What is attention exactly? The quality of being able to concentrate on information at hand and carry on with the tasks with those given information is an incredibly simple way to define attention.
In every classroom, irrespective of size of the classroom or age of the participants, students should and need to pay heed to what their teachers are saying, sometimes for extended periods of time.
Sounds easy enough but the truth is young learners are a difficult bunch to keep engaged as they can be distracted easily, sometimes with apparently for no reason. And though sounds ambiguous, today’s modern technology is making it even more difficult because of the screen time it offers. A study conducted by the University of Washington suggested a proportionate association between watching TV and losing attention spans.
So it’s pretty obvious that the parents and the teachers alike all over the world are in a constant struggle to keep the young ones attentive – at their homes making them prepare the lessons or in the schools helping them learn something new. In Singapore, some advanced tuition providers are taking steps to ease the burden of both the parents and the school teacher by taking different initiatives. Among them, JC Physics tuition in Singapore or IP tuition in Singapore is a name parents frequent with confidence.
Now, let’s look at some ideas with which we can make young kids pay attention in the class:
- Activities in the Class Should Be Different
Kids can very rarely be attentive for a longer period and it is even more difficult for them to pay attention in the classroom. So, it is a rarity to have a class full of kids to be attentive while the teacher is teaching for an interminable period. Also there is the issue of different kids having different ideas about favorite activities.
So, it is very important to the teachers to be aware of the above fact and provide as much variety in giving lessons as the institute and allocated time for a class permit. Choosing tasks that require not more than 10-15 minutes and having random activities that can assist kids learning can be very helpful if the participants keep losing attention and the whole task of teaching new things becomes null and void. Additionally, incorporating game PPT into your method of teaching can make the learning experience more engaging and enjoyable for students.
If your planned activities don’t work in the classroom or cannot be executed for time constraints, you can always plan new activities or use them in the next class.
- Keep Switching The Way You Teach While Knowing the Mood Of the Class:
It is always better to change the method of teaching – someday you just lecture, other days you can have the kids working heads down. You can program pair works along with group activities. Also the whole class taking part in discussion or participating in games ending in learning something new always gets the attention of the kids running.
While you do the activities mentioned above, you need to see how the kids are responding. Identifying the mood of the class can be eminently useful as then you can plan your next move. After receiving a lecture, the students can start getting restless. When you see that happening, you will know that now is the time to start something different.
- Give the Brain a Break
It’s surprisingly and unusually effective not only for the students but may be for you as well. In essence, brain breaks transpires to be activities that don’t require the brain to be working at all. It can be silly physical activities or games that only need moving or stretching or jumping up and down or literally anything that kids can be doing willingly. These breaks can be short lasting a couple minutes or longer if you feel the necessity after a difficult session of studying.
- Let Them Teach Their Classmates
Offering the students responsibility never fails to pay dividends. When you let a kid become more active in the teaching process in any way you can, they will always reward you with their full attention.
So, obviously teaching by peers is always fun for the students. When applying this technique, you need to take a step back and simply play an observatory role of keeping the order of the class or keeping the noise to a minimum. You need to find some plain and simple lessons that can be delivered by reading out loud or painting simple objects or demonstrating something by acting etc and delegate your students to teach one another.
- A Few Classroom Strategies
No matter how hard you try or how perfect your methods are, there will always be some days when nothing seems to be working. When you will be having one of those days, turn to the following ideas:
- Keep walking while you are teaching. It is highly unlikely that they will lose attention when they see you passing in their proximity.
- Mark the kid who has trouble giving attention and stand very close to them pretending you are not actually marking them. That will automatically bring the kid back to the classroom.
- I like this one most and employ every time I get the chance to. I just keep standing without saying and darting my eyes everywhere especially on those who don’t seem to be paying attention. Believe me, it works every single time.
The ideas that I’ve just given are remarkably simple to execute and they can be made based on new techniques to make the young kids pay attention. One profoundly factor here is you – your motivation, desire and willingness to make the kids learn will always work in your favor.