Gina Flanagan- East Longmeadow High School

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

ELHS Develops a New Schedule

     For many years, East Longmeadow High School has operated under what is known as a "block" schedule.  Students participated in up to 5 classes a day for 84 minutes each.  These were semester based courses, so in January, students would get an additional new set of classes.
     The block was effective in courses that required longer times to develop learning activities such as science labs, physical education, etc.  However, due to the semester format, students could go up to year without participating in some sequential core classes, such as English, Math, Science and Foreign Language.  This format created learning gaps in content and skills in which some students struggled to overcome.
     For the past three years, our administrative team has been soliciting the feedback from students, teachers, parents and colleagues in terms of what schedule makes the most sense for effective student learning.  Earlier this year, our team also attended a seminar in schedule building to increase our understanding of the schedule development process.
     Our goal throughout this whole process was to create a schedule that maximized student learning and created more opportunities for students to take the courses that interested them.  We created a committee this year to help us develop a new schedule for ELHS students.  This committee consisted of teachers, administrators, parents and students.  We began by outlining what we valued in terms of learning and our current courses/programs.  It was very clear from the start that we wanted to create a schedule that gave students the opportunity to participate in full year courses in key academic areas.
     We then outlined which courses would be appropriate to remain semester, 84 minute courses.  This "hybrid" schedule was recently presented to our staff  and overwhelming met their approval.  We are currently educating our students on the new schedule through group and individual course selection sessions with our guidance counselors.
     It is our hope that by changing our schedule for next year, we will be able to more effectively meet the needs of our students.  Listed below is a sample student schedule that reflects the new hybrid model.  Notice that is broken into semesters, but that sequential, year long courses are in place. Year long courses will mostly take place in English, Math, Foreign Language and Science.




No comments:

Post a Comment