The New Schedule’s Impact on Learning
By AJ Tenser '23 and Antara Singh-Ghai '22
As students become acclimated to the new school environment caused by COVID-19, concerns from the community about the ability to later recall information learned during the first rotation of classes are arising.
The new schedule encompasses two significant changes to last year’s schedule. One is the block schedule: rather than the typical eight-cycle schedule with 65-minute classes that meet three times a week, four cycles meet for 90-minute classes with four weekly class meetings. Those four cycles meet for the first two months of school. The other four classes will begin on November 2, with the current four coming back in the winter. This rotational schedule is the other major shift.
Some students and parents have expressed concern about forgetting the material during the two month hiatus; however, Upper School Learning Specialist Cristin Robb said, “there are pros and cons.”
The current schedule has most students only having three classes, giving them less of a workload.
“While [students] are seemingly going at a faster pace, [...] they are actually getting a chance to take more deep dives into the learning itself,” Robb said.
Robb also emphasized the importance of linking new information to previously learned material and reinforcing that knowledge to better one’s memory.
“If you are just learning and not associating it with anything else you already know, it’s kind of just floating in no-man's-land in our long-term memory and is a lot harder for us to pull back out and recall it,” Robb said. “The more you retrieve information from your long-term memory, [...] the more chances for long-term retention.”
According to Robb, this strategy, spaced repetition, strengthens neural connections, and “the stronger your neural connections, the more likely it is for you to easily retrieve the information.”
When it comes to curriculum, Robb also said, “this is the first time the teachers are also going through this, so they are constantly tweaking and recognizing how much is too much in one course.”
Some classes, such as languages and math, need to cover certain material in the class because later classes will require that students be familiar with the material. When the second cycle of rotation one arrives come winter, teachers will also have to factor in review time to let the students become reacquainted with the content.
However, despite students' fears, Robb said, “after going through the initial review, [remembering past lessons] won’t be as cumbersome as students might think it would be.”
Robb also dispelled any possible student apprehensions over forgetting material.
“It would mean more of their time, and allotting time to briefly review of the stuff that they learned,” she said.
She suggested reaching out to teachers, as they could help review, even just through a quick quiz.
Even if students don’t do any of the aforementioned strategies, Robb suggests that they get enough sleep.
“If we don’t get enough sleep, we aren’t going through all of those cycles, and you’re losing out on really valuable time that your brain needs to process through and restructure and stabilize memories,” she said.