At any given moment in a lesson students are either engaged or they are coasting. When they are engaged, students are paying attention, thinking hard and learning. When they are daydreaming, off-task or inattentive, they are not learning. Our job as teachers is to ensure that 100% of students are engaged 100% of the time. Why?

Ultimate Why: High Expectations

On the train a few weeks ago, I overheard a trainee teacher telling his friend about a recent lesson observation. Two of his students in the class had finished the set independent task. They then started quietly talking about their weekend plans with each other. The teacher was annoyed that the observer had fed back to say that he should have given the students something more productive to do. “It’s totally unreasonable. As adults, we often chat in between work we are doing. We know that we have to get the work done eventually – and we do. If we don’t finish our lesson planning now, then we do it when we get home. That’s just life. The students who didn’t finish would just have more homework. Those two had finished – I wasn’t going to stop them having a little chat!”

I found this conversation fascinating because the teacher was thinking in exactly the same way I used to think when I first started teaching.

Now, I would argue that it is imperative that students are engaging their brains for every second of the lesson: anything else is a wasted learning opportunity. For students that face disadvantages, such as having a reading age below their chronological age or having missed lots of school due to Covid, I feel a real sense of urgency to make up for lost time and to work extra hard to catch up. But equally, for students who do not face disadvantages, they still have a right to be pushed to the highest standards. Every student deserves to be told: I expect you to give 100% focus 100% of the time. For me, this is the ultimate manifestation of ‘high expectations’. Believing anything else is to expect less of my students, and this means that, ultimately, they lose out on learning.

What does this look like in my classroom?

• All conversations are directed by me. There is no off-task talk.
• When I speak (or another student contributes), all students are facing me. No pen in hand.
• There is not a single second of the lesson when a student is sitting there with nothing to do.

Proximate Why: Attention is necessary for learning

The more proximate reason why students should always be cognitively engaged is because the only time you are learning is when your brain is thinking about the content you are learning. ‘Memory is the residue of thought’.

Does this mean 100% of a science lesson should be about science? 90% of the time – yes! For 10% of the time – no! As a secondary science teacher, the goal in my classroom isn’t simply to teach my students science. I also need to motivate them to learn science. This doesn’t mean I let them relax in classroom and let them chat to their mates as a way of ‘engaging them’.

Instead, I spend a lot of time using praise, establishing a culture of error (it’s fine to make mistakes), establishing a culture of participation and building a culture of working hard. It’s also important to build relationships with the class and in-jokes are a great way to achieve this. Regardless of what I am doing:

1. I expect 100% of students to be focussed when I am talking. This simply means their attention is on my words.
2. I expect 100% of students to listen to other students when they are contributing.
3. I expect 100% of students to be thinking hard during independent practice or when marking this work.

There is nothing else which goes on in my classroom. I don’t use a huge variety of tasks or activities. Marketplace activities, cutting and sticking, moving around the room to look at posters – all of these are less efficient and less effective at helping students build understanding.

Without 100% attention from 100% of students, I feel like I am letting my students down. So I deliberately think about this in my planning. How can I ensure 100%? I deliberately scan the room as I teach, every single second of every single minute: have I got everyone’s attention? I can see no-one is fidgeting. I can see all eyes are on me if I’m questioning or explaining. I can see that all eyes are on work during independent practice. Not only does this mean I am certain that all of my students are safe in the classroom, it also means they are learning (given my planning is effective).

The real question that crosses my mind next, is: How do I really know if I have everyone’s attention? How can I maximise the chance of actually securing 100% attention? Look out for my next post…

@Mr_Raichura