Sandy Millin

https://sandymillin.wordpress.com/2015/02/09/timing-your-elementary-classes/

Timing your classes

LEAD IN
This shouldn’t be longer than 10 minutes in a 45-minute lesson, preferably closer to 5. Allocate a couple of
minutes for greeting the students and setting the initial task, a couple of minutes for them to speak in pairs
or small groups, then one minute for quick feedback. You should be setting the context/getting
students into the topic here, not having a full-blown discussion.
INSTRUCTIONS
Always allocate 1-2 minutes for giving instructions and activity set-up, especially if you need to move the
students/furniture.
SPEAKING
Students generally need about 1 minute per question, possibly each if they’re working in pairs/groups.
Remember that at elementary they are probably translating the question into their language, coming up
with the answer, then translating it back into English, no matter how much you might want them to
operate in English only. That takes time!
For speaking tasks which required extended production, not just one or two sentences, you needed to
allocate preparation (‘ideas’) time too, say 5 minutes give or take, depending on the task and the amount
of support they get in the way you set it up.
Students also need practice time before performing in front of the whole class (‘language time’), when
they can ask you for help. Again, depending on the way you set it up, this is going to be about five minutes.
WRITING
As with speaking, students need both ‘ideas time’ and ‘language time’, though here the language time is
when they’re actually producing their writing. Whether they’re working alone or in pairs, 10 minutes is
probably about right in a 45-minute lesson, although again, this depends on the length of the text you
want them to produce, and how much input you’ve given them before they write. Another way to work it
out is to time yourself doing the piece of writing, then multiply that time by three or four.
Before students write, you need to allocate time to focussing on useful language from the text which the
students can steal for their own writing. Set aside 5 minutes for this, maybe longer depending on how
many things you want to highlight.
READING
Reading for gist should be quick. That’s why it’s for gist – it’s to get an idea of the general topic and
structure of the text, to prepare you for more detailed reading later. Set a time limit, probably 1 or 2
minutes depending on the length of the text, and stick to it. Don’t let the students keep reading after this –
if necessary, get them to turn over their paper/close their books. Remember that you still need a peer
check after this, which again should only be about 30 seconds, because if your gist task is appropriate it will
only be a couple of relatively easy questions which don’t require long answers.
On the other hand, more detailed reading takes time, especially if students aren’t confident. I’d
recommend 3-4 minutes for your average detail/specific information task, depending on how much the
students need to reread/write. Again, don’t forget to allocate time for the peer check!
LISTENING
You don’t have so much control over time in a listening lesson, because the length of the audio determines
it to some extent. That mean’s that when you’re preparing, you need to check how long the recording is!
Work out how many times you’re going to play it, including the initial/gist activity, and (probably) one
more repetitions than you expect, so that you can focus on any problem areas that come up during the
lesson. You may also need to consider the time it’ll take to set up the tech, although hopefully you’ve done
this before the class starts.
As always, don’t forget to factor in peer checks, perhaps between listenings as well as at the end of each
stage, as this particularly helps weaker learners.
PRESENTING LANGUAGE
This is the major time sink in most lessons I’ve observed, especially if the teacher decides on a board-
centred presentation. It’s hard not to keep talking when everyone is looking at you, and verbal diarrhoea
eats time!
Two tips:
Avoid long board-centred presentations if at all possible. How can you hand it over to the students?
If you do have to do one, allocate about 15 minutes. They never seem to take less time than that!
And in a 45-minute lesson, remember that’s a third of your time.Remember to allocate time for
meaning AND form AND pronunciation. Again, do you have to be the centre of attention, or can you
break it up somehow?
That’s not to say that T-centred presentations are a complete no-no, but make sure you’ve planned them
thoroughly, and you know when to stop talking!
If you’ve managed to make it SS-centred, follow the tips in ‘language practice’ below.
DRILLING
This depends on how quickly your students pick up new forms, how big the class is, how many pieces of
language there are and how long each item you’re trying to teach them is, but it should be at least five
minutes. Shorter than that and there probably isn’t enough repetition in there. Consider breaking it up a
bit by getting students to repeat things to each other in pairs or small groups after the whole class stage
and monitoring for problems. This takes the focus off you for a few seconds, and adds a bit of variety.
LANGUAGE PRACTICE
Again, this depends on the type of activity students are doing and on how good your teaching was. If they
still don’t really get the language, then this will all take longer. These are tips for controlled practice
activities, based on the most common ones I see. For freer practice, see ‘speaking’/’writing’ above.
Matching: about 15 seconds per item.
Gapfill with words there: about 15-30 seconds per item, depending on the number of words.
Gapfill with no words (open cloze – students have to think of the words themselves): about 30-45
seconds per item.
Writing/rewriting sentences: about one minute per item.
FEEDBACK
Reminder number one: feedback shouldn’t take longer than the activity you’re feeding back on, unless
there are major problems for some reason.
Reminder number two: writing things on the board takes time. If you’re doing it, make sure you have a
good reason why, and that it’s not just for the sake of having something to do. If the students are doing it,
is everyone involved? What are the other students doing? Are they just watching? (It can be a good way of
keeping fast finishers occupied, as long as they don’t end up doing it all the time.)
I’m not sure there’s a particular rule on the length of feedback, but it should make students feel like it
wasn’t a waste of their time doing the activity, and it should round off the activity enough that students are
ready to move on. Here are some approximate amounts:
Speaking/Writing: Allocate time for both ‘feedback on content’ and ‘feedback on language’,
probably about 3-5 minutes for each, depending on how you set it up.
Reading/Listening/Controlled practice activities: 2-3 minutes, including dealing with any problems,
unless students need to see the written form of the answers (especially for full sentences) in which
case you may want to get them to write things on the board, which will take longer. To make it
shorter, have the answers ready to show/give them.
Peer checks should be factored in before open-/whole-class feedback, probably 1-3 minutes depending on
the length of the task and the difficulty students have had with it. Monitor carefully during peer checks so
that you can make your feedback more efficient (read, faster).
IN GENERAL
I’ve found that planning in nice round 5-minute units is generally the way to go. They normally balance out
across the lesson. If I try to do odd 3/6/8-minute times, they always end up being 5/10-minute ones
anyway! That means that in a 45-minute lesson, you have nine 5-minute units to play with. Use them
wisely.