When I was a university professor some years ago, I taught many of my day classes at a local elementary school about 15 miles south of the college campus.   We met in the school library, a portable unit outside the main building.  There was no phone in room, and the lone computer (an ancient Mac with a missing mouse) had no Internet connection. I didn't have a cellphone yet, and neither did most of the students.
 
I loved teaching in that library, out of reach for most everyone but the novice teachers sitting in front of me.   All of us gave our family members and colleagues the school office number to use if they needed to contact us in an emergency.  Yet in five years of teaching there, only once did the secretary bring someone a message on a slip of paper.   It's amazing how things that need "immediate attention" become scarce when the attention isn't immediately available.  While I'm sure it wasn't true in the literal sense, every moment in that room felt focused - my attention on my students, the students' attention on each other and me, with everyone thinking hard about how to teach reading and writing to children.  
 
In contrast, my time in my university office was usually all interruptions all the time.  I started each morning with the best of intentions, scanning down the 10 or 15 things on my "to do" list.  At the end of the day, not only would most of the list be intact, but I would have added a half dozen items from phone calls, email, and "got a minute?" chats with colleagues I encountered in hallways.
 
How do we help students focus on learning in a world where continuous texting, intercom announcements, and other distractions are the norm?  I sometimes wonder if the increasing lack of civility we see every day isn't the result of no one pausing anymore before they interrupt the conversations and work of others.  We've always talked about the gift of time, but these days the gift of attention seems greater. The science of distraction and concentration is attracting much more research interest, if only because technology is changing so many social norms when it comes to interrupting others.
 
What are the norms for "full attention" in your work with colleagues?  Are staff members allowed to peck away at email during meetings?  How often is there a brief pause in conferences while someone flips open a phone and checks a message?  You lose more than a few moments with these interruptions - every one of them, no matter how short, breaks the concentration of participants and flow of discussion.   You might do your own quiet research study, and tally the number of distractions and quick breaks participants take to check phones and email during meetings.  At the very least, a discussion of boundaries and norms for checking messages during school hours can help everyone think through the challenges of interruptions in and out of the classroom.
 
This week, we've posted a new article on strategies for helping students focus in the classroom on literacy tasks. Plus more as always - enjoy!
 
Brenda Power
Editor, Choice Literacy
 

Free for All

 Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan offer lesson suggestions for helping students self-monitor and deal with distractions during literacy workshops:
 
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/997.cfm
 
Student distraction is a critical issue during assessments.  In Warm-Ups for Wandering Minds, Jennifer Jones provides a series of quick activities to help students focus before state examinations:
 
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/480.cfm
 
Protocols are an invaluable tool for literacy coaches looking to build relationships with teachers that are focused and consistent.  This classic post from the Chicago Learning Collaborative takes you step-by-step through a sample protocol for looking at student work with colleagues:
 
http://www.lasw.org/vp.html
 
The Exquisite Corpse Adventure has begun - this is a really fun project sponsored by Center for the Book and the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance.  The project notes define an "exquisite corpse" as  "an old game in which people write a phrase on a sheet of paper, fold it over to conceal part of it and pass it on to the next player to do the same. The game ends when someone finishes the story, which is then read aloud."  In this version, episodes will be added every two weeks by top authors and illustrators.  Jon Scieszka and Chris Van Dusen tackled the first installment, Katherine Paterson and James Ransome created the second, and the next episode from Kate DiCamillo will be posted shortly:
 
http://www.read.gov/exquisite-corpse/
 
Reading Rockets has created a terrific supplement for teachers and students following the Exquisite Corpse project - an Exquisite Prompts Monthly Writing Contest with prizes, prompts, and different age categories from kindergarten through 12th grade:
 
http://tinyurl.com/yzk6df7
 
"How a Poem Happens" is a wonderful blog for teachers who love poetry and want to nurture their own reading habits.  Each week a poem is presented, along with an interview with the poet about their creative process.  A number of the poems are also about reading and writing, useful on their own for read alouds and discussion in middle or high school classrooms:
 
http://howapoemhappens.blogspot.com/
 
 
 
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Clare Landrigan meets in a small group with fifth-grade students who are easily distracted during literacy workshops in this week's video.  After brainstorming individual goals in the group, Clare debriefs with their teacher about ways to help students self-monitor and pace themselves in workshops:
 
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/998.cfm
 
Andrea Smith continues her series on science writing.  In this week's installment, her fourth-grade students move from gathering ideas in mentor texts for infographics and lists to testing out the strategies as they do outdoor observations:
 
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/996.cfm
 
Is your system for sharing books from a school bookroom or literacy closet working well?  In Out of the Closet and into the Classroom, Shari Frost provides 10 practical tips for getting the best use out of shared literacy resources:
 
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/986.cfm
 
We've posted the last video in the series from Katie Doherty's middle school classroom on the Weekend Headlines activity.  Katie uses the activity every Monday to help her students start their writing week with focused brainstorming, freewriting, and peer response.  If you missed the first two videos in the series we've provided catch-up links:
 
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/999.cfm
 
Finally, a reminder that we've launched a new site feature, Choice Literacy Digests.  The first digest series is for new teacher mentors from Jennifer Allen.  If you missed it last week, you can view the initial post on Fostering Relationships and Building Learning Communities here:
 
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/977.cfm
 
 
That's all for this week!
 

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