Pause before giving a direction

Why should I do it:

Provides students an opportunity to focus and increase attending behavior
Allows students an opportunity to think about the task at hand and prepare for instruction
Gains students’ attention and creates a type of suspense about what will be said
Helps the teacher to know and get a sense of who is paying attention and needs refocusing before directions are give, decreasing wasted time due to having to repeat instructions multiple times
 

When should I do it:

When a student is off task, talking, goofing around, inattentive, etc
When the class is not yet listening or attending to the teacher
When the class needs to calm down
When a student needs increased time to transition from one task to starting a new one
When students are slow to process
 

How do I do it:

Simply pause for a short period before giving students directions or directives, making eye contact with those that are off task or do not appear ready or to be attending to the task at hand