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Re: My class period seems short at 45 min!
Posted by Carolyn on 10/10/08

I teach 6th and 7th grade language arts. My classes are blocked
so I get my 7s from 10:25 until 11:05, then homeroom comes in for
15 minutes (my 6s), then a 45 minute lunch, my 6s return for
silent reading at noon, then the 7s come back from 12:30 until
1:12. Then, I get the 6s back until the end of the day at 2:40.

I've learned to portion my day into chunks of teaching, so that I
focus on reading in the first part of the class 5 days a week,
vocabulary on M, W and F during the second half of the block, and
grammar on T and Th during the second half. I try to incorporate
vocabulary work and grammar work into the reading portion of the
class, if the opportunity arises. That way I'm not really short
changing the kids. It is hard to fit everything in during the
week. Even with classes as long as mine, I run out of class time
to complete things. I just carry it over.

I have a question about "completion" points. If the student earns
points for just completing the work, wouldn't those points not be
valid in terms of measuring student understanding? We are not
allowed to give completion points, because everything we grade
has to have a standard assigned to it. Therefore, just "doing the
assignment" is not an option. I put a lot of check marks on
papers when I get them -- I don't grade everything either.

Today, I let the students "grade" each other's essays. I provided
them with the criteria and they just went through and checked the
content to see if it met the criteria. I awarded the points, however.

I am now realizing HOW MUCH stuff needs to be graded in language
arts classes. WOW. Anything I can do to make it easier on me
overall will be done.

On 10/09/08, dm wrote:
> Gosh, after reading the posts replying to this, I should
> thank my lucky stars for 46 minutes!
>
> I've started something new over the last 3 days so we'll see
> if it works. So far so good.
>
> When students walk in, I have the first student pick up all
> the papers from yesterday's assignment. We immediately
> start on the next day's lesson. That takes around 15
> minutes. Then I have them write a number on their paper on
> a scale of 1 to 10 to determine where they're at. Then I
> might do another example if needed. Once they're starting
> on their new assignment, I chug through the papers quick as
> quick can be. By the time I finish correcting, they're
> getting to the tougher problems where they need more
> guidance. The last five minutes I hand back the work and
> guide them on what went wrong on yesterday's assignment.
> Then end of class.
>
> On one hand, I like grading after notes because it cuts out
> repeated and unnecessary questions. But I don't like it
> because we switch gears at the end of class. Like I said...
> 3 days into it, we'll see.
>
> On 10/08/08, RS wrote:
>> Hello
>>
>> I teach middle school math. Our periods are 45 min long. I
>> was curious how long everyone else is working with. Some
>> days I am really moving the class along, yet other days it
>> seems rather tight! The students have 7 periods during the
>> day plus a short study hall before departing.
>>
>> Each class period I use 15 min blocks of time. The first
>> 15 min we correct last night's hw and make any necessary
>> corrections. Then, I teach the next lesson and answer
>> questions for 15 min. The last 15 min I try to reserve as
>> work time for the students(either making corrections from
>> last night's hw or starting the next lesson. This last 15
>> min block I walk around the room and try to answer
>> indivual ques the students might have been shy about
>> asking.
>>
>> I was just curious how long everyone else to work with?


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Posts on this thread, including this one


• My class period seems short at 45 min!, 10/08/08, by RS.
• Re: My class period seems short at 45 min!, 10/09/08, by wig.
• Re: My class period seems short at 45 min!, 10/09/08, by Kim/AR/math.
• Re: My class period seems short at 45 min!, 10/09/08, by Rebecca.
• Re: My class period seems short at 45 min!, 10/09/08, by Julia.
• Re: My class period seems short at 45 min!, 10/09/08, by Ms. Math.
• Re: My class period seems short at 45 min!, 10/09/08, by Zhel.
• Re: My class period seems short at 45 min!, 10/09/08, by mrsd.
• Re: My class period seems short at 45 min!, 10/09/08, by dm.
• Re: Thanks for the feedback!, 10/09/08, by RS.
• Re: My class period seems short at 45 min!, 10/10/08, by Carolyn.