last task of the lesson where you are going to be planning your response to the question.
So you are going to be planning the paragraph outlines for each section of your response to the question.
How does Dickens present Scrooge in Stave one of a Christmas Carol? And I'd like you to use your ideas from the previous slides in order to do so.
Here's a reminder of the different sections of your work.
So we know that we have that introduction with our thesis statement and our overall argument.
We've got Section One, which is reason one plus evidence, Section Two, reason two plus evidence, Section Three, obviously reason three plus evidence.
And then finally, remember that you'll need that conclusion where you return to your thesis statement and you restate your opinion.
Remember, you'll need a paragraph outline for each of these sections, and therefore you are planning five paragraph outlines and there's a reminder of what each paragraph outline is split up into and what you'll need to populate.
So I'm now gonna invite you to the video while you plan your five paragraph outlines for your response to the question on screen.
So pause the video and off you go.
Fantastic planning there.
And we're going to undertake some brief self-assessment to ensure that we've completed the task properly.
So I'd like you to check that you have written your topic sentences in full.
Have you introduced the main idea in each paragraph really clearly in that topic sentence? I'd like you to check that you've provided at least three pieces of supporting detail per paragraph outline, including quotations, methods, and the vocabulary that you want to use.
Remember, we are looking to be specific, so you need to be specific with your vocabulary.
So it's always good to consider what you want to use.
I'd also like you to check that your context has been used as evidence and not just as an afterthought, does it enhance your opinion? Does it evidence your opinion? If the answer is no, then there is no place for it in your supporting detail.
So check that you have used it purposefully and that it does support your opinion.
And finally, have you written your closing sentence in full and have you really reinforce the main ideas in each of your paragraphs? So I'm going to give you a few moments now to pause the video and undertake that self-assessment.
Off you go.
Fantastic self-assessment.
Really reflective practise going on there.
So a massive well done.
So to summarise the learning from today, remember that planning is just as important as writing and it needs to be treated as such.
Remember that single paragraph outlines are really useful for organising your ideas into a coherent structure.
These single paragraph outlines contain a topic sentence, supporting detail, and a closing sentence.
Within the supporting details, you should be writing quotations that you will use along with the writer's methods, key vocabulary and relevant contextual information that supports your opinion.
And finally, remember that a single paragraph outline should be planned for each section of your response.
Now, each section may end up being more than one paragraph, and that's okay, but you need to make sure that you have planned a paragraph outline per section of your response.
So there's the learning from today.
I'd like to thank you for coming to today's lesson.
I've really enjoyed teaching you and I've been really impressed with all your participation and contributions.
So thank you and I hope you have a lovely rest of your day.
See you later.