Grab the students attention
One important element when I am presenting my lesson is an attention grabber that is also relevant to the content. Research shows that the average attention span of an adult is about 20 minutes. Every 20 to 30 minutes, I use a progressive form of the attention grabber to keep my students motivated. But I also find that some students' attention span vary from 5 to 15 minutes and they need individual motivation to continue to work on the labs and exercises. I have to do a combination of group teaching and individual assistance to keep the class moving. I'd like to read other teachers' experiences on maintaining their learners attention.
Great attention grabbers Lima!
In addition to ensuring the attention span is kept live during my class sessions, I use a verbal review technique every 15-20 minutes to ask quick questions on the ongoing lecture, allowing students to use their notes to answer but to answer the question aloud verbally so that everyone can benefit and add to the discussion. It is somewhat like this dicussion post, except I conduct it aloud for the following reasons:
1) transition the students into speaking to others, practice for patient teaching
2) as an opportunity to review their written notes and make clarifications, notations or deletions where necessary
3) as a preview for pop quizzes, quizzes or exam questions to come (in the future)
most student appreciate the hints....
Lima,
Good strategy. You are changing the pace and the learning interventions to keep students engaged and focused on the content which as you know is critical to keeping students on task and on target.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
