Spell it all out

Like all of us, students achieve their best results when they know exactly what they are supposed to be doing. Incomplete directions frequently lead to incomplete assignments. If you assign problems 1 -20, but only talk about 1 -10, some students will leave off the last half of the assignment. No one in the room hears 100% of what you say. Even the most attentive students drift off, distracted by sirens, birds in flight, classmates picking noses, or any of the myriad details of daily life that happen around instruction.

I talked about the temporal latte effect a couple of posts back. One way to prevent learning time loss during times other than transitions is make sure you cover all your expectations — then repeat the high points of what you covered. Repetition costs a little time, but can have a hefty payback. Thirty extra seconds of directions can recover hours of lost learning time, ensuring that some assignments will be done that otherwise might have slipped away.