THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 27, 1995 TAG: 9508250284
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Back to School
SOURCE: BY ALLISON WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
When classes begin Sept. 5, so will block scheduling.
More than two years of planning and preparation will put Nansemond River and Lakeland high schools in the growing ranks of high schools nationwide that use this scheduling method.
Although it sounds more complex, block scheduling is just a different, more efficient way of dividing the time students already spend in school, Lakeland Principal Billy Hill said in a recent interview.
Until now, Suffolk high school students have taken seven 47-minutes classes every day. This year they will take three 100-minute classes and one 50-minute class.
Although the 50-minute class will be taught every day, students will alternate between two sets of three longer class blocks every other day.
For example, a student might take English, government and gym on Monday, then Spanish, biology and algebra Tuesday. That student would repeat Monday's block on Wednesday and Friday and follow Tuesday's schedule Thursday. He also would take a 50-minute keyboarding class every day.
``We expect this to increase students' academic performance because the amount of time they spend in a class at one time will almost double,'' Hill said. ``Students will be able to stay focused on a course's work . . . and be able to begin and end experiments on the same day. It's been proven that students learn more when the instruction is continuous.''
Just because students are spending more time in classes doesn't mean teachers are going to spend more time giving lectures, Hill said. For the last two years, teachers have been preparing for this change by learning new teaching techniques designed to give students more hands-on and group learning opportunities.
That's one of the biggest benefits of the change, said Eva Goodrich, who teaches Latin at Nansemond River.
``Not every student learns the same way,'' she said. ``When you have more hands-on activities and more time to spend with the kids, students learn easier and retain more information.''
The extra classroom time should give teachers a chance to let students work on special research projects in class, let students get extra help during class and, through group activities, help students strengthen their teamwork skills. MEMO: For details about block scheduling, call Lynn Cross at 925-5500. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Billy Hill
Lakeland High School principal
by CNB