Seven strategies to help students focus in the classroom
Why learning focus strategies is a relevant topic for today’s COVID-world? Classrooms were mostly closed this year, which left children sitting in their homes and learning distantly and relates to each and every child.
According to statistics provided in TLTP Education’s article “10 Things Successful Teachers Do Differently During COVID-19”, 463 million children lack the necessary technology to study online. This means that to get an education, those children must visit schools. Consequently, they experience most of the issues that students normally do while they go to school.
(Should you be dealing with students who are learning distantly again, think of the best tools for distant learning).
And one of such issues is keeping a focus while schooling. Even though it can seem that physical presence in a classroom serves the concentration of students' attention, the truth is rather different. Classrooms are full of various distractions.
Another issue in pulling together students' attention is concerned with today's time. Even if there are no distractions in the classroom, students are carrying those in their pockets or right on their wrists. And since a student's attention span is limited, the task of keeping them focused for a substantially long time can seem quite challenging...
But the situation is not that sad indeed. Using the advice from this article on how to help a child focus in the classroom, you can dramatically help your students focus while being in class!
1. Free the classroom and learning materials from visual distractions
And yes, this can mean removing motivating pictures from the walls, beautiful hanging objects, etc. Or, long story short, minimizing visual distraction as much as possible.
The thing is that researches show that a distracted student in school can be seen more often in overly decorated classrooms. Students also tend to do things not related to education there. Logically, this can lead to poor learning results as well.
2. Help students pass their quiet time quietly
If you want your students to show high learning results, pay attention to their quiet time. The more quality a student can relax during this break, the higher learning results he will show during the day!
So, try to incite students to turn off their mobiles and other gadgets that can distract them from taking their ease. Still, using mobiles does not always prevent resting. Some students can use them to relax with the help of certain apps or sites.
Aside from this, games that students sometimes play while their quiet time, can also help to relax! So, instead of fearing all those gadgets in relation to students’ rest, you can make use of it.
But here it’s not out of place to note that using gadgets advantageously is more inherent of adult students. If your students are children, advise them to turn off their devices!
3. Make your lessons goal-oriented
No, it’s not about reformatting or changing your lessons program. This is rather about changing students’ attitudes to lessons and the subject itself.
Lesson plans imprint on students’ concentration inevitably: being aware of their purposes and tracking their achievements. Another advantage of introducing lesson plans is their ability to help students focus on activities that fulfill those plans’ fulfillment. Goals and tasks can also help students’ motivation. (By the way, these motivational podcasts can be of great use too!)
4. Give students only one assignment at a time
Although multi-tasking is one of the most demanded qualities of workers nowadays, it’s considered a very undesirable thing for teaching new generations. The thing is that when students need to work on several tasks at a time, their focus might get dispersed. Consequently, the story won’t end with high marks and quality learning…
And experts advise preventing multi-tasking even when students are writing tests. So that, if a test is comprised of 3 tasks, each of those is highly recommended to be accomplished on a separate sheet.
5. Organize breaks often
It’s commonly known that the ability of children to concentrate (their concentration span) is limited. The younger the children, the shorter that span is. So, it’s not likely that you will succeed in teaching a 5-year-old child if your lesson lasts for standard 45 minutes without any breaks.
But adult students also feel better when they have at least one little break during the lesson as this is another opportunity to have a quiet time and relax. And it’s commonly known that the more students can rest, the better their learning results will be. Additionally, students can use breaks to get some fun or read some interesting articles or discussion prompts for students.
6. Use contrasting colors
This is a remarkably effective and, at the same time, extremely simple tactic. Just use chalk or marker of a contrasting, for example, green or lilac, to write key messages on aboard.
While checking students’ works, make notes with a contrasting color, be it an exercise book or an electronic document: such notes are simply better noticed and remembered.
7. Make the study environment truly comfortable.
Why is it necessary to mention this point too? – The thing is that successful education is impossible if a student must learn in uncomfortable conditions. Of course, students all have different approaches and preferences in organizing their study zone can vary.
But there are some universal physical conditions for learning, and without them, there will simply be no learning. Even if a student has a strong will to learn and a big dream, having poor conditions, he will pay for his dream with his health.
There are several universal conditions for learning:
1. Good lighting
2. Quality chairs on which students can sit in a comfortable still anatomically correct pose. Together with chairs, it is as important to provide proper desks at which students could work without having to poke their heads.
3. The last but not least condition for quality learning is sufficiently warm air in the classroom.
With all these conditions followed, no issues with students’ focus are likely to arise!
In this day and age, it can be difficult to focus for a long time. Every gadget steals learners’ attention. Unfortunately, simply taking away those gadgets is not enough to facilitate students’ concentration.
Helping students focus can involve many factors, and the most important 7 ones are listed in this article. So, should you find your students a bit sleepy or too distracted, just take a couple of minutes to remember some relevant advice from our list!
Author bio: Frank Hamilton has been working as an editor at best thesis writing service reviews. He is a professional writing expert in such topics as blogging, digital marketing and self-education. He also loves traveling and speaks Spanish, French, German and English.