time

: I have a mixed LD/MI classroom. I am going to begin a unit on
: teaching time to my students. I am looking for new ways to teach
: them how to tell time using an analog clock.What age/ grade are they? What developmental level?If less than Grade 3/ 8 or 9 years old, don’t bother. Young children’s time sense is usually not organized enough for a clock to be meaningful for them. I think Piaget ideas such as conservation apply. Regular classrooms teach clocks because they’re in the curriculum in Kindergarten, then repeat exactly the same lesson in Grade 1, then repeat exactly the same lesson in Grade 2, then repeat exactly the same lesson in Grade 3 where it finally sticks with at least a fair number of the children. Not worth wasting your and their time and energy if avoidable!As far as new methods, why new? Clocks in their present form have been around for about 400 years, and it’s hard to do or say anything truly original about them.You need a model clock, available at most educational supply stores, and you need to make the time meaningful to the kids, such as time to get up, time to start class, time to go to lunch, time to go home, time to watch Pokemon, etc. You can also buy individual model clocks or make them yourself with cardboard circles, cardboard hands, and a paper fastener. As in any teaching, the more kids do real things like reading the class clock and handling the models, the more they will learn; worksheets can be helpful for later review and practice but are far too distant from reality to make a good main focus of the teaching. Most clock teaching starts with hour hand only (in fact many early clocks only had this one hand) and adds the minute hand after the hours have been mastered. This is a good way to simplify a very complex task.By the way, it’s a lot more productive to say “long hand” and “short hand” instead of “big” and “little” Since the short hand is often fatter/wider, “big” and “little” are inaccurate and confusing.