Attention Lecture Weiner, SPED 504MM

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Attention LectureWeiner, SPED 504MM

• You will need to sustain approximately 15-20
  minutes of focused attention. Please get yourself
  ready for this task.
• Have a sheet of paper next to you. When your mind
  starts drifting (thinking about something other
  than the lecture or that little voice starts
  talking to you), make a tally mark (I) on your
  sheet.
• By the way, can you think two thoughts
  simultaneously?

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A MISUNDERSTOOD BRAIN
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(No Transcript)
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WHAT IS ATTENTION? (Eric Jensen, 1998)

• What if getting attention was the exception
  not the rule?
• Students are divided into two groups
• Those who are inattentive
• Those who are attentive
• Purpose of attention
• Promote survival
• To extend pleasurable states
• Research tells us that attentional systems are
  throughout the brain the contrasts of movement,
  sounds, and emotions (like threats) consume most
  of our attention chemicals play the most
  significant role in attention and that genes may
  play a major part in attention (Ormrod, 2008)
• We ask students to pay attention to certain
  objects (teacher), to sustain that attention
  until instructed otherwise (60 minute lecture),
  and to ignore other stimuli (most probably more
  interesting)

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BRAIN-BASED LEARNING - ATTENTION

• Attention Attention is more than just "paying
  attention." It includes such aspects as the
  ability to concentrate, to focus on one thing
  rather than the other, to finish tasks one
  begins, and to control what one says and does
  (Mel Levine, MD. A Mind at A Time, 2002).
• THE PATHWAYS OF ATTENTION
• Alarm, orientation, identification, and decision
• Jensen states Whoops, something is happening
  here. Where? What is it?
• Basically, the proper attentional functional
  means not just stimulating many new neurons but
  also suppressing unimportant information
• Students succeed academically when they are
  tuned in just like a radio. Outside stations
  (other stimuli) wont get your attention unless
  it is really important

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ATTENTION TOO HIGH LEVEL OF CHEMICALS INABILITY
TO FOCUS ATTENTION TOO LOW BECOME DROWSY,
FOGGY, OUT OF IT Increase intrinsic
motivation attention for 1090 minutes Increa
se apathy and resentment attention for 10
minutes or less Choices
vs.
Required Provide choices content, timing,
work partners, Directed 100, no student
projects, process, environment, or resources.
input, resources restrictedfor example,
working alone Relevant vs.
Irrelevant Make it personal relate
to family, neighborhood, Impersonal, useless,
out of context City, love, life, health Done
only to pass a test Engaging
vs. Passive Make it emotional,
energetic interactive-make it Disconnected from
the real world little physical interactive
video / discussion connection seatwork and
lecture
(Jensen, 1998)
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ATTENTION Generally, the brain does poorly at
continuous high-level attention Genuine external
attention can be sustained at a high and constant
level for only a short time, generally 10 minutes
or less As a guideline, use 5-7 minutes of direct
instruction K-2 8-12 minutes for grades 3-7 12-15
minutes for grades 8-12 A NEW VIEW OF ATTENTION
TO PONDER (RICHARD RESTAK, MD, 2004)
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The Mind and The Brain Neuroplasticity and the
Power of Mental Force Jeffrey Schwartz, M.D., and
Sharon Begley (2002) We go through our lives
seeing countless objects that we not pay
attention to. Without attention, the image (or
the sound, or the feel attention plays a role
in every sense) does not register in the mind
that may not be stored even briefly in memory. I
guarantee that if you were to scan every square
centimeter of a crowd scene in a photograph,
visual information about every person depicted
would reach your visual cortex. But if I asked
you, after you had scanned the photo of the
crowd, where the man in the fedora and vest was,
you would not be able to do it. Our minds have a
limited ability to process information about
multiple objects at any given time. Because of
limited processing resources, as the
neuroscientists Sabie Kastner and Leslie
Ungerleider of NIH wrote in a 2000 review of
attention, multiple objects present at the same
time in a visual filed compete for neural
representationTwo stimuli present at the same
time within a neurons receptive field are not
processed independently. Rather, they interact
with other in a mutually suppressive way. They
compete for neural representation. The key
question for attention is, What determines the
winner?
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• STRATEGIES FOR DEALING WITH ATTENTION CHALLENGES
  (Levine)
• Establish proper sleep habits
• Shorter assignments
• Breaks
• Private signals
• When student seems to be tuning out
• When important information is about to be stated
• Advanced warning before calling on student
• Healthy snacks
• Doing something with hands

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• Activities that have interest
• Provide help in getting started
• Repeat instructions
• Students can underline or summarize what is being
  read
• Discussions with student on the amount of time
  that will have to be spent concentrating
• Ask student to make up questions for the test
• Have student rate their distractibility-create
  awareness

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Practice previewingPraise for working slow
enoughReview alternate strategies after student
has acted impulsivelyReview of how they could
have acted when the student has acted
impulsivelyAvoid calling student bad call
attention to the impulsivityReward students for
self-monitoring when they find their own
errorsUse same vocabulary, terminology and same
methods in communicating
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• STRATEGIES FOR DEALING WITH ATTENTION CHALLENGES
  (Jensen)
• Be content with getting 20-40 of the time
• Understand attention in terms of the exception,
  not the rule (be reasonable in expectations)
• Novel things will garner attention. Ritual
  ensures that there are predictable structures for
  low stress (keep stress at a min.)
• Contrast change in location, movement between
  work, different location to do work, switch
  classrooms
• Claps, foot stomp may introduce an important
  daily summary
• Change in voice tonality, tempo, volume, or
  accent gets attention
• Props, noise makers, bells and whistles,
  costumes, music, or singing (group 1)
• Teachers need not become circus performers
• Just COMMON SENSE? Easy as that?