Attention

Reminder:

  1. Not all strategies will be effective for all students.

  2. Strategies can be modified to suit the developmental level of students.


Using cues and giving directions

    • Gain the student's attention before giving directions.

    • The teacher could create and use a non-verbal gesture to communicate to the student to attend.

    • Use additional strategies to check for understanding individually including asking him/her to repeat back what was heard/seen.

    • Call the challenged students by name and establish eye contact before providing the directions.

    • Use group alerting cues such as 'Eyes and ears on me!' to gain the class's attention.

    • Wait until all students are looking at you and ready to listen before giving directions.

    • If you have a teaching assistant (TA), when you call for attention the TA walks through room redirecting students to attend and clear their desks.

    • Organization preparation support from the TA. The TA before the lesson connects with the students who are typically unorganized guiding them to prepare their learning materials for the lesson.

    • When you have finished giving directions to the entire class, privately approach any students who appear to need assistance or repetition of instructions.

    • Quietly restate the directions to them and have them repeat the directions back to you as a check for understanding.

    • Give them a card or graphic organizer of the steps to complete the specific task.

    • Use visual graphics to capture the student’s attention and keep them focused: Attribute webs, Venn diagrams, timelines, T-charts, story maps and other visuals will aid students in organizing, understanding and remembering information. Graphics can be used to review information or as an assessment at the end of a unit.

    • Create a self-reporting log for the student to rate his/her attention for various tasks throughout the school day. Student would self-assess and reflect with teacher at end of the day.

    • Written directions. Provide follow-up directions in writing. For example, writing key words or page numbers for an activity on the board and remind the child to look at the board if he or she forgets the task.

    • Prior to a transition (e.g. start of a lesson), use with a consistent phrase or signal that the student is familiar with. “Time to listen, time to start”.

    • Announce 5 or 10 minutes before the next transition (particularly for seat work and group projects) how much time remains.

    • Cue students in transition to specials and recess to picture how they want the experience to unfold.


Provide a quiet work area (minimize distractions)

    • When introducing these spaces to students, stress that the quiet locations are intended to help students to concentrate.

    • Never use areas designated for quiet work as punitive 'time-out' spaces, as students will then tend to avoid them.


Provide attention breaks

    • If students find it challenging to stay focused on independent or group work for long periods, allow them brief 'attention breaks'.

    • Contract with students to give them short breaks to engage in a preferred activity each time that they have finished a certain amount of work. For example, a student may be allowed to draw for 5 minutes each time that he has completed five problems on a math task.

    • Attention breaks can refresh students –and also reinforce the learning task.


Use preferential seating

    • Seating the student near the teacher or TA increases on-task behavior.

    • Preferential seating means seating the student in a location where he or she is most likely to stay focused on the lesson or activity.

    • Analyze your 'action zone' as a teacher (a part of the room where you tend to focus most of their instruction) and place the student's seat somewhere within that zone.

    • Select a seat location that avoids other distractions (i.e., by a window or next to a talkative classmate).