Purpose Statement
These are four adaptable
in calss activites that can help teachers regain and focus calss attention.
These can be used in varying time frames, and they can be usd to break up class
periods into segments-- a practice which helps keep attention at a maximum
Description of Activity
1. HOT POTATO: Start by
asking a student a question. Answering a question correctly give the student
the chance to ask one of his orher classmates a question. Questions circulate
around the room until everyone has answered a question. This works particularly
well if there is prepared material for the students to work from, but advanced
classes can do this as a challenge without such materials.
2. AGAINST THE CLOCK:Give students a question which they must answer in writing
in a short amount of time (usually 5-10 min). This activity reminds students
why they should pay attention, especially if they know that questions like the
one you've given are very likely to appear on an exam. This may be used also as
a verbal activity, if students are asked to read their papers out loud or one
of their classmate's papers (this helps to get some of the more shy students to
speak).
3. LEARNING ON OUR FEET: Anytime there is a student in front of the class, the
rest of them will pay more attention. Get students to go through excercies at
the board or on video. Movement will attract attnetion as well.
4.SECRET EDITOR: this is good for writing assignements. Ask students not to put
their names on an assignemtns and give the papers out to the class in a blind
and random selection. Knowing that they are 'grading' a paper as well as having
their papers reviewed in the smae way will bring them to focus on the demands
of the assignment, since they have to use, and so become acquainted with, some
kind of criteria to evaluate it.
Application
These strategies can be
used in nearly any context for any duration of time. The most important thing
to avoid is the use of negative feedback to recall attention. The best way to
capture attnetion is to create an atmosphere in which students want to engage
with the material verbally, but short of that, the knoweldge that they WILL
eventually have to do so works very effectively as well.
this web page was created
on 11/24/99 at 5:42:56 PM
and modified on 11/24/99 at 5:42:56 PM