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Chapter VI
Learning to Attend

Since the beginning of the year, my teaching partner and I have worked hard to create a strong sense of
community among our first graders. During the first week of school, students discussed what it meant
to be a learning community and the teacher created visual aids, which hang beneath the white board,
which describe five key characteristics. They read, We are community members who . . .
1. Show respect with kind words and actions.
2. Work together as a team.
3. Celebrate and encourage one another.
4. Take care of our classroom and our school.
5. Try our best and never give up, even if it is hard.











While we often refer to these norms during our daily activities, our students left for winter break
without having formed the kind of focused, supportive, tight-knit community we envisioned. While we
acknowledge the developmental level of our six year-olds, many students capacity for self-regulation
seemed lower than expected. The shortest pause in group conversation would lead to an eruption of
one-on-one conversations; clean-up involved countless reminders and redirections; a structured game
could end with students unexpectedly rolling around on the floor. When students could not exercise
self-control, they could not attend to one another. And if students could not attend to one another,
then they could not form a meaningful community. My teaching partner and I concluded that to build a
strong community, our student needed to attend to one another. By explicitly teaching three skills for
learning listening, focusing attention, and following directions we hoped that our students would be
more able to practice our norms and do advanced work around peer support. These skills for learning
would also be the first area in which students could support each other.

Models of Listening

First, my teaching partner and I focused on listening. Using the modeling protocol outlined in Ruth
Sidney Charneys Teaching children to care (2002), we demonstrated various listening behaviors and
then asked students to identify them (p. 108-110). Together, we noted four behaviors that characterize
exemplary listening:



Posters displaying the community norms in Ms. Magoons Classroom
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1) Eyes watching.
2) Ears listening.
3) Bodies still.
4) Voices off.

These four behaviors became the basis for a class chant, which would serve as a call to attention and a
reminder of expectations. To engage students bodies as well as their voices, each part was
accompanied by a motion, e.g. point to eyes for eyes watching, hug body for bodies still. These
motions, we explained, could also be used as signals to remind a classmate about appropriate listening
behaviors. Following Ruth Sidney Charneys methods, the class played a paradoxical modeling game. I
would fail to demonstrate exemplary listening by, for instance, whispering to a student, and then ask the
students to send me a signal to remind me of the expected behavior, i.e. point to eyes. My co-teacher
and I were careful to establish parameters around sending signals to others. To prevent a signal itself
becoming a distraction, we explained that each one should be short - just a second or two - and directed
to someone in close proximity, not halfway across the rug.

From a teaching perspective, I have found this system of signals very effective. It allows me to remind
students of expected behaviors without calling them out by name or interrupting the flow of the lesson.
It also requires an intellectual exertion on their part, akin to the One-Word Statement strategy
explained in Adele Fabers and Elaine Mazlishs How to talk so kids will listen & listen so kids will talk
(2012):

*. . .+ instead of an oppressive command we give the child an opportunity to exercise his
initiative, and his own intelligence. When he hears you say, The dog, he has to think, What
about the dog? . . . Oh yeah, I didnt walk him yet this afternoon . . . Guess Id better take him
out now(p. 83).

In the same way, when I send a student the body still signal, the student may be thinking, Body still?
What about my body being still? . . . Oh, my legs are moving . . . Guess I better sit criss-cross. In general,
students respond promptly to these redirecting signals from teachers. While I would like to see students
use these signals more often, I have witnessed several moments where students successfully reminded
one another of our listening behaviors. These signals constitute the first way in which we have learned
to help one another.
Community Moments: Sending Signals

Our first graders had already been sitting for an hour by the time I joined them in the auditorium. They were
watching the 4
th
and 5
th
graders go through their final dress rehearsal before the house doors opened, and
their families would come flooding in. They too would sing and dance during this exhibition performance,
but for most of two-hour show, they would be sitting in their designated seating section. Three hours in the
same chair would test the limits of any first-graders. During the performance, students were constantly
playing with their accessories, wriggling around (and under) their seats, and chatting to one another. In
trying to uphold expected behaviors for audience members, my teaching partner and I sent a lot of signals
that evening. I was getting a little frustrated when, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Cristina looking at
student N, who was jumping around on her chair, and touching her elbows. Body still, she was saying.
Gemma paused, registered the message, and settled her body on the chair. She had helped her friend
refocus on the performance, and was helping me much more than she probably knew.
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After we modelled exemplary listening, students were given a chance to demonstrate these behaviors in
front of the entire class. We would begin with a student who we believed would competently perform
this task and then follow with a student who might benefit from practice in front the whole class. During
this activity, we would ask to notice what the student was doing well. Were their eyes watching? Was
their voice off? Were their ears listening? When students stated that the modelling student ears were
listening, my teaching partner paused and asked, How do you know? This inquiry led to a
brainstorming session of listening behaviors focused on the brain, an unanticipated yet entirely sensible
development. Whole-body listening refers not just to our physical state but to our mental activity; after
all, the brain is a part of the body too! As a class, we generated four brain-based listening behaviors:

1) Focus attention
2) Stay on topic
3) Ask questions
4) Make comments.

From this point on, students could justify whether or not a classmates brain was listening by referring to
one of these behaviors. I created a poster that listed our eight body-based and brain-based listening
behaviors. This poster serves as a reminder of exemplary listening during instructional time and a
resource for evaluating the quality of a students listening.

After both we and the students had modelled listening behaviors for the entire class, all students had an
opportunity to practice, usually through partner talk. We would pose a question, such as What is one
food that you like? or How many brothers and sisters do you have? Then, students would respond in
turn and listen carefully to one another. To gauge student success, we would select students (sometimes
at random) to explain what their partner had told them and recall as many details as possible. Then, we
would ask the partner to confirm that the retelling was accurate and, if not, to clarify the information. As
the project continues, the questions for partner talk will focus increasingly on personal strengths,
growth areas, and how students can help one another.

Learning to Attend through Games

Instead of subjecting students to drills, we led games aimed at developing students skills around
listening, focusing attention, and following directions. While every game requires these skills to some
extent, I tried to pick ones that emphasized one over another.

The Listening Game: Practicing Close Listening

Following our discussion of listening behaviors, I first introduced the listening game. To begin, I named
and played three musical instruments: a maraca, a castanet, and a tambourine. Next, students closed
their eyes and listened while my teaching partner or I made three sounds, one with each instrument.
Then, students opened their eyes and, in turn, were invited to play the musical instruments in the same
order. When students could complete this task with relative ease, we increased the difficulty level by
extending the sequence to four of five sounds. By the end of each session, students were attempting to
remember and play back five sounds in order. When asked how they were able to remember the
sounds, some students said that counting helped, while others explained how they would make a
mental picture of each instrument as it was played. Students loved this game; it was a joy to witness all
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twenty-two students tuned in to the instruments, brows furrowed in concentration. As soon as the
sequence was finished, hands would shoot up into the air; students were eager to show their peers that
they had been listening closely.

The Statue Game: Practicing Focus

To help students develop the second skill for learning, focusing attention, I introduced the statue
game. In this exercise, students pretend to be statues, striking a pose and then holding it in silence for
as long as possible. If students speak or move any parts of their body (with the exception of blinking
eyelids), then they are out and must sit down where they were standing. Over the course of a few
weeks, we challenged students to focus their attention on standing still for longer and longer period of
time. I would let them know when the timer had reached thirty seconds and then again at a minute.
Instead of continue until there was a winner, we would usually stop around the two-minute mark and
see who was still standing; our focus was to get better as a class, not put individual students on a
pedestal. Eventually, most students were able to hold their statue for pose for at least minute and a
half. Naturally, when students relaxed at the end of this game, their focus was often scattered in a burst
of energy. We hoped, however, that our improvements over time within the game would translate into
more focused attention during other activities.

Simon Says: Practicing Following Directions

To help students learn how to follow directions, we picked a classic game: Simon Says. My teaching
partner or I would give instructions, some of which were followed by our name, e.g. Ms. Magoon says .
. . and some of which were not. The students task was to follow the directions preceded by our name
and ignore the ones that werent. To make the game more difficult, I sometimes tried to trick the
students with my directions. Upon stating Mr. Paul says touch your elbows, I might touch my knees,
even though I expected them to follow the verbal directions to touch their elbows. In this way, we
challenged students would pay careful attention to the directions. Although this game is often played as
a competition, students who made mistakes were never asked to sit out; we just kept on playing! By
practicing this skill, we hoped that students would be better prepared to follow directions during other
activities.

My Turn Your Turn: Putting It All Together

The final game that we learned was called My Turn, Your Turn. While each game relies upon all three
skills for learning, I considered My Turn Your Turn to be a synthesizing activity, as it features each skill
in prominent way. First, the teacher offers a series of directions, beginning with the phrase My Turn,
e.g. My Turn. Knees. Head. Toes. During these directions, students may not move; they can only listen
to the directions. Then, the teacher pauses for a couple of seconds; students must focus their attention
to remember the directions. Finally, when the teacher says Your Turn, students repeat and touching
the specified body parts. Following directions in this delayed manner requires careful listen and
sustained attention. It is a challenging game, which can be made more difficult by increasing the number
of directions or the length of time in between the teachers and students turns.

In general, students struggled to complete more than three to four directions with an interval of about
three seconds. Most commonly, when I uttered Your Turn, several students would touch the right
body parts but in the wrong order. We treated this situation as an opportunity for growth. When we
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noticed a student who was able to complete the exercise correctly, we would ask them how they did it.
On one occasion, a student who struggles to sustain his focus during whole-group activities was
correctly piecing together five-step sequences. We invited him to stand up in front of the class and
explain his strategy. I made a picture in my mind, he said confidently. Overall, however, it was hard for
students to exercise the skills for learning to this degree all at once, which mirrors the difficulty they
might experience during other activities. A student may be able to listen carefully to directions but, due
to a lack of focus, is unable to retain them. Perhaps a student is able to follow directions, but his or her
ears didnt catch the last step. By playing this game over and over again, we hoped that students would
internalize the skills for learning that would enable them to attend to one another.

Was It Working? Rating Our Focus Students

While we enjoyed playing the games for their own sake, their original purpose was to help students to
develop greater self-control. We believed that students struggled in this area not because they didnt
want to attend to one another but because their capacity to do so was limited. By playing these games,
we hoped that students would strengthen their ability to listen, focus attention, and follow directions.
But how would we know?

In an attempt to measure the effects of these games, if any, my teaching partner and I used a weekly
ratings system to evaluate how our five focus students listened, focused attention, and followed
directions. Every Friday over the course of five weeks, we would sit down together and rate the students
on each skill using a five-point scale. First, we would review the statement for each skill, e.g. This
student appeared to be listening with their whole body (eyes, ears, body, voice), and then indicate our
opinion, which could range from rarely (1) to mostly (5). (The full rating scale is included as
Appendix A.) After completing this process separately, we would then average our responses with the
aim of recording a more balanced evaluation of each child.

While I believe the data provided a fair reflection of students performance over these five weeks, I
cannot prove that these skills for learning games were the reason. Social science is complex; there are
many variables at play, and these rating scales do not exclude other causes for the trends in students
performance.

Reconsidering Motivation

Throughout our weekly rating process, my teaching partner and I agreed that PJs skills for learning
improved noticeably. While our games might have made an impact, there may have been many other
contributing factors. Perhaps a spurt of developmental growth could account for his growing capacity to
listen, focus attention, and follow directions. Perhaps he was growing in social awareness or receiving
more support at home around these skills. In my mind, the most likely hypothesis is that PJ was most
influenced not by our games but by a different class-wide intervention.







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Table 8: Average Weekly Ratings for PJ

Skill Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5
Listening 3 3.4 3.5 4 4
Focusing Attention 2.5 2.5 3 3 3
Following Directions 3 2.5 3 3.5 4
Average 2.83 2.83 3.17 3.5 3.67


Around week 2, my teaching partner and I introduced a point-based incentive system to encourage
listening behaviors, an action which is not an official part of this research study. After months of
promoting the intrinsic benefits of listening, we noticed that our students were still struggling to attend,
so we resolved to give them a little extra push. If students were listening, focusing, and following
directions or demonstrating one of our other class norms, e.g. celebrating one another, then they would
earn a pride point. Upon reaching particular tallies 25, 50, 100, and 200 pride points - students
receive certificates thanking them for their positive participation in our community. As soon as we
introduced this system, PJs performance shifted, which leads me to infer that pride points had a
greater effect than our skills for learning games.

This hypothesis led me to an RSAnimate video about motivation, narrated by best-selling author Daniel
Pink (2010). In the video, he explains that For simple straightforward tasks *. . .+ if you do this, then you
do that [. . .] for tasks that are algorithmic, where you have to follow a set of rules and get a right
answer, if then rewards, carrots and sticks outstanding! But when a task gets more complicated,
when it requires some more conceptual, creative thinking, those kinds of motivators demonstrably dont
work. If carrots were helping PJ to listen, focus attention, and follow directions, did this mean they
were simple straightforward tasks? Judging on appearances, perhaps it was simple for PJ to sit upright,
keep his eyes on the speaker, and follow along with the rest of the class. Beneath his exterior, however,
I wondered how deeply he was listening to and reflecting on the information in our conversations. A
subjective weekly rating scale did not reveal the inner workings of his mind.

Parental Influence

Emmas ratings also suggest the influence of non-research variables on students skills for learning. As
the table below reveals, her scores steadily dipped until week 5, when they suddenly rebounded. Did
our games have the opposite intended effect until week 5? A more probable cause for Emmas turn-
around is the phone call my teaching partner and I made home at the end of week 4. Over the first four
weeks, Emma experienced increasing difficulty controlling her body during whole-group activities, which
explains her lower scores in the listening category. After sharing our concerns with her mother, Emma
looked like a different child on the rug upon returning to school the following week. Never
underestimate the power of a parent in helping a child get back on track!






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Table 9: Average Weekly Ratings for Emma

Skill Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5
Listening 3 2.5 2.5 2 3.5
Focusing Attention 4 3 3 3 3.5
Following Directions 4 4 3.5 3.5 3.5
Average 3.67 3.17 3 2.83 3.5

These stories indicate that many factors were at play in shaping students skills for learning. Even if our
games did make a positive impact, the tool I designed to measure progress was not sophisticated
enough to isolate the effect of this variable. Despite these flaws in the research design, the process
steered me towards some new lines of inquiry regarding motivation and parental influence. Ultimately,
the data provided a fair record of students progress as we sought to build a strong, attentive
community.