Five Ways to Focus on What's Most Important in Class | Life Solutions of Dallas-Fort Worth

Students with learning, attention, and executive functioning problems can struggle to focus on what’s most important in the classroom. Try these five tips for improving attention.

Get Ready to Pay Attention

Although it’s hard for some students to stay focused during a lengthy classroom lecture or discussion, the following suggestions can improve their success.

“Intend to Attend.” Even if you don’t like the class, the subject, or the teacher, go with the intention to learn something new, or at least to learn how to pay attention to what’s most important.
Get to class on time (or early) so you can get settled and ready to pay attention.
Plan to take notes! Listening and writing down the most important information (below) can improve your focus. If necessary, try the tools I have suggested to help yourself. And, never ask the teacher if you have to take notes.
If you miss part of the notes, don’t panic! Leave some space and ask a friend or your teacher afterwards.
Keep your notes in a large loose-leaf notebook. This allows you to insert handouts, rearrange notes easily, or remove notes to spread them out.

Learn to Focus on What’s Important

You can learn how to focus on what’s most important. Teachers are usually making an important point when they do the following:

Saying, “This is important…” or “It’s important to know that…”
Using words like “significant” or “most” designates what’s important to your teacher and what will likely end up on a test.
Asking “Wh-Questions” (why, what, where, who, when). It’s important to write down the answer as these may be future short answer or essay questions on a test or quiz.

Giving an example or telling a story: If your teacher has gone to the effort to make up an example or a story, this is important.
Repeating what he or she has already said can designate importance.

Saying, “Some students have had difficulty with this in the past” means that others have missed a question about this on previous tests.

Changing volume to get students’ attention.
Pausing between words to emphasize the need to write down every word.
Writing on the board can designate significance – especially if the teacher is using power-point slides.
Spending a lot of time talking about one power-point slide.

This is a sample of what your student will learn during Student Success sessions!

Listen for Transitions

As the teacher is presenting information, listen for transitions. These are often specific clues to various parts of instruction and can help you with structuring your notes as you take them.

Introduction

Today’s lecture covers….
Today we will discuss….
Let’s look at the topic of….

Write this along with the date at the top of your page.

Sequence

First, second, third
First, next, then, finally
Most important, least important
In addition, lastly

Use numbers to indicate a sequence of steps.

Compare and Contrast

similarly, both, likewise, in like manner
however, on the other hand, instead of, nevertheless

Make a multi-columned chart or use a compare and contrast frame to organize this information.

Cause and Effect

the cause of, for this reason, because
as a result, results in, thus, therefore

Make a two-column chart to indicate causes and effects in each column.

Use a fishbone diagram to organize this information.

Summary/Conclusions

To summarize….
As a review….
Recapping….
In conclusion….

Designate your teacher’s conclusions at the end of your notes. Try to write down as much of this as possible because many teachers summarize what is most important to them (and what will show up on the test).

Students with learning, attention, and executive functioning problems can struggle to focus on what’s most important in the classroom. Try these five tips for improving attention.

Get Ready to Pay Attention

Although it’s hard for some students to stay focused during a lengthy classroom lecture or discussion, the following suggestions can improve their success.

“Intend to Attend.” Even if you don’t like the class, the subject, or the teacher, go with the intention to learn something new, or at least to learn how to pay attention to what’s most important.

Get to class on time (or early) so you can get settled and ready to pay attention.

Plan to take notes! Listening and writing down the most important information (below) can improve your focus. If necessary, try the tools I have suggested to help yourself. And, never ask the teacher if you have to take notes.

If you miss part of the notes, don’t panic! Leave some space and ask a friend or your teacher afterwards.

Keep your notes in a large loose-leaf notebook. This allows you to insert handouts, rearrange notes easily, or remove notes to spread them out.

Learn to Focus on What’s Important

You can learn how to focus on what’s most important. Teachers are usually making an important point when they do the following:

Saying, “This is important…” or “It’s important to know that…”

Using words like “significant” or “most” designates what’s important to your teacher and what will likely end up on a test.

Asking “Wh-Questions” (why, what, where, who, when). It’s important to write down the answer as these may be future short answer or essay questions on a test or quiz.

Giving an example or telling a story: If your teacher has gone to the effort to make up an example or a story, this is important.

Repeating what he or she has already said can designate importance.

Saying, “Some students have had difficulty with this in the past” means that others have missed a question about this on previous tests.

Changing volume to get students’ attention.

Pausing between words to emphasize the need to write down every word.

Writing on the board can designate significance – especially if the teacher is using power-point slides.

Spending a lot of time talking about one power-point slide.

This is a sample of what your student will learn during Student Success sessions!

Listen for Transitions

As the teacher is presenting information, listen for transitions. These are often specific clues to various parts of instruction and can help you with structuring your notes as you take them.

Introduction

Today’s lecture covers….

Today we will discuss….

Let’s look at the topic of….

Write this along with the date at the top of your page.

Sequence

First, second, third

First, next, then, finally

Most important, least important

In addition, lastly

Use numbers to indicate a sequence of steps.

Compare and Contrast

similarly, both, likewise, in like manner

however, on the other hand, instead of, nevertheless

Make a multi-columned chart or use a compare and contrast frame to organize this information.

Cause and Effect

the cause of, for this reason, because

as a result, results in, thus, therefore

Make a two-column chart to indicate causes and effects in each column.

Use a fishbone diagram to organize this information.

Summary/Conclusions

To summarize….

As a review….

Recapping….

In conclusion….

Designate your teacher’s conclusions at the end of your notes. Try to write down as much of this as possible because many teachers summarize what is most important to them (and what will show up on the test).

Structure Your Notes

Consider suggestions in my post “Structuring Your Notes for Success” so you can better learn the information.

Practice, Practice, Practice!

Go to my Note Taking Practice page and try these strategies to take notes from the TED talks presented here.

Need Help Applying These Concepts?

This is a sample of what your student will learn during Student Success sessions

Contact us to make an appointment.

(c) 2010-2019, Monte W. Davenport, Ph.D.