Teaching · Speech & Language

Directions every student can follow, one practice at a time.

Watch one lesson, or think back over your own, and mark twelve practices from getting attention first to watching the first minute. Copy a direction as it was said and rewrite it as steps. The summary turns every practice not seen into a fix you can use tomorrow.

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Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Speech & Language toolkit, $79 for 72 items.

The directions checklist

One checklist per lesson, keyed by a class or teacher code. No student is named. The example is made up.

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What you get

Teaching · Speech & Language$5 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
For each lesson, twelve practices marked seen or not, the students they matter most for and your direction rewrites, with a summary of the practices seen and a quick fix for each one that was not.
Who it is for
Classroom teachers checking their own directions, and speech-language pathologists and special education teachers observing a class where students with language needs are taught.
Format
Browser checklist with a rewrite table. Several saved records; printed with the summary or as a blank paper checklist; CSV with one row per lesson; export and import a file.
Access
$5 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Speech & Language toolkit ($79) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Speech & Language space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions about an order, access or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.
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Drawn for this page. A direction with five steps in one breath is five directions; given one or two at a time, most students can follow it.

How to use it

  1. Start a record with a class or teacher code and the lesson date.
  2. Say who is filling it in and which students this matters most for.
  3. During or right after the lesson, mark each practice seen, not seen or did not apply.
  4. Copy one long direction word for word, count its steps and write the version you would give next time.
  5. Read the quick fixes and choose one or two for the next lesson.

Start a checklist

What the checklist is for

Why directions

Spoken directions are one of the heaviest language loads in a school day: several steps, given once, often over noise, with words like before, unless and underline. Students with language or attention needs, English learners and students with hearing loss miss the most. Small changes in how directions are given help them and cost the rest of the class nothing.

A self-check, not a rating

The checklist is for the teacher. Nothing is scored against other teachers, and an observer should share it only with the teacher it describes. Use it to pick one or two practices to change.

Keep students off it

The record is keyed by a class or teacher code and names no student. If you are working on one student’s directions, note their needs in their own plan instead. Everything stays in this browser.

Sources

  1. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Practice Portal: Spoken Language Disorders, on classroom language demands and supports (asha.org/practice-portal).
  2. Nelson, N. W. (2010). Language and Literacy Disorders: Infancy Through Adolescence. Boston: Pearson, on the language of the classroom and curriculum-based language intervention.
  3. Gathercole, S. E., and Alloway, T. P. (2008). Working Memory and Learning: A Practical Guide for Teachers. London: Sage, on chunking instructions.
  4. CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2 (udlguidelines.cast.org), on options for perception and language.
  5. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act regulations, 34 CFR 300.324(a)(2)(iv) (considering communication needs).

The example lesson is made up. The checklist is a teacher’s tool for one lesson; it is not an evaluation of a teacher or a student. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.