Gaining Students Attention Back if off Track!

Everyone knows there is a difference between Elementary Education (K-5/6) and Secondary Education (5/6-12). They are different in many different ways including content, what the school day consists of, and how to gain back the students attention if off track. Today I will be talking about the different type of strategies used to gain the students attention back if starting to get off track. 

Starting with Elementary Education, which consists of Kindergarden-5^th/6^thgrade. The different types of strategies that I have experienced/seen are as follows: 

·     Repeat the clap rhythm 

·     Saying then answering 

·     Announcing that he/she will wait for the class 

            I’m guessing we all know what the repeating the clap rhythm strategy is from either our days in Elementary or from us seeing younger classrooms. For this strategy, the teacher comes up with a clap rhythm and the students then repeat the rhythm back to the teacher. This is effective after a couple second after the claps are done. Sometimes it takes a couple rhythms for them to understand what is needed to happen or they like to talk/laugh about the rhythms and continue to clap them. 

            The saying then answering strategy has to be implemented at the beginning of the year so the students understand what it is used for. For example, the teacher says, “Class, Class” and the whole class replies with “Yes, Yes”. This strategy is effective immediately because the students know once they reply with “Yes, Yes”, or whatever saying you want to use as a teacher, that you want their undivided attention and for them to turn on their learning ears. When said once, doesn’t have to be said again until they start doing something different and explanation is need to be given to the students. 

            Announcing that he/she will wait for the class is another strategy used for the younger group of children. If the students are not listening and talking while the teacher is explaining something he/she will just announce, “I will wait”, maybe repeat themselves a couple times, then sit without talking for the students to understand what he/she wants. This again is effective after a couple of seconds because the younger students may not understand right away that they need to stop talking immediately. 

Next is Secondary Education, which involves 5^th/6^thgrade through High School. The different types of strategies that I have experienced/seen are as follows:

·     Silence till student’s listen 

·     Talks at the class as a whole 

·     Singles out a specific group of students 

·     Singles out a student 

            The silence till student’s listen strategy is when the teacher just stops talking till the students start to listen and pay attention to what he/she is trying to teach them. This strategy is affective after a while because not all students notice that you’re not talking right away but after a while if everyone goes silent then they will notice. Doesn’t really solve the problem right away and may have to occur a couple times if the group of kids don’t get the point that is trying to be said by this strategy. 

            Talk at the class as a whole is a strategy that involves telling the whole class, “Class pay attention please”, “Everyone please listen this is important”, ect. Not as affective since its needed to be repeated a couple times right away and then a little later will have to be repeated again to get them to understand. Can be affective for certain classes depending on the students. 

            The singling out a specific group of students and singling out a student individually are both pretty much the same. This type of strategy has the teacher single out a group or an individual in front of the whole class. It’s an effective strategy that gets them to be quiet right away but not a good strategy in the long run. In reality, it just embarrasses them to the whole class to the point where they stop talking.

As shown above, the types of strategies used to get the students attention in the two different age categories are significantly different in their own ways. Personally, there are some strategies I agree with and others I don’t. Each teacher will have their own personal way they like and find effective for the students to come back to learning if starting to get off track. As teachers, we just need to find the strategies that work for each class since each and every class will be different from one another!