First I counted the number of transitions in the entire video/lesson and recorded the amount of time taken from when I gave an instruction, to when the students actually completed that particular transition. The results are below, and you can find a link to a photo of my actual raw notes at the bottom of this post.
- Transition 1 01:49 minutes:seconds
- Transition 2 (the activity) Instant! (8:00 minutes:seconds)
- Transition 3 00:05 minutes:seconds
- Transition 4 00:59 minutes:seconds
- Transition 5 02:20 minutes:seconds
For transition 2, they were given instructions for completing a guided inquiry. I gave directions, and then told the students they would be given 10 minutes to complete the activity. I also told them that I would be setting the timer on my phone for 10 minutes, and they would need to have completed the entire investigation in that time period. I said "go", hit the timer, and watched the students eagerly go to work. They were moving very quickly, talking with their group mates, and reading the inquiry book for steps to be taken during the activity. The students were so focused and on task that they actually completed the inquiry with 2 minutes to spare. I noticed that I heard alot of talking toward the end and asked my CT if I should wrap it up because they were talking, but she pointed out to me that although they were a little loud, that their conversations were actually perfectly on topic. So I made the call to pull them back together 2 minutes early so that we could continue their conversations in a whole group setting. This led us into transition 3.
For transition 3, the most successful of all, I told the students, "o.k., we're going to bring it back in 5,4,3,2,1". This is a strategy I've seen used by several CT's when bringing the group back together. It worked beautifully. By the time I got to 1, the students were sitting quietly, most of them in LLP, and waiting for instructions. This allowed us to very quickly begin our whole class discussion.
Transition 4, was alot like transition 1. I was moving the students from our whole group discussion, into our independent practice. I told them to open to page 250, gave them 34 seconds, which seemed like an eternity, because they already had their books out directly in front of them, and should've easily been able to open to that page. After the 34 seconds, I moved on to the next task which was setting up the notebook for our entry, only to hear a student ask, "what page do we turn to again?". So after repeating the page number, which I should not have had to do since I wrote the page number on the ELMO when I gave the direction, I continued with the notebook entry. So it actually took the students 59 seconds to get their books opened to the correct page. The transition was immediately after that which should've been them opening their notebooks to await instructions on what I wanted them to write for their entry. After I finished the instruction of what they were to write, there were still students without their notebooks ready. After the last student had their notebook out, 2 minutes 20 seconds had passed.
Based on this data, there was definitely excess wasted time during transitions. I noticed however, that when I used a timing strategy that the students transitioned much quicker and with less distraction. Counting down by five proved to be effective, the students were prepared when I finished my countdown. Also, telling the students that they would be timed proved also to be a great help. When they knew that I set the timer, they began their activity immediately.
For future lessons, I will integrate into my plan transitions, and how much time I will allot for them. I will also plan to use a timing strategy in order to stick to my timeline, and will record data to see if the timing strategy is effective, and how much time the students take to transition in comparison to how much time I allot in my plan. I'm interested to see how my next lesson will go!
DATA/Notes
This reflective post is assisting in the completion of FEAP(s):
(a).1.e: Uses variety of data, independently and in collaboration with colleagues, to evaluate student learning outcomes, adjust planning, and continuously improve the effectiveness of lessons.
(a).2.a: Organizes, allocates, and manages the resources of time, space, and attention.
(b).5.a: Designs purposeful professional goals to strengthen the effectiveness of instruction based on students' needs.
(b).5.c: Uses variety of data, independently and in collaboration with colleagues, to evaluate student learning outcomes, adjust planning, and continuously improve the effectiveness of lessons.
(b).5.e: Engages in targeted professional growth opportunities and reflective practices.