Defeating Distraction Exercises
Distribute the student chapter Defeating Distraction Exercises and go through the activity with the students. Explain that building better habits is just like any kind of exercise. It takes time and practice, and you have to keep going even if you don’t succeed right away.
If students have digital devices in the classroom, you can have them try the “Do Just One Thing Challenge” and “App Trials” exercises in the class.
Have them do at least two of the exercises and write a reflection on the experience for the next class.
If you like, you can have students share their experiences with the class as well. Remind them that they shouldn’t feel bad if they found any of these exercises hard to start with. If you were trying to lift weights, you wouldn’t feel bad if you couldn’t lift a fifty-pound weight right away – you’d start with smaller weights until you got stronger.
You can use the checklist below for formative assessment of the reflections:
Observation checklist
| Student name or initials | |
| Demonstrates thoughtful consideration of the prompts | |
| Identifies specific challenges and successes |
|
| Provides explanations for their experiences | |
| Makes connections between the activity and their own habits. | |
| Demonstrates an understanding of the purpose of the actiivty |