Materials & Prep
- Gather four different-colored linking cubes for each pair, pencils, and paper.
- Prepare one teacher set of four cubes. Clear partner workspaces. No devices are needed.
Gather and model
Opening: Play a familiar two-step Simon Says round, such as “touch your head, then clap twice.” Students succeed by listening for the action and its order. Say, “You already knew how to follow directions. Today we will make directions so exact that another person cannot have to guess what we mean.”
ModelBuild a tower with the four teacher cubes in this order from bottom to top: yellow, green, red, blue. First give the vague instruction, “Make a tower with these cubes.” Have a student follow it. Accept a different order as the literal result. Say, “The tower was built, but it was not the tower I meant. The instruction skipped the color, the starting place, and the order.”
Think aloud“I need to tell the action, the object, and where it goes. Step 1: Put the yellow cube in the middle of the table. Step 2: Put the green cube directly on top of the yellow cube. Step 3: Put the red cube directly on top of the green cube. Step 4: Put the blue cube directly on top of the red cube.” Model each step with the actual cubes. Emphasize the common mistake: saying “put it on top” before naming which cube “it” means, or assuming the other person knows where to start.
Check for understandingRead “Put the red cube on it.” Students point to the missing detail on the teacher’s visual or say what must be added. Expected response: the instruction must name the cube and its location, such as “Put the red cube directly on top of the green cube.”
Build, write, and test
Have students work in pairs. One student secretly builds a four-cube tower in any order. The builder keeps the tower hidden or turns away. The writer makes numbered instructions that name the action, cube color, and location. Students may draw a cube beside a step if writing is difficult.
ScaffoldKeep this spoken frame visible and repeat it as needed: “Step __. Put the __ cube __.” Offer word choices: put, move, turn; red, blue, yellow, green; beside, on top of, under, in the middle. Model one partner turn before students begin. A student may dictate while a partner or teacher records the exact words.
Partner test: The writer gives the instructions to a neighboring pair. The follower begins with all four cubes spread out and follows only the instructions, without looking at the hidden tower. The builder then reveals the original tower. Partners compare the two towers and identify the first step where they differ.
CirculateAsk, “What did the follower have to guess?” and “Which exact word would fix that step?” Look for numbered order, named colors, and a clear location. Do not let students repair directions by simply telling the follower what they meant. Have them revise the written step and test it again.
Debug and improve
ConfrontAsk students to show thumbs up or down for this claim: “If my partner knows what I mean, I can leave out a step.” Invite two students to commit to their answers. Give the example, “Put the blue cube on top,” when the blue cube is still in the student’s hand and the other three cubes are scattered. Ask, “Where should it go, and what should it go on?” Students identify that the instruction is incomplete.
Debug: Partners underline the first unclear step, name the missing detail, and rewrite only that step. They retest from all cubes spread out. If the revised tower now matches, students say, “The problem was in step __ because __.”
ExtensionStudents write a second valid set of instructions for the same tower that starts with a different cube, then make every location clear. For example, they may begin with the blue cube and say, “Put the red cube directly under the blue cube,” rather than building from bottom to top.
Come back together
ShareChoose one pair’s revised instructions. Another pair follows them with four cubes while the class watches for a missing color, action, location, or order. Stop at the first unclear step and ask students to propose a precise replacement.
Close: Each student tells a partner one rule for writing instructions and gives one exact instruction aloud. The partner follows it with a cube. Listen for an action, a named object, and a clear location. End with, “Precise instructions tell someone exactly what to do, in the order needed, without making them guess.”