Long Hours Of School Research Paper

What is your least favorite class, the one you dread most? Picture yourself walking into that class, taking a seat, and watching the clock move slowly as you suffer through the next 90 minutes. Yes, you read that correctly. Imagine being stuck in your least favorite class for an hour and a half! This is a reality that many high school students experience every day. It is block scheduling. “Unlike traditional bell schedules - which typically comprise six to eight class periods per day, lasting anywhere from 45 to 60 minutes - block schedules contain just four daily class periods, with each one lasting an average of 90 minutes” (Block Scheduling in Schools 1). Although designed to increase student achievement, block schedules carry a number of disadvantages that make them an inadequate method for offering high school students a successful learning environment. Despite its few benefits, block scheduling works in direct conflict with most human attention spans, creates more scheduling problems than it solves, and lacks any solid evidence of improving student learning. In a world where educational practices come and go, block scheduling is a fad that should never have arrived in the first place.

Sommerfeld, Meg. "More and More Schools Putting Block Scheduling to Test of Time." Education Week. N.p., 02 May 2016. Web. 24 Mar.

Eyes watching the clock, praying it could move faster. The students are full of joy when the bell finally rings. Only to wake up tomorrow to repeat it over again. Some teachers and students want to go to block scheduling for the upcoming school year. Having Advanced Composition in either of the block schedules has its advantages and disadvantages.

One of these many benefits is scheduling. In the article, “Going to School Year-Round”, it states, “...students in most American year-round school districts spend the same amount of days in class as

According to a U.S. News report, the top two schools in California are Whitney High School and Stockton Collegiate International Secondary School. When I looked over their schedules, I found that both of these schools follow a block schedule and, while it may seem like a distant goal, these schools represent the possible advancement of the LCHS district if given the opportunity to explore the block schedule. Dr. Nesa Sasser of the Hearst Newspaper, recently wrote an article about the benefits and downfalls of the block schedule. She wrote that, by starting a block period schedule, teachers will be able to plan lessons more effectively, connect with their students on a deeper level, and there will be better time management. During block periods, teachers become less limited in how they plan their lesson. They are able to go in depth about concepts that are important and are given time to give examples to further the students’ comprehension of these topics. Using these examples, teachers are then able to see where the class is falling short, and reteach confusing lessons, allowing for a greater understanding of the overall subject. By decreasing the amount of classes per day, students would then be able to focus on the homework they are given for their next classes, reducing the amount of homework they have to complete and the information that needs to be learned for that specific night. Students will also be able to go to sleep earlier, increasing overall health and focus during class, providing long term

An hour delay may affect availability of a ride to school and back home. Despite this disadvantage, delaying has many positive contributions. Delaying classes to a later time has a positive influence on students. Once students have an extra hour of sleep, their energy levels and mental health will improve. As supported by Center4Research, sleep researchers have found “most adolescents and adults need 9 or more hours of sleep, and our

At WHS, each teacher teaches five classes and has one duty period. With the block scheduling, every teacher has one day where they teach three classes and have one prep period. The other day, they have two classes, a duty, and a prep period. Last year, my mentor and I email the staff about their preference for the second semester duty. I took into account these preferences and their free periods when making the schedule. When I created the duty schedule with her last year, I found that odd days have more academic instruction and that there are significantly more teachers with lighter instructional loads on even days, causing scheduling difficulty for having a good number of teachers on hall duty on odd days.

Many schools are now organizing school day schedules to maximize instructional time and minimize non-instructional time, such as recess (Pellegrini & Bohn, 2005). Schools made this shift in response to increased state testing and the associated pressures of funding. Some also believe that the shift to more instructional time and less non-instructional time was worsened with the adoption of Common Core standards in elementary schools. However, this may not be the best move for schools or for long-term student success.

In the article “Schools scrutinize block scheduling” Groves (2015) addresses the effects of block scheduling in Alamance-Burlington School System. He claims that implementing block schedules did not help this school system, and in fact has been detrimental to the students. Groves (2015) argues that before changing student schedules, enough research should be completed to determine whether this change will be helpful. With a traditional schedule, he says, students can slowly learn the information, instead of cram it in all at once. He believes that teachers and students should have a say in which schedule the school adopts. Groves (2015) concludes that block scheduling is an unnatural, ineffective way for students to learn.

The bell rang and we exited our English class at Floyd County High School (FCHS.) We were so overwhelmed with the work overload from the abundance of classes we had in one day, the miniscule amount of time in each period was certainly a struggle as well. By the end of the day, we were always so worn out! At FCHS, eighth grade students are expected to be responsible and carry all the work for eight classes. If you are able to associate with not having enough elaboration or time in a class, there could be a solution. This may mean that your school may need to reorganize its schedule. A necessity to a successful education environment is having a schedule that suits each student's needs. This schedule, the A-B Block, can assist you with time management, due dates, of various assignments, and significant classes.

Students who have sports after school have practice and games after school, and sometimes do not even come home until 11:00 p.m. or later, so adding Powerblock will allow them to have some time to get school work done, therefore they would not have to do it later when they are tired and have no energy. Students in clubs and other after school activities might need some homework time in school so when they go home they will not have as much or any at all. Being in sports, clubs, or other school activities can take a lot of homework time at home, so adding Powerblock would allow those students to get homework

Even though there might be several variations of block scheduling in schools, students who are involved with block scheduling see higher grades, better test results, and an overall better understanding of the material presented. Many school districts have found it challenging to make it through a traditional 6 to 8 periods per day. They claim the system just does not live up to it’s expectations. Many educators agree that there is hardly any time for students’ core classes along with electives. While other schools adapt their schedules, the majority of schools in The United States have adopted block scheduling.

This issue is one that San Luis Obispo High School recently faced. San Luis Coastal Unified School District has two high schools, San Luis Obispo High School (SLOHS), operating under a traditional trimester schedule, and Morro Bay High School (MBHS), running on a semester-long block schedule. The district claimed that the current schedule at SLOHS was inequitable to all students within the district, as students at SLOHS are given more opportunities to take a variety of courses when compared to MBHS students. The district suggested that SLOHS propose an alternative schedule (not the trimester) or accept the "fallback" traditional semester schedule for the next school year.

“It is difficult to point to a single aspect of a middle school that has as much impact on the children and adults as does the schedule.” (Craig, 1995 p.22). Much of the research currently suggests that many schools that shift to block schedules need to take the time and effort to not only do their own research for an appropriate model that works for their school, but to also follow a thorough and focused process to develop a schedule that benefits teacher, students and the community at large. All variations of block scheduling need to be considered, particularly at the middle school level. Unlike high school, middle schoolers have the need for more continuous and ongoing instruction. (Mowen & Mowen 2004). Schools that have implemented block schedules with success continue to stress the need to customize and refine the schedule repeatedly before they begin the shift. The ultimate goal of any school schedule should be that it is flexible and that is should meets the needs of the school, and therefore must be developed by the school itself (Craig, 1995, Mowen & Mowen 2004).

Block scheduling does also come with some disadvantages. We will have more homework because we will have two days to do it. Also, with longer class periods the students can become