Beyond Getting Their Attention
What do great teachers do to maintain attention, once they've got it?
This afternoon we had a ‘Subject Planning & Development Session’ (SPDS) at school. For those who don’t know, these are fortnightly meetings where curriculum teams meet up to discuss ‘what are we teaching over the next fortnight and how do we teach it well?’ The focus of today’s session was attention. ‘Securing Attention’ is one of our 15 ‘Teaching Principles in Practice’ (PiPs). These are teaching approaches/routines that we expect all of our teachers to implement with fidelity at Durrington.
When our teachers want the attention of the class, they use the prompt ‘All eyes on me in 3, 2, 1 (pause and scan)....thank you’. I think this is one of our most important PiPs. Students can only learn what they are paying attention to. This prompt gives them a social cue that what the teacher is going to be talking about is important - and so requires their attention.
However, securing attention is one thing. Keeping it is another!
As a part of the SPDS session tonight, curriculum teams discussed what the most effective teachers do to maintain attention. This includes paying attention to the teacher and paying attention to the task. Here are some of the points that were shared.
Least invasive intervention – once you have got their attention, you might notice some students drifting off. Rather than drawing attention to this and calling it out in front of the whole class e.g. ‘Nick….focus on me now!’, take the least invasive intervention. This might be a nod of the head, in the direction of the non compliant student, or a raised eyebrow. Alternatively, you might move and stand beside them or give a subtle tap on the desk. They get the message that you have acknowledged their lack of attention and want them to focus, without bringing it to the attention of the whole class.
Explanations punctuated with questions - if students know that your explanation is going to consist of them having to listen to you for five minutes, without any input from them, the reality is, there’s no requirement for them to pay attention. On the other hand, if they know this explanation will be punctuated by frequent cold call questions, this changes things. They’ll pay attention, because they know they can be called on at any minute to answer a question. Cold-calling supercharges this strategy (question > pause > name of student), because it requires all students to pay attention - as they know it might be them! Of course, there’s also the age-old technique of directing a question directly at a student, whose attention seems to be waning - rarely fails!
Story telling - Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham describes stories as being ‘psychologically privileged’. This means our brains are wired to process stories differently and more effectively than other forms of information, leading to better memory and attention for them. This is because stories naturally structure information (if they are told well). We should take advantage of this and introduce an element of storytelling into our explanations e.g. when teaching evolution, use the story of Darwin’s voyage in The Beagle
Voice variation - great teachers maintain attention by intentionally varying the pitch, volume, pace and tone of their voice. Pauses are also useful. They open up a curiosity gap with students, which holds their attention.
Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) - there’s lots to read about CLT. Here’s a nice article on it. For the purpose of attention thought, focus on reducing extraneous cognitive load i.e. the presentation of the material. So, a really simple strategy is to stop using busy slides, with lots of redundant information. Keep it concise and focused on what you want them to understand.
Pastore’s Perch – once you have set students to work on a task, move to a position in the room where all students will be in your field of view. This might not be at the front and centre of the room. Often it will be the left or right corner of the room. When you are there, stand and scan the room, to check that all students are attending to the task. If they are not, use the least invasive intervention to get them back on track.
Be seen looking – as you are waiting for students to settle into the task, make it clear that you are looking around the room to monitor their behaviour. Do this by making it obvious that you are looking around the room, by deliberately moving your head around. This will make it clear to students that you are expecting them to be attending fully to the task. Narrate the positive and negative behaviours that you observe, as you are doing so.
Prep for success - if students are going to be able to attend to the task in hand, they need to be in a position to be able to do so. We can support this by:
I, We, You modelling - if we want students to be able to do something it needs to be modelled well. With this approach, the teacher models it to the students first. Another example is then modelled, with input from the students. Finally, students then do it on their own.
Brighten Lines – when giving students instructions for a task, it’s important to make sure the instructions are very specific and clear. So, give the instructions once, then twice and then ask students to repeat the instructions back to you. Give a clear time limit for a task and ask if there is anyone who is still not clear about the task. Then set the students off on the task. As they do, assume Pastore’s perch, be seen looking and narrate the positive.
When it comes to effective teaching, there is very little more important than securing and maintaining attention. Students can only learn what they are paying attention to. Without attention, our words are just background noise and will never become knowledge.