Helping students see the importance of quality over quantity.
Encouraging Best Effort & Full Attention during lessons
As we teach our children to write, read, and do other tasks, we want them to see the importance of quality over quantity and understanding a concept over just finishing the assignment.
We want to develop these skills to help them become better thinkers and allow learning to become more natural in the years to come.
I was Guilty of Not Helping Students Build Good Habits
I was guilty of hurrying students through workbooks or curricula to say I had completed the tasks. As a result, students had incomplete sentences, missed formed letters, lots of spelling errors, and other hideous errors.
Eventually, they should start transferring it from their English and spelling lessons. However, this was not happening. Many learners would do okay on worksheets, but soon, they would forget what was taught. They also didn’t know how to transfer it to other learning.
As time progressed and as I did more research on best practices for teaching kids, I learned the importance of a student practicing in the right way. If there is an error, that they correct it, because the last way the student sees the word or writes it is how the brain will remember it.
A Turn in My Approach
I realized I needed to change my approach to teaching and my expectations for my students.
I started to explain to my students the importance of being brave and giving their best efforts. We discussed throughout our lessons that errors are okay, but we must think through how to fix them. We need to be intentional in applying what we learned to our other work.
I promise my students I will give them support and hints, but I want them to be courageous and try to figure out the answer first.
How We Learn
I learned by reading Make it Stick that there is more robust learning when a child struggles to figure out the solution to a problem.
After the child attempts the question, I give them the needed support and coach the child to put the ‘pieces’ together. Providing support helps the child be on their way to becoming independent learners.
Allowing the child first to think through the problem is one way we can develop quality over quantity. Having the child work through the questions before getting help will enable them to learn to apply what they know and then apply new information or have the support of an adult to fill in the spaces.
We want to have high expectations for our students. We should have the same end goal in mind, but we must realize that each child will need a variety of supports to meet their unique needs.
It is our responsibility as educators to help our learners close the gap by giving them the tools they need to make progress.
You may be wondering what this may look like in day-to-day life.
Parents, tutors, and teachers can integrate this into their instruction time to help the child excel beyond where they are so that they can meet their learning goals.
Okay, back to providing a framework for best effort and full attention. Best effort and full attention does not mean perfection, but it does mean trying and applying oneself :).
Building Full Attention & Best Effort while Focusing
Focusing can be hard when we don’t care about the subject. It is easy to shut down or think about something else. Unfortunately, we live in a distracting world. We have to motivate ourselves and our students to stay on track.
When I have students who have trouble focusing either by wanting to tell stories or doodling on their board, I create a challenge for them, and then when they meet it, they can share or draw. It is a win-win. We make progress, and they get to share and connect.
I also sometimes explain to my students that focus is like a muscle. The more we use it and train our minds to focus, the easier it is to stay engaged.
Many people think we should keep things entertaining and engaging because of this. I would have to disagree because I believe it is super important to feel the uncomfortableness of pulling away from the ‘fun’ to do something that must be done.
Having them realize there is a time to play and a time to work can help them transition into adulthood more smoothly. And that even though many aspects can be fun during learning and work, some of it isn’t, but we have to persevere and keep working diligently to master the things we need to be successful in life.
I don’t mean sitting for hours upon hours. But I do mean helping them build their endurance so they can stay focused on a task or concept over time.
Start with where they are and then build from there.
Building Full Attention & Best Effort in Writing
Many people believe the myth that handwriting is irrelevant and that there is no proper way to write and form letters. This assumption is simply not valid. There is research that shows the importance of explicitly teaching students handwriting—especially those who struggle with learning disabilities and or ADHD.
We want to encourage our students to at least try. One way to help build confidence and courage is to make the task right.
With early writers, I will have them scribble in each of the squares on their handwriting sheets. Some will focus on the formation, while others are working on size and neatness.
It takes a lot of repetition to master the letters, but a child can start making great strides with the proper support.
Making two good ‘b’s is so much better than 20 sloppy ones.
It requires full attention and best effort because muscle memory is being formed, which means it will be difficult initially. Additionally, the student must follow the steps to create the letters correctly and apply what they have been taught.
I have created a Handwriting Intervention Guide to help students practice and develop good handwriting skills. It gives the practical support needed to adjust the lessons based on the learners’ needs. Here is a free resource you can start using today.
Building Full Attention & Best Effort in Reading
There are a lot of foundational concepts that are needed while reading. A learner needs to apply oneself to be able to decode unknown words and learn what the author is saying.
During reading lessons, I encourage my students to practice their phonemic awareness by stating the sounds they hear in a word. Many students struggle with this and can become frustrated and shut down. Many students who have been diagnosed with dyslexia have weak phonemic awareness.
Students have to learn to struggle through but remember not to give up. I also have to remind them to follow me when we are on the stage. Many of my students will shut down or go start to dream. I will talk about this in the following area.
When reading, students must focus on learning how the code works and not just guessing randomly. It is also crucial that they try different sounds to figure out the word. Our code is complex, and even the best reader has to slow down and attack the word, applying what they know to discover the unknown.
When helping struggling readers, we have to help them see this repeatedly.
When we help our students have full attention and think about how things break down, we equip them to become lifelong learners!
All students need the same general approach, but some will be slower and need more explicit instruction. We should be willing to give our students the attention and tools they need to become strong readers.
Building Full Attention & Best Effort when given feedback
When we are helping our students to learn full attention and best effort, this applies to feedback and following directions.
So often, we want to do things our way and don’t like someone to tell us differently. Unfortunately, kids are the same way.
However, as I have learned the hard way, getting feedback and applying it can significantly impact the outcomes.
Authentic learning occurs when a child is willing to embrace the discomfort and take advice from the instructor or think about his errors. So we want to cultivate full attention when we are modeling and doing it together and when they are doing it independently.
Summary:
As teachers, we can help our learners develop full attention and best effort during learning. Having full attention and best effort will not only be beneficial in their academic careers but will serve them well into adulthood. We can help our learners develop these characteristics by setting up the just right expectations and helping them discover a way to become accountable to them.