THE INSTITUTE for Learning Centered Education NEWSLETTER

The Institute for Learner Centered Education Newsletters

TOPIC: Strategies for “GRABBING” the Learner’s Attention

Volume #5, Edition #18__________Date: May 10, 2004

Recently I wrote, “If a professional performer needs to strategize how to keep the attention of an audience that has paid money to attend, is it realistic for a teacher to expect to have the undivided attention of students who would not choose to be in school and may have no interest in the topic of the lesson?” Toby Marr, an outstanding teacher in the western part of New York State, e-mailed saying, “I hope that you are going to follow this up with a ‘How to grab their attention!!’ article.”

Toby, thanks for the idea and here goes, but I hope that readers will also feel welcome to share ideas for ‘Grabbing the Learner’s Attention.’ I’ll be glad to include your ideas in a future newsletter.

Begin with interaction: most of us are more comfortable being active than sitting passively; most of us are more comfortable working with a partner than working alone. Therefore, it is effective to begin a lesson in any of the following ways:

¨ Think, pair share: Depending on the discipline, either ask students to write down one reason they think wars occur, or one reason that leaves fall from trees, or one reason we need to know the rules of grammar, or one reason Van Gogh’s work is considered classic, or anything that will force them to think about the topic you are about to address in the day’s lesson. Then pair students and have them agree on one response between them. Then share a few responses, or combine pairs and have each foursome reach consensus (depending on how much time you have to devote to this activity). Now begin your lesson by building on the responses that students just shared. At some point, collect the paper on which each individual initially wrote a response (just to let students know that you are monitoring who is doing the work).

¨ Think about your learning objectives (as a teacher) for the class you are about to teach. Then, put students in pairs and challenge them with a question. In each case, the question is an inversion of the statement that reflects what you want them to learn and what you are about to teach. For example: “What are three causes of the Spanish American War?” Or, “Why do apples fall from trees when they are cut loose?” Or, “What makes a poem a poem?” Or, “Can you name three songs, or poems, that have no rhyme scheme and, if so, what makes them poems if they don’t rhyme?” Or, “Can you agree on three reasons that we need to learn about fractions?”

¨ Do something different – anything, within reason.

o Bring in a CD player and have music playing in the background as students enter. If you can tie in the musical piece to the start of the lesson it’s better, but there will be an effect even if there is no connection between the music and the start of the lesson. (Brittany Spears singing, “I’m a Slave to You” might be a perfect lead-in to a lesson on Harriet Tubman.)

o Surprise students with a guest; it can be a student from another class (or a previous year’s class) to show an example of what students are about to do. Or, it can be another teacher or an administrator. This person doesn’t have to be in your class for more than a few minutes – just long enough to get the lesson off to a different start.

o Ask a small group of your students (two, three, or four)) to plan an activity to begin class. (This can be done in kindergarten, 12^th grade or any grade level.) Their assignment (for extra credit or as part of a rotation system that eventually includes every student) can be to design a brief activity that will review students on what was discussed the day (or week) before. Or, their task can be to pose a question that will discover what students do and do not know about what is about to be studied. This is most effective if the teacher models the process for a few days AFTER the group of students knows that its turn will be coming up.

o Stand on a chair or desk: this is not an appropriate strategy for every teacher (although it does fit with my personality). I have done this at the start of a semester, or of a unit, when I wanted to make the point that what I was about to ask of students was something totally different than what they usually experience.

¨ Start class with a carousel. Have newsprint posted in four, five, or six locations around the room, each sheet with a different question or statement. For instance:

o Name all the pronouns you can think of.

o List active verbs.

o List adjectives with more than five letters.

o List proper nouns that begin with one of the last six letters of the alphabet.

o List all the 20^th century authors you can think of.

Put students in groups, give a marker to one person in each group, and allow a minute or two for each group at each sheet of newsprint before asking them to rotate and add to the list begun by the previous group(s). In addition to creating active engagement at the start of class, this is an excellent way to access prior knowledge. While the students are recording their group responses on each sheet of newsprint, it becomes apparent to the teacher who knows what about the lesson that will be taught.

¨ Start class with a jigsaw. This activity puts students in the position of teaching each other that which we want them to learn. (Examples of jigsaws and carousels can be found in previous newsletters – see www.learnercentereded.org, go to “Newsletter Archives,” and look for the index.)

¨ Start class with a game.

o For instance, use jeopardy to review students on what they should know from a previous unit or class.

o Use “Probe” to teach grammar.

o Make up rules to a popular game in order to make it applicable for what you want your students to learn.

o Put students in groups and ask each group to propose a game that will help the rest of the class review what they should know about a particular topic. Allow a few minutes, have each group share, and then allow the group with the best proposal to create the game and run it at the start of a subsequent class.

¨ Start class with a KWL

¨ One other thought: put students in circles of approximately eight (either sitting or standing), and pose a question that either calls for perceptions (“What do you know about weather patterns?”) or is open ended (“Name a planet and it can’t be one that someone else has named”). Hand someone in each circle a nerf ball, whiffle ball or some other soft object; this person must respond to the question and then flip the ball to someone else in the circle who hasn’t had a turn. This continues until everyone has had one opportunity to respond.

Or, select a topic, for example, “Conflicts throughout history,” or “Literature.” Create groups as in the previous example, pose a question (i.e. “What is a well known story about a whale?”) and hand the ball to someone in each circle whose task is to respond to the question, pose a new question, and flip the ball to someone else in the circle.

Note: Either of the previous two activities can be tried with the entire class in one large circle if the teacher feels it will be easier to keep control.

Sonia Basko reminds us that students need to be trained for activities that are different from what they have experienced. Therefore, if you use some of these strategies, don’t be discouraged if you need to work hard at structuring them the first few times in order for them to work effectively. If you continue to use a particular strategy, the students will get the gist of it and it will be more successful (and less work for the teacher) each time. For instance, carousels become easier each time students experience them.

Here’s another example of a strategy that may encounter resistance at first, but will become easier with each time it is used: if you begin class by asking each student to give a ten second response to the question, “What did you learn yesterday as a result of our class that you didn’t know when class began,” you may have to work a little to convince students that you will not accept anything less than a thoughtful response and that it has to be articulated in ten seconds or less. However, if you repeat this process once a week, or at least with some frequency, students will stop resisting and will quickly develop their responses.

Paul Vermette has said that, after years of teaching, he is now convinced that his role is to force students to think. As long as students are thinking, Paul says, they are learning. All of the foregoing ideas are intended to get students to think and to make this happen right off the bat at the start of class so that they are thinking about what you want them to learn as you launch into your lesson.

Please share your own ideas – I know many of them are better than what I am sharing. I will reprint ideas, periodically. What activities can you share that “grab the learner’s attention by generating student engagement in the first few minutes of a lesson – whether they last a minute or much longer?

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2004 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teaches are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

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