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  1. #1
    WatchingThemGrow is offline Blue Diamond level (20,000+ posts)
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    Default high school block scheduling tips?

    Our school is moving to this common model, and I would love to hear the wisdom of the BBB regarding it. What have your kids done or enjoyed or found success with, where have they struggled with this schedule, and what should we consider as our rising junior and senior select courses and begin this new way of life.

    Our current sophomore is in the orchestra, and he's not a strong musician. It appears to stay in music, he will need to have 2 semester-long courses, which will total 2 of his 8 classes, so 1/4th of his day and credits will be music. It seems unbalanced. AP classes - how do your kids do them in the fall and prepare for a test in May. Are your kids allowed to take 2 subsequent math classes in the same year?

    Lastly, if you're a teacher, please share your thoughts! I'm a collaborative teacher, so I go into someone else's classroom for a period to help English Learners, so I'm not "in charge" of the time, but want to be as useful and effective as possible.

  2. #2
    klwa is offline Diamond level (5000+ posts)
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    My kids have been on block scheduling their whole time through high school. It's not my favorite, but it seems to work okay.

    Music: this has been the same thought process we've gone through. DD1 enjoyed band in middle school, but already had a year long class scheduled for her freshman year, so if she stayed in band, she wouldn't be able to take any other elective type classes the whole way through school. She dropped it, but as able to take chorus, which was only required to be a semester long class instead of a full year.

    AP classes: this one seems to depend on the class for us. Some are a required full year class. (DD1 did this for APUSH and AP Bio) Some are a single semester, but our school only offers the AP version in the spring. (AP Comp & AP Stats that she's taking this semseter). So we've never dealt with the "took this 6 months ago" issues.

    2 Classes: DD1 was able to double up on math by doing one in the fall and the next in the spring. That might be school dependent, but I think most work similarly. This year she had PreCalc in the fall and Stats in the spring.
    -Kris
    DS (9/05)
    DD (8/08)
    DD (9/12)

  3. #3
    georgiegirl is offline Red Diamond level (10,000+ posts)
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    Default high school block scheduling tips?

    Our high school has block scheduling. It was difficult for AP classes. When you take them in the fall, you need to review. But if you take them in the spring, you have less time to learn the material!!!! So bad on both accounts. I do think it?s helpful for DS1 who has AHDH since there are fewer classes to keep track of. But the material moves at a fast pace. Plus your schedule can be unbalanced. Although out school has ?skinnies? second so kids can do band/chorus year round plus a basic class like US History, it seems like most band/chorus kids have an entire block of music (choir/band.) we know kids who quit band because of the weird scheduling not working well with a STEM-heavy schedule.

    Yes, kids can double up for sequential classes. You sometimes see 10th graders taking Spanish 3 and 4 the same year, or kids doubling up on math or doing physics 1 and 2 the same year.

    DD did a research project about the benefits and drawbacks of a 4x4 block schedule. It?s not good for math retention or standardized test scores.

    Now that DD is in college, she thinks it was good since college is similar.

    Oh, teachers LOVE it since their prep/planning period is an entire block, 1/4 of the day!
    DD (3/06)
    DS1 (7/09)
    DS2 (8/13)

  4. #4
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    My boys have always been on block scheduling for high school. There are pros and cons but overall, I think the pros outweigh the cons.

    Pros:
    * It's easier for kids to focus on 4 classes at a time, especially those with any executive functioning challenges
    * Kids can double up on classes, for example 2 math classes in a year or 2 languages. DS1 finished 4 years of language before he was a junior, DS2 is taking Spanish I and II this year
    * Fitting in more classes - maybe it's just perception but it's easier to take several sciences/histories per year. This is how DS1 took multiple honors and then AP sciences when I hear of others trying to figure out which is the best option vs just taking them all

    Cons:
    * AP tests are months out for fall classes. The vast majority of our AP classes run by the semester, not year. Our high school teachers combat this somewhat by holding review sessions before/after school, maybe even during lunch. DS1 was really "chill" about his AP exams so this didn't stress him but it probably leads to more work for others.
    * Math - you can go a full year without a math class. Honestly, this is really the only speed bump DS1 felt but Covid also affected his learning during those years so maybe it wouldn't have been such a hit otherwise
    * Unbalanced schedule - it happens for sure but with only having 4 classes at a time, it isn't terrible.

    If your DS wants to stay in music, I'm sure it's doable. He will still have 6 slots for academic classes and it's good for them to do something enjoyable. DS1 was a high stats kid, took mostly APs by his junior year but also took a PE class each semester junior and senior year (2 per year). He had a total of 6 PE classes at graduation. Competitive college acceptances were not a problem and music looks much better than PE.

    ETA: if you are coming from an A day/B day school this won't be a change, but having longer class periods means less time in transition. There is usually time at the end of class for assignments or studying so less homework.
    Last edited by carolinamama; 3 Weeks Ago at 11:09 AM.
    Mom to Two Wild and Crazy Boys and One Sweet Baby Girl

  5. #5
    ang79 is online now Diamond level (5000+ posts)
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    Our district does this. I think some teachers use that block time for teaching better than others. My daughter?s AP English teachers were able to include discussion time with plenty of writing time. It was good for science because it allowed for lengthy hands on experiments. But other teachers just do lecture style teaching for 80 minutes which is very hard for kids to stay focused and interested. There are also the issues with taking fall AP tests but the AP exam in the spring. My daughter managed ok with this because her teachers did spring review sessions, but not all the AP teachers do that. She did like that she could take Spanish courses back to back and was able to make it through Spanish 5. Both my daughters are involved in music (orchestra and band). The music block is 40 minutes at the beginning of each day all year long. We did run into some issues where certain Honors and AP courses conflicted with this so my older daughter had to drop out of orchestra for a semester in order to fit in AP gov. Unfortunately the school doesn?t have enough teachers to offer multiple sections of some course so scheduling is a bit of a nightmare.


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