Successful 50 Minute Classes: Guest Post from Maneuvering the Middle

Last week, I began a blog series Successful 50 Minute Classes at my blog Maneuvering the Middle. 

Now, I am by no means an expert, but I will say that after seven years of 50 minute classes, I have found some very successful tips and tricks that keep the class moving and maximizes the instructional time.  

In my previous posts, I discussed how supplies and transitions can really eat away those precious minutes.  Today, I am going to focus on ways to utilize class time in such a way that students who get behind do not dictate the pace of the class.  

  

All fabulous teachers want students to "get it".  We want everyone in the class to fully understand what we are teaching.  We can all relate to that feeling when the lesson went well, no one was confused, everyone was engaged...but more likely than not there are those few kiddos that typically struggle.  We are waiting on them, we have to redirect them, they are sometimes lost from the very beginning.  With only 50 minutes, it is easy to let those students slow down the class.  

Warm Ups/Bell Ringers
This time in class is very valuable and truly supports maximizing the 50 minutes.  Students get started right away.  Typically this time is used as a spiral review or something that would lead into that days lesson.

For students who typically struggle this class time could be used a bit differently.  Somethings I have done or seen done well include:

• pulling a mini small group of students who struggled with the previous days content
• pulling a mini small group of students who you anticipate might struggle 

For example, we are learning how to add fractions with unlike denominators.  This is a new concept and I anticipate that student A, B, and K are going to struggle based on their foundational skills.  While that class is working on the warm up, I might pull those students and quickly have them practice renaming fractions.  I would even share with them, that if they focus on renaming the fractions correctly the rest of the lesson will be much easier to grasp.

Photo Credit

By doing this, I am setting them up for success and giving them something to focus on.  This also gives me a bit of small group time with these students and everyone else is already in the habit of completing the warm up individually.

Seating Charts
Another simple idea that requires just a bit of prep work and no classroom time, is to focus your seating assignments for those students who struggle.  Many of us may already utilize the idea of pairing students - a high student with a lower performing student and so on.  So that when they work in pairs there is a bit of support for your struggler and higher performing students are able to deepen their understanding by reteaching or explaining.  If you have not yet tried this tip, I would highly recommend it!

In addition by moving a few students around, you can maximize your time and movement within the classroom.

The picture above depicts how I could set up my room.  Blue represents my high or medium-high students, green are medium/on level students, yellow medium-low, orange represents low performing. You will notice that students are paired as I mentioned below.  You can also see that by placing the orange and yellow students in one aisle space, I am able to move quickly down that aisle.  So, I am not running from desk to desk answering questions or clarifying their work.

This does not mean that I don't travel to the other side of the room.  

It simply means that I know which aisle I am going to travel down first.  

I do believe that these simple strategies help me to effectively and efficiently use 50 minutes to get the greatest bang for my buck!  I feel that my brain is less scattered and I clearly see that students are more successful and able to master our learning.

Thanks for tuning in...I will be finishing up the Successful 50 Minute Class series at Maneuvering the Middle later this week, so be sure to check out how time to stop side conversations and taking attendance can be avoided.

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