What it is. A quantity you did not measure has to be described honestly — which means saying how sure you are.
Why our test works. *Most people think* is the sentence a thirteen-year-old writes when they mean *some people I know think*, and it is not a vocabulary problem — it is a claim they cannot support. These phrases exist to let a writer be honest about the difference: *the vast majority of* means something different from *a significant proportion of*, and a reader who knows the field will judge the writer on which one they chose. Making the test about the child's own knowledge, rather than about the word, stops the phrases becoming a smarter way to overclaim.
Leans on. Grade 6's hedging named the problem. This gives it the vocabulary.
Watch for. The danger of this unit is a child who learns to sound precise while staying vague. Ask what number is behind the phrase; if there is none, the phrase is wrong however academic it sounds.
Use 10 school words in sentences of your own, and choose which version suits who is reading. The worked example is built on The vast majority of samples were clean., ringing the vast majority of. The class reads Writing Book 7, p.44 — our own page, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.
You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds. Before anything new, sixty seconds of retrieval on U7 set 1: ask, take the answers from boards rather than hands so you see all thirty, and do not re-teach — note who has lost it and carry on.
Then you do one yourself, on screen, one click per piece: the word the vast majority of alone first, and you wait — let them look at it before you give them the meaning. Then almost all arrives beside it, and you point from one to the other with your hand. Then the sentence underneath: The vast majority of samples were clean.. Three clicks, three things said. Do not let the whole slide arrive at once — a slide that arrives whole gives the answer before the question is asked.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class rewrites two everyday sentences into school-word, then judges one case where the everyday version is BETTER. Discuss in pairs using the frames. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on their notebooks instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.
They open Writing Book 7 to page 44 and read it with you. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.
Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone through the five steps — match, choose, frame, write their own. The frames stay on screen while they write: Only one of yours may use the frame. Choose which one needs it. Say both halves of that — the frame is there if they need it, and it is better writing without it. Walk and note who used it; that is your group for tomorrow, not a mark against them today.
You close on the exit direction — Say one sentence using the vast majority of. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: The vast majority, or a significant proportion? They are not the same claim.
The danger of this unit is a child who learns to sound precise while staying vague. Ask what number is behind the phrase; if there is none, the phrase is wrong however academic it sounds.