When it comes to learning, attention is the name of the game. For most students and most topics, learning something takes just a few steps:
At the core, that’s about it! Paying attention starts the whole process, and nothing after it makes sense without it. In some cases, if we get #1 right, #2 and #3 follow pretty naturally, making attention 75% of the process! Here's an example. In the clip below, you'll see me display an example for students to look at. Once they pay attention to it, you'll see them go through actions to understand it almost immediately, leaving me only the job of reinforcing it to help them remember it later.
Attention doesn't always turn into learning quite so easily, of course, but I think this clip shows just how easily attention can drive learning.
Attention is powerful. Just like behavior, attention can be influenced through deliberate teacher actions. It isn’t some fixed, unchangeable personal characteristic - there aren’t attentive students and inattentive students. Attention is an action of the brain, and we as teachers can make it more or less likely to happen. Here are some ways how. 1. Expect It
First things first - if we want better focus and attention from our students, we have to expect it. When I use the word expectation, I mean it literally - it is what I expect to happen and what I expect to be able to accomplish. When they come to class, I expect that my students will pay attention and I expect to be able to help them do so when they can’t or don’t on their own. No, that doesn’t happen on its own. If it did, I wouldn’t need to write this! But once I’ve established attention as an important expectation and I’ve established my own belief that I can influence it, I really do expect that every student will be attentive every day. It isn’t an unreasonable goal. It isn’t an easy one, but it isn’t an unreasonable one, either.
Expectations are about us as teachers, not about our students. If I expect every student to be attentive every day on their own, I’m sure to be disappointed. I can (and should) set that standard for students, but a standard is different from an expectation. It is imperative that I believe that, through my actions, choices, mindsets, and influence, I can help students reach that standard for their attention and for their learning. That’s expectation. 2. One Thing At A Time
I’ve written an entire piece on this idea. One of the biggest threats to kids’ attention is their lack of clarity on what they should (and should not) be doing. "Should I be writing this down? Should I be asking questions? Should I be offering my ideas to show my engagement? Do I need to be taking notes so I can remember this later? Should I be looking at the teacher or at my book?" And so on.
When students are asking themselves questions like this, their attention is lost - they’re attending to procedural matters and not to my instruction. When I’m on my game, students only ever have to do one thing at a time so that their attention is never fractured and the object of their attention is never in question. There is a time to listen, a time to write, a time to ask questions, a time to discuss, a time to practice, and so on. I try to make abundantly clear which one they should be doing. When I’m teaching, they should be listening. And only listening. All of your attention should be with me and the idea I’m presenting, trying to make sense of it.
Exploring, teaching, writing, discussing, asking questions... everything gets its own time.
3. Floor
As you can see in the video above, when I want students’ undivided attention, we sit on the floor in the front of the room. Yes, even in middle school. There are a number of reasons for this.
Fourth, since we do this so often, a move to the floor becomes a signal that its time to focus, listen, and concentrate.
4. Empty Hands
The question isn’t ‘is this student paying attention?’ Kids’ brains (and ours) are always paying attention. The question is ‘is this student’s attention where I need it to be’?
The competition for students’ attention is fierce. There are countless things going on in the room and in their lives that they would much rather (and frankly, are more biologically programmed to) pay attention to than the education I’m trying to provide. One of the ways I can influence their attention toward me when I need it is to minimize the alternatives, and one way I do this is by not allowing students to have anything in their hands when I’m teaching. No pencils, no notebooks, no snacks, no personal belongings, no nothing. In the video earlier, you'll notice that the students, once at the floor, put anything they bring with them down. When something is in our hands, our brain can’t help but devote some of our attention to it. Empty hands mean one entire sensory system that I don’t have to compete with. This is yet another advantage of a move to the floor (see #3) for direct instruction, too. At their seats, all of the students’ belongings are available to pick up and fiddle with. On the floor, I only usually have to compete with jewelry and hair, which while still pesky, are just a fraction of what is available to pick up back at the seats. 5. Minimize Computer Use
I have a PhD in Instructional Technology. I used to work as a technology integration specialist. I have given countless presentations on how to teach more effectively with technology. I used to have a classroom that others would come visit to observe how I integrated computers instructionally. Every single student I teach right now has a laptop issued to them by my school, which was long a dream of mine.
And we hardly ever use them.
There’s even a second, more insidious way computer use competes for students’ attention. When the computers come out, there’s not only a tsunami of distraction, there’s also a tsunami of anti-social behavior. Behind that digital wall, students will say things to and about each other that they never would in person, and the rest of the class knows that. So when the computers are out, the defenses are up. ‘Are people chatting about me? Making fun of me? Posting pictures they took of me?’
Even the students who aren’t using the computers for distraction are distracted by what others might be doing. It’s rarely worth it to me anymore. For a great resource or learning opportunity, every now and then, we’ll get on the computers. But not much. 6. No Phones
Everything I said about computers goes double for phones as well. For the past two years, I've had a policy that phones are off (<-- like, OFF) and in bookbags, period. Not even in your pocket. They are not a reward for finishing your work early, either (see anti-social behavior in #5).
Cell phones are literally designed to be devices of distraction. Even as adults, we use them primarily when we want to distract ourselves. They are the enemy of attention, and in my class, they don’t see the light of day unless we are using them to produce recordings of work or projects.
7. Cue Students Where to Look
Much of attention is driven by vision; if you are looking at something, it becomes much more difficult not to pay attention to it. Consequently, in the classroom, if we can get students to look where we want them to look, we’ve already won half of the attention battle.
Ultimately, good visual attention comes down to three steps:
1. Cue students where to look Much like I said earlier about students knowing what they should be doing, they also need to know where they should be looking. Should I be looking at the teacher? The screen? My book? It can seem obvious to us, but again, certain students waste an inordinate amount of time and attention wanting to do the right thing, but not being clear. I use the Teach Like A Champion language of “tracking” to cue students where I want them to look. “Track the screen,” “track me,” “track another speaker,” “track your handout,” etc. Additionally, I build the routine that if someone is speaking, you should be tracking them. 2. Expect students to follow through Once I’ve cued students where to look, I expect them to follow through. If I have to repeat myself or correct students who don’t, that’s my responsibility. Expectation is both setting a standard and following through on it. I’m presently working on mastering the “what to do cycle,” which I have found to be an excellent and easy way to make sure I meet my own end of expectation when cuing students where to look or giving any other type of direction. 3. Maintain visual attention once you have it Once I’ve got students looking where I want them to look, there’s still maintenance to be done. Students of any age will get distracted. That’s normal. Some correcting and re-cuing for individuals or the whole is inevitable and normal. Helping students stay involved is part of my end of expectations. 8. Teach Students How to Pay Attention
Just like anything we want children to be able to do, we have to teach them how to pay attention. We can’t just teach students what they need to know (you should be paying attention), we’ve got to tell them what to do. “Pay attention” might be a perfectly clear instruction to you and to me, but it isn’t necessarily for every student. Not only that, but what specific actions constitute paying attention might differ from teacher to teacher or class to class. Here’s what it means to me:
Additionally, I often find that students are used to being told to pay attention, but not expected to follow through; their teachers ask for their attention, but let them off the hook if they don’t provide it. Consequently, for me, part of teaching attention is teaching students that I will demand and assure follow-through. Teaching students to pay attention is part of setting high standards, but teaching them that you’ll assure that they follow through is part of holding high expectations (see #1). A wonderful example of this was posted on Doug Lemov's blog just this week. Watch how, in just a few seconds, the teacher follows through on assuring that she receives the attention she's asked for.
Doug Lemov did an excellent job of dissecting these few seconds of master teaching, and I highly suggest reading it. For my purposes here, however, the example of how much better attention comes from expecting it as opposed to simply asking for it is a great one.
9. Respond When Attention Is Lost
Even once you’ve gotten it, attention has a shelf life. Under ideal circumstances, I’ve always heard that attention to a single activity caps out somewhere around the students’ age + 5 minutes (so 15 minutes for 10 year olds, 20 minutes for 15 year olds, etc). And again, that’s under ideal circumstances, which are rare in classes full of 30-some children.
One of the best practices when it comes to attention is to expect to lose it and to have a plan for what to do next.
I don’t think the way I recenter matters as much as that I expect to have to do so. If I think I’ll have students’ attention indefinitely once I’ve gotten it initially, I’m deluding myself. There’s still work to be done. If every day at 3:30, class gets interrupted by a couple of students getting checked out at the deadline to do so (and they do), I need to have a plan to re-center attention after that interruption. If I have a tendency to go on longer than the 17 minutes my 12-year old class is likely to be able to stay focused (and I do), I need to have a plan for what to do when that happens. If the students and teachers across the hall from me make a ton of noise in the hallway every hour when they switch classes (and they do), I need to have a plan for handling that.
Attention has limits and competition. 10. Blame The Brain
Much like for memory, one of my favorite gimmicks for helping students develop a growth mindset about their ability to pay attention is to teach them to blame their brains rather than themselves for lapses.
One of the reasons I demand empty hands (see #4) is that, if you’re holding something, your brain HAS to pay attention to it. It isn’t your fault, it’s your brain’s fault. That’s how brains work. One of the reasons I cue students where to look is that, in a room full of people, your brain SHOULD try to keep track of what is going on around you. It isn’t your fault, it’s your brain’s fault. That’s how brains work. One of the reasons I demand that your phone be off and in your bookbag is that, if you receive a notification, your brain is preoccupied with it whether you look at it or not. It isn’t your fault, it’s your brain’s fault. That’s how brains work.
It's ABout Influence
Attention is one of the biggest differences I notice from one class to the next. In many classes, the message to students is “I’m going to teach, and you bear the consequences of not paying attention if that’s what happens.” This philosophy does an incredible disservice to students who struggle to, haven’t been taught to, or have never been expected to pay attention.
It’s also an incredible waste of our time as teachers. I, for one, put an enormous amount of time and effort into planning, preparing, and delivering lessons. Why in the world would I waste all of that time and effort by not expecting (<-- demanding + supporting) that students pay attention to it? What’s been the most interesting to me about it all is that, believe it or not, it isn’t really about how I specifically manage it. Those choices can be personal and practical. Its about influence. There are tactics we can follow and beliefs we can hold that influence attention in the right direction. And that’s the goal. Education is all about influence - how we influence students' opportunities, how we influence their behavior, how we influence their motivation, how we influence their confidence, how we influence their sense of belonging, and in this case, how we influence their attention. 
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About MeI'm an award-winning teacher in the Atlanta area with experience teaching at every level from elementary school to college. Categories
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