Intrepid educators share today’s most pressing classroom challenges — and how they confront them

The Challenge: Attention Deficit

It’s something Rabbi Yehoshua Levy, executive school consultant at Torah Umesorah, sees time and time again.

“I visit tens of schools a year internationally, and we’re definitely dealing with a new generation,” he says. “Mechanchim all over report that students’ attention spans aren’t what they used to be. Our world doesn’t focus well. The Internet and electronic devices don’t mesh with sustained concentration — yet being a diligent student and becoming a talmid chacham requires long hours of study. That said, most students are learning fine. The percentage of students who have learning difficulties is between ten and twenty percent.”

The lack of focus isn’t a learning difficulty issue per se; rather, it’s a generational challenge.

“Today you can get any information in a second, but young people have to be systematically taught to focus, think more deeply, and work things through,” says Rav Yitzchak Berkovits, rosh yeshivah of Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem.

“While once most kids would just pick up the learning, today they need more explanation, more guidance in the thought process, and more private tutorials.

“But once they start to get it, they love it — and their attention spans will grow,” he explains. “As Rav Shlomo Wolbe said, ‘The brain is a muscle. If you exercise it, you can grow your concentration and focus… but today you have to build up the talmidim.’”

Rabbi Levy classifies attention roadblocks as “organic” or “inorganic,” with organic factors referring to things that are intrinsic to the student, outside his or the school’s control, and unlikely to change in the near future, while inorganic factors are environmental. Examples of organic factors include issues like ADHD, general wellbeing, self-perception of abilities, anxiety disorders, or even a problematic home situation. Inorganic, environmental factors include things like lack of sleep, hunger, interactions with other students or a particular teacher, and general success in school. When a student’s shortened attention span is rooted in environmental factors, the teacher can do more.

Of course, Rabbi Levy explains, the social-emotional element is crucial. Strong relationships with their teachers motivate students to learn and this, combined with strategies for effective instruction, can lead to success.

HOW I DEAL WITH IT

Rabbi Yehuda Leib Alter, Pre-1A teacher in Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island in Inwood, New York

With younger children, it’s important to divide classroom time into small chunks — they’re too young to sit still for too long. I schedule my class — every day, every lesson — by five- to ten-minute segments. Okay, parshah can go up to 12 minutes. But basically, I toggle back and forth at a dizzying rate: daven for a few minutes, then a short lesson, followed by circle time. Yes, circle time can be 25 minutes long, but it alternates between songs and stories. There’s also center time, where we break the boys into small groups and they rotate between playing, coloring, group lessons, and hands-on activities. I find that if they can’t see and touch it, it doesn’t speak to them.

Mrs. Chana Luchins, General Studies principal in Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva in Edison, New Jersey

The old model of education — frontal teaching, with a teacher standing in front of a class giving over information — is a recipe for disaster for most children today. A listen-only mode isn’t effective — kids need to engage at least two senses, and the more active they are, the more they retain. Even adults can concentrate intensely for only 15 minutes at a time, and remember maybe one in ten words they hear.

I recommend the divide and conquer approach, and apply it all around, to class size, subject matter, length of lessons, you name it. I tell my teachers to break classes into small groups, break up lectures by writing on whiteboards, introduce movement or choral responses, and generally keep their students active and participating.

There are lots of small changes teachers can implement that help students stay engaged. Increasing the font and print size of worksheets, putting less text on a page, projecting any worksheet or page of text onto the board, breaking down instructions into clear, numbered steps, and using reminder cue cards that students can keep on their desks or on a ring are all minor adaptations that help wandering minds stay focused.

I remind my teachers that even small changes can have a big impact, and I work with them. One of our teachers was frustrated with a boy in her class who kept calling out and interrupting, and the other students were also starting to get annoyed. We analyzed what was happening, and the teacher realized her slow, patient pace wasn’t the best match for this student, and also that he craved a lot more recognition. She implemented two changes that made a big difference: First, she created a schedule where she gave positive recognition about every ten minutes, and second, she added a weekly activity that was higher-interest and faster-paced, giving him additional opportunity to connect with her class.