Читать книгу The Perfect Blend - Michele Eaton - Страница 40

In a traditional classroom setting, pacing of a lesson is based on the teacher who works hard to differentiate and remediate to help all students find success. This is a difficult task, and the truth is, when the date for the end of the lesson arrives, everyone moves on to the next lesson, regardless of levels of mastery. A consequence of a teacher-paced lesson is that it creates a perpetual problem: When a student does not quite reach mastery of a particular topic, the student starts the next lesson with a disadvantage. Every time a student has to move on without fully understanding the material, a hole is created in the foundation of their learning. These gaps make it difficult to be successful with subsequent content, especially in subjects with content that builds on itself, such as math. It is not difficult to see how that creates an environment where students start the year behind and end the year behind as well.

Blended learning can give students more flexibility in the pace at which they move through the content. For example, by strategically adding online learning throughout a class or even a lesson, you can give students control over the pace at which they complete their work and ultimately reach mastery. Such blended learning also allows for more instructional time in the classroom, giving you important data that can drive the face-to-face instruction.

LINDSAY HIGH SCHOOL

With its highly personalized approach to English and English language learning, for example, California’s Lindsay High School provides students with agency over the pace at which they move through their learning (The Learning Accelerator, n.d.). Students can work across grade levels using playlists at their own pace during specifically designated self-directed learning time. This self-paced work ensures that learning is mastery-based and not based on a fixed amount of time. While students are able to work through content at their own pace, Lindsay High School still expects students to work through and master a certain amount of content each year. Students who are off-pace receive multiple supports to get caught up, including designated time during the day for personalized learning with direct support from teachers, detailed pacing guides and matrixes, and student choice over their own personal mastery level (whether they want to achieve proficiency or a more advanced level of mastery). For more information about Lindsay High School’s approach, visit bit.ly/LHSpace.

Flexible pacing does not perfectly solve the difficulties of helping all students reach proficiency in every lesson if you are still working within a traditional classroom or strict curriculum. However, blended learning does create a manageable environment that makes the work more feasible.