The Importance of Following Directions

Then to give a break from the reading (and to rouse the sleepy-headed students), I passed out a “3-Minute Test.” This was a quick little quiz to test “obedience” and precision to directions.

You can easily make your own. Start off by announcing that they are to read through the entire test before doing anything. But then have a series of at least 20 “commandments”, like writing their name on the paper, standing and twirling in a circle, answering a math problem in the corner of the page, etc. THEN have as the final direction on the page (number 20 or so), “Do none of the above.”

The whole point of the activity is to test how carefully they listen to directions – all directions – before making choices in life. The first direction they received was from you, the teacher. The teacher announced they were to read through the entire test BEFORE starting. Had they done so, they would have reached the final question and saw that they really were to do none of the preceding questions.

I found this idea in 100 Training Games, by Gary Kroehnert, and thought it an excellent lead-in to very telling and potent verses in 3 Nephi 8:24-25.

This post originally appeared at Seminary Mom’s Seminary Class Notes blog. I am sharing it here so it doesn’t get lost

See the following links for sample tests:
http://salesprof.blogspot.com/2005/04/can-you-follow-directions.html
http://www.kidcrosswords.com/kidreader/old_candy_factory/directions_test…