Block scheduling in high school -- good or bad?

Hi,
My 15 yr old has block scheduling but when he took alg 1 and now geometry, they had him double blocked which meant instead of a math class every other day, he has it evey day for the whole year. I can’t imagine being able to do Alg 1 in one semester no matter how they block it! I would ask the school what alternatives they have if that is indeed the way it will be instructed. Sometimes other hs’s may have a different program, you might ask around.
good luck,
Amy

I think this kind of scheduling is very bad for almost all students. It really did a lot of damage in my daughter’s math classes, and she was always a very good student.
Basically I call it the myth that “all hours are equal” — the powers that be decide that if your butt is on a chair in a math class for a total of 110 hours, it doesn’t matter how those 110 hours are organized. This is observably false.
Most people, including adults, lose concentration after forty minutes or so. It doesn’t matter how many games you play and how many tricks the teacher performs, the short-term memory has filled up and needs either a break or a change before the present info can be almagamated into the mental structure and any new info can be added. Also, it takes *time* to think deeply about problems and work out new solutions — meaning that the blocked classes get even more superficial and memory-based, as if the regular classes weren;t bad enough that way already.
Basically what I saw in my daughter’s blocked classes was that they covered 75% or less of the curriculum, leaving gaping holes for later. Other people also found real trouble with the blocked language classes, because depending on the way the semesters fell out, it could be a full year before you saw an English class again, and some students got completely out of the habit of reading and writing.
A certain kind of administrator just loves these kinds of classes because it makes the administrators’ lives so much easier (and that is our top priority, isn’t it?) One man at my daughter’s school, after I mentioned the problems above, told me with a big smile yes, but the blocked classes are so wonderful because we only need half as many textbooks so no more book shortage.

I would say I have to disagree

I went to a highschool that had block schedualing, and if the teachers followed directions it went very well. I will have to admit that for some subjects (especially math!), this can be very difficult. Most Math books are designed specifically for 45 minute lesson plans. Most teachers find they have to two two of these lesson plans back to back daily…first of all if school are truely switching over to block schedualing they are going to need to create or purchace bath books specifically designed for this.

Also, teachers are directed to give breaks during class periods, about once every hour. If teachers don’t do this it can be very harmful for students. There is only so much time students can sit and listen to lecture.

The reason I loved block schedualing is a teacher had the time to introduce a lesson, have the students practice the new idea and ALSO give the students some time to start on homework. This was especially wonderful because teachers were available to help with misconceptions, and it would also give students a good start on their homework.

I also enjoyed this because there were fewer classes, which in essense meant less homework. I hope that someday (if ever possible) teachers can get rid of homework all together…actually I would also like to throw out the whole grading thing alltogether. So, …ok rethinking what I said. Not necessarily less homework but more time to work on homework on specific ideas (let’s say math). It gives more practice time.

Lastly, I loved block schedualing because it really helps students prepare for college. We are getting into an age where almost every student is going to be expected to attend college, including special education students. Ok…I’m not saying college is for all students, but that seems to be the way that our world is going (like it or not). Some of my classes at college are two hours long…

I don’t think I’ve mentioned that I am a learning disabled student myself.

I know people are going to have other opionions, but I think if teachers are trained for this, block schedualing can be very agreeable.

I’d say give it a try :)

There is this little problem with that plan, Tessa. As I tried to explain to one boy in my class one time, homework is a compound word, *home* + work, which you take home and do at home. If you do it in class it *isn’t* homework.
Nothing at all wrong with doing problems in class, in fact it is something that needs to be done more as part of *teaching*, but that is another question.
If you teach for one hour and do what is usually homework for the other hour, that means you only get fifty hours teaching instead of a hundred. OK if you only want to teach half the curriculum — and that is *exactly* what happened in my daughter’s blocked math classes; that was the problem I was outlining.
Sure, it’s a lot easier to pass half the curriculum than the whole thing, wonderful — just a tiny little flaw that when you get to level 2 and level 3 classes, having done only half the preparation, you hit a level where you can’t go on.
In college, yes you have longer classes, and yes you have to cover the whole book in one semester — and something like 40% of entering students fail or drop out since they simply are not prepared — see above about only doing half the curriculum and about expecting to do homework in class, which does not work in college, there isn;t enough toime to even cover the basic material.
The failure rate for students who take upgrading or developmental classes is even higher; at one college I taught in, they looked at the ability of entering developmental students to finish the four-semester math program, and found that nobody ever did.
So, you propose taking a system that is already failing, and training people to cover even less and to do even more of what is already not working?

Yes, I can see some of your points.

My belief is that the point of homework has really gone astray…what do we want students to do? Do we want them to ‘learn’ while doing homework or practice? Homework should be for practice, and it should not be as hard as many teachers make it. I can see giving homework to challenge students, but that is what school should be for.

What I’m trying to say is elementary students should not be doing hours of homework every night. I can remember back when I was in elementary we were assigned maybe 1/2 hour every couple of nights, but now it seems it is assigned nightly. I am no accusing you of this, but so many times teachers assign homework to teach.

I don’t see the point of giving students homework unless they understand it.

I know when I start teaching that I will probably have to give homework, because that is how the curriculum is set up. There isn’t enough time the way everything is set up. I just wish things were set up in a way where the students could get what they needed at school, and they can practice at home. Sorry if I keep repeating myself.

As for my comments about block scheduling…I can see how you misunderstood me. I did not mean that we got to do all of our homework in class, or even most of it but we were able to get a start (maybe 20 minutes). It was wonderful to get a chance to start working, and the teacher can fix possible misconceptions. There were a few times when the teacher realized that the majority of the class was confused about something and realized she needed more time…even if it meant bumping other things back.

From what I remember and seen, the teacher ‘teaches’ a lesson and assigns the homework…too bad if students didn’t understand it. That is what I meant by that anyway.

One last thing…the great thing that I love about block scheduling is (when done right) the first part is the introduction of an idea; the second is hands-on experience and lastly is some practice. That is if it is done right.

Well, I’m not crazy about homework either. I never found that it did much for my students. But you know who panics if there isn’t any homework assigned? First the students and then the parents. They come rampaging into the principal’s office and demand to have you fired instantly, I do not exaggerate.

I am a LD teacher in a high school where the block schedule is used. It is VERY difficult for the students. It is not only difficult because of the amount of academic work, but also because of behavior.

I’m also an LD adult, but for me, block scheduling was much more effective. I don’t transition well, and the extra time kept me more focused. I guess it depends on the type of disability.

I have to chime in on the homework issue. We so completely overschedule kids, and I firmly believe that when kids are home, they belong to the parents, not the teachers. Wouldn’t it be interesting if teachers simply assigned children to do one hour of something educational and write a few paragraphs about it? Children learn best when they pursue something they love, and children who only have time to learn what’s assigned never learn how to learn, how to develop new interests or how to be passionate about life-long learning.

I taught in block scheduling and it was (surprise, surprise) good for some & not for others. We had two schedules that alternated each day… students that liked routine, shall we say, were SOL, and I don’t mean Standards of LEarning. For assembly days things would get further modified. You had to be on your toes. It did mean you didj’t have to see That Teacher every day, though, and you had a full day to figure out what had gone on in class which was a viable strategy for many.

HOWEVER it wasn’t the compressed-semester deal, which is good for fewer students. I’ve run into a few folks who were in those situations; I”ve had some who reveled in the intense immersion. They were both very smart — so the fast pace didn’t matter and was better suited for them — and tended to get bored over the course of a year… but I have to wonder if they’d have been as bored if the whole year had been done at the faster pace.

It’s also just one more situation where teachers are often just informed that the schedule is changing and they get to be the creative ones to figure out how to change their whole programme of teaching to accommodate it. There are very effective ways of using block scheduling — Tessa’s outlined some — but it doesn’t happen by itself.

Frankly, the odds are that a school that does that kind of block scheduling is in financial arrears (most of the schools I know pick that schedule because it’s a more financially efficient way of spreading teachers around) and/or has leadership that isn’t going to be too responsive to students. But the bottom line in either caswe is the teachers & admins — I’d want to meet with both. If she’s got good teachers that will work with her, the schedule becomes less important. (If the teachers are frustrated with their administration and job, though…)

I think the condensed scheduling is a complete and utter mistake in math. It takes the brain a while to wrap around new concepts. I see it every semester — jus twhen you’re getting the hang of negative numbers, it’s time to jump into fractions and exponents and variables. It becomes a “so many rules!” situation because you can’t *learn* and comprehend the principles. It becomes poignant watching the quick processors rise to the top and the ones not that much slower sink slowly into the quicksand of confusion — they may even pass the course, but they still think they can’t do math, and they are doomed to the same situation if they have to take more math.