Two years ago I wrote a reflective post about how we had reconsidered timetabling to accommodate a Learning Community and collaboration. I’m pleased to say a lot has changed since then. There have been some challenges, but from this teacher’s perspective, the pros outweigh the cons. I hope these ideas help your school community avoid some of the pitfalls we’ve encountered.
Rethink the timetable. Our school took a big risk with this and reworked the timetable to give community teachers and specialists large chunks of time to work collaboratively. In the revised timetable, all students are in the grade level spaces at the same time or are with specialist teachers at the same time. Though some schools already use a similar timetable method, but for our setting–it was completely new.
During the first big iteration of Learning Communities, we had a session with the brilliant Steve Barkley. He was tasked at coaching us through some of our biggest hiccups: timetables and teaming amongst them. In this session, there was a mic-drop moment when Steve said, “When the instruction is driving the schedule rather than the schedule driving instruction, that’s the best schedule.”
So that’s just what we did. We threw out our old timetable and were responsive to students’ needs and let learning drive the timetable. Noticing that our students didn’t have enough time to learn and practice in small 40 minute instructional chunks (which really become 35 minutes by the time they get their materials and are ready for learning), we merged the schedule into blocks with 60-80 minutes of instructional (read: practice) time. This tweak has had a great impact on student learning as we deliberately go slow to go fast. After an impactful mini-lesson, students have time for practice, direct teacher support or intervention. Because of the extended block schedule, teachers can wrap up lessons with a thoughtful reflection (or exit-ticket) to clarify misconceptions or gain formative data for next steps. The block schedule also utilizes the natural breaks in the timetable (see our current iteration below).
Nina Triado and I reflect on the timetabling rethink with Steve on his “Steve Barkley Ponders Aloud” podcast on Building PLC (Team) Effectiveness (starts at 18:00).
Benefits for classroom teachers: All teachers now have approximately 110 minutes a day (40 for languages + 70 for a combination of Design, Performing Arts, Physical Education, Design, or Visual Arts) to co-plan, discuss student learning, and host workshares, unpack or reflect on units, etc. Teachers are always complaining that there is not enough time in the day/week to get things done–revising the timetable allows for time!
Another positive to this timetable is the amount of contact time students get in a subject. A few years ago, we did the math and reflected on how many minutes the students were actually “learning” in a 40-minute lesson. If you subtract the number of minutes it takes for students to get prepared for an academic lesson and then pack-up materials to reset for the next lesson, a teacher has approximately 30-minutes of actual instruction time. With a 5-10 minutes mini-lesson to kick things off, a student has between 20 and 25 minutes of practice time in which to read and write, practice math, or inquire further. In a block schedule, the independent practice time is more than doubled.
Cons for classroom teachers: Long blocks of time mean you cannot get to every subject every day. Spiral learning and daily practice is lost in lieu of slow and deliberate instruction and practice. Another con to a block schedule is absenteeism. If math is scheduled on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for the week, a 1-day absence can result in 25% lost instruction time as opposed to 20% if taught daily.
Benefit for specialist teachers: Since all of the students go to specialist classes together, teachers can collaborate in new ways. PE teachers have pulled out small groups (from different classes that are scheduled simultaneously for extra practice, reinforcement, or advanced lessons). Visual Arts teachers have more space for different groups of students to work at their own pace or with different mediums. Performing Arts teachers have regrouped students by specialized interests allowing some students to work on instruments while others work on performance or dance. In Design, teachers have merged groups together to ideate their design project in conjunction with another student, getting and giving feedback for the next iteration of their work. In some situations, specialist teachers have the opportunity to collaborate with one another for transdiciplinary learning or for extended sessions with a particular group of learners.
Cons for specialist teachers: One of the biggest pieces of feedback included the challenge of teaching students in an age group that you are not trained to teach. For instance, a PE teacher who specialized in working with students in grades 3-5 would, in the new timetable, teach students in grades KG, 3, and 5. This may not even be an option in most schools.
How WE use our timetable: In many of these posts, I share about how we collaborate as a team to construct and share learning engagements across the community. But one question that has come up again and again is, “What is everyone doing?” so I’ve downloaded a few of our weekly timetables so you can see what it looks like in the planning stage (with all the sticky-notes), in a final-plan, and then I’ve included a set of community slides so you can see what the week looks like for all teachers. For more information on the planning that goes on behind the scenes, check out the post about our team’s non-negotiables.
Here is an overview of what our team’s weekly planner looks like:
And here is an example of our weekly community slides which are shared with all teachers.
When the time timetable allows for planning and collaboration, the possibilities are endless.
Any mic drop moments for you? Can any of this help you and your team?
Angela's Village 