High School: Are Double Periods for 1/2 Year a Good Idea?

[On the Road]

My daughter is entering 9th grade next year (Kennedy HS in Montogomery County, MD). The school is considering a new scheduling arrangement under which students would have a double period of a class, but only take the subject for half the school year.

The two subjects being proposed for this treatment are:

MATH and
FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Sounds like it's not a done deal yet, and I'm trying to work through my opinion to give feedback at a meeting tomorrow evening.

What are your thoughts on and experiences with this type of arrangement?

[trogdor]

1. Yes.

The typical class period in my kid's HS is only 40 minutes long, and that's not anywhere near long enough. With 1:20, you can hold MUCH more effective lectures. Everyone will appreciate the extra wiggle-room.

OTOH, math really needs to go on the entire year. I couldn't imagine my kid taking Algebra I in the fall and then no math at all in the spring.

A more realistic alternative would be to have Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes for hard subjects like math or chemistry, and Tuesday/Thursday classes for soft subjects like French or psychology. You could still do the longer class periods without the risk that the kids will forget everything they did the semester before.

[On the Road]

5. I Hadn't Thought About the Length of Periods

I agree -- 40 minutes is not enough. And a double period avoids the in-between time, so it's closer to 2 1/2 periods.

I'm worried about the long layoff in Math, even more than in foreign languages.

[Scottie72]

17. Good ideas....

In my highschool, there was a 6-day schedule. It depended on what number day it was to what you were taking that day. IE Math would be everyday.. Gym class held days 2,4,6. Science Lab class day 5, and then study hall days 1,3 would be a typical schedule.

I do agree that Math should be the entire year. What they could do is have math class on even days for 1hour 20minuts etc..

[ihaveaquestion]

2. Block scheduling is great!

I lobbied my son's middle/high school for this, but was unsuccessful. I fell that the longer class time allows teachers to teach a subject in depth. My experience in visiting my son's classes was that teachers often don't have time to teach after role call, announcements, going over homework and tests, etc. The worst I saw was his science class, where the teacher tried to squeeze in all this plus a lab in 45 minutes. It was ridiculous!

[SangamonTaylor]

3. There are both positives and negatives

First the positive, the format of having double classes is very similar to that of college. My school, years ago, adopted 'block' scheduling (where we had certain classes 2 or 3 times a week, rotating between 'A' and 'B' weeks). I found that it made the transition to college to be fairly easy in dealing with a condensed learning schedule. Second, the double period of class allows for more in depth coverage of the materials. This is partly because there is less wasted time at the beginning and end of classes (which definately adds up).

The negative, and this mostly applies to foreign language, is that only having a subject for half of a year makes it more difficult for the learner to 'soak up' the material into the long range memory. I always felt that the longer the time actually exposed to a foreign language is critical to becoming fluent (which is why studying in a foreign land is so helpful). I personally would have forgotten much more of the material that I learned in Spanish if I had only had two years of condensed study, instead of four.

[On the Road]

7. On Foreign Languages,

I was wondering whether the standard 40-50 minutes per day was really enough to absorb a language, and whether the extra time would help become more fluent. I had three years of French in HS and absorbed a frustratingly limited amount. But once you learn a language, it tends to come back easily.


I will ask about the A and B day schedule -- that might be better than an extended layoff.

[Mick Knox]

4. High School Is SOOOO Tough now...

Oh man, My son has it much rougher than I did in HS... My daughter in JH too.. they have really made it tough IMO... the credits required, the requirements, the testing... wow...

[comradebillyboy]

6. block scheduling is bad for math

i taught math and science on a block schedule for three years. in math the kids need time to absorb the content. double legnth periods are about 4 times the average student's attention span. less content will be covered and lots more time wasted. i hate teaching math on the block. they also need to do math the entire year or they forget everything by the next fall. except for my calculus students, the kids get very restless if lecture goes for more than 20 minutes in math.

[On the Road]

9. Thanks for Your Input, CBB

I was hoping someone here had teaching experience. My instincts were that math was not conducive to double periods.

What grades did you teach?

[central scrutinizer]

11. another problem is math textbooks

Almost every one I have ever seen is written with a 50 minute period in mind - each section of a chapter is a small enough bite of content that can be covered in 20-30 minutes after a warmup and review and still allow a few minutes for the students to start on their homework. With a double period, what do you do? Two sections a day? with double homework? Or do you use manipulatives or lab activities to reinforce the lesson and maybe not cover the entire curriculum in half a year? Block schedule works great for a science course - otherwise it is almost impossible to do a meaningful lab exercise - explain it, set it up, do it, then clean up afterwards.

[Fenris]

8. Yes they are

3 of my high school years were spent in double period schedules. I learned more in one 1:30 minute period than in a week of 45s.

[On the Road]

10. Hi Fenris!

Was the whole schedule double periods? Did staying away from a subject for an extra term make it difficult to remember when you came back? Did some subjects work better than others?

[JohnKleeb]

12. Is this like block scheduling?

I do that and its all right.

[adriennel]

13. two points

I don't have kids but in when I was in graduate school they were consolidating most classes into three-hour blocks once a week, instead of three hourly classes held three times a week. This was done to help students who commute or work full-time. But I have to tell you it is HELL trying to sit in a class for 3 hours straight. One hour is probably too short, three hours is definately too long, now how do we syncronize this with an adolescent's attention span and the demands placed on teachers?

Our local school system is changing Kindergarten from 1/2 day, 5 days a week to a full day of Kindergarten every other day. I thought the reason for having 1/2 day kindergarten was to introduce kids to school and not demand too much from small children. Switching to full-day kindergarten will save the city $ on transportation, which I can understand. But should 4 and 5 year old children attend a full day of school? I know lots of kids already spend lots of time in pre-school or day care, so maybe the 1/2 kindergarten is no longer necessary. But I would prefer 1/2 kindergarten for my kid.

[afraid_of_the_dark]

14. Foreign Language - good idea...

Math - not so good. You have to cover the material twice as fast then, and most kids need time to absorb it.

I'm personally not a big fan of block scheduling, but you're talking to someone with a pretty short attention span.

[tsakshaug]

15. research varies on this

I taught in different schedules.
Teaching science I loved the block. There is time to do labs and other work. I prefer the rotating block and meeting the kids every other day all year. If you do the course in a semester, the length of time between taking similar classes is too long. In theory a kid could take say French this fall and not take the second year of French until winter the next school year.

the district must invest in training for teachers for this to happen. there are many teachers that have been lecturing the same 40 min lectures for years...all they do is do two days of lecture in one period..this is death. The idea of block is so that you can vary instructional strategies during one period.

Look into doing a combo of block and 40 min classes...Math and LOTE on 40 min and other classes in full year block, this seems to work.
Or look into what classes work well in block..science, PE and just block those classes.
It is a good program but needs to be studied to meet the needs of your district.

[Scottie72]

16. Not for these subjects

I would say not for these subjects. Both these subjects depend greatly on previously learned material. If it has been 1/2 year since a stundents last math/foreign language class it is going to take the teacher at least a month to get the students back up to speed.

This idea could work if the student were allowed to move on in the second half of the school to the next higher level.

The only subjects I would see working are more stand alone electives.