Lesson Plan: Should Schools Ban Phones?

Essential Questions

• How can technology help us learn? How can it get in the way of learning?
• How can we form habits that are good for us? 

Literature Connection

• Novel: Posted by John David Anderson

Activate Prior Knowledge (5 minutes)

Before reading the article, briefly discuss the idea of phone bans in schools. Does your school have one? Ask students to suggest reasons people might support phone bans and reasons people might object to them.

Preview Text Features (15 minutes)

Have students open their magazines to page 6. Guide them to preview the text features by asking the following questions:

• Study the map. What does it tell you about California? What does it tell you about Ohio? How about Arizona? Based on the map, a statewide phone ban will go into effect in California in the future; Ohio has statewide restrictions now; and Arizona has no bans or restrictions.
• Find the photo of a teen with a quote below it in large print. Who is the teen, and how do you think he feels about phone bans in schools? The teen, named Cashel, goes to a school that has a phone ban. He seems to think phone bans are a good idea. He says the students at his school feel more connected now that the school has a phone ban.

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

• Point out the vocabulary box. Read the terms (implemented, disruption, distraction, oppose, socialize) 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:

• Set a purpose for reading by telling students that the article “Should Schools Ban Phones?” will tell them why schools around the U.S. are forcing students to hand over their phones. Point out the activity at the end of the article and let them know they’ll use it to summarize the text after reading.
• Point out the Pause and Think boxes. Tell students they can check their understanding of what they’ve read by answering these questions.

Read the article. (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 Question (15 minutes)

• Which was the first U.S. state to put a statewide phone ban in K-12 classrooms into effect? (detail) Florida was the first U.S. state to put a statewide phone ban in K-12 classrooms into effect.
• What does pediatrician Heidi Schumacher think about phone bans? (point of view) Dr. Schumacher thinks phone bans aren’t the most effective way to help students focus in class. She says that since phones are a fact of life, it would be better to help students build healthy phone habits.
• What is the central idea of the section “Talking and Laughing”? (central idea) The central idea of the section “Talking and Laughing” is that phone bans in schools have had some positive results. 

Critical-Thinking Questions (5 minutes)

• Dr. Heidi Schumacher talks about helping students build healthy phone habits. What do you think are some healthy phone habits? Healthy phone habits might include putting your phone away when you need to focus on something else, turning off notifications that might distract you, and setting limits on how much time you’ll spend scrolling each day.

• Have students work in pairs to complete the Spotlight Skill activity at the end of the article.
• Go further: Assign students to work independently on our Summarizing activity, available in higher- and lower-level versions. (Click here to view all your Skill Builders for this article.)
• Writing Prompt: Are statewide phone bans a good idea? Is it better to let individual schools or teachers make their own rules? Imagine that lawmakers in your state are deciding whether to put a phone ban in place and want to know what students think. Write a paragraph saying what you think about statewide phone bans. Support your opinion with details from the article.