To write a discussion (Part 1)

Key Stage 1

English

Discussion: Should animals be kept in zoos?

﻿Hello and welcome. My name is Mr. Santhanam, and this is lesson eight of 10 from our discussion unit. Today's learning objective is to write a discussion. I'm so excited for us to begin to write our discussion that we've been working so hard on all about whether or not animals should be kept in zoos. What do you think should animals be kept in zoos or not? Before we begin, I wanted to test you on your knowledge of the discussion. We should know the discussion really well now, we should have it committed to memory. That way we can really focus on our language of the discussion when we come to writing it. I'm going to test you by giving you the actions from some of our outlines and I want you to guess which part it is. You don't have to say it exactly word for word, but as long as you know which section is from that's all good. Okay, are you ready? Here's the first one. Which one did you think that is? That's right, that bit is: Some animals who are used to hunting are not able to do so in a zoo, they are just given their food which makes them lazy and sad. Fantastic, let's try another one. Do you remember which part that is? That's right it's: Firstly, let me tell you what a zoo is in case you have never seen one before. A zoo is somewhere where animals are kept in cages and locked in. In a zoo you can find lions, tigers, giraffes, and elephants. Amazing, we'll do one more and then we'll begin our lesson. What did you think that part is? That's right it's: Today, I'm here to ask a tricky question. Should animals be kept in zoos? Some people think this is a good thing other people think it is not. Fantastic, the actions can really help you to learn and remember each line of the discussion and that way you don't need to try to remember every single time. You can think of the actions and that will trigger your memory. Let's get started on today's lesson. So in this lesson, you're going to need some paper, a pencil and your brilliant brain. Pause the video now while you go and get those things. Fantastic, we're ready to begin writing and ready to begin retelling our discussion. Here's our agenda for today. The first thing we're going to do is complete our spelling activity. We're then going to review our discussion toolkit and remind ourselves about the really important things that we need to include in our discussion. Then we're going to step through the story map of our discussion to really remind ourselves of the order and what's in the discussion, and finally we'll do our shared write. We're only going to do part of our discussion today, and then we're going to break up the discussion into three parts, so today we'll just be focusing on the introduction. First of all, let's get started with our spelling. Today, we're working on our consolidation and review, which means that we're locking those spellings in our brain that we've already learned. And that means that we don't have to learn many more, they're just locked in our brain and we're able to recognise them straight away. Here are our spellings for today. My turn, your turn. Once. Once upon a time. Be. I want to be your friend. Chore. First I have to do my chore and sweep the floor. Tore. I tore my shirt. More. I would like some more please. Miss. I miss my best friend. Kiss. My mum gave me a kiss. Buzz. Can you hear the bee buzz? Back. My back hurts. Fantastic, why not try and write down those spellings now. Pause your video while you write them down. When you're ready, you can give yourself a little test to see which ones you remember. I know that a good strategy check is that I can look at a word, say it in a sentence so that it makes sense, cover the word, write the word next to it, and then I can check the spelling. Why not give that a go now to see which ones you know really well and are locked in your brain already and then you can find out which ones that you still need to work on a little bit. Have a go now, pause the video and give yourself a spelling test. Wow, I can see you're working so hard on those spellings, I'm so proud of you, lots of Mr. Santhanam shine. Okay, it's now time for us to have a look at some of our discussion features from our discussion toolkit. These are all the things that we really need to keep in mind when we are writing our discussion. So, let's have a look at the discussion features. Do you know any already? If you do shout them out to me now. What do we need for our discussion? Wow, I heard some great ideas there, let's see if you're right. The first thing that we're going to need is our introduction. My turn, your turn. Introduction. Introduction. An introduction is often something that we see in non-fiction texts. This is where we explain what is going to be discussed, we introduce an idea to our readers. Conclusion. Conclusion. This is where we give the writer's opinion. So you're going to be writing this today and at the end of your discussion text, you're going to need to give your opinion. What do you think? Do you agree or do you disagree with the discussion? Then we've got arguments for. Arguments for, this is where we write the part of the discussion text that agrees, that is for the argument. Can you remember which one of my friends is for the argument? Which one agrees? Is it Arnold or Fiona? That's right, Fiona is the person who always agrees and she's always for an argument. Arnold is not. Let's see what the next part is. Arguments against. Arguments against. These are the arguments in our discussion texts, which are against the discussion, they disagree, they think that it is not right and it is not okay. Can you remember which one of my friends does not agree? That's right, it's Arnold, he does not think it's okay to have zoos, he does not like them. But in a discussion text we need to have Arnold and Fiona there to see both sides of a discussion. And only afterwards we can make our own decision and our own opinion. Remember when you get to write your own opinion and make your conclusion, think about what is your opinion. You can say, in my opinion I think, then you can give a reason, why do you think that? What is your reason for saying that? And if you really want to challenge yourself, you could even give an example. Can you think of an example of why you think that? What makes you think that? Maybe you've seen a story before, maybe you've seen something on TV, maybe you know a special facts about animals that can help you here. Okay, we're going to have a look at our structure now, and this is going to tell you what you're going to need in your discussion text. Let's have a look. The first thing we're going to need is a title. What is our title? I want you to shout at the screen, off you go. That's right it's: Should animals be kept in zoos or not? We're asking the question should they or should they not be kept in zoos? The next part is our introduction. After that we have our arguments against, and that's when Arnold is going to say what he thinks. Then we have our for arguments so Fiona's going to say what she thinks then. And finally we have our conclusion, that's when you are going to say what you think. So remember, we don't talk about our own opinions until this point. We're going to have three against arguments. So Arnold's got one, two, three arguments against, and we're going to have three for arguments, so Fiona is going to say one, two, three points. Your grammar challenge today is to think about, can you include any coordinating conjunctions? We've been working really hard on our coordinating conjunctions this week, so try and see if you can fit one into your sentence. Today's shared write we're just going to focus on two sections. We're going to write the title, which is just one sentence so what are we going to be discussing? And then the introduction where we are introducing what we will be talking about and why? These do not need to be very long paragraphs, they just need to be simple and explain very clearly what we're going to be doing. Now, remember this part is really tricky, we must be neutral until the end. The only time we can say what we think is in the conclusion, until then we need to be neutral, which means we're not siding with Fiona and we're not siding with Arnold. The way we can do this is by using sentence openers. We could say some people believe, some people disagree. Some people think, some people do not. We can start with "they": They think, They believe, They disagree, They want. Or we could start our sentences with "we". If we do not, We must remember, We must not, or we call this. Can you notice how none of my sentence openers begin with I? We can only say, 'I' when we get to our conclusion before then we need to be talking neutrally that means we're not on anyone's side, we're just talking about what other people think. Why not pause your video now and think about some sentences from our discussion texts that start with these sentence openers, some people, they, and we. Okay, let's move on. We're now getting ready for our shared write. So make sure you've got your pencil and your paper with you to begin the discussion, good luck. You can write at the same time as me if you like, or you can watch how I do it and then do your own version afterwards, it's up to you. Okay, I have got my paper here and I've got my pencil, I'm ready to begin writing my discussion text. We don't need to worry so much about choosing different words because we know the discussion piece already really well. So we just need to use our memory to help us write it again. What was the title of the discussion? It was should, Was it, that's right it was: Should animals be kept in zoos or not? Okay, I'm going to leave a line now and I'm ready to do my introduction paragraph. Don't forget you can always use your story map to help you if you are not sure about what comes next. I'm going to check my story map now 'cause I've forgotten what, how it starts, let's see. Today I am here to ask an important question. I'm going to start with my capital letter. Today "I", I know I need a capital I. I'm here to one of my tricky words "to", ask an important Now important is a bit of a long word, so I'm going to really try and sound that out now an im-por-tant an important question. Is it fair? Another capital letter at the beginning of my sentence. Is it fair to keep animals in zoos? Okay, fantastic. Let's read it back so far. Today I am here to ask an important question. Is it fair to keep animals in zoos? This... now it's the beginning of my sentence so I'm going to need a capital letter. This is a tricky question with no right or wrong answer. Some people believe that zoos are good and some people believe zoos are bad. Some, my tricky words, another capital letter, Some people believe that zoos are good and some people believe zoos are bad. Full stop at the end. People who think that zoos are, should be closed, think this for the following reasons. People, here capital letter again. People who think zoos should be closed think this for three reasons. Full stop. Okay, brilliant. Have I got my title? Yes I've done my title here. Have I got my introduction paragraph? Yes I've got it here, it starts here and it ends there. Have I stayed neutral? Have I made sure that I'm not talking about what I think, I'm talking about what other people think? Yes I've said "Some people; People who think this". Have I explained both sides of the story? Yes, Some people think they are good and some people think they are bad. Amazing. I've finished my introduction, I'm ready to start my "against" and "for" argument's. Amazing, I was so impressed with your shared write then I can tell you're really starting to understand how an introduction and title works. Let's have a look at our self assessment now. Think about, have you explained what the discussion is about? You can give yourself a tick if you have, or if not, you might need to add it in now. Have you explained both sides of the argument? Have we said that some people believe this and some people believe that? If you have give yourself a tick, if not, you might want to add that in now. And have you stayed neutral? This means that you're not taking a side you're just saying, some people think this, some people think that. If you have give yourself another tick, if not, you need to add it into your writing now. If you like you can draw a table like this on your paper to really help you to understand your progress and how you're doing. If you're getting all ticks that means you're doing a great job. If you're not getting ticks that means you maybe need to think about how you can add those things into your writing. If you really want to challenge yourself further, you can think about, have you included these things: Have you included a title? Are you writing in paragraphs? Have you included time conjunctions like firstly, secondly, thirdly? We're not writing the conclusion today so don't worry about that just yet. Pause your video now while you give yourself a self assessment. Remember you can draw a table on your page or you can just think about it in your head. I would love to see your amazing writing today of your introductions so please don't forget to share your work with Oak national. If you would like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak. I'll see you next time bye bye.

To write a discussion (Part 1)

To write a discussion (Part 1)

Slide deck

Lesson details

Key learning points

Licence

Video

Lesson appears in

UnitEnglish / Discussion: Should animals be kept in zoos?

English