Writing to argue

Preparation and Planning

There is little preparation for this lesson. You will need to make enough copies of the Student Worksheets for each student as the exercises require independent study. You will need ICT access to play the Video.

You may wish to provide students with background information on memorials in your local area but it is not a necessary requirement for the exercise to be completed.

In the plenary, students are required to assess each others' work against examination marking criteria so you will need to prepare this in advance.
There is enough material in this Lesson Plan to spread the topic across two lessons.

About the MOD Topic

War memorials are an important aspect of our national heritage. The National Inventory of War Memorials recognises memorials as objects that 'reunite those who were separated by a conflict'. They tell a story and perpetuate the memory of those who have been killed as a result of war.

The vast majority of memorials were erected many years ago, especially following the tremendous loss of life during the First World War (1914-1918), although the first memorials can be dated back to the 9th Century. Any object can be considered a war memorial as long as the inscription, purpose or placement links it to a war or war casualty in some way. Below is an example of the variety of memorials that have been recorded by the National Inventory of War Memorials:

- Plaques, tablets and boards inside churches, schools, businesses and other buildings.
- Utilitarian memorials including parks, gardens, halls, hospitals, bus shelters, endowed beds in hospitals and even an island.
- Church fabric or fittings like bells, pews, lecterns, lighting, altars, candlesticks etc.
- Trophies or relics like preserved guns or wreckage marking aircraft crash sites.
- Other memorials e.g. stuffed animals, bird baths, paintings and prints, sundials, shrines, tapestries and trees.

Every year more memorials are erected by concerned individuals, groups and organisations who feel that there is justification for the erection of another monument to the fallen. Every year we are rightly reminded of the tremendous sacrifices made by men and women during the two World Wars that disfigured the 20th century and shaped so many of the political, social and economic frameworks we have today. However, it is widely accepted that there is insufficient recognition of the men and women of our Armed Forces who have lost their lives in conflict, as a result of terrorist action, on training exercises or in the many small campaigns fought since the end of the Second World War. In October 2007, the National Armed Forces Memorial opened at Alrewas in Staffordshire. This was developed to provide recognition and give thanks to those members of the Armed Forces who have given their lives in service of their country since the Second World War.

Engraved on the Armed Forces Memorial are the names of 16,000 individuals, in date and Service order. Individuals are grouped together with their friends and colleagues who died in the same incident. Unfortunately it is inevitable that more names will need to be added to the Memorial in future years and so empty panels have been left for 15,000 new names. The Armed Forces Memorial is used during this lesson to help students construct their own argument for a new local memorial to be erected. For further information on the Armed Forces Memorial visit: http://www.forcesmemorial.org.uk/

It has been a long standing policy of successive Governments that the cost of erecting memorials and associated projects are not usually met from public funds, but from private donations or public subscription. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) does not have responsibility for either the funding or maintenance of war memorials. However, they do have a duty of care to their veterans and this includes ensuring that their courageous efforts and sacrifices are remembered and recognised.

Below provides links to further information about memorials:
UK National Inventory of War Memorials http://www.ukniwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.002
Commonwealth War Graves Commission www.cwgc.org
War Memorials Trust (WMT) http://www.warmemorials.org/

Further Opportunities for Learning

The supporting resources in this lesson could be used to develop their skill of 'writing to inform, explain and describe'. Students could write a newspaper article about the Armed Forces Memorial launch. Within this they could describe how people felt when they saw the memorial and the design of the memorial.

The resources could also support their skills for 'explore, imagine and entertain'. Using the Video, they could imagine they had lost a loved one to war and write a diary extract that describes how they felt when they visited the memorial and saw their name engraved.

Extend work out to review the different kinds of memorials and practise arguing skills by debating who and what should be remembered, e.g. soldiers killed in war, civilian victims from natural disasters etc.

This topic is also highly suitable for development into a school assembly presentation in PSHE if a discussion can be developed on the history and purpose of a specific local war memorial or school wall memorial plaque.

Student worksheet answers

Download the teachers notes PDF to access the answers for this lesson.