What’s a Distraction? (Woodenization Example)

Dear colleague,

What's a distraction? This is actually a great question to spend 10-15 minutes of class time on at least once per school year. Follow these basic steps to maximize the amount of learning the question produces.

Step 1. Start with having your students write about the question. Use prompts like this:

• What's a distraction? Give an example.
• What's something about distractions that most students don't realize?
• What's something about distractions that most teachers don't realize?

Prompts like this get students writing. I put all the prompts I can think of on the slide. I like to get my students writing for up to 5-10 minutes, aiming at producing 100 words (roughly half of a lined sheet of paper). The more experience a group of students has with producing 100 words, the shorter I can make the time limit.

(This is provisional writing, by the way — one of the most efficient tools in my teacher toolset. I discuss it further in this article and in the Writing chapter of These 6 Things.)

2. Have students discuss in either pairs or small groups (using Conversation Challenge). The goal here is that everyone speaks to at least one other person and we don't use a ton of class time (1-3 minutes).

(I discuss the crazy sanity-saving and learning-enhancing power of speaking/listening in its own chapter in These 6 Things.)

3. Share out and take a few notes as a class. Where I want us to arrive as a class is something like Chris Bailey's definition of a distraction in his book Hyperfocus:

A distraction is anything that hinders you from accomplishing your goal or task.

I like to illustrate with two example scenarios:

• If you're trying to study, a distraction could be your phone, your little sibling, or your wandering thoughts about friends.
• If you're trying to enjoy time hanging out with your friends, a distraction could be your phone or your wandering thoughts about schoolwork.

You can wrap the mini-lesson up with a few tips on how to deal with distractions.

For example:

• Put your dang phone away! In most cases, phones are the epitome of things that hinder us from accomplishing our goals or tasks.
• If you have nagging thoughts, write them down. I teach students my habit of carrying around an index card for this. (Messier than a phone, but way less distracting!)

This kind of mini-lesson can lead to a simple chart-paper poster, too — kind of cool.

Resisting distractions right beside you, colleague,

DSJR

P.S. Woodenization mini-lessons like this are super productive for student motivation in that they clarify good effort (Effort belief booster), make the path to success clearer (Efficacy booster), demonstrate that I'm a capable teacher (Credibility booster), and signal that all students get distracted (Belonging booster). For the whole shebang deep dive on this Five Key Beliefs methodology for student motivation, see my book on the topic.