By Laurie Miller Hornik
Planning a lesson is like writing a story: It’s most satisfying when it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Deciding how long to spend on each part of a lesson so that it fits into the allotted time can be challenging.
We cannot tell the future, so we can’t know for sure how students will respond to each part of the lesson – when they will need additional explanation, when they will be especially engaged, or when we will be faced with those metaphorical crickets.
And yet it’s still our responsibility to pace our lessons as effectively as possible and to conclude them in satisfying ways. Novice teachers – and even experienced ones – sometimes find that class ends before they reach the conclusion of the lesson. Endings are important, and it’s worth pacing lessons effectively so students get the endings that will maximize their learning.
Here are some specific techniques that can help teachers plan lessons and adjust them along the way to ensure successful pacing:
1. Plan in chunks.
As you plan, consider how long your students can focus on one activity as well as how many transitions they can manage well within one class period. I generally break my 45-50 minute classes into 3-4 chunks of 10-20 minutes each.
2. Be honest.
Be honest with yourself about how long each part of the lesson will likely take. Make sure to account for transition times from one activity to the next, for handing out or collecting supplies, and for explaining directions. It can be tempting to shorten the timings to cram even more into the lesson, but that will result in cutting or compressing parts later, on the fly – or else not reaching the end of the lesson.
3. Write the agenda on the board, with timings.
At the beginning of each class, I write that day’s agenda on the board. Here is an example:
10:45 Do now | Free Reading
10:55 Small groups
11:10 Discussion
11:25 Takeaways
11:30 Class ends | Lunch next
Having the timings visible helps me stay on track so that I don’t spend too long on any one part or accidentally skip a step. As an added benefit, some students appreciate knowing what the parts of the lesson will be.
4. Be Ready to Speed Up the Lesson.
Sometimes, even though you’ve planned the pacing of your lesson well, it will go more slowly than you pictured.
External factors can also impact your lesson: students arrive late from an assembly, there’s a seven-minute lockdown drill, or four bees fly in your window. (I wish I could say that last one didn’t happen to me once back when I was student-teaching.)
Here are some ways to quicken the pace:
If students are engaged in small-group or partner work or discussion, try cutting down or eliminating the final shareout. Choose just one or two groups to share out rather than hearing from each group. To cut even more time, consider having no groups share out.
Sometimes the partner or group work can be the event. Students usually get more out of the activity itself than they do from the whole-class share. In lieu of group shareouts, you can also give a quick report on what you heard or observed as you circulated
If students are engaged in whole-class discussion, be willing to end the discussion and move on even while some hands are still up. You can invite students to write down any thoughts they didn’t get to share. Remind students that the class has lots of important work to do this period and you want to make sure they get to all of it.
5. Be Ready to Slow Down the Lesson.
While not as common, it can also happen that the lesson is going too fast. Perhaps several students are absent or students were more familiar with the material than you expected
Here are some meaningful activities you can add to slow down a lesson:
► Stop & Jot (Freewrite)
During a discussion or activity, ask students to stop and write off a specific prompt related to the discussion or activity. The prompt can be content-based like “What are you thinking now about ____?” or “What are some questions you have about ____?” The prompt can also be process-based, like “What do you think is going well in this discussion so far? What could the class do even better?”
► Turn & Talk (Partner Talk)
Consider having regular unit partners so that you can, at any time, ask students to turn to their partner and share their thoughts on the discussion so far. Use any of the prompts listed above for the “Stop & Jot.”
► Stop & Jot & Turn & Talk
You can combine the two practices by having students write their thoughts and then share them with their partner. Or reverse it: have students talk first and then write down what they are now thinking.
6. End Class with Takeaways
At the end of a lesson, I leave five minutes for students to respond to the question “What did you learn or what do you want to remember from today’s class?” This practice also provides additional opportunities to adjust the pacing of the period. I can extend the activity by having everyone share their Takeaways with their partners and/or by calling on several people to share them aloud. I can tighten the timing by having students write Takeaways but not share them. And in a pinch, I can skip Takeaways altogether.
Final Thoughts
Planning the pacing of a lesson and adjusting the timing along the way creates the most meaningful and memorable academic experiences for students. As teachers, it is both our responsibility and a potential source of joy to be able to provide these for our students.
Laurie Miller Hornik is a K-8 educator with over 30 years of experience. Currently, she teaches seventh grade English at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in NYC. Laurie is the author of two middle-grade humorous novels, The Secrets of Ms. Snickle’s Class (Clarion, 2001) and Zoo School (Clarion, 2004). She publishes humor at Slackjaw, Belladonna Comedy, Frazzled, and on her own Substack, Sometimes Silly, Sometimes Ridiculous. She also creates mixed media collages, which she shows and sells locally and on Etsy.
