Explanation Text Writing Unit – Years 5 and 6

Students spend time at the start of the unit designing their own telescopic glasses. This allows them to focus on how to write an explanation text, without becoming bogged down in learning exactly how a specific product works, they can tell us!

This would make a great unit to be taught alongside a Science unit on Space, or as a way to revisit Scientific knowledge.

This unit begins with ten lessons exploring the text type and sentence level work. The final five lessons allow them to write their explanation text. The unit uses three differentiated example text types about telescopic glasses to supports students’ understanding.

Where appropriate, each lesson is differentiated and carefully planned to suit different students’ needs.

Lesson order:

• Hook lesson: introducing the telescopic glasses and their purpose. Students design their own telescopic glasses.
• Creating diagrams with technical language, students draw and label diagrams of their glasses using technical language.
• Identify features of explanation texts, students explore the key features of explanation texts and find examples in the texts provided.
• Using parenthesis, students will look at how parenthesis has been used in the sample texts before practising writing their own sentences using parenthesis.
• Using relative clauses, students will look at how relative clauses have been used in the sample texts before practising writing their own sentences or paragraphs using relative clauses to describe their glasses.
• Writing with conjunctions, students will explore a range of conjunctions and their different purposes in the sample texts. They will then have time to complete sentences or write their own sentences using conjunctions: comparing, contrasting, explaining and describing more than one.
• Using cohesive devices, students explore how repeated words/phrases, rhetorical questions and conjunctions are cohesive devices. Activities include highlighting cohesive devices in sample texts and editing paragraphs to make them more cohesive.
• Writing with fronted adverbials, students focus on the purpose of fronted adverbials and where they can be used. Activities include matching fronted adverbials to relevant sentences and a fun card game.
• Explore layout devices, students understand how and why layout devices (for this text – glossary, fact boxes and instructions) are used and create their own for their texts.
• Explore structure of text, students will plan their explanation texts in preparation for writing.
• Writing the introduction, looking at examples and creating a shared write as a class.
• Writing the second paragraph and any layout devices students intend to use.
• Writing the third paragraph.
• Writing conclusion.
• Students can practise editing using our ‘explanation text to edit’ before editing their own work.
• Publishing texts, including adding detailed diagrams.

Looking for more? Try our explanation text for Years 3&4 or our newspaper writing units, available for Years 3&4 and Years 5&6.