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However, did you know that there’san important distinction between a student paying attention and a student engaged in their learning? At times this distinction can be difficult to see when you glance in a classroom. For example, seeing students smiling and laughing as a teacher tells a story or seeing students working in pairs on dioramas might seem to indicate engagement. But if you were to wander the room asking students to explain what they’re learning and why, their answers might fall a bit flat.  \nWhile teachers use a variety of strategies to capture students’ attention, which is a necessary step for any lesson, to make a shift to high-quality, expertlevel instructional practice, teachers must help students achieve true cognitive engagement. They do this by knowing that the best strategies for gaining attention are the ones that also connect with students’productive curiosity and lead them to want to learn more. To do so, teachers’ attention-grabbing methods should always be related to that day’s lesson and help prime their students’ minds for what they’re about to learn.  \nCueing up Learning  \nCognitive research tells us that our brains are flooded with more stimuli and new information each day than  \nwe can possibly take in, process, and retain. Therefore, our brain acts as a gatekeeper, constantly and continually deciding what’s worth our attention, and then monitoring how long we should stay focused on it before redirecting our attention to the next stimuli. When our students commit to learn something new, it’s a big task, one that requires significant mental energy. It requires their minds to stay focused as they move new information from their immediate memory to working memory to long-term memory. Teachers can guide the process by using strategies that support the natural learning process and help keep students committed to their learning.  \nThe first step in this learning process is for students to become interested in learning. And the best way to spark their interest is by using cognitive interest cues.  \nBy using cognitive interest cues, teachers can help students recognize what within a lesson or unit will be interesting, relevant, or meaningful to them. This captures their attention and interest, and it makes learning more stimulating and enjoyable. The use of“cognitive” is important here. As we explain in The New Classroom Instruction That Works, these cues are “proven methods for helping students to become intellectually engaged and intrinsically motivated to learn”(pp. 14–15) . 1  \nWhat are cognitive interest cues?  \nCognitive interest cues motivate learning by framing units and lessons in ways that make learning stimulating and relevant to students  \n1 Goodwin, B., & Rouleau, K. (2023). The new classroom instruction that works:The best research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. ASCD. pp. 14–15.  \nEXPERT TEACHING SERIES  Shifting from getting students’ attention to igniting students’ engagement 1  \nIt’s understandable if making this shift from getting your students’ attention to getting your students engaged might feel overwhelming. However, research shows that this shift is important for teacher and student success.  \nHere are three research-based practices that can help stimulate student interest and engagement: activate prior knowledge to create a learning gap, use curiosity hooks, and make it relevant.  \n\n| Cognitive Interest Cues | Classroom Examples |\n| --- | --- |\n| Activate prior knowledge to create a learning gap\u003Cbr>When teachers activate prior knowledge, they remind students of something they’ve already been learning and\u003Cbr>then spark curiosity by helping them recognize there’s something more to learn. Questioning something naturally exposes a sense of curiosity, so ","cbCaibvLNWj4Yp1A","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaibvLNWj4Yp1A","pdf",1472849,"English","# Shifting Attention to Engagement\n## Understanding cognitive engagement vs. attention\n## Cueing up learning\n## Cognitive interest cues\n## Three research-based practices\n# Cognitive Interest Cues in the Classroom\n## Activate prior knowledge to create a learning gap\n## Use curiosity hooks","[{\"question\":\"Why is student engagement more important than simply paying attention?\",\"answer\":\"Students can pay attention without becoming cognitively engaged in learning. Engagement involves deeper cognitive work—staying focused long enough to move information from immediate memory to working memory and then to long-term memory.\"},{\"question\":\"What are cognitive interest cues?\",\"answer\":\"Cognitive interest cues are methods that help students recognize what in a lesson or unit will be interesting, relevant, or meaningful to them. They increase intrinsic motivation by framing learning in ways that students experience as stimulating and worthwhile.\"},{\"question\":\"Which three practices help stimulate student interest and engagement?\",\"answer\":\"The document recommends three practices: activate prior knowledge to create a learning gap, use curiosity hooks, and make learning relevant.\"}]","Instructional Shifts to Lift All Learners - Shifting from Getting Students’Attention to Igniting Students’ Engagement | PDF"]