8 and 2

We have all been extremely frustrated when that commercial break came in the middle of our favorite show. But, in that commercial break you have done things that could have rivaled the best Olympians in the world today. Poured another drink, used the restroom, checked on your kid, and liked your friend’s dumb photo of his neighbor carrying a pink flamingo. (Okay, maybe I am telling a little too much about my personal viewing habits, but you get the picture.) Our focus is renewed during these interruptions and we are ready to get back into the content of the show. This isn’t always the case when we watch a movie…no interruptions cause us to create our own. This is probably why popcorn is so popular; it is a tasty thing to do when you need a good distraction. I could really go for some buttery popcorn goodness right now.

 

Okay, back on topic. Roughly, every 8 minutes of T.V. programming there is about a 2 minute commercial break. In all of my YouTube cruising it seems like 8 minutes is a good estimate for the average length of videos as well. From all of the things I have read on the attention span of teenagers I have found a range of 5-10 minutes to be the common denominator. That seems about right from what I see in class for an average student (stop yelling at me. I said average student. Of course an ADD/ADHD student has the span of about...pretty bird). It is also interesting that this is the exact range mentioned earlier. Not a coincidence. These T.V. Executives are hungry vampires out to suck the time and money from their viewers. What they are doing is working. That got me thinking about doing something similar in class. So, I started timing my lessons…I knew the kids could handle this type of time frame because they choose to engage in it at home, on their phones, and computers. The ground level had already been laid for me by that devilish T.V.!!!

I began turning my direct instruction style (which is the worst thing you can ever do to yourself or students) into PowerPoint presentations FULL of photos and movie quotes as sounds for the actions in the presentation. I purposefully began to insert things I knew would distract the student body. If I can control when they become distracted then I can better manage the class as a whole. (I will go into a lot more detail about my theory on PowerPoints in another post. That will surely anger a lot of computer/business teachers out there.)

You know when to shift gears. The class tells you. So, create your own commercial breaks. My commercial breaks are generally a question or comment to connect the lesson to a news story, something relevant in the school, or even a question that was commonly missed on a past test (Administration loves this one!). I have taken this a step further and plan when my breaks occur. I know based on my slide number in the presentation or by the clock. This is not as bad as you are thinking, so stop freaking out. Start out small. Get some “commercials” down on paper and keep an eye on the kids. When they start to fade out throw it out there. Then, jump back on subject. It may surprise you how well it can work if you have a little patience.

Movement is also key to attentiveness. If I am lecturing all day (rare) I will take a break in the middle and get everyone to stand up and do something fun/silly. If you create the opportunity to be distracted then they become less likely to do it on their own because they know one is coming from me.  My students love my class and talk about it to others. They look forward to coming in and be entertained while learning.

This development over the years of the “8 and 2” has generated a spike in my SOL scores and more importantly, higher level thinking within the content. This has worked for me in both an English and Social Studies classroom. Try it out…you might like it.