Absolute Value equations and inequalities

What a frustrating day! I gave my Algebra 2A students what I call a concept check. This is what goes in my grade book instead of homework. I pick 1-2 problems from each section over the big ideas and the students do them in class with the assistance of their interactive notebook. I do this every 2-3 sections in a chapter. Today's concept check had a mistake on it and the students were constantly using the directions from the previous problem to solve the next problem. This happened even after I told them not to do this. Unfortunately, I was frustrated before I even got a chance to grade them. Then when I did grade them, I found that most of them were lost! Next year, I need to make sure that I somehow build in more time to talk about absolute value and inequalities. Even though these concepts should be review and they can use their notes, they are still struggling big time on them! They seem to struggle when evaluating absolute value expressions when there is more than one absolute value sign and solving absolute value equations. I need to make sure that I reiterate that there are 2 possible outcomes for absolute value equations. Many of my students are labeling an absolute value inequality as and or or, but they are not solving them that way. I need to review this too.