Standards Correlations

R.1, R.3, R.4, R.7, R.9, W.2, SL.1, L.4, L.6

Learning Objective

Students will synthesize information from two texts.

Key Skills

synthesizing, text features, vocabulary, cause and effect, critical thinking, informational writing

Complexity Factors

Purpose:  The first text is about the benefits of being bored.  The second  gives examples of people who used boredom to fuel their creativity.

 

Structure: Both texts are informational.

 

Language: The language is clear and accessible. Domain-specific vocabulary is defined in the vocabulary box.

 

Knowledge Demands: The texts refer to brain functions and to historical figures like Isaac Newton and Frida Kahlo.

Levels

Lexile: 600L-700L 

Guided Reading Level: S 

DRA Level: 40

SEL Connection

This feature and lesson promote self-management skills.

Lesson Plan: Is Boredom That Bad?/The Power of Bored Brains

Essential Questions

  • How can boredom help us be more creative and feel better in a world full of technology?
  • How does boredom give us time to think about our lives and make good choices for the future?

Literature Connection

  • Self-help: Just Breathe: Meditation, Mindfulness, Movement, and More by Mallika Chopra 

1. Preparing to Read 

Preview Text Features (10 minutes)

Guide students to locate the articles in their magazines or at Action Online. Preview the text features by asking the following questions:

  • Read the titles and subtitles of the articles. Answer the question posed in the first title, “Is Boredom That Bad?,” by making a list of pros and cons. What are three good things about being bored? What are three bad things? Answers will vary.
  • Look at the four examples in “The Power of Bored Brains.” Skim the text to find the name of the person being discussed in each box. What do you know about the person? Answers will vary. 

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

  • Point out the vocabulary box. Read the words (psychology, default, introspection, tempted, embrace) aloud and discuss their definitions.
  • Play the Vocabulary Slideshow.

Make a Plan for Reading

Before students start to read, walk them through a reading plan:

  • Tell students that one of the texts in this pair explains how boredom affects the brain, while the other shares examples of people who achieved great things during periods of boredom.
  • Tell students that after they read, they’ll synthesize information from both texts to understand how boredom can play a positive role in personal growth and creativity.

 2. Reading and Unpacking the Text

Read the texts. (Higher- and lower-Lexile versions are available on the Story page at Action Online. Click Presentation View to access an audio read-aloud.) Then discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions (15 minutes)

  • Why do experts believe boredom can be good for your brain? (cause and effect) Experts believe boredom is good because it allows the brain to shift into default mode, where it can wander, reflect, and sort through thoughts. This process helps people learn from past experiences, solve problems, and come up with new ideas. 
  • How does boredom help people become more creative or achieve great things? (cause and effect) Boredom creates space for thinking deeply and creatively. For example, Isaac Newton developed ideas about gravity while stuck on his family’s farm, and Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein during a rainy summer with little to do. 
  • What advice does the first article give for practicing boredom in a world filled with distractions? (synthesizing) The article suggests that embracing boredom is a skill that takes practice. It recommends simple activities, such as leaving your phone at home during a walk or lying in the grass and watching clouds. Over time, these moments help people become more comfortable with doing nothing and may inspire new ideas or ways of thinking.

Critical-Thinking Questions (10 minutes)

  • The article suggests that boredom can lead to creativity and personal growth. Think about your own life—how do you usually respond when you feel bored? How could you change your habits to use boredom in a positive way? Answers will vary. Some students might say they often turn to their phones or social media when bored. Others might mention that they feel uncomfortable with boredom. Students could brainstorm ways to enjoy boredom, such as by journaling, drawing, taking a walk without their phones, or setting aside quiet time to let their minds wander and come up with new ideas.
  • Several historical figures in the article achieved great things during periods of boredom or isolation. Do you think people today still have the same opportunities to be bored, or has it become harder to be bored in our world? Explain your answer. Students may suggest that it is harder to experience boredom today because technology provides endless entertainment through phones, social media, and streaming services. In the past, people had fewer distractions, so boredom was a more common part of daily life. 

3. Skill Building and Writing

Learn-Anywhere Activity

An enrichment activity to extend the learning journey at home or in the classroom

Project the task below on your whiteboard or share it with students in your LMS.

Go Ahead and Get Bored!

The articles suggest that being bored can do you a lot of good. So why not get excited about getting bored?

 Start by making a plan for how you’ll set time aside for boredom. Decide on a time period (maybe 20 to 30 minutes) when you’ll do nothing once or twice a week. 

Decide where you’ll spend this time alone with your thoughts. Will you sit outside on a bench? Take a walk in the park? Lie on a couch and stare at the ceiling?

Set a reminder on your phone so you won’t forget. Then get in the habit of giving yourself downtime. After each “boredom session,” write a few sentences in a journal or in the Notes app on your phone describing what the experience was like. After a few weeks, take a look at what you’ve written. Was letting yourself be bored difficult at first? Did it get easier over time?

Language-Acquisition Springboard

Discuss the suffix -ology to improve students’ decoding skills.

After reading the articles, direct students’ attention to the vocabulary box. Point out the first word in the box: psychology. It’s defined as “the study of the mind and behavior.”

Let students know that the suffix -ology refers to the science or study of something. When they see a word that ends in -ology, they can tell it refers to a type of science or a field of study. Give these examples and have students look up their meanings:

  • biology 
  • criminology
  • geology 
  • sociology
  • theology

Then break the class into small groups and have each group work together to find one more word that ends in -ology. Have each group present their word and its meaning to the class.

Looking for more ELL support? Download our full lesson plan and scroll to p. 5 to find questions that will help your ELLs respond to the text at the level that’s right for them.
Lesson Plan

Paired Texts

Lesson: Is Boredom That Bad?/The Power of Bored Brains

A step-by-step lesson plan for these paired texts

SKILL: Text Features, Synthesizing

PDF
Text-to-Speech