· 1.Summary: This chapter’s first section discussed the three kinds of attention processes-divided, three kinds of selective attention processes, and saccadic eye movements. The second section explained neuroscience research and theories relating to attention. The last topic was consciousness and how it relates to attention.
· 2.We must attend to /use the visual and auditory cues to process information. It goes hand in hand.
· 4/6Divided attention and selective attention- I see student task performance suffer when students try to divide their attention. As a teacher, I am constantly roaming, changing up the routine, trying to keep my students on their toes to hopefully keep their attention. The chapter and the article information reinforces difficulties people have with attending and what is helpful in relation to learning and visual and auditory media. On p. 70 I found the working memory information interesting. ( I suppose we will be learning about more of that in Chap. 4 )
· 5.I believe the information because I witness it in myself and others and the author validates through studies that have been performed on others/or has the reader trying out the demonstration task themselves.
· 7. Many of my students have difficulty attending to tasks but especially my struggling students. An example: If they hear a pencil drop, they have been known to run across the room to pick it up, of course disrupting their train of thought as well as many others. When the task is found to be difficult it seems that their attention is considerably weaker and thought process is even more challenged. I have a little girl in my class that is a classic example of divided-attention difficulty. I could be carrying on a private conversation with an adult/child and she is suppose working independently on her writing essay…before I know it she is pipes up with some comment (thinking she is helpful)from the back of the room. Now as I look at her writing-I see little to no work and what is completed is disjointed. Her accuracy has decreased because she was attempting to attend to two tasks. Ugh! She is such a capable student but her work quality often suffers as a result of such instances. I try to keep background noise minimized. I give clues to help them remember information or keep examples on the board for them to refer to if they are having a difficult time.
· 8. What???
Hi Denise,
ReplyDeleteWhat about Question 3? Did you understand everything? :-)
For Question 8, what I was getting at was particular strategies...for example is there a better way to get students to pay attention or to suppress your thoughts or whatever it is that you decide to focus on in a chapter.
Do you find that your students do pay closer attention to you by keeping them on their toes and changing up the routine?
ReplyDeleteI also walk around the room but the daily routine is always very simliar. Sometimes I think that students need a set schedule to help keep them focused and their attention. I am fairly new to teaching so I am always up for trying new things, this is something that I may try to incorporate, switching up the order in which we do things in class.
Denise,
ReplyDeleteI appreciated your comment on changing routine and keeping students on their toes. When I taught 4th grade, I did this often. Now, I have a picture schedule posted and I have to stick to it. If I don't, several of my students seem to fall apart. Today, Ronald McDonald visited our school, which was great. After his show, we went back to the room to go over the schedule. As all teachers know, put something in; take something out. I had one little girl who could not focus her attention on packing up at all because the schedule did not have choice centers on it. I even had to get out the clock to show her it was time to go home. She just couldn't get past it. Do you think that this is an example of selective attention difficulty or divided attention?
Also, as for the little girl who doesn't divide her attention very well, we all have one of those. I have noticed that my student like this has been performing not as good as normal because our content is becoming more difficult. He is still dividing his attention to everyone else in the room, and now he is not able to complete the expected tasks. To encourage him and the whole class, I try to have a lot of celebrations in my room to keep students focused. We can celebrate because the students are all on task, in line, where they should be, and listening to others. When we do this, I try to do silly little cheers that encourage gross motor movement and positive comments. Most of my students respond well to this, but I have to become more conscious of every little thing in my room.
Do you think that the little girl has a problem with Dividing attention or is it that isn't using selective attention. Does the girl start out paying attention to the task and then divert it elsewhere, or is it a lack of applying her attention to the task to begin with?
ReplyDeleteDo you think that providing her direct attention to help her get started with tasks and focusing attention would help at all?