Students Who Set Their Schedules Truly Own Their Learning

At most schools, crafting student schedules occurs in the dog days of summer by a handful of administrators. With screenfulls of data about grades, test scores, and lexile brackets, adults set the coming year’s academic trajectories for hundreds of students. What is missing from this equation? The students themselves. At Embark Education, students set their own schedules each week, which allows them to exert agency. Students learn to plan, manage, and prioritize their workload. They uncover their preferred work patterns. Through trial and error, they discover how best to budget their time for different types of tasks. And they learn how and when to ask for support from their peers or educators. Best of all, they see what they are truly capable of when adults trust them to manage their own time and learning.

How can middle grades students successfully set their own schedule?
We set parameters for the week, via a printed schedule and instructions first thing on a Monday morning, and then students decide how to allocate their time. First, whole group lessons and activities, like science, movement, advisory, and community meeting, are pre-printed on student’s weekly schedules. While these lessons are pre planned for students, they differ greatly from their counterparts at a traditional school. Lessons are most often just 30 minutes in length. Educators use this time for direct instruction, demonstrations, and guided discussions. Educators then identify follow-up work that students will be ready to tackle independently, or in small groups. Students are then given ownership of scheduling that work as best suits their schedules and academic needs during their Learner Centered Time. (More to come on this term later.) For example, one student may choose to complete their math follow-up directly after a lesson, when the concepts are fresh in their mind. While another may opt to transition to reading or take a quick walk, giving their brain the break it needs to process their new learning, and then returning to complete their follow-up later in the day.

Then, students schedule small group lessons, work time in our two professional managed shops--Framework Cycles and Pinwheel Coffee--group work, and individual conferences with educators according to weekly instructions designed by their educators. Finally, students fill in their remaining time with independent work, which we term Learner Centered Time. Here is where students schedule their follow up work from whole group lessons as well as independent reading and writing and time to collaborate with other students on group projects. The beauty of this time is that students can schedule it to best meet their learning style. For example, students are required to complete two hours of independent reading each week, but each student can decide exactly when and how this occurs. So, one student chooses to read for two hours straight on a Wednesday morning. Another chooses to read for 30 minutes each day after lunch. While another decides that school is too distracting a place to focus on reading, so they choose to complete all their other work at school, and read at home.

Why invest time and energy in this practice?

It is true that working through the scheduling setting practice each week takes time. Time for educators to plan the layout of the week to best meet student needs, time for students to sit and write their schedules on Monday morning, and time for educators to guide students throughout the week into effectively managing their time. We start from a place of radical trust, assuming that, with minimal guidance, all students are capable of stepping up and successfully managing their own schedules. However, we are constantly in the background to serve as guardrails. If students struggle, we are ready to step-in, providing more guided time, personalized check-ins, and scheduling support in order to scaffold the process. But, in my experience, most students are able to jump into success right from the start.

At Embark, we don’t see this as time wasted, rather it is some of the most precious learning time we spend with our students. Like every other school, we work hard to make sure that each student graduates with developmentally appropriate math, english, science, and social studies skills. Embark graduates are also masters of setting their own schedule, managing their time, and prioritizing tasks. Over the course of their three years with us, they discover the ways, times, and schedules through which they can perform their best. And in doing so, our students leave full of awareness of themselves and the skills they need to succeed in high school and far beyond.