Hello!

My name is Jennifer...a newbie here...
After perusing nearly all of the wonderful material available here on WBT, I have a few questions. Chris Biffle suggested that I post them here.

Here they are:

1) Almost any teacher that has taught for a good number of years, even up at the college level, will lament that the ability of their students to maintain focus over a period of time has substantially decreased. It appears to me that the WBT methods *reinforce* the "sound-byte" attention span that is so prevalent...kind of saying "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em". I'm curious to know your position on this, and how power teaching can help students develop focus over longer periods of time.

2) Most of the videos show the "lecture" part of the lesson, however, I'm curious as to how you implement the WBT techniques to seatwork/writing/independent work. I've been very blessed to have fairly small, well-behaved classes that are quite motivated. My largest frustration comes from the varying speeds at which the children finish their work. The fast workers are soon bored if you allow enough time for the slowest workers to finish. And I've noticed that when children sense that "plenty" of time will be given for all to complete the work, the actual time necessary to finish somehow gets s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d, whether the assignment is 2 minutes or 20. This only serves to frustrate those who are finished early. I've always had the ones that finish quickly read quietly...but it feels like such a waste of time. I would love to know your thoughts on managing the independent work time in a WBT classroom.

Thank you so much for your time. I've been very intrigued by all that I've seen and read!

Jenn29 wrote:


Jennifer,

Welcome to WBT and the boards. Let's look at each of your questions, and I will give you my opinion and suggestions and you may take or leave them as you please.

On the first one, the idea that the sound byte attention thing is new, frankly, I doubt that. Currently, research shows that when you are dealing with students a good rule of thumb for retaining engagement is to segment activities, with each segment being roughly the same as a child's age. In other words, for first or second graders stick with the same activity for only six or eight minutes and then move on to something else. You can come back to that activity if you did not finish later, but break it up with something in between. For middle schoolers and up keep the activity to 15 minutes or less, and an adult has an attention span of only about 20 minutes.

The complaint by many is that this attention span has been falling. Frankly, I think it is wishful thinking and an artifact of teachers wanting to hang on to the idea that long lectures were okay back in the day, despite what researcher shows now. Honestly, in high school and college I was a really good student, and if you lectured at me for more than about twenty minutes I was doodling in my notebook, captaining the Enterprise in my mind, or eradicating the dark lords of the Sith in an epic lightsaber battle(yes, nerd alert).

Basically, I think the human attention span has not really changed much.

2) On the second, early finishers, I give my kids a sheet with all the assignments we are going to have for the chapter listed on it, with page numbers and any special instructions that might be necessary. I go over it with the kids before we begin the chapter. The main expectation is that if they finish an assignment we are working on, move on to the next assignment even if the whole class is not done yet.

Something else I am about to start in with and you are welcome to try is to come up with a set of index cards with more rigorous assignments on them. These assignments will use more higher order thinking skills. The early finishers can pick one of these up when they are done, or choose to do one of these instead of a set of simpler, lower order questions. Still experimenting with this one. I will let you know how it works out. Feel free to try it for yourself.

I do use WBT techniques with seat work. As we start seat work I introduce the seatwork assignment, the acceptable volume level if any, and then I might say something like:

Me: "Work for seven minutes with a partner, volume level 2. Ready? *clap, clap* who lives in a pineapple under the sea?"

They: "*clap, clap* Spongebob Squarepants!"

Me:"You are on the clock!"

Why seven minutes? It gives them a sense of urgency. If they are working well at the end of seven minutes I check to see if they need more time. Some kids can finish the assignment that fast. Others need a couple more minutes. I give them more time in three minute segments if they need it.

Did that help?

I like the Sponge Bob Teach ok idea!

I just go with it. The kids are learning and the repetition is important. Students need to own their education and WBT gives them the tools for that ownership. It’s not me telling them stuff, they are the one’s telling others or just telling objects. Times when they need to be more focused and independent I rely on the scoreboard a lot. That way they still get to cheer and get that little mental break but they have a goal.

As far as early finishers; I have found many games that involve the topics we study that way my quicker students review. Those who need the extra time get it but are a bit more motivated to finish. Fun is contagious and gets them interested.
Games can be a simple game board with problems written on the spaces. One game different standards and questions. Also have the early finishers create a game, complete with answers. They love it when you copy it for others to play. They even play it, or sometimes, I let them be the game monitor (someone has to make sure others are playing correctly and getting the correct answers). Before I let them turn in the game they must check all the work and have an answer sheet.