Keeping Students On Task During Seat Work
August 6, 2012
by Sandra Rief
This is the last of a 4-part blog on getting, focusing, and maintaining students’ attention – particularly important for students with ADHD. Here are tips for keeping students’ focused and productive during seat work times of the day.
- Check for clarity and that directions were clearly understood before sending students back to their seats to work independently.
- Make sure necessary supplies are available.
- Give a manageable amount of work that students are capable of doing independently.
- Give other ‘failproof’ work that a student can do in the meantime if he or she is stumped on an assignment and needs to wait for teacher attention or assistance.
- Study buddies or partners may be assigned for any clarification purposes during seat work, especially when the teacher is instructing another group of students while the rest of the class is working at their seats.
- Establish a system for students to signal to the teacher “I need help!” Some teachers use a sign like a colored card that students prop up on their desk that alerts any adult scanning the room that he or she needs assistance. This is instead of having the student raise his or her hand and wait for help.
- Scan classroom frequently. All students need positive reinforcement. Give positive comments with high frequency, praising students specifically whom you observe to be on-task. This serves as a reminder to students who tend to have difficulty.
- Consider using a timer for some students who work well with a ‘beat the clock’ system for work completion.
- Use contracts, charts, and behavior modification systems for on-task behavior.
- Reward for certain number of completed items that are done with accuracy.
- Provide desk examples for reference.
- Teach students to self-monitor their own on-task behavior. Students can be provided a 2-column chart (+/-, yes/no, smile/frown) on their desks. Make an audio recording that is silent except for some intermittent beeps or other auditory signal that is played during seat work times of the day. Whenever the beep is sounded on the recording, students mark on their chart whether or not they were on-task. Such self-monitoring strategies are particularly beneficial for students with AD/HD. This can be a whole group strategy, small group strategy, or done individually for certain students using headphones.
Adapted from my books: How to Reach & Teach Children with ADD/ADHD, 2nd edition and The ADD/ADHD Checklist, 2nd edition (published by Jossey-Bass)
Tags: ADD/ADHD, ADHD, attention, independent work, on task, seat work, student engagement
