Entry # 12: The Teapot Tempest
That Produced a Good Brew
Should recess, a time to socialize and relax, be a part of every middle
school day? That was the question the school board posed at the conclusion
of their annual goal-setting session. They developed an awesome and worthy
list of accomplishments they wanted to see schools in the district attain.
But then, at the last moment, one final inspiration, much less sweeping
in its impact on student achievement.
Why not a 20-minute break -- recess -- to let students relax during the
school day? A discussion ensued and at least two of the Board members, clearly
in favor of the idea, charged the middle school principals with developing
a description of the "recess" in each school and involving parent
groups in the discussion. How satisfied are parents with the current recess
schedule? In so saying, the Board insinuated that parents and teachers had
not been sufficiently involved in development and review of the daily schedule.
This stung.
So this charge was added to the listing of goals: consider recess as a required
part of every school day at all middle schools. They were talking to me;
the other three middle schools with their 20 minute longer days had something
that passed as down time. The vocal Board members felt that the school day
was too intense and students needed more time to relax. Listening further,
we found that the need for more physical activity during the school day
was not the top reason for their preference. Relief from stress and pressure
was what they were after.
Where would we find the time?
We developed a description of current practice. Teams structured at least
one 20-minute period weekly for outside activity or recess. Basketballs,
footballs, jump ropes are provided, but the most popular activity is "hanging
out." Exploratories were about movement: art, music, physical education.
Students barely touched down during these blocks of activity. Our halls
and classrooms resonated with positive peer chatter. Running to get to the
next class was the biggest problem we saw, and we know that is the natural
gait of a sixth grader.
We began discussions with our PTO, our School Improvement Council (elected
parents), our teacher leadership groups, our student leadership groups.
We reviewed the constraints, saying the time had to come from somewhere:
lengthening the school day was not an option due to bus schedule constraints.
Class time was sacrosanct. The only optional time left was advisory, Channel
One, and the student-produced news show. Lunches were already tight with
20 minutes allotted for each of the six lunch periods.
This is no buttoned-down school where students are expected to be seen and
not heard. We agreed from the beginning to meet the developmental needs
of our students: movement and time to talk were essentials in every class,
every day.
We wanted to see compelling data
We resisted capitulating to the Board's subtly applied pressure without
compelling data on which to base our decision to change a schedule that
we felt was working in the best interest of students, given our constraints.
We took a student survey of after-school activity and found that half of
all students were involved in some sort of after-school program. We kept
track of the discussions at the parent, teacher, and student meetings. Each
group considered constraints and no group was adamant in favor of a change.
Then we hit on the idea of a shadow study: following three students all
day, making notes about their activities, analyzing the anecdotal data,
and drawing some conclusions about the actual experiences of a student in
this school. We found out a great deal and what we learned went far beyond
the original limited scope of our questions.
John Lounsbury,
whose picture hangs in our lobby, came through with a great description
of how to conduct such a study. Students were to be shadowed from their
arrival until they boarded buses at the end of the day. I found parent volunteers;
the attendance clerk randomly selected student names, I took a deep breath,
and the study began.
I continued to hold my breath not knowing what these parents would see.
I hoped they would see students interested and engaged in learning, with
opportunity to move about as they needed; opportunity for informal social
interaction with friends, cared for by teachers who interacted often with
them in orderly classrooms. But neither what I hope for nor what I expect
was guaranteed.
Shadowing students
The three selected students were unique as I expected they would be. The
boy was of the whirling dervish variety who could not have been still if
his life were in danger. The two girls were less physically active but one
decidedly less so than the other. We have two courses that are ability grouped:
one student was in each of the three levels -- grade level, advanced, and
honors. I conducted a follow-up interview with each of the students, which
gave me a context for analyzing their record of their daily activities.
The dervish moved about more than 26 times during the day and was able to
do so without being chastised. There was ample opportunity to move without
creating a disruption. He did, however, have a fairly well developed relationship
with the school nurse whose office is some distance from his classroom.
He found 27 opportunities for social interactions during the day. The two
girls moved about some 12 times during the school day with a similar number
of opportunities for unstructured conversation. The more reticent of the
two drank no liquids during the school day nor did she use the restroom.
That's a problem we need to think about, for those students too shy to ask
or too worried to risk being late.
The observers noted that students appeared to be comfortable and under no
great stress. They did not document nor comment upon the great strain our
Board perceived our students to endure. Instead, they saw students who were
interested and actively involved throughout the day. Teachers cared about
children and showed it. Each of the three children experienced the interaction
with an adult at least ten times during the school day. I asked observers
to watch for this after reading a study of the number of students who go
through an entire day with no adult speaking to them.
The parents were exhausted at the end of the day and marveled at the energy
a school day required. They praised the quality of teaching they saw and
the order in the classroom. They were amazed at the sophisticated level
of the learning -- commenting that they had not learned much of the material
they saw presented until high school or even in college.
These parents have become our strongest champions and if I ever need an
outside testimonial, I now have these parents as resources. One of my observers
was a member of the community who had no children in school. She was the
most impressed of all.
Lessons learned from the shadow study
Here are the lessons I take away from this venture into shadowing:
-- Do that which scares you even if it is scary: the risk is worth it.
-- Good can come from what you think is bad.
-- Honest evaluation is the path to improvement.
-- It is possible to look as good as you would like to look.
From another gathering of data (student representatives from each team time
kept a two-week log of advisory activities), we learned that most teachers
elected to start class instruction early or to have a sustained silent reading
or study period during this every-other-day time. We will have to do something
different to strengthen our advisory program. Talks are underway.
Will we have a 20-minute recess next year? Unknown at this time. We will
develop schedules with and without the 20-minute break and discuss these
options with our various groups in the next month. This we will consider
side-by-side with the data we have collected, and we hope a consensus will
develop. Then we go back to the School Board to present them with our schedule
and proof that we involved parents -- as if our parents would have it any
other way.
Through this process, we learned a great deal about ourselves and raised
more questions than ever about things we need to consider in our efforts
to continuously improve upon the experiences students have in our building.
The time was not wasted.
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