Use Pattern Interruptions to Retain Your Students' Attention
This is one of my top tips for teachers
If you teach, you might have noticed that students get distracted easily, especially if they have screens in front of them. If they’re distracted, they’re not learning, so I think one of the biggest and most important challenges is retaining their attention.
My recommendation is to use pattern interruptions, which in the context of video-making, refer to sudden graphic or audio changes in a video that are incorporated to retain the viewers’ attention. MrBeast, the most successful YouTuber in the world, utilizes pattern interruptions, by my estimates, on average every three seconds.
Given the common goal of attention retention, I suggest incorporating the same strategy in the classroom. However, changing things up every three seconds is too much. What you need to do is incorporate just enough interruptions such that they’re overall conducive to the goal of learning. You don’t want too many because then the students won’t be able to focus on the specific task at hand. And you don’t want too few because then they’ll get distracted. After testing this strategy out for about a year, I’ve settled on having a pattern interruption about every minute or so.
To give you a better idea of what I do, here’s the typical structure of my class.
I start by asking the students if they remember what we learned the last time. Usually, one student will respond. Then, I elaborate on their answer and/or remind them of the important points.
After a quick intro to today’s topic, I start reading off of my handout, which is projected onto the big screen. The handout is essentially a transcript of my lecture. I know it’s boring to listen to someone read, but it works for me as long as I’m not reading for too long. Also, keeping everyone literally on the same page helps keep everyone metaphorically on the same page.
I go offscript to elaborate maybe every 1 or 2 paragraphs. Importantly, when I do this, I move my body. For one class, I move toward the center front of the class because the computer is off to the side. In the other, since I’m in the middle of the room surrounded by my students, I just turn my body.
If I don’t think I need to elaborate on something, I’ll have my students answer a question with their groups or I play a video. And when I do play a video, I almost always have my students discuss their thoughts about the video with their groups.
After every group discussion, I ask the students to share their thoughts with the whole class.
I repeat this structure until I’m done with the handout, which takes about 40 minutes.At this point, we have a 10-minute break.
After the break, I have pet time, which is a dedicated section of the class where I feature pictures of my students’ pets. I project the pictures onto the big screen and ask my students questions about them like “What type of dog is that? How old?” I also show them pictures and videos of my golden retriever.
If my students don’t send me any pictures, I’ll show them a cute animal video on the internet. I have a list of favorites saved.Now it’s time for the second half of the class, which is my in-class exercise (ICE). It’s basically a worksheet that my students must fill out by hand and turn in at the end.
The ICEs are split into two parts: a solo section and a group section. For the former, they need to answer a few questions by themselves. For the latter, they share their responses with their group members and answer additional questions.
It usually takes them 10 minutes to do the ICE.Once they’re done, I ask them to share their answers with the whole class. This normally sparks a lot of discussion because doing the ICEs helps them form opinions, which then encourages them to speak up.
General Thoughts
What I consider to be a pattern interruption is a change in sensory input sufficient enough to retain my students’ attention. So I consider each of the following changes a pattern interruption:
My explanations
Group discussions
Videos
Class-wide discussions
The 10-minute breaks
Pet time
The solo section of the ICE
The group section of the ICE
Class-wide discussions of the ICE
What I don’t consider a pattern interruption is simply scrolling down the handout while I read it. It’s technically a change in visual input, but it’s too minor.
Relatedly, you need to be able to read the room to see if what you’re doing is working. I notice that when I move my body to explain something, my students pay more attention.
The last thing I’ll say is that you’ll have to figure out what works for you. Not everybody has the same teaching style, so just try different things. That said, I don’t think it’s a good idea to lecture more than you need to. So no matter what your teaching style is, I’d keep lecturing to a minimum.