Following Directions! Huh?

Hey teaching friends! I don’t know about you, but I dread when I hear the word “huh?” It makes me cringe because I know I will have to explain everything again. For the 50th time. In the last 5 minutes.

Well, I have come to realize that listening skills take some practice, like any other skill we wish for students to learn.

Much like sharing, standing in line the correct way, and holding a pencil, these are teachable moments that have to be continuously practiced until they are second nature.

But listening skills and following directions still seems to be overlooked as when you are already flustered from having 5 children come to you at the same moment because they are clueless about what to do – even with visual cues – that moment is not the best to try to reinforce the idea of listening attentively the first time.

I realize that following directions skills take some practice, like any other skill students need to learn. They have to be continuously practiced.

So, I created a fun little product that does focus on those listening skills! It is called Following Directions in the Common Core Classroom!

I am super excited as I have been working on it for a bit now and it is finally ready! {And there IS a sample version for you to test run yourself! Keep reading…}

You might also be interested in:

Do you ever have issues with students who never seem to listen to the directions, even after you have given them 3 and 4 times? I know I have in the past, so I decided to do some listening skills practice activities in order to fine-tune their listening capabilities. See more pages here.

Each version includes the following:

•36 weekly activities which can be done as a whole class or as a center activity, including the answer keys
•All the matching handouts are included as a full page and as a half page, in both color and in grayscale, which will make for easier printing for those that do not have access to a color printer
•All 36 weeks worth of audio files See more pages here.

You can use this resource as a whole group activity – or even as a center activity so that you do not even have to be present!

And it won’t take hours to implement – even with a full group discussion of the ideas, the total time investment a week would be no more than 15 minutes.