We did not do this explicitly, but we did provide opportunities to practice basic skills in higher level exercises, as advocated by Dave Hewitt for all pupils. It is difficult to judge this statement without more thorough assessment of the pupils' learning over a longer period of time. We used IT, whole class discussions, videos, groupwork, etc. Demonstrate with examples as well as giving instructions We certainly have to be aware of the limitations of both written and verbal instructions, and of the value of a combination of instruction and example in getting the task across to the learner. This is likely to be more significant proportionally to a low achieving class which is likely to have a higher percentage of pupils who are specifically affected by language issues, such as dyslexic pupils and section 11 statemented pupils.
Nevertheless language is an important consideration for all classrooms.
There is an important distinction between communicating clearly and knowing in your own mind as the teacher what you want pupils to deduce for themselves. I feel that low ability pupils do find it harder to cope with poor instructions, but this should not be confused with their ability to carry out the instruction once understood. There is very strong temptation when you can sense that your message is not clear to provide more information, rather than better information or explanation - until you end up doing the work rather than the pupils. We shouldn't deprive pupils, and I do think that this regularly affects low achieving pupils in particular, the opportunity to have a go due to our own lack of clarity. Lesson objectives should be remembered at these crucial times during a lesson.