EP289 A practical guide to building students’ attention stamina and ability to focus

How long can you read a book without getting distracted? Do you swipe through TikToks or reels before they’re over because you’ve gotten impatient? Do you find it hard to just stream a TV show or movie without also looking at your phone or doing another activity at the same time? Yep — the shortened attention span issue isn’t something unique to Gen Z. It’s something that I think almost all of us in modern western culture have been impacted by…and there’s good reasons for that. In this episode, I’ll share: Some of the reasons why it’s difficult for us to concentrate and think deeply Why the ability to focus for extended periods will be like a superpower in the coming years A 3 step process you can teach students for redirecting their attention when they notice their minds wandering How to make intangible terms like “stay focused” easy for students to understand The 5 step classroom practice you can use regularly to help students build capacity for concentration over time The limits of the human ability to do focused work, and what valuable tasks students can do once they’ve maxed out concentration for the class period Cal Newport’s research on how to alternate periods of deep work and shallow work How–and why–to break the addiction to staying busy with low-level tasks and spend more time (on our own and with students) in deep work, focus, and concentration Click here to read the transcript and participate in the discussion or, join our podcast Facebook group here to connect with other teachers and discuss the Truth for Teachers' podcast episodes.