A study explored the effects of direct instruction and modeling on students' ability to follow written directions. Subjects in the experimental group, 62 eighth-grade students enrolled in a suburban New Jersey middle school reasoning and study skills program, were given 22 class sessions of direct instruction and modeling for following written instructions. The control group, 26 seventh-grade students enrolled in a geography course in the same school district, completed the same pre- and posttest (examining their ability to follow written directions) as taken by subjects in the experimental group. Results indicated that instruction in following written directions produced a significant gain for the experimental sample. (Four tables of data are included; 25 references and an appendix of test score data are attached.) (RS)