One of my big tasks for January is to re-focus and set new goals for myself.
And one of those goals is to make a handy list of tips to refocus my students when our energy is lagging or when we are getting “squirrelly”. (Squirrelly = fidgeting all over the place, like a squirrel.)
Using any kind of brain research from the books How the Brain Learns by David Sousa, Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain by Zaretta Hammond, and Teaching with the Brain in Mind by Eric Jensen will help you understand some of the best strategies for engaging students’ attention and focus. Watch for an upcoming post with some more tips from these books!
The article “Chemical Reactions in the Classroom” from the ASCD website gives tips for how you can activate four brain neurotransmitters in the following ways:
1 – serotonin (“set the mood”) – make your classroom look as pleasant and as conducive to learning as possible. Use things like plants, color, student work displays, cozy places to read. Create emotional bonds with your students by being positive and enthusiastic.
2 – cortisol (“prime the pump”) – this is a neurotransmitter that you want to keep on the low side! To do that, use community-building activities like morning circle time (see my post about restorative practices circles HERE), icebreaker games, and compliment circles to help establish and build good peer relationships. Then use cooperative learning strategies throughout the day to help keep this neurotransmitter low!
3 – dopamine (“reward”) – release this neurotransmitter with anything that is novel or new to students. Make lessons as relevant to students’ lives as possible (or at least use their names or possible scenarios in their lives when describing concepts). Other ways to add novelty: do some unpredictable things within your lessons, like adding music or changing the lighting levels or have students walk and talk as they review a concept.
Reinforcing learning and giving feedback increase dopamine levels. You can do this individually or as a whole class. Make your feedback as timely and specific as possible, framing it as positively as possible and reminding students of their capability and your belief in them.
4 – norepinephrine (“move & learn”) – this neurotransmitter is released in the brain when we move! When norepinephrine is released, there will be less distraction and more focus. Every ten minutes, encourage your students to move around. Using any of the strategies in this post will help!
The article’s author, Stephanie Knight, reminds us to think brain engagement, not just student engagement. With that in mind, here are 30 fast, proven tips. Pick one to try in your class!
If it’s one or two students who need refocusing . . .
1 – Use their name! Not in a gotcha way, but in a natural part of the discussion.
Here’s an example: While reviewing how to divide fractions, I noticed one of my students was totally checking out. So I used his name in the word problem we were reviewing. (“Henry is baking croissants for his bakery. He has 18 pounds of dough. Each croissant is made from ⅛ pound of dough. How many croissants can he make?”)
Henry got right back on track, smiling because everyone likes hearing their name, especially when it’s used in a positive situation.
2 – Give the “teacher look”. Sometimes a quick but meaningful stare in a student’s direction can get them back on track! Once they are back to doing what they need to be doing, I give them a smile and a thumbs-up or some other signal to show that I see that they are refocused.
3 – Proximity — move closer to the student or the table that is off task. Similar to giving the teacher look, this is not meant to be punitive, just a gentle reminder that “you’re not doing what you are supposed to be doing. Please get back on track.”
4 – Ask students if they’re okay or if they need anything. Again, you are not doing this as a “gotcha”, but as a genuine attempt to find out what they might need from you. Your tone of voice matters when asking these questions.
5 – Allow students to work in different areas. Sometimes just allowing a student to change locations or change positions makes a big difference in their ability to focus.
If it’s your whole class that needs refocusing . . .
1 – Make learning physical whenever possible. When teaching decimals, for instance, have students form decimal place value and stand (to show the tenths place), squat down (to show the hundredths place) or sit down (to show the thousandth’s place).
2 – Solve math problems or work in stations by playing Scoot. Here’s how: write math problems or put task cards for stations at different desks or tables. Give students a recording sheet with numbers on it. Each number corresponds to the math problems or task cards. (They could also write the numbers on lined paper and write their answers on their own paper).
Show your students the order you want them to “scoot” in (usually clockwise, but do whatever works for you). Students start at their own desks. They solve the task card at their desk and write the answer in the correct place on their paper.
When you say “SCOOT,” students scoot to the next desk. They take their paper and pencil with them. The task cards stay on the desks/tables.
Another fun option is to have some task cards interspersed throughout that include exercise movements like hopping in place, jumping jacks, toe touches, etc.
3 – Ask my favorite question: “What are you doing and what are you supposed to be doing?” I tell them that this question works for me every time I ask it of myself. It gets me to reset and get back to what I need to be doing.
When telling them about asking myself the question, I relate it to some recent teaching task. For example, “Yesterday I was working on report cards and I found myself switching over to check my email. This happened about 50 times. {Hyperbole is one of my specialties.} So I asked myself, ‘what am I doing? Checking email over and over. What am I supposed to be doing? Working on report cards.’ Then I closed my email tab and got back to work.”
Telling little stories about yourself and how you use the strategies you are teaching your students is an example of the trust generator “selective vulnerability” that Zaretta Hammond talks about in her book Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain.
4 – If you have some PTA money to spend or if you write a Donors Choose grant, consider using money for some flexible seating options. Here are some options:
5 – Take a movement brain break. If possible, get outside and have your class take a brisk walk or jog around a safe area. If it’s not possible to get outside, put on some music and let them dance or just walk around and chat. You would be surprised at how a brief movement break gets your kids settled and refocused. Do this as often as you need!
6 – Another type of movement break is to have students do various stretches or yoga poses.
7 – Yet another movement break is to do activities where students are crossing the midline of their bodies. (Crossing the midline means to draw an invisible line down the center of the body and to reach arms or legs across that line to the other side).
These activities encourage the two hemispheres of the brain to communicate and encourage bilateral coordination. Some activities include touching your feet with the opposite hand, twisting your waist and stretching your arms across to the opposite side, etc.
8 – Try some Kagan cooperative learning strategies. These are very effective. HERE is a handy PDF I keep near my teaching area to remind me of different structures to incorporate. I tend to use Mix-Pair-Share and Stand Up-Hand Up-Pair Up, but this list reminds me of other structures to incorporate.
9 – Calisthenic movement breaks are effective as well. Try doing jumping jacks, waist twists, crunches, pushups, planks, squats, and toe touches.
10 -You can even incorporate movement and stretching into your literacy block. Take a “seventh-inning stretch” during independent reading. Use Quizlet Live games to review vocabulary words. Allow students to stand at tables or desks when working on writing. Have students stand up and walk around while talking to a partner during “turn & talk.” All of these small bits of movement help refocus and re-engage.
11 – Remind/redirect/reinforce the whole class when needed.
Reminder example: “Think about what you can do to help yourself concentrate.”
Redirect example: “Freeze. Everyone return to your seat. Now let’s try it again.”
Reinforce example: “Great work, everyone! I appreciate your focus and effort.”
12 – Change up locations. If students are zoning out on the carpet, have them return to their seats. If they’re zoning out at their seats, have them come to the carpet or to another area of the classroom where you can all sit and see each other. Take your lesson outside if the weather is nice and safety allows for that.
In all of these scenarios, try not to “fuss” at your kids for zoning out. It happens to all of us. Simply say something like, “I think we need to wake up our brains so let’s switch to . . .”.
13 – Could you join classes with another teacher? Somehow the novelty of combining classes and having two teachers in the classroom helps to re-engage kids.
14 – Use a fun call and response with your class. Three favorites are:
You: class, class! Students: yes, yes?
You: Hakuna! Students: Matata!
You: Shark bait! Students! Ooh, ha, ha!
If you can use a current song lyric as a call and response, your kids will really love that too. 🙂
15 – Use music during quiet work time. Two of my favorite stations on Spotify are “Focus Now” and “Instrumental Study.”
16 – Have a one-song dance party! Play a current popular song (using clean lyrics if necessary) and just let kids move! This is always entertaining. 🙂
17 – Use music for learning. Flocabulary is a great site for teaching lots of different concepts with fun hip-hop music and lyrics. You can also find lots of creative teachers’ musical talents on youTube! It’s always worth a look as you’re planning a lesson or unit.
18 – Is there a way you can incorporate some kind of craft into your lesson? Even something simple, like making a foldable for notes, helps to change up the routine.
19 – Is there a way you can incorporate some kind of food into your lesson? THIS POST from We Are Teachers gives some great ideas.
20 – Pretend you’ve lost your voice. Instead of constantly repeating the same things (that your kids tune out anyway), put up a slide on the whiteboard and type your directions. Or write them on a piece of paper under the document camera. Or write them on the board. After you write the directions, just stay silent and smile. And watch them do what you told them (in writing) to do.
21 – Put a big piece of construction paper or a half piece of chart paper on every table or cluster of desks. Every student needs a pencil or marker. Then give them a question to think about or a math procedure to explain. You’ll probably also want to have this question posted on the board.
Set a timer for three minutes. Everyone has to read the question, think about it and write whatever they’re thinking. When the timer goes off, they can talk as they move to another poster. Then the process starts all over again, except that this time they need to read what the last group wrote on their paper and then respond to those thoughts. They should write their response close to the comment to which they are responding.
Continue this as long as you want or until everyone has been to every table. Then re-convene as a large group and allow for discussion of what they noticed, agreed with, wondered about.
22 – You could also do this same activity verbally by allowing students to walk around while you play music, then get into a group of three or four when the music stops. They have to be with different people every time (so they can hear a variety of thoughts and opinions).
23 – And, using this same activity, discuss a text using the Book-Head-Heart framework from the book Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst. You could do this during literacy or during content area reading.
Read more about the framework HERE.
24 – Write positive thoughts on sticky notes and give them to students during work times. Tell them something good you notice that they are doing, encourage them to keep up the good work, tell them you appreciate them. Whatever helps to pump your students up or encourage them.
25 – Incorporate partner response or quick written response whenever possible.
For partner response, you might want to assign partners and give them each a letter or number (partner A and partner B, partner 1 and partner 2, etc.) Then pause after every direction or point you’re making to say something like:
“Partner A, tell partner B one thing we learned about . . .”
“Turn to your partner and predict . . .”
“Turn to your partner and tell them . . .”
“Turn to your partner and explain . . .”
For quick written response, pause and ask students to jot their thinking about a topic, a question you pose, or to explain how to do something. This increases thinking, accountability, student focus, and it provides you with meaningful “check for understanding” feedback. Then you might have students share their written thinking with a partner.
It’s so easy to get into a rut with using the same strategies over and over. I hope this list gives you some ideas of new things to try or reminded you of some strategies you may not have used in some time.
I’d love to hear your ideas and feedback! Email me at stillteachingstilllearning@gmail.com.