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The problem I find on the block is with student practice. That's, usually, homework. In my block classes, I either have to give time in class for what is homework for the other classes or simply go on without the benefit of the students having had the practice time.
Sigh. Homework is not classroom practice. They are two different things with two different, although overlapping, purposes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ivorytickler
I give most practice time as homework because of the nature of my material and the fact I find most students don't use class time I give to practice anyway. They'd rather socialize. They tell me they can "do it later" so I usually assign it to be done on their time.
So, here it sounds like the students are in charge. I hope that is not what you meant.
The problem I find on the block is with student practice. That's, usually, homework. In my block classes, I either have to give time in class for what is homework for the other classes or simply go on without the benefit of the students having had the practice time. I give most practice time as homework because of the nature of my material and the fact I find most students don't use class time I give to practice anyway. They'd rather socialize. They tell me they can "do it later" so I usually assign it to be done on their time. What I do in class is review the homework after they've had a chance to try it on their own. Rarely to I give my chemistry classes time in class to do their homework.
Yes, they would rather socialize. Many of them would rather socialize than have you provide instruction, as well, but you keep providing instruction.
So, too, with "homework time" in class. It is an incredibly powerful tool, because it gives you a chance to see how they are working at a problem and intervene to help them to avoid developing a negative pattern in working on something.
Set them to do pieces of the homework in steps. When they've finished the first calculation, pause and explore. The next conversion. Then the next. Different students will make different mistakes or miss different parts of the process, giving you a chance to work on each part of the process with them.
If, instead, you see a bunch of made the same mistake, then it is a general concept that needs to be re-presented to the class - AND CAN BE before they have gone too far with their misunderstanding of it.
I do in physics but, again, we're still moving on without the benefit of the students having gone home and worked on the homework. It's lecture, demonstrate, work examples, give a practice problem or two, assign homework and move on because we still have class time left and have to keep up with the non block classes. I also find that block classes are too long for many high school students to stay on task.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ivorytickler
Not being able to give time for homework in class creactes problems. If it takes 60 minutes to cover the material, work a couple of examples and/or do a demonstration and I have a 90 minute block, I need to move on to the next material. In my 60 minute classes, I would lecture, do examples and demos and class would be done. Then I'd assign homework and come back the next day and then go on to the new material. In the block classes, it's move on and then backtrack the next time the class meets. I have to teach three classes in two when I compare non block to block.
I think this actually explains some of the problem you may be having.
As you've described it, you're thinking in terms of how long it takes to present certain material, and then trying to build your class sessions around that. While some demos may require that, the vast majority don't - or certainly don't need to. The issue becomes, instead, what changes to make, given the time you have. How many pieces of which type go into this session?
You're trying to do one and a half 60 minute sessions in each 90 minute period - hence the backtracking and loss of overall time. You need to design 90 minute sessions, each complete and ready to build on, without the backtracking.
Did any of your instructors in the teachers' ed program actually teach you using blocks?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ivorytickler
As to the reference to college students in the material you quoted . I'm amazed anyone went there. First, college students represent our top students while high school students run the gammut. Second, by the time students get to college, they should be less dependent on classroom learning and more of self learners. High school students are still learning how to be self learners, which is one reason why I think homework and studying at home should be part of the expectations for high school students. Third, college students are more mature than high schools students. Fourth, college students are likely studying material of their choosing instead of taking a prescribed program (at least to the extent they choose their majors). This is an apples to organge comparision. You cannot compare what high school students learn to what college students learn and declare it's due to block teaching. It's not. It's due to the fact that it's the better students who go to college and they are more mature when they get there. Even being younger, restricting classes to just the college bound would make a huge difference in the amount of material I could cover and how it would be covered. High school students are not college students. If they were, we'd teach them the same way we teach college students.
You haven't spent much time in the lower tier colleges, have you? The gap between your average student and theirs is negligible. While your group dips lower, it also goes higher.
The vast majority of colleges have core requirements that are outside a student's strengths/major, Ivory. They have to take a math and science class even if they are poetry majors. (Physics for Poets is a common label applied to such classes.)
If you think those students are any more prepared for the mandatory science classes than yours are, you are sadly mistaken.
And the difference between the 16 year old unwilling chem student in high school and the 18 year old unwilling chem student in college is a whole lot less than you think it is. A good part of it is expectations - by institution, educator, and student. Another part is training - the college instructor designs the course to work differently than the high school teacher does, in terms of time and structure - what is on the teacher, what is on the TA (if any), and what is on the student? How much time is given to each issue, each lab, each homework assignment?
No, they aren't the same, but you have this image of the college prep student as "best and brightest" when so many of the rest of our threads have discussed the fact that many kids are now expected to go to college who never have before!
You talk about the need for the students to become self-learners, but then decry one of the mechanisms that would better prepare them for doing just that. Can you find a master-teacher in your field whom you could watch, to see how s/he deals with the blocks, since it sounds like they are not going away and neither are you?
You bring up a very important point about how well or how poorly some teachers use block time. I have taught in mathematics and science in both situations and strongly prefer the block schedule. When the high school where I was teaching in the mid 1990’s switched to blocks, we were all sent to training to rethink our approaches. I have to wonder how much specific training new teachers are receiving on how to utilize a longer class period. The problem for some is switching from the mentality of teaching a textbook section per class to teaching smaller pieces of a larger concept.
If the teacher is one of those who just lectures for most of the period and then assigns homework, the transition to a longer period can be disastrous. Best practices in lecturing, in my opinion, must include at least a cycle of lecture, demonstrate, student practice, assessment. In a 90 minute class, I might repeat that cycle three times. That also allows me to modify the pace a little on the fly between sections as we are never all off by a whole class period, just one cycle at most.
Teachers who fail to give the students any time to practice right at that moment are really loosing an opportunity to help their students understand the new concepts. The same is true for teachers who do not take the time for even a quick assessment before moving on to the next concept. The assessment can be as easy as walking around looking at the students work while they practice. It can be a few pointed questions randomly asked. There are dozens of things that take just a few minutes! In fact, I love using mini-cycles so much that I still do it in our new school district which has 60 minute classes.
The notion of cycles is very important - and I will say a bit more about them over in tother strand. But one of the things that can sometimes happen with them is to set kids in alternating cycles from each other, so that they are not all doing the same thing at the same time. Potentially, half or a third might be receiving direct instruction while others are plugging away at something - allowing for smaller group discussion of an topic and more ability to notice individual understanding.
The notion of cycles is very important - and I will say a bit more about them over in tother strand. But one of the things that can sometimes happen with them is to set kids in alternating cycles from each other, so that they are not all doing the same thing at the same time. Potentially, half or a third might be receiving direct instruction while others are plugging away at something - allowing for smaller group discussion of an topic and more ability to notice individual understanding.
Yes, they would rather socialize. Many of them would rather socialize than have you provide instruction, as well, but you keep providing instruction.
So, too, with "homework time" in class. It is an incredibly powerful tool, because it gives you a chance to see how they are working at a problem and intervene to help them to avoid developing a negative pattern in working on something.
Set them to do pieces of the homework in steps. When they've finished the first calculation, pause and explore. The next conversion. Then the next. Different students will make different mistakes or miss different parts of the process, giving you a chance to work on each part of the process with them.
If, instead, you see a bunch of made the same mistake, then it is a general concept that needs to be re-presented to the class - AND CAN BE before they have gone too far with their misunderstanding of it.
I think this actually explains some of the problem you may be having.
As you've described it, you're thinking in terms of how long it takes to present certain material, and then trying to build your class sessions around that. While some demos may require that, the vast majority don't - or certainly don't need to. The issue becomes, instead, what changes to make, given the time you have. How many pieces of which type go into this session?
You're trying to do one and a half 60 minute sessions in each 90 minute period - hence the backtracking and loss of overall time. You need to design 90 minute sessions, each complete and ready to build on, without the backtracking.
Did any of your instructors in the teachers' ed program actually teach you using blocks?
You haven't spent much time in the lower tier colleges, have you? The gap between your average student and theirs is negligible. While your group dips lower, it also goes higher.
The vast majority of colleges have core requirements that are outside a student's strengths/major, Ivory. They have to take a math and science class even if they are poetry majors. (Physics for Poets is a common label applied to such classes.)
If you think those students are any more prepared for the mandatory science classes than yours are, you are sadly mistaken.
And the difference between the 16 year old unwilling chem student in high school and the 18 year old unwilling chem student in college is a whole lot less than you think it is. A good part of it is expectations - by institution, educator, and student. Another part is training - the college instructor designs the course to work differently than the high school teacher does, in terms of time and structure - what is on the teacher, what is on the TA (if any), and what is on the student? How much time is given to each issue, each lab, each homework assignment?
No, they aren't the same, but you have this image of the college prep student as "best and brightest" when so many of the rest of our threads have discussed the fact that many kids are now expected to go to college who never have before!
You talk about the need for the students to become self-learners, but then decry one of the mechanisms that would better prepare them for doing just that. Can you find a master-teacher in your field whom you could watch, to see how s/he deals with the blocks, since it sounds like they are not going away and neither are you?
OK, can I just save parts of this for all new teachers? You summed up so many important points in a relatively short post.
msm_teacher & jps_teacher, I can't rep either of you again; however, I can praise you both for your thoughtful insights & sharing of very valuable experience. You both share such beneficial techniques.
Sigh. Homework is not classroom practice. They are two different things with two different, although overlapping, purposes.
So, here it sounds like the students are in charge. I hope that is not what you meant.
Homework is a form of practice . Obviously, you missed the point. Classroom practice should be only a minor part of what goes on in the classroom. It fits with working examples. Homework is where students fly solo and that is important. Doing homework is where students learn where they have issues. In classes like physics, I find it's not until students try to do problems on their own (out of class so they aren't relying on their neighbor or me for cues) that they start to find where they struggle. They can watch me to 2 or 10 problems but they don't seem to learn how to do them themselves until they actually do them themselves.
What I meant was that I refuse to give classroom time to work on things if the students won't use it to work on what I intend them to work on. In a sense they are in charge here. I cannot force them to work on what I assign. All I can do is call parents (another difference between high school and college students) and let their parents know they would rather talk than do their work in class. Most parents, IME, however, will defend the student by saying it doesn't matter when they do the work so long as it gets done.
I really don't have the power to force them to do their work in class. I find that students are more willing to do the work in class in non block classes than block classes. I'm thinking that, for highschoolers, perhaps 90 minute blocks are too long.
I find simply moving on if students don't work on what I intend them to work on when I intend them to work on it is effective in getting them to use time more wisely. Unfortunately, that's not possible in my classes that don't have books to take home. There, I have to give the time whether they use it or not and resort to detention if they refuse to work.
What point did I miss? That some people do not read posts very closely before responding?
Fortunately, most effective teachers know that is not true.
Yeah, obviously, you didn't read mine
If most of classroom time is taken up with practice, little new will be taught. I made the mistake last year of using too much classroom time for practice. I didn't get through 3/4 of the material I should have and I found my students got lazy. They did little in the way of homework. This year, I give little time in class for practice and find my students are going home, doing homework and studying and it shows in their test scores. I'm sure having more time to teach the material helps too. I would hope my children's teachers are not using the majority of class time for practice. Practice is a minor part of what goes on in the classroom even in music class.
If most of classroom time is taken up with practice, little new will be taught. I made the mistake last year of using too much classroom time for practice. I didn't get through 3/4 of the material I should have and I found my students got lazy. They did little in the way of homework. This year, I give little time in class for practice and find my students are going home, doing homework and studying and it shows in their test scores. I'm sure having more time to teach the material helps too. I would hope my children's teachers are not using the majority of class time for practice. Practice is a minor part of what goes on in the classroom even in music class.
Does your expertise in music education match your expertise in gifted education?
"A small part" is not the only alternative to "most of classroom time."
The other poster didn't say most. Nor majority. Those are your terms.
That you did too much of it one year does mean you needed to make a change - but totally reversing things may have been an excessive response.
You say here that your students are going home and doing their homework, but that conflicts with my understanding from everything else you have written - that they don't do their homework, are not motivated, etc.
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. I'm amazed anyone went there. First, college students represent our top students while high school students run the gammut. Second, by the time students get to college, they should be less dependent on classroom learning and more of self learners. High school students are still learning how to be self learners, which is one reason why I think homework and studying at home should be part of the expectations for high school students. Third, college students are more mature than high schools students. Fourth, college students are likely studying material of their choosing instead of taking a prescribed program (at least to the extent they choose their majors). This is an apples to organge comparision. You cannot compare what high school students learn to what college students learn and declare it's due to block teaching. It's not. It's due to the fact that it's the better students who go to college and they are more mature when they get there. Even being younger, restricting classes to just the college bound would make a huge difference in the amount of material I could cover and how it would be covered. High school students are not college students. If they were, we'd teach them the same way we teach college students.
. Obviously, you missed the point. Classroom practice should be only a minor part of what goes on in the classroom. It fits with working examples. Homework is where students fly solo and that is important. Doing homework is where students learn where they have issues. In classes like physics, I find it's not until students try to do problems on their own (out of class so they aren't relying on their neighbor or me for cues) that they start to find where they struggle. They can watch me to 2 or 10 problems but they don't seem to learn how to do them themselves until they actually do them themselves. 