Writing for social media

Teacher notes

This lesson focuses on the planning and production of a piece of writing. If you'd like to familiarise students with the conventions of writing to inform, you may like to use the lessons titled 'Writing to inform: Part One and Writing to inform: Part two'. This lesson allows students to consider social media use and how it might be used to spread a positive message. They'll meet Marcelo a YouTuber, who shares free philosophy lessons online. After meeting Marcelo, students will plan and write their own speech that they could share on YouTube. Please note: this lesson could be adapted for a lesson on examining the difference in more formal, written language and the usually more informal use of spoken language on social media platforms like YouTube, considering aspects such as tone, language choices and sentence structure. This would allow students to carry out some meta analyses to consider when it is appropriate to use one form of language in specific contexts over another. This lesson however, focuses on the formal structures of a speech with success criteria that examination bodies require. **Lyfta core skills and values**: Communication, Critical Thinking, Creativity and Innovation & Organisation and Planning. **Lyfta core themes:** Learning and Growth, Technology and Engineering. **SDGs**: 4 & 10 **English KS3 and KS4 key skills** - planning - organising information and ideas - writing non-fiction - audience, purpose and form - using language effectively - vocabulary.