Chapter 9: Planning for Block Scheduling

Chapter 9: Planning for Block Scheduling
This chapter dealt with trying to help teachers effectively plan out an eighty minute class which is common when in a block schedule. The chapter outlines important parts of forming a good lesson plan for you class. It starts off by making sure that you focus on your objectives, namely the things that you want your students to be able to do once the class is finished. For instance, if you are teaching a class on fractions, an objective could be for students to understand the two parts of a fraction. The chapter also talks about the importance of both formative assessment, assessment on progress, and summative assessment, can the students do the work, and do they understand the materials. A more interesting topic that is brought up at the very end is how to deal with student absences. It is difficult for a student to make up work when he or she misses a class in a block schedule because the class meets every other day. The chapter offers a couple suggestions to this problem; one is to start off each class with a review of the previous class information; another idea is to have teachers stay after school two or three times a week; or another one is to have one day a week where there is no block schedule, and every class meets that day.
Most of the information covered in this chapter I already had covered in practicum. Things such as the importance of backwards planning, or planning that starts with what you want your students to learn, the need to do both formative and summative assessment, and making sure that your lessons connect with students through their interests and their learning styles. Backwards planning is great because it helps the teacher realize what the big picture ideas and concepts are and then it is easier to plan instruction in order to reach those goals. The one thing that I did not completely agree with was how the argument was for block scheduling and against “all classes every day”. My high school did not use a block schedule, so I had six classes every day and was responsible for six classes worth of homework on a given night. It was a lot of work and it was hard at times to deal with, but I felt it prepared me for college more than a block schedule would. Obviously, the block will prepare you for how college is set up from a schedule standpoint, but I don’t think that it really helps to prepare you for the work load. Once I have the chance to teach in a block schedule, I might have changed my mind on what schedule is more effective.