Lesson Plan

Can You Follow My Directions?

Main Subject Area: Language Arts

Duration of Lesson:  45 minutes

Keywords:

• Directions
• Expository Writing

Brief Description:

Students will place coins on a grid and will write clear directions to help other students find the coins. Students will review the writing of other authors to analyze effective writing.

National Standard(s):

• Demonstrate competence in the general skills and strategies of the writing process
• Use grammatical and mechanical conventions in written compositions

Additional Subject Area Standard(s):

Objectives:

Students will write with the purpose of giving clear directions.

Students will review the writing of other authors to analyze effective writing.

Materials (online):

Materials (offline):

Grid paper

Writing journals

Bag of coins for each student

Coins Used in Lesson:

Currently circulating U.S. coins

Grade Level(s):   3-5  

Procedures (online):

Procedures (offline):

1. Start this lesson by distributing a piece of grid paper and a bag of coins to each of your students.

2. Tell your students that you also have a piece of grid paper and have placed some coins on the paper.

3. Give your students some vague directions about where the coins are located. For example, tell them you have a silver coin on the left side of the paper, or two pennies on your paper.

4. Have your students try to determine the coins being used and their locations on your grid.

5. Compare your grid with those of your students to see if they are the same. The students’ grids will probably vary greatly from each other’s and the teachers’ grids.

6. Explain to your students that they are going to write clear and specific directions for replicating a certain arrangement of coins on the grid paper.

7. Brainstorm with the students some accurate ways to describe the coins and their location on the grid paper.

8. Instruct the students to develop their set of directions. Have students include a sketch of where the coins are located as a key. You can include parameters such as how many coins to use.

9. After your students complete their set of directions, have them exchange their directions and sketches. The students should try to follow the written directions and then check their solution with the key.

10. Instruct your students to write comments on their partner’s paper about how clear the directions were. They can comment about where they had questions, or where they thought the directions were very clear.

Assessment / Evaluation:

Students can be evaluated on the clarity of their directions. Students can also be evaluated on the mechanics of their writing.

Differentiated Learning Options:

Extend this lesson to become a mathematical introduction to coordinate grids. Instead of having your student use descriptive language to explain the location of the coins, have them label the graph paper with numbers. Then have your students describe the location of their coins by listing the coordinate pairs. Have your students exchange their directions and sketches to verify that the coordinate pairs listed are correct.