📚 Students Won’t Stay Focused During Independent Reading? You start reading time and within minutes: • Books are abandoned • Pages are flipped without thinking • Students stare around the room • Some claim they’re “done” almost immediately This usually isn’t laziness — and it often isn’t decoding ability. Many students today are experiencing what educators often describe as a “popcorn brain.” Their attention has been trained for fast input and constant stimulation. Long-form reading asks th