Following Directions- Behavior Basics

Teaching students to follow directions can be a tough skill to teach. However, it is SUCH an important skill to master. So many times I hear teachers complaining that “they just don’t listen to me.” Well, have you ever taught your students how to follow directions? If we don’t teach them the skills, how can we expect them to follow them?

Just like with every other skill, I introduce the subject with a social story. I love to use social stories to introduce a new behavior to give the big picture! I created 3 different levels of social stories so that all of my students can master the same skill at their own level.

We also read a SUPER cute story. My students have all been asking to read it during their free time because it is funny!

Following the social story I introduced some discussion questions using our yes/no participation cards. These are some FUN questions to get students thinking. You can also invite students to ask their own questions for a fun twist.

I like to pair all of these activities with a fun videos. I have some very visual learners and these cute videos help to reinforce the concept I just introduced via the social story!

Provide your students with some independent work by giving them a coloring page. This is such a simple extension activity for your students to gain a better understanding of how important it is to follow directions.

Following all of your class discussions, read aloud, videos and coloring pages, assess student knowledge with one of these assessment pages!

I store all of these materials in their own behavior basics workbook:

I LOVE using interactive notebooks to further understanding of the behavior of the week. This week students had a FUN time using these star flaps. Everything is more fun when its a cool shape!