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| Courtesy of Google Images |
Thefirst 20 seconds. Use them - or lose them. Teachers have one third of a minuteto gain and hold the attention of their students. What will you do with your 20seconds? Will you say, “Turn to page . . .,” or will you offer a lure, atempting morsel for the mind, to stimulate their interest?
AdairHinds, Head of School at Oakbrook Preparatory School in Spartanburg, SouthCarolina, has spent his career working with students across the country. Hestates, “When a teacher begins a class, I believe she has about 20 seconds tocapture the attention of her students. Today’s students are used to texting andupdating their Facebook status whilecarrying on a separate face to face conversation; their attention is dividedamong multiple tasks simultaneously. I believe students make decisions in amatter of seconds about how much attention they will devote to our lesson,which in turn determines their level of engagement.”
Openyour lesson with something memorable. Present ideas to intrigue your students,expand their imaginations, or even shock them. There are many ways to approach this. Here are some connections forvideo hooks:
Studentscan watch movies on their own time, but a short clip makes an energizingintroduction to a lesson. Teachwithmovies.orgprovides lesson plans and learning guides for all subject areas for$11.95/year. Are you introducing theorchestra? Watch a clip from The Bolero. AnAmerican Tail teaches about immigration and growing in Americanvalues. Are you Finding Nemo? Nemo is aclownfish who has a symbiotic relationship with a sea anemone, a perfect fitfor an oceanography unit.
Seethis example from Jenny Luca, a teacher-librarian from Melbourne, Australia.
