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In reply to #1:  We live in a visual world, yet literature is typically NOT a visual media.  Only by making literature relavent to students will we have a chance at getting them "hooked" on it or excited about reading.

I teach in an inner city school where many students find summer vacation so boring that, when autumn finally comes, they are happy to be back in school.  I have often wondered how they could possibly be so bored when most of them have easy access to cable TV, video games, the internet, etc.  My experience suggests that these young people become bored at home in spite of all of the wonderful sensory experiences that modern technology is able to deliver because they are often unable to make television, the internet and video games relevant to their daily life.  Generally speaking, I have found that when students grasp the relevance of any course of study to their everyday lives, boredom evaporates and they become motivated learners.

Helping students become engaged, thoughtful learners seems to require a willingness on the part of educators to help students find relevance on an individual basis when necessary, because the reasons for their boredom are legion.

A word of caution:  There is an element in learning that is, often necessary, and generally not fun because the relevance is not part of the learner's immediate experience.  Such is the case with a piano student who is required to learn his/her finger exercises.  He/she knows that those exercises create "muscle memory" of musical patterns in the fingers which ultimately lead to learning new music faster, but most students find the exercises boring until they experience the relevance.

Children become bored when their curiosity and or creativity are stifled by the curriculum, or the teacher.  Teachers when they capitalize on their students' curiosity will students engaged.  Getting to know students is the first step to engaging students in the learning process.  Instruction should have value and relavance to the student.  For example, when I taught Algebra I in a high school near Bryan, TX, I looked for interesting applications of algebrai concepts.  I found one in an every day magazine.  The story with maps and other diagrams was about how to calculate the size of an air conditioner for a home.  Well, one student who was bored and never did assignments,  until that day, became engaged and was the first to turn in the project.  When he did, he happened to mention how much he enjoyed working on the project because it was what his father did; he was an A/C repair man.  From that day on, this student worked his algebra assignments. 

My goal in the classroom is to make every piece of literature RELEVANT to my students' lives. It's sometimes a challenge, but there is always a way to do it. The hallmark of great literature is universal themes and values, and those are timeless. It's fun for me as a teacher to see my students connect with literature because they see why it matters to them. (The best example is in Gulliver's Travels. We compare the Liliputians' voting criteria to the criteria most US voters use when casting a vote. Is there really any difference between the best rope-dancer and the candidate with the best hair?)

It does require that I stay on top of both current events and pop culture, but it is worth the effort. I also create Facebook groups for my classes---and I'll periodically post on a student's wall. They love it---which makes them want to put forth the effort in class.

Students are not challenged in the classrom these days.  Some teachers do what is best for them instead of the students.  With all the extra paper work that teachers have to deal with now, whether it pertains to behavior or academics, the thought of assigning extra work to students who need (academically), or deserve it (to challenge), seems like a headache. 

It was John Dewey who said, "Begin with the child." That is something I try to never forget. It's about making connections with the student's world, his or her interests, personality, family, experiences, and so on. None of us can find meaning in anything unless we can connect it with ourselves.  There is good brain science to support this, which makes Dewey's idea even more impressive.  We now know that nothing goes in unless it can connect with something already in the brain. Even a lesson on grammar can connect with the student, by using examples that are relevant to the student's life, or by using the student's own writing as examples.  There is no content area in which we cannot make a connection with the student. 

Many times we fail to address the different learning styles of our students and also forget that many times we have to establish connections to build the schema that many students lack. At times, we assume that they connect the information that we are bringing not knowing that the minute they dissociate from it, we have officially "lost the kid".

Many teachers still believe erroneously that we are supposed to always provide whole group instruction driven by what test scores revieal. Instruction should be skill-based, meaningful, rich with feedback and driven by research. When we deviate from that, we are literally teaching a book or a unit which will lead us nowhere.

I think children get bored because a great deal of children learn in different ways and typically most teachers, teach in the auditory sense.  A great many  children tune out a teacher after so many minutes.  Americans are not known for being great listeners we tend to be more tactile.  Meaning hands on.  The children especially the younger ones like to manipulate items, move about and experiment not just be lectured to.

In reply to #3: As a longtime high school and middle school English teacher, I have long since come to the conclusion that you cannot please everyone no matter how hard you try. Many students are totally turned off by the thought of attending English class or participating in virtually any kind of reading, writing, or discussion of whatever subject may be at hand. I find most students do enjoy visual presentations, i.e. movies and videos. Naturally, these non-written forms cannot become the backbone of an English class, but I do try to use them more than most English teachers. Since today's students have grown up in the computer age, I believe the use of PC and laptop assignments--whether Internet or non-Internet based--are also more student-friendly and more often receive positive responses than pencil and paper work. Obviously, the teacher is out of luck if PCs or laptops are not available or allowed in the classroom, but keeping up with the times and using a more modern approach to creating assignments is essential in the 21st century classroom. 

I agree with many prior posters!  Yes, some kids will be bored, and maybe there is nothing you can do about it.  They may be tired or unfocused.  But, for the most part, the important thing keeping kids engaged is that you must be engaging.  And for me the thing that engages kids in 8th grade history is not the subject matter, but the belief the kids have in you that you care about them and that they trust you.  Once kids know you care and trust you, boredom is easier to combat.  Due to the many "quick" electronic influences in kids' lives, there is probably a shorter attention span that is real.  To address this, we teachers need to design engaging lessons that differ almost every day.  Switch things up.  Move the seats, stand on chairs, use cooperative learning groups, journal and have them share, use technology, make movies, etc.  And interspersed with all these changes you can still meet curricular goals by sometimes using old stand bys.  There is still a place to lecture and to teach kids how to read effectively and to take good notes.  But, overall, kids want to know you care, are passionate about them and the subject you teach, and then they will give back to you over and over again.