Video: To explore the features of a persuasive letter

﻿Hello and welcome to lesson four of our unit On "The Day the Crayons Quit," Where we will be doing some persuasive writing. My name is Ms. Bourke and I am a teacher with the Oak Academy. In today's lesson, we will be reading through a persuasive letter, and looking for the features. I can't wait to get started, so let's go. Let's look at our agenda today. First, we will be doing a warm-up, then we will be looking at the features of persuasive letter, and finally, we will be completing a task. For today's lesson, You will need an exercise book or a piece of paper, a pencil, and of course, you will need your brain to do some thinking. If you don't have an exercise book, a piece of paper or a pencil, please pause the video and go and get one now. Okay, let's get started. It's time for our warm-up. I would like you to match these feeling words to their synonyms. Now remember synonyms are words, there are different words but they have the same meaning they mean the same thing. So the feeling words I have given you are sad and happy, angry and tired. I wonder if you can match them to their synonyms, I've given you some more ambitious words to match them with. So those are exhausted, furious, elated and upset. I'd like you to pause the video now, and match the feeling words to their synonyms. Okay, good job let's have a look and see. So sad means the same thing as upset, happy and elated are synonyms, angry and furious are synonyms, and tired and exhausted are synonyms. Give yourself a big pat on the back, and a tick for every word you correctly matched to its synonym, well done. Let's have a look at some of the features of persuasive letters, but first we need to think about this word persuade. What does persuade mean? I want you to pause the video and think, what do you think persuade means? Then when you have an answer, I'd like you to say it out loud. Pause the video now. Okay, let's see what persuade means. Persuade means to convince or cause someone to do something or change something, through discussion or argument. So maybe you feel unhappy about something, and you want somebody to change it you might try to persuade them to change it. And a persuasive letter which is what we will be writing this unit is a way of communicating with somebody, what we want them to do or change, so you might write a letter to somebody saying, "I'm not happy with this and I would like you to change it." Just like how crayons wrote to Duncan in "The Day the Crayons Quit." They all wrote him persuasive letters. On the screen in front of you I have some parts of the book, "The Day the Crayons Quit." So two little parts of two letters that the crayons wrote to Duncan. I would like you to think about what you notice about the language that is used in these letters. I'm going to read the letters for you now, and then you can pause the video and have a think. Now remember it's not the whole letter, I've just shown you a little bit of it. "Dear Duncan, yellow crayon here. "I need you to tell orange crayon "that I am the colour of the sun. "I would tell him but." What did you notice about the language there? And then the next one. "Hey Duncan it's me peach crayon. "Why did you peel off my wrapping paper? "Now I'm naked." What do you notice about the language in these letters? Have a think, pause the video and say your answer aloud, I noticed that. Good job, well done. So I can see that in these letters there's lots of words like I, and my, and me, and I'm. Also that it's addressing someone directly, it's saying, you. Now these words like I, and my, and I'm, are called the first person, my turn, first person, your turn, good job. When we write letters, they are from our point of view or a character's point of view that we are pretending to be. And so we write in what is called the first person, and when we write in the first person, we use words like I, your turn, my, your turn, we, your turn, and our, your turn. You might also see the word me. Okay, here's my next question for you. Often in persuasive letters, we see questions. Now normally when we write questions in letters, they're things like, how are you? And we expect an answer to them, but that's not the sort of questions we see in persuasive letters. Why do you think we use questions in persuasive letters? Have a think. I think we use questions to. Let's have a look. We use questions in persuasive letters to engage the reader. They read these questions and it hooks them in and makes them want to keep reading our letter. We use them to get the reader, to see things from the writer's perspective, or the writer's point of view. And also we can use questions to show the reader, how the writer is feeling. I'd like you to look at the writing below. What questions can you see? What is the writer trying to tell the reader? I'm going to read it out aloud for you in case it's not very clear. "Hey Duncan it's me, peach crayon. "Why did you peel off my wrapping paper?" That's the question, "Why did you peel off "my wrapping paper?" And then in the next one, which I can see is from the grey crayon, "You know how tired I am after handling one of those things? "Do you know how tired I am "after handling one of those things?" What questions can you see in this writing? And what is the writer trying to tell the reader here? Pause the video, think, say your answer aloud. Okay, good job. So I can see the peach crayon, he's saying what, he or she is saying, "Why did you peel off my wrapping paper?" They're not happy that Duncan has peeled off their paper wrapping, and they are trying to communicate that to Duncan by asking him a question. Because they're saying why did you do that? It's clear to Duncan that they're not happy that they've had their paper wrapping pulled off. And then grey crayon saying, "You know how tired I am, after handling those things?" The grey crayon is communicating or telling Duncan through a question, that they are tired. Do you know how tired I am? And they're also asking Duncan, if Duncan even care that they're tied, they're trying to gauge how much Duncan cares about their situation and to get him to see how they feel. Okay, another thing we might see in persuasive letters is called exaggeration, let's say that word like that my turn again, exaggeration, your turn, good job, you might've heard this way before. Writers use exaggeration, to make the issue seem massive, or bigger than it is. They do this to persuade the reader that the issue is huge and needs to be sorted out quickly. We use exaggeration quite a lot in our day-to-day lives. You might have used some exaggeration when you're talking to your friends, your parents, or your carers, or your teachers, anybody. Can you think of any times you have used exaggeration, maybe when you were feeling tired, or hungry, or bored, those tend to be the times when we use exaggeration. Can you think of any examples of exaggeration that you have used. Pause the video and have a think. I have used exaggeration when I have said, pause the video now. Good job, so like I said, we use exaggeration a lot in our everyday lives. We might say things like, "I can run faster than a cheetah." I can't really run faster than a cheetah, I'm exaggerating to make myself sound faster than I am. Maybe we're carrying things, maybe you're helping your parents, or your carer carry the shopping, or maybe you've got a heavy book bag after a day of school, you might say, "This weighs a tonne." Maybe you don't really want to be carrying it, and you're trying to make it sound worse than it is so somebody helps you. We might say this weighs a tonne. It doesn't really weigh a tonne, human beings can't really lift something that weighs a tonne, it's too heavy. So we exaggerate, we pretend that it weighs a tonne to make it sound bigger or worse than it is, and hope that someone might help us. You might also say something like, "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse." You might have heard somebody say that before. You probably couldn't really eat a horse, that's a lot of food. You probably wouldn't really want to eat a horse either, I'm not sure. But we do that to exaggerate, to say to people, this is how hungry I am, I could eat an animal that's much bigger than me. We couldn't really, but we're trying to communicate just how hungry we are and that's why we use exaggeration. So there are some examples of exaggeration in these sentences, I wonder if you can find them. Pause the video and have a look. Okay, I wonder if you found them. So now first letter says, "Okay, listen here kid, "You have not used me once in the past year." I think that might be exaggeration. I think Duncan probably has used the pink crayon at least once in the last year. But the pink crayon is saying that to make it sound worse, to make it sound as though they are never ever used to persuade Duncan to get them, to use them to colour. The grey crayon is saying, "You're killing me." Remember the grey crayon has to colour in humpback whales, and hippos and elephants, lots and lots of big things to colour in. So the grey crayon is saying, "You're killing me." Now, I don't think Duncan is really killing them, but they're trying to explain how tired they are after colouring in all those things, so they're using exaggeration to communicate that to Duncan. Another thing that we might see in persuasive letters is my turn, argument your turn. Persuasive letters use opinions, so what people think or what characters think and reasons to present an argument. This helps the reader see thing from the writer's point of view, and give them reasons to agree with the writer. The writers of persuasive letters, want the reader to be on their side, to agree with them and to change or do something. So here's an example of an argument. The first part is my opinion. My opinion is I should go to the park after school, that's what I think. Then I need to give a reason for that, because if I just said to my parent or carer, I should go to the park after school, they might just say no. So I need to convince them why I should go to the park after school, with the reason, and my reason is because fresh air and exercise, are good for you. They might be more willing to listen to my opinion and agree with it, if I give them a good reason. They're less likely to say no to me going to the park if I say, actually it's healthy for me to go to the park. I wonder if you can find examples of an argument of opinions and reasons in these sentences, I'm going to read the sentences aloud for you. "We both know I am clearly the colour of the sun, "because on Thursday you used me to colour the sun, "on both the monkey island, "and the meet the zookeeper pages." "Yellow crayon here, I need you to tell orange crayon "that I am the colour of the sun. "And I can prove I'm the colour of the sun too. "Last Tuesday you used me to colour the sun in." What examples of arguments of opinions, what the characters think and the reasons they have. Can you find in these sentences? Pause the video, off you go. Really good job. So I can see the jointing conjunction because in the orange crayon's argument, that's a really good way to explain our reason. Usually our opinion comes before the joining conjunction because. So the opinion is I am clearly the colour of the sun, that's what the orange crayon thinks. And then their reason for that is because on Thursday, you used me to colour the sun. I must be the colour of the sun because you use me to colour the sun, that's their argument. Yellow crayon their opinion is that they are the colour of the sun. "I need you to tell orange crayon that I am the colour of the sun." That's their opinion, that's what they think, they think they are the colour of the sun. And their argument they say, I can prove it. I can prove it, that means they've got evidence to show that I'm the colour. And their reason their evidence is that last Tuesday, you used me to colour the sun, so it sounds like Duncan uses both the orange and the yellow crayons to colouring the sun. Those are their opinions and reasons, their opinions are that they should be the colour of the sun and their reasons are because they've been used to colouring the sun. Okay, the last feature we're going to look at today is commands and warnings, let's say in a bossy voice, commands and warnings, your turn, good job. Persuasive letters, often contain commands and warnings, the command tells the reader what the writer wants, or instruct the reader to do something. So for example, the grey crayon might say, "Stop using me to colour in huge grey elephants." That is the command. They have got that imperative verb, stop. Saying, you need to do this, you need to listen. A warning tells the reader what the writer will do if the reader doesn't follow their command. So the grey crayon might say, "If you don't stop using me so much, I will quit." They are threatening to quit, unless the reader follows their command. So what examples of commands and warnings can you find in these sentences? First one says, "Tell orange crayon "that I am the colour of the sun." Then I can see the purple crayon has written, "If you don't start colouring inside the lines soon, "I'm going to completely lose it." And the green crayon is saying, "Settle this soon." Which of these are examples of commands, telling the reader what they want them to do? And which are examples of warnings, telling the reader what will happen if they don't do what they say. Pause the video and have a look now. Okay, well done. So I can see the command, "Tell orange crayon "that I am the colour of the sun." We've got that imperative verb tell, that is an example of a command. And I can see the green crayon is saying, "Settle this soon." That's another example of a command. They are telling the reader what to do. And then the purple crayon has written a warning, and I can see because it starts with the word if. "If you don't start colouring inside the lines, "I'm going to completely lose it." So they are warning the reader that they will lose it, if they don't start doing what they say. It's time for our task. Before our task I would like you to meet somebody. I would like you to meet Mr. Fox. Mr. Fox is a Fox that comes into my garden every day and sleeps in my garden. Now normally Mr. Fox doesn't get woken up during the day because I'm not home that much during the day, unless it's a weekend. But recently I've been home a lot during the day, and I've been going out to the garden as well, and I have been waking Mr. Fox up from their naps, and they don't like it very much. They would like me to stop. So here we can see Mr. Fox is saying, "I'm sick of you waking me up from my nap, "you need to stop." And then in my second picture, they've woken up and they're having a big stretch, and they're saying, "Ms. Bourke has woken me up again." They're a bit cross with me for waking them up. So they have written me a letter, and in the letter that Mr. Fox has written me, I would like you to find and write down the following features of a persuasive letter. I would like you to find some examples of the first person, I, my, we, our, I would like you to find questions, exaggeration, argument, so those opinions, what Mr. Fox thinks and the reason for it and the commands and warnings. Here is the letter, that Mr. Fox has written me. You are going to need to pause the video now, and find the examples of the first person, of questions, of exaggeration, of argument and of commands and warnings. Pause the video now and see what examples of these features you can find in this writing. Okay, really good job. There was quite a lot of writing there, I wonder if you managed to find an example of everything on my list, I'd be so impressed if you did. Let's have a look. Firstly, we have the first person, there's quite a few examples I can see, lots of the word I, my, I'm, which remember is a contraction I am, can see the word me there. I can see the word I've, which is a contraction of I have, well done if you found all of those examples of the first person in this writing. Next we looked for questions. Here are my questions at the beginning of the letter. "Do think I like being woken up from my naps?" Question mark, "Do you think I have nothing better "to do all day, than find a new place, "than find new places to sleep?" Question mark, well done if you found those two questions and give yourself a tick for those two questions that you have found, okay. Next is exaggeration, Mr. Fox is making this sound worse than it is. Mr. Fox has said, "I haven't slept in days." That's an example of exaggeration, because Mr. Fox has slept but maybe just not as much as they would have liked to. And then the other exaggeration has that superlative and utmost, and Mr. Fox has written, "I am the most tired Fox in the world." Give yourself a tick if you found those two examples of exaggeration in this letter. Next you had to find some examples of arguments of opinions and reasons, here they are I underlined in pink. So the first opinion is, "I think you should stop coming into the garden during the day." I can see the word think, there telling me that that's the Fox's opinion. And then the reason for that is because you have a house to sit in. So Mr. Fox is saying, "You don't need to come to the garden, you've got somewhere else you can be." And then Mr. Fox has followed up with two further reasons. "You can go to the park, "and I don't have anywhere else to go." So Mr. Fox is saying, well you can go to the park if you want to go outside, but I can't go anywhere else, maybe it's not safe for Mr. Fox to go anywhere else to sleep. Finally, needed to find command and warnings. Here we have the command, "Stop waking me up." Starting with the imperative verb, give yourself a tick if you found the command, stop waking me up and then we had our warning starting with the conjunction if. "If you don't, I will come into your bedroom "and wake you up." Give yourself a tick if you found the warning. Well done, we have completed the warm-up, we have looked at the features of persuasive letters, and you have completed the task where you found the features of a persuasive letter. Give yourself a big pat on the back, well done. Congratulations, you have completed your lesson. If you would like to please share your work with a parent or a carer.

Completed: To explore the features of a persuasive letter

In this lesson, children will look at excerpts from the text 'The Day the Crayons Quit' and look at the features of persuasive letters: exaggeration, emotions, opinions and reasons (argument) and threat.

English

To explore the features of a persuasive letter

Video

Lesson Complete