Giving Instructions, Assessing Fluency, Inference Questions, Adjective Phrases and Revising Narratives

1. Instructions and Directions

Instructions tell someone how to do something. Directions tell someone how to get somewhere. Both must be clear, in the right order and complete. Both usually use imperative verbs: "Turn", "Press", "Mix", "Walk".

2. Giving Clear Instructions

3. Using a Map

With a map, give directions using landmarks and compass points: "From the post office, walk north along Station Road. Turn right at the Total filling station, pass the Methodist church on your left and continue for two hundred metres. The clinic is the blue building opposite the bank." Check that your listener can follow by asking them to repeat the main points.

4. Following Instructions

Listen to or read all the steps before you start. Ask questions if something is unclear. Do each step in order and check the result. In examinations, follow instructions exactly: if a question says "Answer any three", answering four wastes time. Reading instructions carefully is a skill that saves marks.

5. Instructions in Daily Life

Instructions are all around us: mobile money menus, medicine labels, recipes, exam papers and road signs. A mistake in following them can be costly or dangerous. For example, medicine labels tell you how much to take and when, so read them carefully or ask a pharmacist. Writing clear instructions is also a valuable job skill in many careers.

1. Words Correct per Minute

Words correct per minute (WCPM): The number of words a reader reads correctly in one minute.

2. A Fluency Rubric

3. Practice Plan

Read aloud for ten minutes each day. Repeat one passage three or four times until it flows. Listen to good readers on the radio or from teachers. Choose texts at a suitable level: not too hard, not too easy. Check your WCPM every two weeks and look for steady growth.

4. Speed with Understanding

Fluency should not be measured by speed alone. After reading, retell the passage or answer questions. If you read quickly but cannot retell what you read, slow down. The aim is to read at a comfortable speed while understanding well.

5. Choosing What to Read

Fluency grows when you enjoy reading. Choose stories, newspapers, magazines and religious texts that interest you. Borrow books from the school or community library and swap with friends. Even ten minutes of reading on a phone, if the text is good, adds up over a year to thousands of pages.

1. Inference

Inference: A conclusion reached from evidence in the text and your own knowledge.

The formula is: text clues + what I know = inference. If a passage says "She wiped her eyes and looked away", you can infer that she is crying or sad, although the writer does not say so.

2. Reading Passage: The Letter

Every evening, Mr Tetteh walked to the post office, though it closed at five and he always arrived at a quarter past. He would stand at the locked door for a moment, then touch the brass handle and walk home.

The new clerk finally asked the old watchman about him. "Before you came," the watchman said, "his son went to work overseas. He promised to write. That was eleven years ago."

3. Answering Inference Questions

4. Evaluation Questions

Evaluation questions ask for your judgement: "Do you think Mr Tetteh should stop going?", "Was the son right?" There may be no single correct answer, but you must give reasons based on the text. Use this pattern: state your view, give evidence from the text and explain the link. Answer in complete sentences and do not simply copy from the passage.

1. Adjective Phrases

Adjective phrase: A group of words without a verb that describes a noun.

An adjective phrase may be built around an adjective, as in "very tall and thin", or begin with a preposition, as in "the girl with the red bag" and "a man of great courage". These prepositional phrases tell us which one or what kind.

2. Adjective Clauses

An adjective clause has a subject and a verb and describes a noun. It is the same as a relative clause: "the girl who has a red bag". Writers choose a phrase or clause depending on length and style.

3. Using Participle Phrases

Phrases that begin with -ing or -ed forms can also describe nouns: "Carrying a heavy basket, the woman climbed the hill." "Exhausted by the journey, the travellers slept." The phrase must sit close to the noun it describes. "Walking to school, the rain soaked me" is wrong, because the rain was not walking. Correct it: "Walking to school, I got soaked by the rain."

4. Expanding Sentences

1. Revising

2. Editing

3. Peer Review

Exchange drafts with a partner. Read the narrative aloud and tell the writer which part you liked most, where you were confused and one suggestion. Use the sentence starters "I enjoyed...", "I was not sure..." and "You could try...". Do not rewrite your partner's work; the choices belong to the writer.

4. Before and After

Before: "I went to the market and I was lost and I cried and a woman helped me." After: "I had lost my aunt. Tears ran down my face as the crowd pushed past. Then a woman selling tomatoes knelt beside me. 'Don't cry, my child,' she said. 'Let us find her.'" The second version breaks the long sentence, adds details and uses dialogue.

5. The Final Copy

After revising and editing, write or type a neat final copy. Check it one last time, reading it aloud. Give it a title that attracts interest. Your finished narrative can be shared with the class or kept in a portfolio.