All week, I looked out at one of my students and he was struggling to maintain a sense of focus.  When I see this, I make sure the student understands what they are working on during a check in.  I ask the student to tell me what he/she is focusing on and if he/she has a goal for the work time.  After doing this with my student, I went about helping  another student and he was playing with his pencil, chatting, tinkering with papers.  I would go back and work with him a few minutes to make sure he was getting into his assignment. He knew what to do and yet his attention kept wandering. This went on most of the week.  Sometimes we know the student needs a tool to learn to self monitor the issue.

Since I have been using UDL, I thought about what might be helpful for him to grow in his own regulating. How can he become an expert learner without assistance? I looked to the follow section of the guidelines:

UDL Guideline 9: Provide Options for Self-regulation

Checkpoint 9.1 – Promote expectations and beliefs that optimize motivation

 Provide prompts, reminders, guides, rubrics, checklists that focus on:
o Self-regulatory goals like reducing the frequency of aggressive outbursts in response to
frustration
o
o Elevating the frequency of self-reflection and self-reinforcements
 Provide coaches, mentors, or agents that model the process of setting personally appropriate goals that
take into account both strengths and weaknesses
 Support activities that encourage self-reflection and identification of personal goals

Attention Monitoring Plan

Together, in conversation about the actions I had been observing, we decided to make an attention monitoring “Level of Understanding” model.  He wanted something that he could have on his desk that would serve as a reminder of his attention.  He was familiar with the 0-4 levels from other uses in class.  With his collaboration, we created a great tool! He was a partner in the process.  Also, we agreed that I would tap the side of my temple and he could share his attention rating number on his fingers.  All of this could be done without really allowing others to know.  What would happen as a result of this plan?

0	1	2	3	4
You don’t know what is going on.  You are distracted. You are not getting work done.	You know what to do, and you know you are distracted.  However, you don’t do anything about it.	You work for short periods of time and then you are off task. Maybe you are talking to others.	You are paying attention. You know what to do. You make progress. You might need a brain break if you start to drift. You might come to a point where you need to ask for help or get feedback on your work.	You are working and not distracted. If people are doing things around you, you don’t notice. You are completely zoomed in. Time passes quickly when you are focused.

The Plan in Action

Using the focus chart really helped me think about my attention.  I like having the reminder in front of me.

-Benjamin

My student did such a great job getting out his tool during the week.  He did so unprompted by me.  He allowed me to check in with him on his attention number, which we were able to do quietly without talking about it. He used his hand to share his number.  The chart allowed me to prompt reflection later and praise his attempts at self-monitoring his focus. We are into the second week of the prompting tool and he still is using it. He shared that he thinks others might want to know about his tool.

Lesson Learned

• Allow your kids to be in the process of developing a tool
• Set a goal together
• Use a “secret” reminder for rating
• Reflect with the student on the process
• PRAISE!

Try it with your students!

The attention chart is available for your to use and adapt with your own students.  When we work with students and come alongside them, they are very open to trying out new strategies.

Attention Monitoring Chart