Page 154 - Making Instruction Work

chap 13 3/11/97 5:06 PM Page 140

140 making instruction work

Why We Don’t
Mostly for administrative convenience, we’ve trad-
itionally clumped our instruction into “lessons” spanning a
pre-determined amount of time, usually fifty minutes. This
fifty-minute burst of instruction is usually referred to as a
“period.” Because of this fixed-time lesson period, we’ve been
snookered into filling it with instruction, whether it was need-
ed or not. You remember how it went:
“I need to teach my students how to fill out these
forms.”

“How long will that take?”

“Not more than ten minutes, so I’ll have to think of
something else with which to fill the rest of the
period.”

“Why don’t you just dismiss them and let them get
on with their lives?”

“Hey, I can’t just let them go after they’ve learned
what they need to know.”

“Why not?”

“Well, if somebody caught them wandering in the
halls, or found out I was letting them go ‘early,’ I’d
probably be fired.”(Note: Some people refer to this
situation as Adult Day Care.)

“Oh.”

There is another reason for excess instruction. Traditionally,
courses have been content-driven. That is, they have been
designed to teach as much content as the allotted time would
allow. As there is never any shortage of content, there is always