“Oblivious”
is a word I’ve heard many a parent use to describe their teenager. Sometimes it
feels like kids stumble through life completely unaware of what’s going on
around them. If you’ve ever followed a freshman through the halls of a high
school and have been whacked in the face by a backpack as he whips around to
talk to a friend or have been stuck behind a clog of congregating teenagers in
the middle of a hallway thoroughfare, you know what I mean. Teens will overlook
a pile of trash they left on a lunch table as they wander off, distracted by
the next shiny object that catches their eye.
We
live in a world where we are bombarded with stimuli. Noises, images, smells,
and sensations assault our senses from the moment we awake until we try to turn
everything off so we can get some sleep. The barrage of sensory information is
so overwhelming that we struggle to discern what’s essential and what’s
extraneous. We speed through our days without pausing to examine our
surroundings, rush through tasks just to have the satisfaction of checking
something off our growing to-do lists, and multitask 24/7.
The
result of all of this is that we have forgotten the importance of noticing—of
pausing for a while to pay focused attention to something, of looking and
listening intently, of sifting through the clutter to turn our gaze to one
thing and to give the details time to sink in. The endangered art of noticing
is something that can and should be taught and practiced in every classroom.
Teaching students how to increase their awareness and their stamina for
observing will sharpen skills that will help them in all facets of their lives.
My
brother, a musician, listens to music in a different way than I do. Kevin hears
how the instruments work together in a composition to create the listener’s
experience: the nuances of the bass line, the harmonies, the chord
progressions, the choice of key, the meter, and elements I don’t even know enough
about to include on this list. These are things I, too, could learn to hear and
appreciate in music if (1) someone guided me at first to teach me how to listen
like a musician and (2) I shut up, quit humming along, and paid focused
attention. With guidance, I could learn to listen like a musician.
The
act of noticing takes different forms in every subject area. Visual artists
don’t look at a painting of a tree and only see a tree. They notice positive
and negative space, shading, tone, line, color, texture, and more. Athletes and
dancers possess an awareness of their own bodies that goes far beyond “Ouch,
that hurts” and “Boy, am I out of shape,” and this allows them to make
adjustments, respond to cues given by their bodies, and repeat motions and postures
that increase their success or effectiveness. A sociologist, a historian, a
psychologist, an economist, and a political scientist would all notice
different things if they watched the same political debate. Mathematicians and
scientists both hone keen skills of observation to solve problems and collect
data, yet the things they notice differ. Neither one succeeds if they rush into
solving or drawing conclusions without spending some time taking in all the
details.
Proficient
readers in every subject area notice the clues and cues authors leave for them
to guide them through the text, assist them in comprehension and reflection,
deepen their thinking about the topic, and signal what is to come. Once
students know what to look for and practice awareness as they read, looking for
these common signposts becomes second nature, but until then it takes practice
and guidance. Kylene Beers and Bob Probst share their expertise to help
teachers orchestrate noticing-while-reading in Notice and Note, Reading
Nonfiction, and Disrupting Thinking, three outstanding texts I
recommend to any teacher.
As
educators, we have to teach our students what noticing looks like in our
subject areas and coach them so they can learn and practice. To do that, we
must have a clear vision of what noticing means to us; we have to practice that
noticing ourselves. Then, we have to develop open-ended prompts or questions
that elicit responses from our students. Allow them time to look, listen, feel,
smell, and/or taste (depending on what they’re noticing, of course). Let them
jot down their observations; thinking on paper helps students collect their
thoughts. Then, let them share, preferably in pairs or small groups so that
everyone gets the chance to practice before they share with the entire room.
Resist the temptation to conclude with the “correct” answer of what they should
have noticed. If we must share something, we should consider limiting our
response to one or two observations and frame our comments with a sentence stem
such as, “Something I noticed this time was. . . ,” which reinforces the idea
that with more time and repeated observations, people notice new things.
We
could even make this into something resembling a game. Challenge students to
notice things they think others won’t, and play “Did You Notice?” Students can
take turns in pairs, triads, or table groups asking each other “Did you notice.
. .?” in an attempt to point out something others didn’t catch. Students can
add others’ ideas to their own notes to compile a more comprehensive list of
details and observations.
Describing
something in detail—adding adjectives—is a strategy Dr. Ed Burger suggests in
his new book Making Up Your Own Mind: Thinking Effectively Through Creative
Puzzle-Solving. Burger advocates approaching any problem (real-world or
academic) by observing carefully and listing as many descriptors as possible.
As students brainstorm words to describe the problem or situation, they may
accidentally stumble on a clue that could unlock a solution or open an
unexpected avenue of thinking about the topic.
Noticing
can be a key element in learning to do things in a more professional way.
Anyone can become a writing teacher by getting students to notice how
real-world writers write. Teach students how to use texts as writing mentors:
Notice what the writer did and try it yourself. Want to write better poetry?
Find some poets you admire, notice what they do, and attempt it. Need to write
a resume? Gather a few from the internet, notice their features, draft a list
of desired traits or elements, and write your own. Unsure of how to write a
science report? Read several published exemplars. Notice how the writer
structures the report, what is included and not included, the type of language
used, and how the report is formatted. Let the good examples show you how it’s
done.
This
same strategy would work in so many other fields from decorating a cake to
sketching a portrait to throwing a javelin to making a website. Notice how the
pros do it. Break down their technique into steps or strategies, and start
practicing them.
Metacognition,
or awareness of what is going on in your head when you do or think about
something, is another way of noticing that has immense value to students.
Prompting students to notice what they did to successfully (or unsuccessfully)
navigate the learning, solve a problem, create a product, or complete a task
reinforces and clarifies best practices and sheds light on what to avoid next
time. Better self-reflection leads to ongoing growth and improvement. It’s a
habit that benefits us in every aspect of our lives, from job performance to
interpersonal relationships.
There
is so much power in noticing. It’s up to us, as people who care about the
future lives of the students we teach, to help them recognize the value of
taking the time and making the effort to pay attention. If we can help them
hone their skills at observing and convince them to carve out space for
noticing, there’s no telling what they might be able to do.
