Definition
An opening device used by an instructor at the start of a lesson to focus students' attention on the subject and prepare them to learn. It can take the form of a relevant story, a question, a demonstration, a striking statistic, or a real-world example tied to the lesson's content.
Plain English
Something the instructor says or does at the very beginning of a lesson to grab the students' interest and get their minds on the topic before teaching starts.
Context Anchor
You will see this term in lesson-planning and teaching discussions, especially when describing how an instructor should begin a lesson.
Derivation
Attention comes from a Latin idea meaning to stretch or turn the mind toward something. Getter comes from get, meaning to obtain or bring in. Together, the phrase points to something that brings the student’s mind toward the lesson.
Why Pilots Care
Using an attention getter improves how well students absorb and remember critical flight safety and procedural information during ground instruction.
Intuition Check
Do not read attention getter as a gimmick or entertainment trick. In this context, it means a purposeful opening that focuses the learner on the lesson.
Example Sentence 1
The instructor opened the weather lesson with a short account of a VFR-into-IMC accident as an attention getter, and the students were focused before the first slide appeared.
Example Sentence 2
Before covering density altitude effects, the instructor used a short story about a high-altitude takeoff overrun as an attention getter to focus the student.