Controlling Time in the Classroom

One of the most important factors of succeeding when teaching is to control the time you have. It can feel unsatisfactory to suddenly rush an activity at the end of a lesson, cramming stuff in, leaving out important stages or even letting the whole lesson overrun (with restless students trying to secretly pack their bags). Below there are some strategies for taking control of time and shortening over-long stages in teaching a lesson. irst of all a teacher has to be pre-emptive. !e or she has to spot timing problems early on. "his allows to make realistic decisions early on in a task rather then suddenly being forced to make drastic alterations at the last minute. #econdly the teacher has to e$tend old tasks rather than start new ones. !e must think very carefully before starting a new activity, especially if it is late in the lesson. Isn%t it better to e$tend the previous activity till the end of the lesson rather than doing a ludicrously rushed version of the ne$t activity& "hirdly the teacher must speed up early stages rather than cut off the end. or e$ample if an activity starts late or looks like overrunning, the teacher mustn%t wait until the end and then suddenly cut it short. !e has to decide early on how to alter the activity so that it still achieves what he wants it to do. It%s often better to speed up an earlier part rather than to abruptly stop things when the bell rings. "he teacher must offer choices . If he only has enough time to do one out of two possible activities, he can ask the class what they think. !e has to make sure that he hears (and takes notice of) more than 'ust the loud one or two that shout out first ( and he has to take care that he really goes along with class wishes, not 'ust what he intendeds to do all along. "he teacher mustn%t offer inedible carrots. !e must try to avoid telling students) *I had planned a really good activity ne$t but I%m afraid we don%t have time+ "hat%s like saying *I was going to buy you a bo$ of chocolates,+ "he teacher must bend the laws of time. !e has to remember that lesson time follows the laws of relativity- It is entirely fle$ible and seems different to different people. .hen he starts an activity he can state how long students have to do it e.g. */ou have ten minutes.+ But 'ust because he said a time limit ( it doesn0t mean that he has to measure and keep it e$actly- If he is running short of time he can simply announce *one minute left+ even if students have had much less time than you previously announced(1o-one is likely to notice-) "he teacher must pause mid-task. 2lthough we are often trained to finish things off neatly within lesson time ( maybe don%t worry about pausing tasks right in the middle (even mid speaking activity-) and picking them up again tomorrow or ne$t time. "his gives the teacher a way of neatly linking lessons, as he can continue things from precisely where he left off ( and students can take some time to re-tune themselves to where they were. "he teacher has to make things last. 2n important lesson management skill is to make the material perfectly fit the lesson time. .hen we observe some e$perienced teachers it can almost look like magic) activities wind down and end neatly 'ust as the lesson finishes. It%s almost as if they can control time itself. /et there are

some fairly simple tricks for usefully e$tending an activity ( so that things 'ust beautifully fall into place. General hints on timing

3on%t start on a new activity with less than 4 or 5 minutes left in the lesson (unless it really is a super-fast stage). Better to use an e$tending techni6ue (see below) 7ost teachers allocate their time forwards starting from the beginning of the lesson (e.g. *2ctivity one will take 89 minutes and then I%ll do activity two which will take 84 minutes ,+ etc). 2 more fruitful strategy is to plan time backwards from the end of the lesson, especially as the most important work tends to be in the key final stages rather than the lead-ins and warm-ups. #tart calculating what you want learners to do in the final activity ( and decide how long that might take to do. "hen calculate back to the stage preceding that and work out that stage%s time ( and so on. "his allows you to think more realistically about how long you have for the early stages. Extension strategies (to help activities take up a little more time)

"o e$tend a discussion activity, towards the end, ask each pair or group to prepare a brief report back to the rest of the class on the most important or interesting things that have been said. 2fter preparation time (8 - : minutes), students will listen to (and perhaps comment on) each other%s reports (another 4; minutes). "owards the end of a grammar e$ercise, ask students to write one (or more) new grammar 6uestions in the style of the ones they have been answering (< ( 4 mins). "hey can then swap these with other students and try to answer their 6uestions (<; mins). .hen you are reaching the end of a listening activity, pick one suitable sentence (89; words) (spoken 6uickly, if possible) and ask students to listen and write down every word they hear completely correctly. =lay that small section of the recording a few times ( then let students compare and agree with each other. >heck together at the end. If you have studied a reading te$t to death - but still have some minutes left, ask students to put away the te$t and then tell them you will read it aloud ( but with ten differences. "hey should listen carefully and spot what has changed. .ith weaker classes, 'ust change key facts (e.g. names, actions etc). #tronger classes can notice e$act words and e$pressions changed (e.g. idioms, phrasal verbs). ?et students compare ideas and agree ( then let them revisit the te$t to check.