Lesson video

Hello everyone.

My name is Mr. Brown and I am your English teacher for today's lesson.

And it's a lesson on features.

Understanding and identifying the features of instructions.

So by the end of this lesson, you will know what instructions are, how we use them, what they look like, how to write them.

So we've got a lot to do.

Let's get started.

The outcome for today's lesson is "I can identify the different features of instructions.

The key words we use are instructions and features.

Let's say those together, my turn then your turn.

Instructions.

Features.

Amazing work well done.

Here's our lesson outline.

We will start by looking at what are instructions.

We'll then move on to identifying the features of instructions.

So what are instructions? Have you ever played a board game with your friends or family before and read the booklet that tells you how to play? Or maybe you've built something out of toy blocks by following a step-by-step guide that told you what to do.

If you have, then you have probably already seen and followed a set of instructions before.

So you're probably already familiar with instructions.

Instructions are a set of steps or guidelines for someone to follow to complete a specific task.

Instructions are written for someone who needs to know how to do something.

Let's check your understanding on what we've learned so far.

Instructions are a set of steps or guidelines for someone to follow to complete a specific task.

Is that true or is that false? Pause the video and decide true or false now.

Welcome back everyone, let's see if you were right.

So, true or false instructions are a set of steps or guidelines for someone to follow to complete a specific task.

Well, that's true, well done if you said true.

They are steps or guidelines to follow to complete a specific task.

There are lots of examples of things that come with instructions, toys, lots of toys that you will have at home came with instructions.

Maybe you don't have them anymore, but they will have done when you bought them.

Games, so instructions that tell you how to play a game.

A board game can have lots of different rules that have to be kept to, so the game can be played fairly and correctly and those rules can be included in the instructions.

An art or science kit, construction kits, for example, Lego, so if you follow Lego, now, Lego instructions, they don't use words, but they have step-by-step pictures that help guide you, that still counts as instructions.

Cookery kits, furniture, so you might have seen parents, carers or family members putting together flat packed furniture.

So they come home from the shop with a cabinet that is only this big because it's all flat packed into a cardboard box and they have to follow instructions to put the cabinet together.

Cars, of course, when you buy a car, you have to have the instructions that tell you how it works.

How do you put the window wipers on? How do you lock the car? These are all in instructions.

And electronic devices, for example, phones and cameras.

So when you buy a new phone, you need to know how to use it and you follow the instructions to set it up to be able to make sure that it's secure, that's got a password, things like that.

Let's check our understanding.

Which of these things would not come with instructions? Is it A, board games, B, a football or C, cookery kits? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back everyone.

Let's see if you found the right answer.

So which of these things would not come with instructions? Well done if you said "B, a football." A football doesn't come with instructions because everyone knows how to play with a football, but a board game or a cookery kit, well that would come with instructions.

So what if you said B.

Instructions are broken down into small steps to help guide someone to be able to do something.

It is important that instructions are written carefully and are very clear so the reader can follow them easily.

If instructions are not clear, someone may get confused and the instructions will not achieve their purpose.

Instructions need to be broken down into A, large chunks, B, individual words or C, small steps.

What do you think? Instructions need to be broken down into A, B, or C? Pause the video and decide what's the correct answer now.

Welcome back everyone.

Instructions need to be broken down into C, small steps.

Not large chunks, that would be too difficult to follow too much information in one go.

Individual words, well that's broken down too much, but small steps, step by step guides.

That's what instructions are.

Well done if you said C.

Time for a practise task.

I would like you to write a list of things that have instructions to help someone use them correctly.

You could use your own experience by including things that you have used yourself.

So perhaps there are things around the house that you have bought that had instructions when you had them and that was how you used them.

Here's a start to your list, so I'll give you a start.

Furniture, so furniture is the start of your list.

We said that when you buy furniture often it can come in pieces and you follow instructions to put it together.

So time for you now to write your own list of things that require instructions to be used correctly.

Pause the video and have a go now.

Welcome back everyone.

Let's see how your list compares to mine.

So I've got furniture, toys, games, art or science kits, construction kits, for example, Lego, cookery kits, cars and electronic devices like phones and cameras.

Well done if you included any of these things on your list and an extra well done if you included some things that I hadn't thought of that require instructions, well done.

Let's move on to identifying the features of instructions.

Let's look at a set of instructions and explore the features.

Now, features are the distinctive qualities or characteristics of something.

The features of a classroom might be desks, a carpet, pegs, a book corner.

So if I see desks, a carpet, pegs, or a book corner, then I would know I'm probably in a classroom because my brain uses those features to gather information and to decide where I am.

We are going to be writing instructions ourselves in this unit.

And the example we'll look at today will be a set of instructions for how to make a pizza.

When instructions are telling you how to make food, it is called a recipe.

So we'll be looking at a recipe for how to make a pizza.

True or false, features are the distinctive qualities or characteristics of something.

Is that true or is that false? Pause the video and decide true or false now.

Welcome back everyone, let's see if you were right.

Features are the distinctive qualities or characteristics of something is true.

Well done if you said true.

Okay, so let's have a look.

Here's a pizza recipe and we start with ingredients.

We have 300 grammes of flour, one teaspoon of yeast, 200 millilitres of warm water, tomato paste, and cheese.

Now you can see already we have a title, it says pizza recipe, and our ingredients.

Now instructions have a title telling the reader what they're for, and that's what "Pizza recipe" does there.

Now some instructions, such as recipes, will contain a list of things that you'll need.

Now in a recipe, the list is called ingredients.

So that's basically, it's just a list of things that you'll need to complete the instructions.

And where you can see, you've got things like 300g of flour, that g stands for grammes, 200ml of warm water, ml is millilitres and these are units of measurement.

Ah, now here are my instructions.

"First, mix the yeast with the warm water in a large bowl." And that was number one.

You could see there's a one next to that instruction.

Two, "Second, add the flour and slowly mix together to make the dough." Instruction number three is "Then, roll the dough into a flat circle." Four, "After that, spread the tomato paste on top." Five, "Next, gently sprinkle the cheese on top of the pizza." And number six, "Finally, carefully place the pizza into the oven and cook for 10 minutes." Now a feature of instructions is numbers and you can see them highlighted on the left.

The instructions are numbered to help the reader know the order to follow them in.

We have them numbered so we know which one we are going to first, second, third.

Let's check our understanding.

In a set of instructions numbers are used so the reader can choose what order to follow the instructions in.

In a set of instructions, numbers are used so the reader can choose what order to follow the instructions in.

Is that true or is that false? Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back everyone, true or false? Let's see if you're right.

Well, well done If you said false.

The numbers are not used so the reader can just choose which order to follow them in.

You have to follow instructions in a specific order, and that is what the numbers are for.

They tell you one first, then two, then three, then four.

So well done if you said false.

Now another feature of instructions is ordering fronted adverbials.

Let's say that together, ordering fronted adverbials.

Now these words work in a similar way to the numbers and they order the instructions for the reader.

So you can see we have first, second, then, after that, next and finally.

The first instruction has first as the ordering fronted adverbial, the last instruction has finally as the ordering fronted adverbial.

So they do a very similar job to the numbers.

Now, an essential feature of instructions is imperative verbs.

Say that with me, imperative verbs, well done.

Now these words are bossy verbs that tell the reader what to do.

They are instructing the reader.

So these are the words that tell the reader what to do.

Mix, add, make, roll, spread, sprinkle, place, cook.

They are bossy.

Bossy verbs that tell the reader exactly what to do.

Which of these is not an imperative verb? Is it A, cut, B, mix, C, pizza, D, cook.

Which of these is not an imperative verb? Pause the video and decide for yourself now.

Welcome back everyone.

Let's see if you found the right answer.

Which one of these is not an imperative verb? Now we know an imperative verb is a bossy verb telling the reader what to do, and pizza, well, that does not tell the reader what to do.

That's a noun, pizza, it's a person, place, or a thing; it's a thing.

Cut is a verb, mix is a verb, and cook is a verb.

Well done if you said C.

Now the next thing we're gonna look at is another feature of instructions that comes with the imperative verbs and that's adverbs.

So adverbs, tell the reader how to do the verb, and these can be an important safety reminder.

So we've got things like slowly mix, gently sprinkle, and then this one, particularly in terms of safety, carefully place the pizza into the oven.

Why do you think you would need to carefully place a pizza into the oven? Hmm, have a think.

Ah, of course, because the oven will be very hot and so you must carefully do it.

If I said quickly place the pizza into the oven, you might burn yourself because you are rushing to get the pizza into the oven.

So the adverbs help the reader to know how to do the verb.

True or false in a set of instructions, some of the verbs will be accompanied by adverbs telling the reader how to do something.

Is that true or is it false? Pause the lesson and have a go at answering this one for yourself now.

Welcome back everyone.

In a set of instructions, some of the verbs will be accompanied by an adverb? Absolutely, these adverbs will tell the reader how to do the verb and they are really important.

So well done if you said true.

Okay, time for a practise task.

Now that you are familiar with the features of instructions, I want you to have a go at verbally, which means saying out loud, verbally giving your partner instructions so you can choose what you'd like to give them instructions for, but you may wish to use one of these ideas.

Instructions for lining up at break time, instructions for washing your hands, or instructions for sitting at your desk.

Now, try and include all of these features in your instructions.

I would love to see ordering fronted adverbials like first, second, next, imperative verbs like sit, walk, turn, and adverbs like carefully and slowly.

Try and include all of these things in your instructions and have fun, this could be a really fun game that you can play with a partner, and you can even play these in the playground outside of class too, giving and following instructions.

So pause the video and have a go at giving your instructions now.

Welcome back everyone.

I'm sure you had so much fun with giving those instructions and following those instructions.

Let's have a look at some examples.

Just before we read through mine, take a moment to think.

Did you include all of these features in your instructions? Did you include ordering, fronted adverbials, imperative verbs and adverbs? If you didn't and you'd like to have another go, that's absolutely fine, you can pause the video and have a practise at giving some more instructions.

But if you are ready, we can move on and look at my example.

So here are my instructions for being able to line up and go out to break.

Number one, "First, quietly stand behind your chair.

Next, walk slowly to your peg and get your coat.

After that, quickly put your coat on." This is number four, "Then, silently move to your line order position." And number five, "Finally, walk carefully out into the playground for breaktime." Now you can see I've got my ordering fronted adverbials, first, next, after that, then and finally, imperative verbs, stand, walk, put, move, and adverbs quietly, slowly, quickly, silently and carefully.

It's really important that you quietly stand behind your chair.

Carefully walk out into the playground.

So I've chosen my adverbs to be as precise as I can.

Excellent work today.

Let's summarise the learning that we've done.

Instructions are a set of steps or guidelines for someone to follow to complete a specific task.

Instructions contain numbers or ordering fronted adverbials, instructions contain imperative verbs, and instructions contain adverbs.

Well done, I am sure you have become familiar with the features of instructions.

I will see you again very soon.