Paying Attention To Attention

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Paying Attention To Attention

• Erin Studer, M.S.
• Shmuel Schwarzmer, M.A.
• 10/18/07

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Goals for Today

• To gain a deeper understanding of the construct
  of attention and the role it plays in the
  educational life of a child.
• To examine various ways to support the attention
  of students who struggle in this area.
• To consider a variety of pedagogical methods and
  how they impact attention.

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Remembering Neurodevelopment

• Neuro Mind
• Development Development
• So we have the Minds Development
• Dr. Mel Levine breaks up the minds developmental
  process into 8 areas (Constructs).
• They are basically physical or operational
  phenomena we can see (observe) in the classroom
  and in life.

• The 8 Constructs
• Language
• Memory
• Attention
• Temporal-Sequential Ordering
• Spatial Ordering
• Social Cognition
• Higher Order Cognition
• Neuromotor

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The 8 Neurodevelopmental ConstructsDefined

• Language
• Articulating and understanding language in
  reading, writing, speaking, and listening
• Memory
• Facilitating, using, consolidating and accessing
  information in both the short and long-term.

• Attention
• Maintaining focus on the right thing, at the
  right time, for the right amount of time
• Temporal-Sequential Ordering
• Understanding and producing appropriate
  sequences of information and order of events
  in time

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The 8 Neurodevelopmental ConstructsDefined
(Cont.)

• Spatial Ordering
• Making spatial judgments and creations (e.g.
  lining up numbers in a division problem) and
  conceptualizing spatial concepts (e.g. a rhombus)
• Social Cognition
• Succeeding in social relationships with peers,
  parents, and teachers

• Higher Order Cognition
• Solving problems, thinking creatively,
  manipulating ideas to create new meaning
• Neuromotor
• Controlling and coordinating muscle movement for
  the variety of school day tasks jumping rope,
  drawing a picture, writing a name in cursive

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Describe A Student

• Describe a student that you teach who you believe
  has a weakness in their attention.
• How does that weakness look?
• When does it occur most often?
• Are there times (or subject areas) where it
  doesnt occur?
• What has been done at this point to address this
  weakness?

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Pay Attention!

• When you ask students to pay attention in your
  class what are you asking them to do?

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General Demands On Attention(A Brainstorm)

• What are some general (not neurodevelopmental)
  things that have an effect on a persons
  attention.
• Time of Day
• Type of Activity
• Topic
• Emotion
• Sleep
• Competing Distractions

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Lets Look At the Details of Attention

• Attention
• Maintaining focus on the right thing, at the
  right time, for the right amount of time

• 3 Major Functions of Attention
• Mental Energy
• Processing Controls
• Production Controls

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Mental Energy is initiating and maintaining the
energy level needed for optimal learning and
behavior

• Mental Energy has 4 parts or components
• Alertness Attaining an effective level of
  focused listening and watching
• Mental effort Initiating and maintaining the
  flow of energy needed for cognitive work output
• Sleep-arousal balance Sleeping well at night and
  being sufficiently alert during the day
• Performance consistency Maintaining a steady,
  reliable, and predictable flow of the mental
  energy needed for dependable functioning

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Processing Controls regulate the use of incoming
information

• Processing Controls have five components.
• Saliency determination Discriminating between
  important and unimportant information (also known
  as selective attention)
• Depth and detail of processing Focusing with
  sufficient intensity to capture specific
  information
• Cognitive activation Linking incoming
  information with prior knowledge and experience
• Focal maintenance Sustaining concentration for
  the appropriate period of time (also known as
  attention span or sustained attention)
• Satisfaction level Focusing sufficiently on
  activities or topics of moderate or low levels of
  interest

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Production Controls regulate academic and
behavioral output

• Production Controls have five components
• Previewing anticipating likely outcomes of
  actions, events, and problems
• Facilitation and Inhibition selecting the best
  option before acting or starting a task
• Pacing doing tasks at the most appropriate speed
  
• Self-monitoring watching ones own output and
  making necessary modifications
• Reinforceability using previous experience to
  guide current behavior and output

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Take Away Messages

• Habits of Mind
• What function of attention is this student
  struggling with and in what way can I intervene
  to support her?
• What about my lesson will place heavy demands on
  attention and how can I modify it to support my
  students?
• Given what I know about attention
  (neurodevelopmentally and the general demands)
  how can I structure the activities and
  assessments of my class to utilize my students
  attention strengths.

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Take Away Messages

• Classroom Practice
• Use the Attention strategies from the All Kinds
  of Minds website to support students with
  weaknesses in this area.
• Use a variety of instructional methods to help
  support variances in attention.
• Teach students about attention and their own
  strengths and weaknesses in attention so that
  they can become better self-monitors.

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Take Away Messages

• Things You Could Start Tomorrow
• Implement the strategies that you researched for
  your observed student.
• Try a different instructional strategy in your
  lesson and observe its effect on attention in
  your students.
• Take time to do an Attention Demands assessment
  of your class and classroom (time, distractions,
  groupings, etc.)

• Read the chapter in A Mind At A Time on Attention