Attention??
I am teaching for the first time and I’m looking for suggestions on how to keep the attention of the class from start to finish? I want to have good participation and interaction with my students. I plan to do a lot of group work, but looking for others ways to make the classroom a fun learning experience and keep the attention of my students.
Hi Michael,
You can expect to hold their attention for about 10-15 minutes before they start to drift away. It is at this time you can introduce some type of brain shift. It can be as simple as just pausing for 5 to 10 seconds to having them complete a worksheet or discussing a problem. The key is enabling them to redirect their thoughts and the get back to the topic. Ideally you should move them physically around into groups or something like that. If this isn't possible then due some of the things mentioned above.
Gary
I would like to know what everyone thinks the maximum time they can expect to keep the current student population 19 to 24 engaged before they need a short break.
My current class is 1 hour and twenty minutes all lecture, a little tasting, and some hands on product I.D.
Professional Culinary Program.
I feel I'm pushing the outer limits not taking a small break midway thru.
Some days I do some days I don't.
It depends on the day.
My enery level is the same daily ,hyped up ,ready to go and more info than can be put into the 80 minutes I have.
Any thoughts? or research based answer on the quick edit MTV, IPOD,U-TUBE generations ability
to concentrate and how long?
You could try asking your students opinions of what they are expecting from the course. With that attention, you could draw connections to the course content to attact their attention to the subject matter.
I also like to use instructional games, even during the day (so my class is never too boring to bother getting out of bed for). One thing, if you have students zoning out, may just to include that person's name subtly into a sentence. "For instance, Jack, the text says ......" That's a waker-upper! I also move around the classroom to keep people on-task. Being near the teacher brings all of us back to the discussion!
In addition, I also break up class time by stopping to recap what we just covered, ask students questions about the material we just covered - some classes, depeding on the student popolation, I specifically draw all the students into conversation by asking each one a question or asking them to recap what we just covered. Sometimes I bring up a case example to discuss the material & make it relevent to them.
Depending on the length of the course - I'll do this anywhere from every 20-40 minutes.
I've found that the best way to keep the students attention is to be funny and informative and NEVER NEVER NEVER consider a question from the student to be irrelevent and not applicable to the course. If you do, you will loss that student plus others. There are times when the "off topic" discussions paves the way for further on topic discussions.
utilize visual games/powerpoints to grab the attention of the group. I use "jeopardy" style powerpoints to illustrate my lesson plans and the response has been very favorable
I definitely try to make some of the projects they are doing into competitions. Even if it is only for bragging rights, sometimes that keeps them awake and aware of whats going on. I also do night shifts and sometimes thats the biggest problems is trying to keep them awake after working all day
I agree keeping attention is sometimes a chore! I am a night insructor at a Tech. School. My students have worked all day and are not always at their peck of attention. As silly as it sounds, I often turn to "game" style learning. I have made bingo stlye games, labeled posters, and even flash card style. The majority of my class are middle age adults and believe it or not they welcome the fun fact building. It sometimes helps to bring the attention level back around when the information can be absorbed in a different manner.
