“I give instructions and half of them don’t follow”
You say 'right, pens down and books away', and half the room carries on as if you had said nothing.
Why this happens
An instruction has to be heard, understood, and acted on, and each of those quietly loses a few students. Talk over the tail end of an activity and some never hear you at all. Say 'settle down and get ready' and even willing students have to guess what ready looks like. Stack three steps into one sentence and working memory drops the last two. Very little of this is defiance. Most of the missing half never received the instruction, or received one they could not picture themselves doing.
It persists because repeating yourself works, after a fashion. When half the room stalls you walk round and re-explain, the lesson limps forward, and the cost is paid quietly, in minutes and in your energy. But every private repeat teaches the class that the first telling is optional, because a personal one always follows. The techniques below work at both ends: some make the instruction land first time, by securing full attention before you speak and wording directions as actions students can picture, and some make following it the default, through routines practised until they run themselves and by letting the class see you checking.
Techniques teachers rate for this
Ranked by teacher rating once five teachers have rated a technique. Ratings open with the pilot.
Rehearse the RoutineTeacher craftTeach a routine the way you teach content, and practise it warmly until it runs itself.Sweep the RoomPromising researchStand where you can see the whole class, and let them see you looking.The Attention SignalTeacher craftNot enough ratings yet · 1 so farRehearse one cue for quiet, then wait for full silence before you speak.What-To-Do DirectionsTeacher craftGive directions as actions they can see and do, so everyone knows exactly what you expect.