Modern text 2: building the conceptual essay
Two questions, one choice, forty-five minutes. This lesson shows how to choose, plan and write a Section A essay that argues rather than describes.
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures with accurate spelling and punctuation.
Key learning points
- • Choosing between the two questions
- • The conceptual line
- • Paragraph engine
- • Timing and AO4
This lesson at a glance
- 30 minutes
- 17 parts to scroll through
- 4 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 17
Watch first
Modern text 2: building the conceptual essay
An English teaching video on this topic from Mr Salles Teaches English. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.
In a nutshell
Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures with accurate spelling and punctuation.
Learning cycle
Part 2 of 17
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Part 1 · Choosing between the two questions
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 3 of 17
Learn
Choosing between the two questions
Pick the question you have evidence for, not the one that sounds easier. Spend ninety seconds listing three moments for each; whichever list fills faster is your question.
Explore the idea
Part 4 of 17
Learn
The conceptual line
A conceptual line is one sentence you could defend if challenged, repeated in different clothes at the start of each paragraph. It should mention the writer and a purpose: 'the writer uses…so that the audience…'.
Quick check
Part 5 of 17
Quick check
How should you choose between the two Section A questions?
Quick check
Part 6 of 17
Quick check
What belongs in a conceptual line?
Learning cycle
Part 7 of 17
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Part 2 · Paragraph engine
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Reset break
Part 8 of 17
Pause
That's sitting 1 of 2 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Explore the idea
Part 9 of 17
Learn
Paragraph engine
Claim, moment, method, effect, purpose. Five moves, in that order, in every paragraph. It feels mechanical in practice and reads as fluent argument once you write at speed.
Explore the idea
Part 10 of 17
Learn
Timing and AO4
Eight minutes planning, thirty writing, five checking. In checking, hunt for missing apostrophes, repeated sentence openings and any paragraph that describes without arguing.
Quick check
Part 11 of 17
Quick check
What is the correct order of the paragraph engine?
Quick check
Part 12 of 17
Quick check
What is the best use of the final five minutes?
Explore the idea
Part 13 of 17
Worked example
Essay task
How does the writer of your modern text present the way one generation judges another? Write about the ideas and the methods used to present them. (30 marks + 4 AO4). Use the five-move paragraph engine and check your conceptual line appears in every topic sentence.
Challenge round
Part 14 of 17
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Challenge round
Part 15 of 17
Game · Fill the gaps
Finish the sentences
Choose the word that belongs in each gap.
A conceptual line is one ____ you could defend if challenged, repeated in different clothes at the start of each paragraph.
Mastery quiz
Part 16 of 17
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Modern text 2: building the conceptual essay
4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. How should you choose between the two Section A questions?
2. What belongs in a conceptual line?
3. What is the correct order of the paragraph engine?
4. What is the best use of the final five minutes?
Lesson round-up
Part 17 of 17
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
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Points this lesson
0
Best run
0 in a row
Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo the work
Your written work for this lesson
This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.
The last bus
The bus shelter smelled of wet coats. Mira pressed her timetable flat against the glass, as though staring at the numbers might make the 9:42 appear. Rain tapped the roof in small, impatient fingers. Somewhere behind her, a shop shutter came down with a sound like a full stop.
She had been brave all day. She had been brave in the corridor, brave at lunch, brave when the register reached her name and nobody looked up. Being brave, she decided, was mostly a matter of keeping your face still.
Headlights swung around the corner and lit the puddles gold. Mira picked up her bag. Tomorrow she would say something. Tonight she would simply go home.
Original extract written for Good Learning Co.
Reading questions
- Find two words or phrases that show how Mira is feeling, and explain what each one suggests.
- How does the writer use the weather and the sounds to build the mood? Use a short quotation.
- Write the next paragraph in the same style, keeping the writer's short sentences at the moments that matter.
Reading response
ReadingRead the extract again, then write about how the writer makes you feel that way. Use a short quotation and explain your choice of words.
2 paragraphs (PEE)
Extended writing
WritingWrite your piece in full, then redraft the opening so it hooks the reader.
250–350 words
Reading log
ReadingNote the book, the pages you read and one thing you noticed about the writing.
20 minutes' reading
Saved as you type.
Part 1 of 17 · Watch & discover