After a great long block yesterday in my Algebra 2 class followed by an inspiring meeting with my Math Department colleagues, I’m thinking a lot about how we do (and should) use our long blocks. Yesterday, during our long block we spent 80 minutes on one problem, which is linked here. I organized the class as follows:
- 0-20 minutes: Students worked in groups and were not allowed to ask me (or any other group) questions. It’s during this time that the students need to show grit, perseverance and confidence in their ability to handle new and challenging tasks, on their own and without me showing them the way. Here are two videos showing what this looked like yesterday:
- 20-30 mins: I opened the class to public questions to me, meaning I would take questions and provide feedback with everyone listening. The rules were that the questions had to be specific, (i.e. not “I don’t know how to start this”) but not so specific that they gave away the answer (i.e. not “This is what we did. Is it right?”). My feedback was strategically reflective during this time. If they asked, “Do we need to make equations?” I answered, “What do you think?” “What might the variables be?” “How many equations might we need?” “What might they represent?”
- 30-40 mins: Another period of time to work in groups without any help from me. It’s during this time that they should reflect and think critically about the feedback I’ve given them.
- 40-80 mins: I circulate and offer help and feedback to the groups individually until they finish the problem.
In all reality, I could use 1.5-2 hours to complete a problem like this really well. Toward the end, it becomes a mad dash to complete the problem. The groups are active, spirited and the adrenaline is running. To make sure they really understand the problem, I wish I could give them more space to come to an understanding on their own but as the period comes to a close I end up giving more help than I’d like because I want them to have the satisfaction of completing the problem and finishing the task.
I share this experience because, after our Math discussion yesterday, I’m thinking a lot about how we use these long blocks. I know that many of my colleagues like to use the long blocks to give tests, and I understand the appeal: there’s more time for students to work and more time to give a longer test (i.e. more questions/variability in what we ask). But, I wonder how this reflects our recent discussions about making our math teaching less focused on discrete, right/wrong answer tasks and more focused on larger, open-ended tasks that require critical thinking, innovation, grit and perseverance. What does this say about our priorities if we devote our longest class period to an assessment? Could we (should we) commit as a department to devote our long blocks to more open-ended tasks?
I know the first reason to say “No” to this question is time, and that is a real concern. The problem that I describe above could have been taught by me in about 15 minutes, if I had used a traditional format of me demonstrating the answer on the board. Instead I chose to spend more than five times that amount of class time because I believe that teaching skills is a worthwhile investment and if I have to sacrifice some content later, I can live with that. In other words, at the end of my course, I want my students to have grown in their critical thinking skills, their problem-solving skills, their ability to collaborate and their understanding that math is all about modeling the world around them. If focusing on this means I don’t get to Conic Sections or Coordinate Geometry, that is a sacrifice I’m willing to make because I believe they are better served by learning and practicing skills than by learning content. I am aware that not everyone shares this view. And, I am aware that this becomes really difficult when we start to talk about AP courses, or even sequential courses, where skipping content could have real consequences.
I wonder how other departments make use of their long blocks. How many of us only assess in a long block? How many of us give double lessons in a long block as a way to keep our sections together (or simply as a way to cover all of the content of our courses)? In what ways can we leverage these extended periods of time to do the 21st century teaching and learning that we keep talking about?