Distracted Quotes

“If we want to help students maintain their attention throughout the class period, we have to begin by thinking like playwrights and composers, recognizing that students need changes of scene, shifts in format, and opportunities to pause and catch their cognitive breath.”
― James M. Lang, Distracted: Why Students Can't Focus and What You Can Do About It

“cognitive engagement persists beyond moments of student activity and into subsequent lecture periods?”
― James M. Lang, Distracted: Why Students Can't Focus and What You Can Do About It

“Lemons had us write on index cards the different activities (or modules) that we usually did in class, one per card. That was the first time I had written out a list of my teaching modules—an activity that was eye-opening enough on its own. Then she asked us to consider an upcoming class, and to think about what we wanted students to accomplish during it. Finally, she had us take the cards and use them to build that class period. It was a fascinating visual activity to put the cards in different orders, seeing how each of them would lead to”
― James M. Lang, Distracted: Why Students Can't Focus and What You Can Do About It

“I invite you now to reflect on the ways the three features of mindfulness - having compassion for your mind and the minds of your students, setting a concrete intention for mindfulness in the classroom, and embracing each classroom moment in all of its unique glory - can make you a mindful educational practitioner.”
― James M. Lang, Distracted: Why Students Can't Focus and What You Can Do About It

“You can accomplish it by thinking about your teaching as modular, by which I mean that what you do in the classroom consists of a series of different cognitive activities, each of which could be considered its own module, and any given class period is constructed by combining modules in ways designed to support both attention and learning.”
― James M. Lang, Distracted: Why Students Can't Focus and What You Can Do About It