Class Context is a forum for teachers to explore the historical, political and economic realities inside and out of American public education. These "serious" topics will complement the inevitable anecdotals of the pedagogical experience. Although the views expressed here emerge from within this vast institution, they represent the opinons only of the individual contributors.
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Tuesday, February 07, 2006 |
Yesterday was the first day of extended time, the 37 1/2 minutes of "small group" tutoring that was a ballyhooed part of the new teachers' contract in New York City. Essentially, in exchange for our recent raise, all teachers are now required to spend 37 1/2 minutes a day tutoring small groups of students after school.
In the end, the small-group setting may be beneficial to struggling students. However, the way it's been implemented has been a disaster. Rather than wait until next year to implement small groups, the New York City Department of Education decided to start in the middle of the school year. There was little time to prepare, little time for professional development, and--worst of all--little time to notify parents or students.
Imagine this: You're a 7th grade student, happily going about your business. Suddenly, one day, your school notifies you that you're required to stay for 40 minutes after school. Worse, this stipulation only affects certain students, so some of your friends get to leave at the regular time.
You go to the after-school program, but it turns out to just be more test prep. (Although it's not supposed to be used for test-prep, the time is being used at my school for "targeted practice" in test taking "skills.") What do you do?
Skip the tutoring the next day, of course. Today I had zero--that's right, zero--kids show up for my small-group session, presumably disenchanted by their experience on the first day.
The tutoring could well be a real boon for students in the end. But the sloppy and hurried way it was introduced virtually ensures that it will be a waste of time and resources for the foreseeable future.
Posted at 08:06 pm by irrationale
 | | | Fed Up
February 7, 2006 08:49 PM PST
Exactly the same thing at my school, they passed out Math test prep workbooks and lesson plans and kept coming over the loudspeaker reminding us that it was mandatory that we were doing *active teaching* and that we were NOT allowed to be sitting down in the classroom.
All that and most of the school left at teh regular dismissal time anyway, even though they were not supposed to. | |
| | | Tiberius Gracchus
February 7, 2006 09:19 PM PST
Interestingly, at my school, I was told to specifically stay away from test-prep stuff. I have a group of 4th graders, and even though they're lower-level readers, my AP said something to the effect of "these students already do a lot of test prep, and they already get a lot of reading level attention. We want you to help with vocabulary acquisition, and try to make reading fun for these specific students." Essentially, I'm going to be teaching them certain games, and ways of looking for new words, and acting as a sort of reading coach. It remains to be seen if this will be effective with these students, but the basic theory (take level 2 ela students, push them to read on their own, and they'll grow into level 3) is relatively sound.
I think a lot of the difference between schools where this extra time is used effectively and schools where it is not, at least for this academic year, is going to be largely dependent on the principals, (and, obviously, the teachers) rather than the DOE... | |
| | | BrooklynTeacher
February 10, 2006 12:08 AM PST
It will also depend on which region you are you. Region 5 dictates when we use the restroom, not to mention what we teach during what part of the day. | |
| | | Miss M.
February 17, 2006 08:59 AM PST
On the one hand, I feel like we're doing ok with it in my school, but OTOH, I hate that I am a reading teacher who is doing 8th grade math of all things. And the materials are on grade level, not functional level, which defeats the purpose.
And we're expected to keep portfolios (I think this is a region mandate).
At least I have a nice group of kids who don't seem to mind that I don't know 8th grade math. But I mind. | |
| | | Macielle Reyes
December 3, 2008 07:17 PM PST
Macielle Reyes
ESC 502
December 3, 2008
In the blog “Extended Time” all New York City schools implemented extended day into their program, which is 37, 1/2 minutes added on to an already long day. I believe that New York City Department of Education should have not implemented the extended day to the public school system. I believe that those 37 ½ minutes should have been added through out the day, where it is less noticeable by the students or taken out completely.
On the Extended Day blog there were many different responses and feelings towards the extended day. One blogger said that extended day was thrown into the public school system in the middle of the school year. Teachers had little time to prepare a lesson. On top of the lessons they had to do for their regular class, they had now had to do another set of lesson plans for their small groups. These lessons were not typical math, reading or writing; it was test preparations for the ELA and the City Wide Math Test. Students would practice test-taking management, reading skills, identifying main idea, etc.
A second blogger said that her school is doing ok. She has a group of students that are fairly good. She says the only things that she doesn’t like is that she is a reading teacher that teaches math in extended day. As well the materials being used to teach the children are grade level. The students are probably below level and cannot do the work or are the students are above level and wiz through the work. The students are not being challenged and therefore are bored.
A third blogger said that in her school it is the same as one of the other bloggers. All they are doing is Math test prep. Teachers are not allowed to sit down in class. The loud speakers are always blaring telling the teachers what they should be doing and what they should not be doing. And that staff in the school leave at regular time. It seems like extended day is really not so much enforced.
Lastly one blogger had a positive attitude towards extended day. This teacher said that the principal had advised the teachers to stay away from test preparatory because that’s what the students did all day. The principal told this blogger to teach the students “vocabulary acquisition.” The teacher was going to do this through fun games that the students would like. This would help push up the students reading level.
I believe that Department of Education should have distributed the time evenly through out the day or not implement extended day at all. For starters teachers were thrown in the middle of the school year. They had no professional development to help direct the teachers in what to do or what to achieve. It seems like all everyone is doing is test preparations, including the school I work in.
Secondly 37, 1/2 minutes is not enough time to teach a lesson. The teacher has to teach the lesson. She has to make sure that each student understands the lesson, if not continue to go over the lesson to make sure each student captures the concept. The teacher may give out examples of the concepts so that the students can do them on their own, so that the teacher can know that the students have understood the work. Then the class goes over the problems or the teacher checks the problems. I don’t think that 37, 1/2 minutes is enough time to do all of that, especially in the lower grade levels where children need more attention and time. In a regular class a teacher has 45 to 50 minutes to teach a lesson.
Thirdly children are already in school for a long time. When extended day was implemented, not too many students were happy. The teachers and the students both dreaded going to class for another 37, 1/2 minutes. In the school I work in teachers are always late to extended day and have a look of sorrow on their way to extended day. The students are seen walking through the hallways avoiding extended day. And then you have those students who make the classroom unbearable with their behavior because they do not want to be there. They disrupt the class and learning is impossible. The students realized that school was over but then they were taken to another classroom to do more work, but with a different teacher.
Furthermore extended day has been implemented to kindergarten as well. I worked with kindergarten when extended was implemented When the kindergarten first had extended day it was bad. The children could not do it. Many complained that they were tired and wanted to go home. Some children fell asleep in that last half an hour. They were not use to working for that extra half an hour. It took some time before the kindergarteners got use to the time adjustment.
Adding extended day to an already long day was not a good idea. It seems like not too many schools are doing well with this “extra” time. You have teachers who teach one subject, teaching another subject, which is not fair to the students. You have students being overwhelmed with test preps. The younger students are falling asleep. And the teachers are not getting professional development. I believe that the Department of Education should have not implemented extended day. Something that could have been better is to distribute those 37, 1/2 minutes through out the day evenly so that the teachers can get more time teaching their regular classes. The time implemented would not seem as much because a few minutes would be added to each period. | |
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