"Written directions" sounds like one of the easiest accommodations to make happen. However, it is one of the most overlooked, underappreciated, and underused. Written directions are especially essential for students who struggle with auditory encoding and recall, and students who are easily distracted. I'm sure you've seen your student take out his homework, stare at the page, and go "I don't know what to do". And, you are just as stuck as he is because there are no directions for what to do. Without written directions for every assignment with directions over one step (and I'd argue, for assignments that include even one step), students may do an assignment incorrectly or not even attempt it due to the confusion.
- Email them! Ask the teacher to email the directions right there, in class, after checking in with your student about what to do. Most teachers say they "checked for understanding", but walk away before the student was able to encode. Help the teacher realize they can easily do both (check for understanding and provide written directions). Have the teacher write a quick list of steps in an email to the student as a "check out" for understanding.
- Write them! Recently I helped facilitate an agreement between a student and their teacher. The agreement was simple: the teacher rephrased the directions, and the student wrote down the rephrased directions on the top of the page. The major key to this is that the teacher has to stay and wait for the student to get it correctly written down before walking away.
- Say them! Nowadays we are so fortunate to have speech-to-text software accessible at the click of a button. The teacher or the student (under the teacher's supervision) can say the directions into a google doc after activating the voice recorder. This is especially helpful for auditory learners.
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