What Is an Explanation?

Overview

In this 60-minute lesson, students explore and deconstruct model explanation texts before generating questions about a familiar topic. They distinguish explanations, which tell how or why something happens, from procedures, which instruct someone how to do something. Students also practise precise vocabulary, words ending in -ing, homonyms and joined handwriting.

Learning intentions

• WALT identify the purpose and structure of an explanation text.
• WALT distinguish explaining how or why something happens from instructing someone to do something.
• WALT generate useful questions about a topic to guide an explanation.
• WALT use -ing words, homonyms and joined handwriting accurately.

Success criteria

• I can explain the difference between an explanation and a procedure.
• I can identify the title, opening statement, sequenced points and conclusion in an explanation.
• I can write questions beginning with words such as how, why and what happens when.
• I can use an -ing word or homonym correctly and form joined letters clearly.

Curriculum links

• Reading: Information texts introduce a topic, organise ideas clearly and use features such as headings and diagrams.
• Reading: Information texts use precise and topic-related vocabulary.
• Writing: Informative texts introduce a topic and group related information into clear sections or paragraphs.
• Writing: Informative texts develop a topic with facts and related examples, use topic vocabulary and provide a related conclusion.
• Key competencies: thinking; using language, symbols and texts; managing self; participating and contributing.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–7 min · Hook and retrieval. Open with the hook and retrieval slides showing two contrasting titles: How to Make a Paper Plane and How Does a Paper Plane Fly? Ask, “Which text would tell you what to do, and which would explain why something happens?” Students discuss with a partner, then share one difference between a procedure and an explanation.

2. 7–17 min · Explicit teaching. Use the explanation features slides to define an explanation as a text that tells how or why a process or event happens. Model the structure: a clear title, an opening statement introducing the topic, sequenced points explaining causes or stages, and a conclusion that sums up the explanation. Contrast imperative verbs and numbered commands in procedures with factual, causal language in explanations, such as because, as a result, therefore and this causes. Students record one difference in their books.

3. 17–30 min · Guided deconstruction. Display the short model text in the model explanation slides: How Does Rain Form? Read it aloud, then reread it with students. Think aloud while identifying the title, opening statement, sequenced points and conclusion. Students work in groups of three to label the features on a copy of the model in the explanation detective worksheet. They underline precise topic vocabulary, such as water vapour, cooling and droplets, and circle words that show cause or sequence. Pause to ask, “Is this sentence telling us what to do, or explaining what happens?”

4. 30–40 min · Sort and discuss. Display sentences from both genres using the procedure-or-explanation sorting slides. In pairs, students decide whether each sentence belongs in a procedure or an explanation and justify their choice. Invite pairs to place one example under the appropriate section of the Genre Features Poster Pack. Clarify that an explanation may describe steps in a process, but its purpose is to explain how or why—not to give commands. Students add one useful explanation word to their worksheet.

5. 40–48 min · Question generation. Introduce the topic How do bees help plants? using the question-generation slides. Model turning a general idea into questions: What happens when a bee visits a flower? Why is pollen important? How does this help the plant? Students independently write three questions in the planning section of the explanation detective worksheet, including at least one how or why question. Partners check that the questions could be answered with facts and related examples.

6. 48–56 min · Transcription focus. Use the language and handwriting slides to review -ing words, including gathering, carrying and pollinating. Briefly discuss homonyms such as flower/flour, bee/be and their/there. Students complete the short sentence task on the explanation detective worksheet, choosing the correct homonym and writing two topic-related -ing sentences. They copy one sentence in joined handwriting, focusing on size, joins, spacing and sitting the letters on the line. Confer with students who need support.

7. 56–60 min · Plenary and exit check. Return to the plenary slides. Students complete: “An explanation is different from a procedure because…” and name one structural feature. Collect the final question from each student as an initial check of their readiness to plan an explanation.

Resources

• the explanation lesson slide deck
• the explanation detective worksheet
• Genre Features Poster Pack
• Whiteboard and markers
• Exercise books and pencils
• Jolly Phonics Grammar Handbook 4
• Highlighters
• Visual timer

Assessment

• Listen during the hook and sorting task for accurate distinctions between explaining and instructing.
• Check worksheet labels, topic vocabulary, generated questions, homonym choices and joined handwriting.
• Use each student’s final question to identify who can ask a relevant how or why question and who needs guided support next lesson.

Differentiation

• Provide a completed example, a feature word bank and sentence starters: “An explanation tells…”, “This happens because…” and “Why does…?”
• Read the model aloud, pair developing readers with supportive peers and allow students to orally rehearse questions before writing.
• Support EAL learners with visuals, gestures and a small glossary for vapour, droplets, pollen and process.
• Extend confident writers by asking them to include a causal connective and a precise topic word in each generated question or sentence.