-Priming –make sure student hear about the topic in advance
-Generate many questions about the content.
-Take students on a field trip.
-Tell an emotional story to capture their attention.
-Let students make relevancy connections: "What's in it for me?”
- Play interest-evoking DVDs for students, or show them cool Internet sites.
Here's one other critical thing to remember when biasing the attention: students' young brains have short-term memory that needs constant refreshing They'll remember things for about 5 to 20 minutes until the content either is dropped from their short-term memory or gets processed. To support working memory function in your students, (1) pause to let the content sink in, (2) bundle content into smaller chunks to aid understanding and then review, and (3) do a fast physical activity first to activate the frontal lobe working memory with dopamine.
Overall, provide unguided reflection time. And remember that any activity that helps students pay closer attention to the content will help them remember it better. That includes activities such as compare and contrast, critique, analyze and categorize, and summarize.