Give the instruction before the attention signal
Say what you want them to do while they can still hear you, not after the room has already turned to face you.
Jul 29, 2026 · 1 min read
The usual order is backwards: we call for attention, get thirty faces, and only then deliver the instruction, by which point the front row has it and the back row has drifted. Reverse it. State the instruction, check it landed, then release them with the signal. Precise, observable instructions delivered before the action starts are a cornerstone of Lemov's (2021) "What to Do" technique.
In practice
- "In a moment, not yet, you'll work in pairs on question three. You have four minutes. Go." The "in a moment, not yet" framing holds the room still while the instruction lands.
- Ask one student to repeat the instruction back before releasing the class. Ten seconds, and it catches the drift before it happens.
- Write the time limit where everyone can see it. An instruction with no visible clock decays fast.
Quick takeaway: instructions travel further through a still room than a moving one.