Practical Tips for Keeping Student’s Attention in Your Class

Practical Tips for Keeping Student’s Attention in Your Class

These days, children are different from past generations. Born in the digital age, their brains are overstimulated and thus today’s children process thoughts and pay attention differently to those of us who are already past 35 years old.

In fact, many teachers need to make tremendous efforts to capture the class attention and doing that can be a huge challenge. Despite being a little intimidating, there are some strategies you can and should use to attract a group to you. Not sure how to proceed? Not to worry, we’ve got you covered!

In this article, we list a few steps you can follow to keep your students’ attention!

 

A Specific Student

If you have a scattered student, pay attention to him or her individually. And, here’s how:

Talk to the Student Directly

Hope for the Angry Child - Active Family Magazine

Put yourself in a place where he/she can see you clearly and say his/her name loud and stern. Look the student in the eye so he/she can calm down and be attentive. If he/she still doesn’t understand, repeat his/her name out loud, asking to focus on what you’re talking about.

Give a Warning

Call the student privately and let them know that if he/she continues to disturb the class, you will get points from their final average. This technique is most effective with high school students. If a student is not restless and continues to disturb the class, you can also send him or her to the coordinating or school board.

The Class

When everyone is involved, conduct an interesting and interactive lesson to get them interested in what you have to teach!

Master Your Stage Presence

Well, even if there is no stage as such, master the way you present yourself. Stand in front of the class, where everyone can see you. Before or even during class, stop and wait for the class to calm down. Look at what is being said or not disturbed to show that the distraction it causes is detrimental to the whole class. Show students where you are staying on the first day of class so they already know what to expect when you are in this situation. This technique works best for high school and university students who are mature enough to understand the role of the teacher in the classroom.

Use Your Tone of Voice

After taking your place, to let your students know that the session will begin, change your tone of voice. Start teaching your class by raising your voice and speaking strongly to get students ’attention. Try to speak loudly so that everyone can hear, but without shouting.

Don’t Overlook the Count Down Method

If the class does not calm down, use the count down method from 5 to 1. Let them know that by the time you reach one, they must be in complete silence. Stay in a place where everyone can see you and start counting down out loud, using your fingers as well if you need it. When you’re done, make sure everyone is quiet and that you have everyone’s attention.

The number is more appropriate for kindergarten and elementary school students.

Speed up or slow down the calculation, depending on the age group of the class: slow with the youngest and faster with the largest.

Maintain Your Students’ Attention

Interactive Activities

25 interactive classroom activity ideas

Plan fun activities on the topic covered during the day or week. Before starting the lesson, let the class know that you are going to have fun after the class and that they need to pay a close attention to what you will be teaching. At the end of the lesson, pass the activity instructions to include them in the dynamics.. For example, if you are teaching math formulas, divide the class into groups and create equations on the board that students should solve.

Improve Your Intonation

To make the lesson more interesting, don’t use a monotone tone of voice. Vary high and low notes when speaking to draw students’ attention. For instance, speak more softly when you want students to be quiet and watch closely and use a higher pitch to make them more enthusiastic.

With those tips, you should be able to better keep your students’ attention. What tips have you been using so far? Share your experience with us in the comments below.