Are Endless Lives Killing Kids' Attention?

I've been in this teacher business for 20 years, and I have complete respect for you "lifers" out there. My father taught high school History and Government for 45 years! I may be one of those lifers, too, but we'll see where the good Lord places me for the second half of my career. At this stage, I wonder more and more, "Why don't kids follow directions?"

Let's step back. At the beginning of every year when I assign the first formal writing piece to my 6th graders, I say:

"Make sure to indent your paragraphs."

I also say, "Mark my words, one or more of you will turn in your paragraph without indenting the first line of your paragraph...guaranteed. That is unless you are the first class in my career to have everybody indent their paragraph on the first try."

I haven't had a class prove me wrong...yet.

At least one student every year misses that direction.

What is it with students and directions? I know, we have many students who follow directions to a T, and perhaps I should write about that, but why (or how) do some students miss the point? Do they tune out verbal instruction and just wing it? (More on that later...)

The other day I had my students turn in papers (sorry to the paperless teachers out there...and to the trees). We have an efficient routine (think alphabetically and face down) that I've had students use since the beginning of the year. I don't like that in May I'm still yelling out, "Make sure you turn it in face down all facing the same direction!" Not to mention, "And put your name on it!"

Well, when the first person turned theirs in upside down, I had everybody grab their papers and do it over...the right way.

And for those name-forgetters out there, I've begun to have students write their name 20 times or more, depending on number of offenses...or days undone.

This doesn't even touch on the trouble students have with multiple step instructions given for an assignment, whether spoken, written on the board or on the assignment paper (or online assignment) itself.

Whew!

Alright. So I've got a theory about this.

As I said, I've been in this business for 20 years now, and it's not a new problem, but I think it's getting worse.

Think back to the times when you've tried to instruct folks on how to play a new card game or board game. You begin to talk through how it works, and you struggle to sequence your instruction logically so they'll understand it, and somebody says, "Let's just play a practice round; that works better for me."

Fine. I understand the whole "learn by doing" thing. In fact, we really need to consider the multiple intelligences and learning styles that exist in our spheres of influence. Somebody will understand better kinesthetically, somebody visually, and somebody even musically. I believe this applies to my students, too, and I must consider lessons, activities, and units that hit the multiple intelligences and learning styles. I certainly try to do that. However,

I'm a firm believer that teachers must instruct toward a student's learning style preference AS WELL AS help them improve upon the ones that are lacking. I was taught in college to make sure I educated the WHOLE child, and I think as educators we should open students up to new challenges and differing ways to solve problems.

Now back to this idea of kids "winging it." Sure, maybe they learned this from us adults. We're the ones that perhaps gave up on explaining Monopoly to them with words and just decided to play a practice game to understand. I don't think there's anything wrong with it; it is definitely more effective and a valuable tool for teaching.

But I can't tell you how many times I give verbal (and written) instructions to my class, even in a numbered sequence, and a minute later a student comes up and says, "What are we supposed to do?"

     I ask, "Did you listen to my instructions?"
     "Ye-es...???"
     Next I say, "Did you read the directions on the page (or document)?"
     "Oh, um, no."
     So I respond, "Why don't you go read those again and then come back with whatever specific questions you have, and I'll be happy to help."
     "Okay..."

These students just wing it. They look at the task without paying attention to directions. When they figure out they don't catch on easily, instead of reading through directions, they simply complete the task incorrectly.

Why?

Well, partly because of the way they're hard-wired to learn by doing. However, if I wanted to learn something new, perhaps how to sail a boat, I can't just find a sailboat and go out by myself and learn without crashing into another vessel! I do admit I'd likely learn faster that way; there is truth to that. But at what cost? There are many situations in real life where you cannot simply jump in head first without careful attention to detail and instruction.

The reason for this specific blog post right now is that I've had my second group of 6th graders in a row (my 2016-2017 group and now my 2017-2018 group) who are largely notorious more than previous groups to ignore directions. There are many students who are successful, but more of my students in the last two years than previously:
1) disrupt class when I am up front instructing,
2) cannot sit still, even in group work,
3) ask to leave for a drink of water or to use the restroom,
4) do not listen well, and
5) overlook written instructions.

Why?

A few facts I've considered:
*The first iPhone was released in 2007; the first iPad in 2010.
*My last two groups of students were born in 2004-2006.
*Most than half of them admittedly do not remember a time without access to a touch screen device.

You can do the math for your own students to see if my theory lines up, but the students I'm seeing recently are native to devices. They are the device generation. And I see a behavior change: a lack of understanding verbal and written instruction. Teachers of younger students echo even more drastic results.

While I believe we are all hard-wired to learn by doing (even learn by failing), children are becoming hard-wired to learn primarily visually, to the detriment of their auditory processing. Does this mean we teach to their strengths? Perhaps. But what about helping them learn in different ways? Isn't it important to teach them to follow verbal and written instructions? Is traditional learning bad? Is it gone? Will the educational pendulum swing back?

The advent of tablets has unleashed an addictive habit - games and activities that offer high rewards with low penalties. I think it's a direct correlation to a child's behavior in the traditional brick and mortar classroom. No offense to anybody out there, but there appears to be a rise in ADHD.

Here's a quote:

Let's face it: We have all played with our phone while with our kids. Whether it's a quick text or a social media post, it can be difficult [to] put the electronics down. I'm guilty of it, and most parents are guilty of it. But in reality, our email and Facebook can wait - especially if it means setting a good example for our children and protecting their health, since increased screen time is associated with higher rates of childhood obesity, behavior problems, ADHD, poor sleep quality, poor physical activity and poor school performance (Lappe 2015).

Valid points! The emphasis of this article is that parents must set a good example for the children. We've likely all seen the small child at the restaurant staring at Mom's smartphone so that the rest of the family can have a quiet meal. Or we ourselves have finally earned some down time, so we plop on the couch and scroll through our social media accounts when our children are vying for our attention.

Devices and other video games are so prevalent now that it would be irresponsible NOT to study their effects on our students and classroom atmospheres.

I'm not saying that as a kid I did not enjoy my Nintendo or my friend's Sega Genesis. We all gathered in a room like many children do now, and we played Super Mario Bros. or Madden Football until we dropped. My dad (that 45 year veteran teacher) even came in and played with us. I was taught, though, that I needed to limit my time. Games and screen time are not a new problem.

Games have changed, though.

In Super Mario Bros., I had to earn my extra lives by jumping on a turtle shell over and over while on the staircase. It took practice! Or I had to learn the special code on Contra to get 30 lives. And if I turned the game off, my progress didn't save! I would have to start all over to get to the deep levels in the game.

In many tablet games and current video game systems, there are endless lives built in! Sometimes some level progress is lost, but there is low risk involved.

With this low risk comes an attitude of invincibility. And this invincibility leads students to make careless mistakes in the game. Not that there's anything wrong with that because that's how the game is designed to draw the player in!

These students have been playing these types of games for the last number of years. It's only logical that they might begin approaching class time with this invincible attitude.

A student may enter class believing that they can get away with something, that there's no risk of penalty, that the teacher will allow a trip to the bathroom during class when there was just a 30 minute lunch recess to use the bathroom, that a late assignment is no big deal as long as it gets done on their own time. Attention to detail is gone (not for all, but for many).

Take the massively popular game Fortnite Battle Royale. The social connections and the nuance draw children (and adults) in, but if you lose, there's another group to join immediately. And at that point, you can learn from your failure and do better in this next round. I like it...but I dislike the implications for following directions THE FIRST TIME!

As a teacher, I do not enjoy listening to myself drone on and on about directions or instruction of a concept, but sometimes in school that's the only way to make sure each student is "on the same page." It's the most effective way to present material to the entire class. Follow up questions may occur, and I welcome them, but I would be dishonest if I said it didn't bother me when students asked me about what I just said.

Where were their thoughts? Where were their listening ears?

Regarding technology, another article puts it this way:

...while TV shows, movies, and video games can capture a child's attention for hours, they may be eroding a child's ability to focus attentively when he is back in the ho-hum, real-time world. Could our media-saturated society be contributing to or aggravating attention problems, like ADHD...among children (Alderman 2010)?

Alderman goes on to say, "While these [screen] media may not cause ADHD, they could very likely exacerbate a problem that's already there - or simply lead to poorer attention overall."

Margaret Rock writes:

Part of the problem is the fragmented, action-packed nature of electronic media. [Dimitri Christakis] found that faster-paced shows increased the risk of attention issues. The brains of children adapt to that speed, so when they're forced to work in the slower pace of life, they often struggle to pay attention because it's less stimulating and rewarding (Mobiledia 2013).

How do we reconcile these issues within the traditional classroom? Or is it time to trash the traditions?

I don't feel my classroom is terribly traditional. While we definitely have some worksheet time that I feel is important for practice, I try to keep lectures to a minimum. Mini-lessons are my mode of choice, and we often complete tasks and instruction using chrome books. My classroom is also full of the collaboration and authentic problem solving you would consider Problem Based Learning (PBL). What I see from my most recent students, though, are attention issues specific to verbal and written instruction.

There is a large push in educational circles throughout the United States and the world to "gamify" class instruction. I have done this at times as well. The thought is that if students' brains are bent on "action-packed" activities and are becoming hard-wired to solve problems in this way, then shouldn't we present material or organize lessons around what is motivating to them? Toward how they learn? Isn't it about the students' learning anyway? I think there is merit to this, but each student must also learn traditional skills of listening to instruction carefully and recalling that information in order to use it toward valuable outcomes. It goes back to learning styles and the need to improve upon the weaker ones.

A solution to the attention issues I continually see and have authority over in my everyday teaching should be a larger focus on proper communication, specifically listening skills. Here are some of my professional suggestions on how to promote this for the "device generation:"

1. Say and write clear instructions.
2. Communicate the need for proper listening skills both to students and their parents.
3. Mix in student listening practices for varied lengths of time within the PBL lesson.
4. Give a longer lecture once in a while and expect the students to take notes and turn them in.
5. Reward students who are able to follow directions or to help others with the directions.
6. Publicly congratulate students who followed verbal and written instructions well.
7. Set your expectations from the first day of school that your students will need to be good listeners.
8. Make sure all students' eyes are on you and hands are free while giving directions.
9. After whole class instruction, have students pair share with their neighbor what they just heard.
10. Roam the room to ensure students are working effectively after instruction.

Simple tips, but I think a concerted intentional effort is needed in all classrooms to enhance the students' ability to listen well and follow directions.

Add to this list, please! While I have many ideas on why a breakdown in students' attention spans occurs, especially with verbal (auditory) information, I don't have a lot of solutions. What do you do in your classroom that helps the students strengthen their listening skills? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Sources:

Alderman, Lesley. “Lesley Alderman.” ADHD Center - Everyday Health, 31 Aug. 2010, www.everydayhealth.com/adhd-awareness/does-technology-cause-adhd.aspx.

Lappe, M.D. Sara. “How Electronics Could Be Affecting Your Child's Health.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, health.usnews.com/health-news/patient-advice/articles/2015/06/12/how-electronics-could-be-affecting-your-childs-health.

Mobiledia. “A Nation of Kids with Gadgets and ADHD.” Time, Time, 8 July 2013,

techland.time.com/2013/07/08/a-nation-of-kids-with-gadgets-and-adhd/.