Last week in class we talked a little bit about the
advantages and disadvantages of different class lengths and frequencies for
foreign language classes. In high school
I taught 80 minute classes on alternating days, meaning I had one group of
students 3 days a week and the next week I’d have them 2 days a week. I think an 80-minute class in high school is
just too much. It was really
challenging, in both planning and execution.
I would often devote about a half an hour to a game in many classes,
because I couldn’t have the students sitting down for that long, especially my
college-prep freshman. Putting that much
time into a game has its advantages and disadvantages. It means students get really invested in the
game and have enough rounds to really apply their skills; but if students are
not engaged or really trying then it quickly becomes a waste of time. On the weeks in high school when I only saw
students twice, it was really hard to reinforce the concepts we were learning
that week. And on this alternating
schedule, if students didn’t do their homework, they were routinely lost in
class because they just weren’t practicing enough in or out of class.
In Spanish 401 at UNH we have four 50-minute classes a week
(Wednesday off). Although college
students are better equipped to sit for an 80-minute class than my high school
students were, I like this schedule much better. 50 minutes is not a lot and I often run out
of time, but now I feel that I use my time much more wisely. With the online homework, students get a lot
of practice outside of class, so I only do things in class that the students
otherwise couldn’t do alone, or without their peers. If I try to play a game, we usually only can do
so for about 10 minutes, plus I have to explain the directions. Sometimes I would like to have a little bit
more time to devote to games because I honestly believe they are effective
teaching tools. On the whole, though, I
feel it’s an efficient schedule. We plan
401 in 10-minute increments tops, so in theory we are changing the activity
enough to keep students engaged. I do a
lot fewer filler activities this way and I get to see the students 4 times a
week.
What has been everyone else’s experience with class duration
and frequency of foreign language classes?
Do you have a preference for how often and long classes should be?
I have had both experiences. I went to two different high schools, one which had 8 classes a day for 43 minutes each, and the other had 4 classes for 90 minutes. It was a tough transition switching to 90 minute classes everyday, especially with classes I did not like (cough cough, chemistry, cough cough). That being said it was nice because you learned more faster, and all of the topics were reinforced. It also allowed students to go beyond the Spanish 4 level, or to start later and still get 4 years worth of Spanish in. You finished one years worth of Spanish in one semester. At this point in my live a 50 minute class feels really short, but they are a lot easier to plan for. You also have to make sure you are not rushed though. If anything unexpected happens you lose a large portion of your class time. I do like how Exeter has their schedule set up, having some block days, and other shorter days. Then teachers and students get the best of both methods.
ReplyDeleteAs a high school student, I have only had 55 minute periods for all classes, foreign language classes included. At UNH, my grammar classes were 50 minutes and my literature classes were 80 minutes long. I think that when I was learning more grammatical aspects to French, 50 minutes was enough for class time. Anything much longer than that would have likely been too long, and the students would have become disinterested. Obviously when discussing pieces of literature,the class requires more time to think more deeply. As I discussed last week, Exeter high school has three days during the week that operate on a 50 minute class schedule, and the other two days are block days. From a teaching perspective, I enjoy having those two block days because they allow us the time to do activities that we wouldn't have time to do in a normal period.
ReplyDeleteAgree! I think when students have more linguistic ability, they benefit from having a longer class where they can engage topic-based discussions. That's why we teach two days of week for all 700 level courses. For the lower level classes, teachers feel rushed teaching a 50 minute class. I think it's because most classes are large with more than 15 students. It certainly takes more time to carry out activities. I remember that language classes used to be 10-15 students but not anymore :( The key point is how anyone can really learn a foreign language well in a class of 20-25 students. There were 8-10 students in my language classes when I was a student; long time ago …
DeleteI think that the rotating blocks, with two longer 90 minute classes and three normal 50 minute classes provides the best of both worlds. It seems to me that you feel that depending on the circumstances, 90 minutes can be too long, and 50 too short—so a compromise may just be the ticket!
ReplyDelete