“OK, turn left. No, the other left! And stop right here. No, I meant over there!” Does this car conversation sound familiar to you? Teaching can also often make us feel this way. You think you’re being clear but nobody seems to do what you have in mind. It might sound too simple a solution but we just need to learn how to give clearer and better instructions, and in this post I’ll give you 4 tips for that.
I work with teacher trainees at a university in Hungary. My colleagues and I strongly believe in the effectiveness of short teaching practice sessions, followed by immediate peer feedback in class. One thing that I’ve noticed while observing these sessions is that while trainees know how to teach the four skills and how to stage their lessons, their instructions tend to be all over the place. This showcases how important the ability to put yourself in your students’ shoes is when you’re teaching.
What seems to make giving instructions complicated is that we understand ourselves perfectly well. Too bad that others don’t have direct access to our thoughts, and even if we think that “left” obviously means “right,” they will simply do what we say and not what we think. An amazing video that we show all our trainees when introducing instructions is Josh Darnit’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich one (link). A line that perfectly encapsulates the discrepancy between our words and thoughts is this one: “A “bit”. That means like a lot. In my world…”
So what can we do to make ourselves more clear? Let’s see 4 simple strategies for it.
1) Imagine you’re talking to a scatterbrained and forgetful 4-year-old
What’s a young child like? They’re probably quite hyperactive and find it difficult to focus, so you really have to fight for and then keep their attention. I usually recommend this strategy to highlight the importance of catching your students’ attention, speaking in short and simple sentences, and cutting out useless bits of information. Consider these two versions of the same set of instructions:
| Version A: So, what I’d like to ask you to do is turn to page 24 in your books and look at the first, sorry, the second task, please. We’re going to read a text and you have to answer a number of questions, which are below the text. I’d like you to do this alone for now but later we will check the answers together. | Version B: We’re going to read a text about cars. Open your books to page 24. [Wait until everybody’s looking at the correct page.] Look at Task 1. [Point at Task 1.] Read the text and answer the questions. Work alone for now. |
The first version contains lots of “unnecessary” language and too long sentences, while the sentences in version B are short, simple, and there are many pauses to make sure everyone’s following.
2) Record yourself in class, then reenact the task following your exact words
This is definitely a cruel strategy, but it works wonders. Just like in the original car driving example, we tend to believe that everything we say is perfectly clear and everyone can follow our lead. It might come as a shock when you record yourself how many steps you actually take for granted, so you don’t even mention them. Or you forget certain parts and add them as an afterthought. When we’re in the middle of teaching, we rarely notice all the little slips that might make our instructions hard to follow. So go ahead and record yourself, then later try to do exactly what you were saying. You will probably notice some funny inconsistencies. This tip is great for noticing, while the next one helps avoid, badly formulated instructions.
3) Plan your instructions in advance by following these 6 steps
Planning our lessons is something we all do. Some of us prepare a more detailed plan, some just a rough running order. What we rarely put time and effort into though is planning our instructions; however, it could make a huge difference. We can write them down verbatim step by step, but even just thinking them through along these lines could result in a more logical lesson:
- Grabbing attention – What are you going to say or do to make everyone focus on you?
- Group setup – Start by saying if they are going to work in pairs, groups or by themselves. It makes the following steps easier if you rearrange them at this point.
- Task step by step – Speak in short sentences and pause after each step if necessary.
- Demoing or chesting – To help those students who might be shy to ask for clarification, demo the activity or show where they can find the task in the book or on the worksheet (this is called chesting).
- Time limit – How much time are they going to get?
- ICQs – Check understanding with so-called instruction checking questions that are specific and short. Such as: “Are you going to work in pairs or individually?”, “Which task are we working on?”, “Can you show your partner your picture?”
4) Act quickly and don’t panic if something goes wrong
Don’t sit back when the task begins. Monitor closely what your students are doing and be ready to act quickly if someone’s not doing things right. If it’s just one pair or one student, help them in an unobtrusive way. But if you notice that several students are on the wrong track, don’t panic, don’t worry that you’re a bad teacher, stop the activity right away and clarify the misunderstanding. In my experience, it’s much better to step in as soon as you notice the issue because you can easily “save” the activity this way. Everyone can make mistakes, but the ability to correct them quickly tends to set experienced teachers apart.
Conclusion
Even though we think they should come naturally, our instructions can overcomplicate even the simplest task. But getting better at giving instructions is actually quite simple if we can get ourselves to calm down, slow down, and communicate clearly. Do you think I missed anything? What other tips would you include?
Do you want to learn more about how to communicate more effectively? You might be interested in the blog “Teacher Leadership – Communication” by Hayo Reinders.
Further reading: Scrivener, J. Learning Teaching. 3rd ed. Macmillan Books for Teachers. Pp. 64-70.