Working with 100 minute maths lessons.
Prepared by Matthew Rose May 2009
Some first thoughts on the effect of teaching maths in 100 minute lessons
Advantages
Some topics are fragmented by teaching in small
chunks so 100 minutes will allow them to be
taught more efficiently
Less wasted set up and pack up time
Chance to rearrange furniture etc without wasting
too much of the lesson time available
Chance to do extended projects, opportunity to
use Bowland type resources (need good planning
still)
Practise skills that we moan that they are weak at
– the MPA list provides some of these but
anecdotally: being resilient, tackling slightly
different problems, researching, proving,
communicating
Rich tasks need a longer time span to develop
the ideas and the thinking: “Always, sometimes,
never”, card sorts
Brain gym ideas could be used to improve
students ability to deal with long lessons and to
improve learning in general
Less movement around the school
Break at the end of every lesson means naughty
ones can be detained!
Opportunity for more practical activities
Disadvantages
100 minutes is a long time to focus on one
subject.
Lower ability, younger, more challenging students
are likely to find this time span even harder to
deal with.
Time consuming in planning for such a long time.
Fewer opportunities in the week to see students.
Longer time between lessons means more
forgotten.
Homework rotation of set, collect, mark and
return could be extended or harder to manage.
Students may find change in style of lessons
difficult to adapt to - may improve in time.
Potential increase in behavioural issues.
Teachers need training and support in delivering
this type of lesson before the start of the year.
Disaffection with subject if experience is negative
– affect on results and take up in Y12?
What some other teachers have said:
I'm working in a school which is moving back from 100 min lessons to 1 hour lessons this year. thank
goodness is all I can say.
100 mins is far too long for the vast majority of students across the age ranges. It rarely works
effectively.
We've found that much of the time is easily wasted - many teach a 1 hour lesson over 100 mins, it's
just drawn out a lot longer.
We've tried a couple of strategies:
20 min starters and 20 min plenaries to try and balance the lesson a bit more
30 mins numeracy at the beginning of every lesson
2 x 50 min sessions
You will only get about an hour of useful time out of the lesson. Try and break it up into at least four or
five sections. You can try to get some individual and paired work into your main section too (a
worksheet and a card sort for example) and there's usually plenty of time for this. It's quite good for
extended activities (functional, Bowland type things).
Your planning will need to be really good and have plenty of things as time fillers/puzzles to keep
them going if they finish well ahead of others.
I'm glad we're going back - too many behaviour/concentration issues, homework needed setting every
lesson, lack of regularity of lessons for the most part but great if you had a naff class!
I have found it best to split it into two entirely separate lessons to avoid the feeling of spreading out
one lesson's worth of work.
I regularly try to take the group into an ICT room for the second 50 minutes to look at applying what
they have just learnt in a different format. Otherwise I finish up one topic in the first 50 minutes and
move on to something new for the last 50 minutes to give them more variety.
Some of the activities from the Improving Learning in Mathematics packs work well over 2 lessons.
They may be good for a 100 minute lesson.
You could use the time to include investigations and explanations all rolled into one. I have developed
a magic lesson with a work book I would be happy to let you have, my email is
antonybradshaw111@btinternet.com. In addition to this you could get the class to work in groups and
demonstrate to the rest of the class their findings. History of mathematics is also another area.
Umm I am also starting at a school in September which uses 100 min lessons. I think the key idea
here is that the momentum needs to be maintained throughout the lesson. The main challenge I think
is to carry out a mind shift in terms of how lessons are planned and prepared for. It requires a
gradual mind shift using rich tasks that allow the students to develop more thinking approaches to
their maths and staff to be able to think more about questioning and discussing the maths rather than
preparing a list of questions to work through.
Bowland will be useful but in my experience needs a great deal of differentiation to make the best use
of it. NRICH has some fantastic ideas, however staff may be uneasy at basing lessons around these
ideas entirely and letting go.
I found I was able to "cover" more content, since much of that time spent changing classes, doing
start-up procedures, reminding everyone what we were doing yesterday, etc. was now devoted to
learning time.
We all are assigning just as much homework as we ever did, but the kids' perception is that there is
less homework, because they don't have homework every night in every class. They also told us it's
easier to concentrate if you don't have every class every day. And then there were a few who said it
was nice not to have to see every teacher every day. (I'm sure they didn't mean me!)
Parents liked the idea of more time spent on learning and praised the opportunity for their kids to
learn time management. Kids (well, most of them) learned quickly that if they had a "light night" they
could work on something due a couple of days later and even out their work load.
The objections raised by kids who did not like this schedule were that sometimes they got bored in a
longer class (math was most often mentioned -whew, glad it wasn't Humanities, my area!)
I really love blocks and I even teach math (usually the subject regarded as the one subject that
shouldn't be blocked). I have the time to do all the hands-on activities I have always wanted to do,
conduct the experiments and surveys I want to, delve into how the ancients came up with all the rules
for math that they did, etc.
I teach 8th grade math and I love the block days! It gives me time to use all the activities that bring the
skills into the real world. The kids are up and out of their seats doing surveys, measuring various
objects, working on projects, etc. It takes extra time and extra thought to plan things that are relevant
to the current chapter we are on in the text, but it is a blast! My students have a better grasp of the
skills and retain them longer because they actually used them in the block activities.
A word of caution though, we are not getting the breadth of coverage. It is the standard argument, do
you want "depth" or "breadth". After the experiences I have had this year, I will go with in-depth
understanding of fewer things over exposure to a lot but understanding little!
My school has 6 x 50 minute lessons. Subjects like Science and PE can have doubles and there is
more flexibility within the timetable. With maths, we specifically don't have double lessons at KS3 or 4
as little and often would appear to be the key rather then trying to get them to concentrate for an
extended period, and overload them with too much information. They need time to absorb and then
review the next day.
100 minute lessons are fine, BUT you cannot "wing" a 100 minute lesson - so you have to have good
schemes and resources.
Yeah, you need a variety of teaching and learning styles. Do not introduce the topic or lesson and
leave it for the whole 100 minutes, split it and treat it like 2 50 minute lessons.
I tend to divide into three for younger groups, although I sometimes find if they're really into something
they can take the longer lesson time no bother. I think it lessens the stress of having 6 or more
different subjects, different teachers with different expectations and as someone else said all that
rushing about between classes from one end of the school to another.
Brilliant for Science and creative subjects like English, you get loads done and of course can break it
up into "mini"lessons. Less movement around the school so better for order as well.
Putting my parent hat on... My Yr 8 child is in a school where they have 3X100 minute lessons a day
on a fortnightly timetable, studying the condensed KS3 curriculum. She has made fantastic strides in
the subjects that she enjoys most- English, history, science, geography and PE. Progress in other
subjects has been at the expected level, but to block the gap of subjects that are only taught once per
fortnight, the children are asked to research something for the next lesson. This seems to ensure that
there is a 2 week space between learning in any particular subject.
Teacher friends at the school generally seem to like it.
I like longer lessons. I've taught in schools with 40 minute, 50 - 60 minute and 80 minute lessons, with
the 50ish minutes often coming in doubles. You can get extended writing done in one lesson rather
than carrying over a couple of days where kids forget what their train of thought. They also get a great
sense of achievement from producing something in one period rather than have it feel like it drags on
over three or four ("Are we still doing this, Miss?). Longer lessons also give you a bit more leeway to
split the lesson into two or three sections and make each activity meaningful rather than just have five
minutes for something.
But the bigger issues are inevitably the more challenging ones. From September we’re introducing a
three-period day. Rather than lessons we will talk of learning sessions, each of 100 minutes. The
advantages are significant and well-tested: less preparation for teacher each day; less for students to
carry into school; every session ends with a break, rather than a manic scramble to the next lesson;
school will be a calmer, less frenetic place as movement across the site is reduced.
Source: TES community chat room
Practical advice:
MANAGEMENT OF LEARNING AND DIFFERENTIATION
The management of learning for a range of individual differences involves three main features:
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Space
Time
People
SPACE
How the learning setting is organised affects how and what learning takes place.
Some setting arrangements are more likely to promote activity and variety than others,
With this in mind, it is a useful exercise to :
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Look at the setting you use
Try out different forms of management of furniture and resources such as
arranging seating in U shapes so that no pupils are sitting with their back to the
teacher
Record the impact that such changes make
Compare them with those made by colleagues.
Some pupils with SEN may require help in adjusting to some of the more independent learnercentred styles of working. They may have had a long experience of being dependent on adults to
make decisions, direct activities and sort out problems.
As a result, all kinds of difficulties can arise such as:
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Finding the instructions
Understanding the instructions
Finding the correct worksheets
Organising the worksheets
Doing the activities in the correct order etc
Pupils with SEN can be helped in this respect if you establish a well worked routine which can be
followed (but not slavishly) which can help the pupils.
Here are some examples of areas where such routines can be followed:
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Collecting necessary resources
Organising resources
Carrying out tasks
Checking against a checklist that the task is completed
Carrying out tasks with other pupils
Clearing away
Recording progress through the tasks
TIME
Pupils with LD (learning difficulties) benefit from engaging in a variety of activities within a single
session to help them sustain concentration.
However two problems arise in relation to the timing of the lesson:How long should each part of the lesson last?
How can the variation in speed of work by individual pupils be catered for?
Length:
The length of each part of the lesson will depend on factors such as:
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the total length of that lesson
the learning objectives and
the pupil's level of competence
the pupil's mood and the time of day
(Concentration may be better in the morning than in the afternoon. Some pupils may find it difficult to
settle down on Monday mornings after the week-end or following certain lessons which the pupils
have attended immediately prior to your lesson Hot, stuffy classrooms can be soporific while rainy
days may mean that the pupils have been bunched up in cloakrooms all through the lunch hour
instead of running off their excess energy in the open air)
Variety:
It is important to ensure that there are opportunities for learners to change activities e.g. from
listening to speaking, reading or writing.
It is also important to allow time for pupils to sit and discuss what they have achieved
Progress and content:
As each lesson progresses, pupils will complete their work at different points because not all
learners work at the same rate.
Coping with the pupil who always finishes first and the pupil who never seems to finish anything can
be equally difficult.
Techniques such as drawing up individual work programmes, which allow pupils to work through
a series of activities and assignments at his/her own pace can help overcome this problem.
However, in certain instances, this may be neither appropriate nor possible, and in such cases the
following suggestions may prove helpful:-
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Set one or two tasks that you know everyone will complete by the end of the session.
This helps to prevent the feelings of failure engendered in pupils who never manage to complete
a piece of work
Match pupils according to the pace of their work - in some cases a faster worker can help
a slower one. On the other hand, you may prefer homogenous groupings, which allow groups to
table more work
Be clear about your teaching/learning objectives as these will help you focus on the
content and timing of the session
Have a range of activities, related to the subject matter, available for pupils who tend to
finish early. This gives them something to get on with and prevents them from distracting others
who are still working
Examples include:
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Quizzes
Word searches and crosswords
Matching/grouping/sorting activities
There are some pupils who progress through the work relatively slowly but who are relatively able.
Others, on the contrary, always appear to complete tasks relatively quickly but whose standard of
achievement is poor.
Needless to say that the two categories of learner require different strategies:
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Encourage the first group to time their work against the clock
The second group should be asked to evaluate their work, especially written work, in terms of
presentation and how it could be improved
Invite them to re-draft if they wish while providing strong arguments in favour of the importance
of good presentation such as using the work for a classroom display etc.
Do not be depressed if individual pupils never seem to get through the work you have planned. It is
better to have too much rather than too little, and there is always the next time.
PEOPLE
Often pupils with LD also demonstrate behavioural and social difficulties (BS). Indeed, these two
forms of difficulties are often interconnected. In such instances, it is often difficult to ascertain which
form of difficulty is the cause and which are the effects.
In many cases the problems that pupils demonstrate in their patterns of behaviour are
generated by difficulties experienced in learning. The following may help identify BS problems
and may suggest strategies for coping with or avoiding difficulties.
General classroom management strategies:
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Tell the pupils what you are going to do at the beginning of the lesson so that they are
aware of the overall pattern of the session
Start from what is known and familiar and gradually introduce new material
Ensure that pupils understand what they are being asked to do as frustration can lead to
violent and aggressive behaviour
Avoid confronting individual pupils in front of each other. Take pupils to one side,
preferably a quiet room, or suggest you talk later or at the end of the lesson
Do not expect all pupils to concentrate all of the time: their concentration span may be
quite limited. Vary the tone and pitch of your voice and avoid spending too long using one method of
input or one activity. Find ways of stimulating curiosity and interest
Here are examples of activities which can give rise to problems if they to go on for too
long:
1. Teacher centred whole class activities such as presenting new language, explaining activities,
imitation drills etc. can be the source of unrest if they go on for too long. Try to get pupils involved in a
task as effectively and efficiently as possible so that you are not having to maintain their attention or
concentration purely though exercising your authority over the class.
2. Oral, pair or group activities should be carefully structured and planned with specific aims and
outcomes made explicit to the pupils as well as setting a specific time limit for completion (often no
more than a few minutes).
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Set realistic targets and remember to give encouragement and to give praise when a
target is reached. It may be an achievement for one pupil to contribute to a discussion and for
another to stick to the subject
Establish ground rules - these can be set through discussion with the whole group. Ask them
to consider what behaviour they find irritating and how it can best be coped with. Let them come up
with 3 or 4 basic rules of classroom behaviour
Try to stand back from a situation and decide how far a particular behaviour that is
worrying you actually matters. If the rest of the group appear to be undisturbed then it may be best
to leave well alone
Have plenty of back-up material available for pupils who finish assignments quickly
Gauge the mood of the group - if they appear particularly restless or high-spirited, you may
need to alter what you had planned to do by using more formal activities which require a limited
amount of classroom movement. Such formal activities are useful ways of defusing situations before
they blow up or calming things down before going on to a more stimulating and active task
Source: http://www.aber.ac.uk/~mflwww/DiffSEN/diflearn3.html
One brief example:
A desire to increase learning time, use a wider range of teaching styles and improve the use of
resources led Greensward Academy in Essex to move to a school day of three 100-minute lessons.
This structure, which has been in place since September 2002, has resulted in noticeable benefits for
both staff and students.
As less time is spent moving between lessons and starting and finishing lessons, learning time is
increased. The longer sessions provide time for students to approach tasks in a more investigative
way, something the academy has found to be particularly valuable for practical lessons and workrelated courses.
Teachers have found that longer lessons have encouraged them to use a wider range of teaching
and learning styles. As one teacher explains, ‘I need to make 100-minute lessons more stimulating to
keep students’ attention. This has made me use a wider variety of strategies in my teaching.’
Time is also available to develop students’ independent learning and thinking skills and assessment
approaches have changed. ‘We now have time in lessons to really explore assessment for learning,’
says a subject leader. ‘Peer, self and group assessment opportunities are far easier to create.’
Staff and students benefit
Examination results have improved, most noticeably post-16 and in science, and the academy
believes this can be attributed to the longer lessons. Lesson observations conducted internally found
that teaching and learning is a strength of the academy and the Ofsted report of April 2008 found
overall teaching and learning to be ‘outstanding’.
The academy believes the key to making the process work is high-quality continuing professional
development. At the beginning, staff were concerned that the change would bring more work. But
they have commented that they have found ‘planning for three lessons less time consuming than
planning for five lessons each day’. They have also appreciated how they have ‘developed as
teachers as a result of this process’.
Source: http://www.qca.org.uk/qca_20909.aspx
Another example:
We’re now in the thick of detailed planning for a transition to 100-minute learning session (we’ll
dispense with the term ‘lessons’); assessing the resourcing implications; driving the agenda on
learning styles, pace and variety of tasks; and creating new opportunities for genuinely flexible
learning pathways. At the end of the process we ought to see a range of routes for different student
populations, the timetabling made simpler by the simplified school day. Some students will continue
to study ten GCSEs; others will have a reduced GCSE diet with a day or two following specialist
courses at our neighbouring FE college; others will take fast-track courses, including possibly, early
AS modules.
More interesting than course content is learning style. We are developing a new guidance
programme which will give students a number of options. In due course we anticipate that some
students will opt for a delivery model that might give them an initial lecture in a group of, say, 100 at
the start of a module; then they’ll be have independent study time to research and develop their
assignment; then they’ll attend a seminar to present their findings. Some students will earn, in other
words, the right to a mature, independent approach to supported self-study based on their track
record. What could be more motivating, or better as a stepping stone to sixth form and university
study?
Source: http://www.geoffbarton.co.uk/files/Managing_Schools_Today/3-Leading_Change.pdf