ELLEN
BERG
Diary #22
The
Link Between Time
and Teacher Expectations
Timing really is everything.
My husband and I were reminiscing about our high school and early childhood days this week, and we figured out his band was the house band for a very popular underage club in my neighborhood. If my parents had been less protective and had let me go to the club, we would have probably met 17 years ago. Not so good. Seventeen years ago I was a Madonna and Top-40 preppie, while my husband was a punk and new-wave rebel. Oil and water, a relationship that would be doomed before it even started. Seventeen years later, however, after many life experiences that helped shape and mature us, it works. The same two people, and all it took was time. Timing is something that is so key in our classrooms, yet it is an aspect of my practice that seems hazy and elusive. I still cannot gauge how long a task will -- or should -- take, still struggle with "wait time," still grapple with the pacing of concepts. It is such an important concept, yet I do not remember any real discussion of it in my college courses. My classes have just finished up on jigsaw groups with six different versions of Cinderella. It took them much longer to read the stories than I anticipated (two full class periods), so they ended up with less time to meet with their jigsaw groups to compare stories and design a rubric for a "Cinderella" story. I worried about cutting their time short, but I needn't have. I actually got better results.I have the tendency to err in the direction of more rather than less time. I worry that my students will not have enough time to process information and do quality work, and so I extend the time in class. Good, right? In theory, sure, but in practice, I am not so sure.
My students have become accustomed to the extensions, and I think they take a more leisurely pace because of it. I vow to stick to my schedule, but at the end of a class full of interruptions and less-than feverish concentration, I end up giving them another class period.
This time, however, I stuck to my plan. I gave them two class periods to meet with their jigsaw groups, write their rubrics, and prepare their presentations. Even as they whined that there was not enough time and beamed shining puppy dog eyes up at me, I stayed my ground and told them, "Then I guess you had better make the most of this time."Mean ol' Mrs. Berg!
A very interesting thing happened. Students began scolding off-task group members. "You'd better get on task! We've only got 30 minutes left!" Tasks were delegated, students returned to the text to check facts, and the work got done -- and done well -- on time. We are now ready to move on to the next task on Monday.
Students felt no sense of urgency
I think timing is linked with teacher expectations. I was constantly revising my expectations concerning time, so my students learned that our tasks were not urgent, that they could take whatever time they needed, or wanted. Because there was no sense of urgency, I think they may also have decided whatever we were doing was also not very important. Important tasks take time, but they also take focused attention. Much of what is discussed concerning time in education circles is about wait time after asking students questions. Cutting time short sends the message that students are not accountable for the information or they are not able to answer. I think what we do with the time for tasks sends similar messages. This time stuff is not easy, but it is becoming clear to me I need to give it a lot more thought as I plan. Even now I am trying to decide how much time my students realistically need in order to complete the next task: writing and performing a play, rap or song, or writing a short story for a modern-day Cinderella story using the rubrics they created last week. Is a week too much? Too little? How do I know? Only time will tell...
