ABSTRACT
Activities are going on in the classroom and the teacher is meeting with a small group. Assuming even that the class activities have been started and the students were focused from the beginning, how is the teacher to encourage the class to maintain focus while at the same time engaging the small group? There is no one answer to this classic situation, but there is one that has been proven to work well. The technique might be called metering. Assuming that students work better when there are eyes on them, the teacher or students can design a focus meter that the teacher can manipulate throughout the upfront discussion. A glance at this meter, perhaps in the form of a giant thermometer (taskometer?) or a wheel in segments, tells all students in the room what percentage of them are on task. The teacher adjusts the meter with periodic looks around the room.
