Year 5H Instructions

by Lee Hawkins, Year 5 Teacher

We began the English topic by engaging in some fun games that highlighted the importance of following instructions exactly, as well as the importance of giving clear and accurate instructions.

Once we understood exactly what a good instruction was, we then looked at the writing features. We dissected an exemplar text, highlighting what we thought were important features to include in our own instructions. The students highlighted genre features, such as titles, sub-titles, bullet points, and diagrams. We also noted some key writing features such as adverbial phrases, parenthesis for clarification, rhetorical questions, and imperative verbs.

Next, we created a set of instructions in groups, the subject of which was ‘How to tie your shoelaces’ (another important life skill). This was something many of the students needed to practice to perfect. After a few lessons of planning and editing, we were ready to test our shoelace instructions. SUCCESS! By the end of these lessons, not only did we have instructions that were clear and accurate, now everyone in the class was able to tie their own shoelaces with confidence.

Finally, we needed to plan, create, and perfect a set of instructions independently.

Keeping to the fun and engaging theme, we decided to write a set of instruction on ‘How to make my perfect sandwich’. With the planning complete and the instructions written out, we were ready to peer assess them. What better way to assess them than to follow the instructions and MAKE our perfect sandwiches. The students paired up, swapped instructions and ingredients, and followed each other’s directions, precisely. This meant that if there was a step missing or an inaccurate instruction, then the final sandwich would reflect that.

Once completed, the students were able to enjoy their favourite sandwich and give each other a score based on how well the instructions were written and how well they were followed. Almost all were perfect, but we did have a few that forgot to cut, spread, or add a slice of bread to the final product (they still enjoyed chowing down on whatever was in front of them).

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed this topic and of course, learned the importance of clear and easy to follow instructions.