Lesson video

Hello, and thank you so much for joining me for today's English lesson.

I'm Mrs. Butterworth, and I'm really looking forward to guiding you through your learning today.

Now this lesson is all about writing a written response on the Eduqas Poetry Anthology.

Now, I'm sure some of you are feeling a little bit uncertain or a bit unsure about writing a whole essay, but I will be here with you every step of the way to guide you, and I know you can do this.

We know the anthology, you are ready to write, so make sure you have everything you need to write an essay and we'll get started.

So in this lesson, you will write a successful answer in comparing two poems from the Eduqas anthology.

So let's just look at some key words that will be useful for our understanding of the lesson.

These words are discourse, marker, comparative, thesis, and topic sentence.

Now hopefully we will be using some discourse markers in our comparison, and these are words or phrases that are used to link ideas and they also signpost the direction of your writing.

So we'll be looking at how we can use those today.

Comparative is obviously what our essays need to be, and this is where we're exploring those similarities or dissimilarities between those poems. Now a thesis is a statement that appears at the start of your essay and gives your overarching argument for that essay.

And then a topic sentence.

Now these will be found in the main part of your essay, and these explain the focus or the main idea of each of your analytical paragraphs.

So the outline of our lesson looks like this.

We're going to begin by using single paragraph outlines to plan our essay, and then we're going to move on fully planned and ready to go to finally write that comparative poetry response.

So here is your essay question.

In "Sonnet 29," the poet explores ideas about love and relationships.

Choose one other poem from the anthology that also explores love and relationships and compares the presentation of love and relationships.

Now, I'd like you to discuss, please, before we delve into this planning, which poem might you use as a comparison.

So pause the video to give yourself time to discuss, or if you're working on your own, you may wish to sit quietly and think by yourself or even jot down some ideas.

Off you go.

So you may have discussed the following.

You may have thought about Cousin Kate or dusting the phone, Catrin, or even origin story.

When you have chosen a poem for comparison, it is really important to know why you have chosen it.

This shows that you understand the similarities and/or differences between the poems. So we need to have an idea about this before we even begin to pick up a pen or a laptop.

So I'd like you to discuss which poem will you be comparing to "Sonnet 29" and why.

So explain the ideas you have so you can use these phrases to help you.

The poems are similar in a way because, the differences between these poem make for an interesting comparison because, and I thought it would be interesting to compare.

Remember, all of these ideas will be really useful when it comes to writing your essay, okay? So pause the video to give yourself time to discuss, think quietly, or jot down some ideas in response to that question.

Off you go.

Okay, so hopefully you have a really clear idea now of the poem that you have chosen to compare to "Sonnet 29" and why you have chosen that poem.

So true or false time before you move on.

When choosing a poem for comparison, you should ensure that you only identify the similarities.

Is that true or false? Come up with your answer now please.

Well done to everyone that noticed that was false, but you now need to explain why that statement is false.

So pause the video to give yourself time to come up with that answer.

Off you go.

Okay, so here's my answer.

Hopefully you have something similar.

So exploring differences can make for an interesting poetry comparison.

So the original statement was about only identifying similarities, which is false because exploring differences can also be interesting too.

So something that can be really useful and a useful planning tool, are single paragraph outlines.

And what these can help you do is they can really help you to organize and formalize your key ideas clearly and quickly.

They can help support the structure of your argument, so ensure that it's in a logical order and it can make it easier to spot gaps or weak points.

So it's all about just getting those great ideas from your head into a logical and clear format.

So let's look at a planning grid that has single paragraph outline.

So it looks like this.

So each section has a clear purpose.

So we've got your thesis, which is your overarching argument supported by the whole text.

Then we have our topic sentences for each paragraph.

So this is the first sentence of an analytical paragraph, and it will state the main idea and then the supporting details.

So these are references to the text which support your topic sentence so they're your paragraph's ideas.

So these are just notes.

So they'll include the quotations that you are going to use both main and supporting.

Then you have your concluding sentence, which is the final sentence of the paragraph, and it just your paragraph to a close.

And then finally, your overall conclusion, which sums up your essay's overall thesis.

So what you may notice that this planning process actually leads you to write most of your essay.

So this is why I say that planning is so important because you've done most of the hard work before you even begin to write your essay.

Okay, so the first sentence of a paragraph, it states the paragraph's main idea.

Which section of the single paragraph outline is being described here? So let's read it through together again, "The first sentence of a paragraph.

It states the paragraph's main idea." So which section of the single paragraph outline is being described here? Is it A, B, C, or D? Pause the video to come up with your answer now, please.

And a very well done to everyone that noticed that is a topic sentence.

Your topic sentence is at the start of every paragraph and it states your paragraph's main idea or focus.

So it's over to you now for your first task.

And this is all about planning your response and you're going to use the planning grid to do this.

So here is your essay question.

In "Sonnet 29," the poet explores ideas about love and relationships.

Choose one poem from the anthology.

So hopefully you've already done that.

That also explores love and relationships and compare the presentation of love and relationships.

So you've already discussed your poem and how you're going to compare it and why you're going to compare it.

So now we're going to use this planning grid to really formalize those ideas.

So when you are ready, pause the video to get your planning grid completed.

Off you go.

A really well done everyone.

That is so much of the hard work already done.

So well done.

You are in such good stead now to begin writing your essay in the second part of this lesson.

But before we do this, just self-assess your plan by asking the following questions.

Do you have a thesis written in full sentences, which is supported by the whole text? Do you have three topic sentences which explain what each of your paragraphs will be about? Do you have two or even three quotations or references from the text to support each of those topic sentences? Do you have a concluding sentence which will finish your paragraph and explore the poet's intentions? And then finally, do you have ideas for your conclusion which link to your overall thesis? So just spend a few moments just going over your plan and make sure you've got everything covered.

So pause the video to get that done.

Off you go.

Okay, so we have completed the planning for our essay and we are now moving on to write a comparative poetry response.

So before you begin writing, it can be useful to have considered a success criteria.

So what a successful essay looks like.

So I'm gonna ask you, I'd like you to discuss, please, what does a successful comparative poetry essay look like? Pause the video to come up with your ideas now.

Great, some excellent answers.

So we're going to look at how Jacob and Laura answered, and you can start to think about your own ideas.

So Jacob has said that a successful comparative essay shows clear understanding of both poems. It compares language, form and structure to explore themes.

And that points are linked between poems and supported by quotes and explained clearly.

I pretty much think that's a solid answer from Jacob, and I hope you do too.

And Laura has said a strong essay explains not just what is similar or different, but why it matters.

That's very key, isn't it? It shows how poets choices create meaning or mood, and the essay has clear paragraphs comparing both poems and ends with a conclusion that sums up the ideas clearly.

Again, some really great ideas from Laura there.

So what we can do now is we can turn these great discussions into a clear success criteria.

So let's look at what that looks like.

So we're gonna start with a clear thesis, which you've already written.

You're going to use discourse markers and phrases such as similarly, in contrast.

This shows that.

And both poems suggest to really link and compare those ideas.

You're going to identify key literary and poetic methods.

You're going to, and very important this one, explain and analyze the effects of these methods on the reader.

You're going to consider how context affects meaning and include this in your comparison.

So think about where we can weave comparison into that response.

And you're going to organize your essay with clear paragraphs that compare both poems throughout and end with a strong conclusion.

So I'd like you just to spend a few moments looking over that success criteria, and I'd like you to discuss, is there anything that you would consider adding? Pause the video to think about that question and discuss that question.

Now, off you go.

Okay, so thank you for your hard work so far.

So we have A, B, C, or D.

Which of the following does not need to be included in a comparative response? So which of the following does not need to be included in a comparative response? Pause the video and pick A, B, C, or D now please.

Okay, we feeling confident? Great, well done to everyone that said, A, you do not need to include a detailed overview of the the anthology in its themes.

However, the other answers, you do need a thesis statement.

You do need to include some context to enhance or inform your understanding.

And you do need to try and use those comparative connectives to link ideas together and show those connections.

So we're at our second practice task, which means it is now over to you to write your response to the question.

Remember that planning task that we did at the start of the lesson in task A? Make sure you are using that to write this response.

So a reminder of the question, "In "Sonnet 29," the poet explores ideas about love and relationships.

Choose one other poem from the anthology that also explores love and relationships and compare the presentation of love and relationships.

You should include a clear thesis, discourse markers and phrases to compare poems and link ideas, identification and analysis of methods, links to context, and finally, clear well structured paragraphs, which I know you'll do because we planned it all already.

Okay, so make sure you have everything you need to write this essay.

I really am looking forward to what you come up with.

So pause the video to get going.

Off you go.

Well done everyone.

I really hope you have seen the benefit of doing a really detailed plan before you start writing.

It just really helps to get those fabulous ideas out of your head and onto paper.

So what I would like you to do now is just to go through your essay.

You may want to use a highlighter or you may want to tick to identify where you have met the success criteria in your essay.

So we have the success criteria there, which you know now.

So you may just wish to highlight where you have met this in your essay or even just give yourself a tick where you have met the success criteria.

So pause the video to get this final little reflection task done.

Off you go.

Now you have done that and you've read your essay.

I would like you to give yourself a www, a what went well, and an EBI, an even better if.

So, pop that on your essay now, please.

Pause the video to give yourself time to do that.

So many well done and congratulations to you.

You should be really proud.

It can be really tricky to write full responses and you've done it, and you've done it brilliantly.

So well done.

So hopefully you now know that before writing you should consider why you have picked your chosen poem.

Those all important planning grids with single paragraph outlines can be really useful planning tools, and that considering the success criteria before writing helps you remember what to include for a successful essay.

Thank you so much for your hard work everyone.

I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

So do join me for another lesson.

I'll see you then.

Bye-bye.