C. James Wong James.Wong@sjcd.edu San Jacinto College South Campus, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

• C. James Wong

James.Wong@sjcd.edu San Jacinto College South Campus, Houston, TX

What is the biggest distraction in your classroom?

 Birds outside the classroom  Students mentally planning what to do after class  Students' cell phones  Other distractions not listed here

Characteristics of Students in Developmental Education

 Traditional and non-traditional students  Frontal lobe not fully developed until they are in their mid-

20s (Sowell et al., 2003)

 Did not pass Texas placement tests to take college level

courses

 Developmental English & Math, College Success, ESOL

courses

 Less or NOT motivated to learn in the classroom: body

language and facial expression without eye contact

 Many lack study skills and study habits  Everyone has a phone!

Ten strategies to bring students back to learning!

• 1. Cell Phone Policy on Syllabus

 Pros: set the expectation on day one to eliminate

future dispute

 Cons: rules are meant to be broken. Students start

breaking the policy as early as day one! It’s difficult to break a habit established in other classes or settings.

• 2. Connecting the Dots

Business etiquette, work place, job competitive

 Pros: prepare students to be job ready by starting to

learn about business etiquette and job competitiveness.

 Cons: difficult to look forward as business etiquette

and job competitiveness are irrelevant to less mature students who are not thinking about their future yet.

• 3. Conduct Research on Attention

Define “FULL attention.” Primary and secondary sources

• f information

 Pros: Demystify the misconception and self-discover

personal attentional ability. Works well in a reading/writing class for a research paper.

 Cons: may not fit in curriculum in other disciplines

than English.

• 4. Ongoing Friendly Reminders

 Pros: Trying to keep a friendly atmosphere  Cons: Endless and disrupts the flow of the lesson;

students may feel offended. Tom and Jerry

• 5. Negative Reinforcement (Penalty)

 Pros: may work for a short term.  Cons: may result a negative relationship between

students and instructors. Tom and Jerry: playing cops?

• 6. Positive Reinforcement (Incentive)

To earn an open-book quiz in the next class

 Pros: To achieve a common goal, students develop self-

discipline, self-responsibility, peer pressure, peer monitoring.

 Cons: may result negative relationships among

students; more record keeping.

• 7. Graded Active Learning Activities

Graded pair/independent work before/after short lectures (+ve reinforcement)

 Pros: active learning activities before/after short

lectures for practice, better retention, & formative/informal assessment of understanding. Help students focus on learning.

 Cons: Instructor needs to have additional tasks for

students who finish before others. Time-consuming to grade daily in-class work.

• 8. Short Lectures: Avoid “Give & Go” or “Sit & Sleep”

Notes taking for a grade (+ve reinforcement). Include lectures in tests/exams.

 Pros: additional materials to study; important study

and work skill/habit (many don’t know when & how to take/organize notes)

 Cons: Can students listen and write at once? Time

consuming to grade daily notes.

• 9. Keep Learning Activities Short

with Surprises

 Pros: Keep students engaged. Pace the class so that

more advanced students won’t get bored while waiting for others in a longer activity.

 Cons: Not all learning activities are short. Some

students need more time than others.

• 10. Use the Phone for Learning

Purpose

Calendar, Remind, Twitter, learning apps like Kahoot! and StudyBlue.

 Pros: Teach students to use the smartphone in an

academically smart way: reminders, alerts, calendar, poll, reflections/interactions, flashcards, other educational games/apps

 Cons: Multitasking will happen as students believe

they can! Time-consuming to record/grade daily participation using the phone. Digital Divide.

This list can go on and on … Intentional intervention is pertinent to help students focus on learning in the classroom!

Thank You!