Keeping a student who has attention-deficit problems (ADD or ADHD) focused and on-task in the classroom is a challenge to teachers, and it requires experimenting with a variety of approaches.
Overhead projectors are among the best tools for focusing a child’s attention, because they allow the teacher to frame important information by blocking irrelevant parts of the transparency to face students; to avoid instructional lag time while writing on the board and erasing; and to prepare transparencies in advance, saving instructional time.
Even better? Document cameras—instructional tools that let you project 3-D objects and pages directly (without a transparency).
Here are additional ideas for capturing students’ attention:
- Use storytelling, real-life examples, and anecdotes. Children love to hear stories -- particularly ones that happened to the teacher when he or she was a child.
- Add a bit of mystery by bringing in one or more objects relevant to the upcoming lesson in a box, bag, or even a pillowcase. This is a wonderful way to generate lively discussions or writing activities.
- Signal to students through the use of musical instruments -- ringing a bell, chimes, or xylophone, or playing a bar or a chord on a keyboard or guitar is an effective way to get their attention.
- Use clear verbal signals. When you want to highlight important information on a certain topic, say, “Freeze, this is important...” or “Everybody, ready…” or “One, two, three, eyes on me.”
- Flash the overhead lights or raise your hand to signal that it is time to be silent and pay attention. To get students to focus on a specific object or word, turn off the lights and illuminate it with a flashlight or laser pointer.
- Call students up front to the board, on occasion, and give individual instruction.
- Encourage students to write on transparencies used with overhead projectors. For example, give a group of students a blank transparency and several colored pens, and ask them to solve a math problem. (With a document camera, this can be done from any piece of paper.) Their work can then be shared and discussed with the class.
- Draw a colored frame around material you want students to pay close attention to.
- Change your voice -- talk louder, in a higher or lower pitch, or whisper -- to draw attention to important information.
- Illustrate vocabulary words and science concepts with small drawings or stick figures.
- Clap in a particular pattern, and have students clap in the same pattern back to you.
- Move around the classroom when presenting material, to maintain your visibility.