PRO Block schedule
November 10, 2016
Working through all six periods in one day can be exhausting for many students. Knowing that there there is a project due for history, three hours of reading for English and an essay on why Andrew Jackson was a controversial president for history can be overwhelming. Reducing the number of classes students have to go through in one day be an immense relief on the busy lives of students.
Whether it is the alternate day scheduling, the 4×4 semester plan, where students meet for roughly four 90 minute classes every quarter, or the trimester plan, all forms of block scheduling help to condense information and give more time to both the instructor and the student.
What comes with a longer period is longer instruction time. Since block schedule classes are significantly lengthier than the typical six period timed classes, teachers have more time to teach and go over previous material. If the students do not understand the way the lesson is taught the first time, there is enough time for the teacher to try and explain the material in another way.
Longer class time allows for more in depth analysis of material, and it makes it easier for teachers to incorporate different activities that they may not have time for in a traditional schedule. In the alternate day scheduling, the number of students a teacher sees in one day limited, making it easier on the teacher by having about three classes to teach in one day.
For students, longer class time means that they have more time to absorb the info they are taught and can ask the teacher for further help if necessary. Students are more engaged in class since they are focused on a single subject over a long period of time rather than switching between class to class. The increased focused and longer instruction time increases the likelihood that a student absorbs and recalls the information that they were taught, according to a study at Brown University.
Students who focus on fewer subjects in one day can devote themselves to learning three or four lessons in comparison to six or seven. For high school students, having to concentrate on multiple different subjects can be challenging when burdened by extra curriculars and other outside activities. Without having to deal with the pressure of having tons of homework and numerous tests, students would have more time to relax and carefully study the material.
The goal of block scheduling is to try and relieve some tension from the bustling lives of high school students. Whether it is because they are able to actually understand the calculus lesson that day or because the difference between endothermic and exothermic reactions were drilled into students’ heads, longer lessons will bring several benefits for students.
