Give a Grade for Following Directions

I sometimes say we instead of you when talking about who should follow directions.  I sometimes skip them too, guessing, thinking I'm saving time.  Some students told me at midterm that they don't like reading out loud, but if they don't read out loud, they don't read the directions at all.    One of the most recent assignments was to draw (not on the blackboard) a question and then prepare to present the question and the answer to the class. 

So here are the directions:

Write your name after “The speaker’s name.”  (Don’t write anything else on this paper.)

The speaker’s name:_____________________________

Question:__________________________________________________

  And of course, the student who was absent when we read these directions out loud has filled it out with both her name and the question.  In her absence, we discussed the reason for not writing the question:  The speaker needs to make it so clear orally that the evaluator can  pick it up from the speaker. 

I need to add a category in grading and have a percentage of their grade based on following directions.  After all this is a speaking-listening class.  I even give them visuals for their listening.

We'll talk about defects in my listening skills another time.