EduTopia contributor Andrew Boryga has published an article on helping students read complex texts.
He says, “We’ve all had the experience. We’re reading along and suddenly realize that although our eyes are scanning the words on the page, nothing is actually registering. Minutes pass before we take our bearings and see that we’ve lost the plot entirely—pun intended.
In classrooms, students tend to experience this drift in attention while reading texts that are challenging or highly technical—the sorts of jargon-rich passages middle schoolers and high schoolers might encounter in science, math, or history. In many ways, the mind-wandering itself is unavoidable: Not everything we put in front of students will captivate them.
In a 2024 study of “mindless reading,” researchers from the University of Würzburg tracked the reading speed and attention of undergrads poring over a complex science text. At multiple points during the exercise, prompts appeared asking students “Was your mind wandering when you read the last sentence?” Students confirmed multiple instances of loss of attention.”