We’ve been talking about how some of us have problems with external distractions when we read and others of us with our minds wandering.  Here’s what a few of my students have to say:

• I have problems with my mind wandering.  I start thinking about going to recess.  I can read a difficult book if my teacher is reading out loud if I have a copy of a book. That helps me concentrate.  For myself, I pick easier books with a topic I like.
• Many times when I read I am planning the future.  What I do about it is try to stop my mind and say to myself, “Concentrate, let’s do it!”
• My mind wanders and I can still read the words, but I’m thinking about something else.  I read better when I read at my desk away from everybody else.
• When I read, the movie plays in my mind, but sometimes my mind plays a different movie than the book such as me playing soccer.  I just ignore it and try to concentrate on my book.  (He must be good at it, because as a second year English learner, he’s read all the Harry Potter books!)
• When my mind wanders I reread until I get it and I am re focused.
• I can block out outside distractions, but my mind wandering doesn’t allow me to think about the book.  To stop thinking about other things I stop, tell my mind to concentrate, then think about the book.
• Sometimes when I read a book and find a connection I start thinking about that and don’t concentrate on my reading.
• Distractions bother me because my mind has to stay completely on the book.  To be focused I need silence.  I try to ignore sounds or I cover my ears with a pillow.
• When I read I get distracted by sounds.  I can read when everybody is silent, but not when there is lots of noise.  I can’t read in my house because my brothers are watching TV in one room and in another they’re playing wii.  What I do about it is I go in my closet and read there.

Photo credit:  spl225.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/flying20bo…

Being distracted and letting our minds wander can happen to any of us, but what can we do about it when we’re reading?

First, we need to understand that distractions are external and letting our minds wander is internal. Making a list of our common distractions and wanderings helps make us more aware of these things, which, although counter-intuitive, is just what we need.  Once we’re metacognitively aware, we can do something about the problem. My students make long lists of distractions, but my personal distractions are pretty much limited to mosquitoes and fireworks (thus are the hazards of living in tropical, but festive, Ecuador).  Under the category of letting your mind wander, my students generally have short lists (what happened at recess, things not going well at home), where my brain often feels like popcorn as I battle with various to-do lists, obsessive replays of the day, and thoughts about what I should be doing rather than reading.

We explain that we all have good days and bad days with distractability and wanderability; it happens to the best of readers, but good reader DO something about it.  We brainstorm ideas with the kids, and if none of the following comes up in discussion, we suggest them:

• Students often need to move away from others in order to have less distractions, and we have a number of hidey-holes around the classroom for those students.
• Sometimes a student who IS a distraction needs to be asked to read in one of these spaces away from others.  Sometimes we even give them names:  Ricky’s Retreat and Charlie’s Corner.
• Other students benefit from reading aloud to focus their attention.  We arm them with read-out-loud phones (see photo), move them away from other students and they read away!  (I have a class set of these that some parents made from PVC pipe.  We use them often with both reading and writing.  There’s nothing like reading your work out loud for sentence fluency!)
• When our brain is wandering with to-do lists and remembered chores, sometimes the best thing to do is stop reading for a moment and jot down what we’re thinking about and then go back to the book.
• The main strategy we use is to talk to our brains.  If the distraction is something we can’t do anything about, like the leaf blower running outside our window, we simply tell our brains to pay attention.  It works!  At the beginning of each year we study the different controls in our brains from the website All Kinds of Minds, and students are used to thinking and speaking about these controls.

Are you more bedeviled by distractions or letting your mind wander??

Photo credit:  thepeoplebrand.com/…/06/Photo_032707_001.jpg