Academic Learning TimeA.L.T.

2006 Professional Development Program

Springfield Public Schools

Springfield, Massachusetts

Logistics

Attendance Professional Development Points (PDPs) Payroll Start & End Time Location of training information Expectations of A.L.T. Information

Academic Learning Time (A.L.T.)

A working definition:

Academic Learning Time (ALT) is the amount of time and the quality of education time a student spends attending to relevant academic tasks while performing those tasks with a high rate of success. (Caldwell, Huitt, and Berliner)

Academic Learning Time

ALT is that precise period when an instructional activity is perfectly aligned with the student’s readiness and learning occurs.

Overview and Goals

To explore Academic Learning Time in relation to our curricular demands

To distinguish between “academic day” and “school day”

To plan to reclaim time for academic instruction

To contrast quantity of time vs. quality time,

i.e., evidence of learning.

Part I: The Context for A.L.T. is

The Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for your content area

““If you don’t know where you If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up are going, you’ll end up somewhere else.”somewhere else.”

Yogi BerraYogi Berra

The Curriculum: Focuses what teachers do. Connects what teachers do. Is necessary because all learning is cumulative.

The effective teacher knows the grade level and content specific learning outcomes and appropriate instructional strategies and assessments to provide student with the opportunity to learn the knowledge they are expected to acquire.

ALT and the Curriculum

Three elements of curricular quality control in schools:

A Written Curriculum that can be translated into the work of teachers in classrooms;A taught curriculum shaped by the written

curriculum; andA tested curriculum consisting of the

assessment tools of pupil learning which are linked to both taught & written curriculum.

Curriculum Alignment

The context for ALT is the curriculum framework for your content area.

In the School and Classroom

Teaching is the work.

Learning is the result of the work.

Instruction is focused teaching.

Part II: The A.L.T. Theory

“Effective instruction maximizes the amount of time a student is both focused on learning at an appropriate difficulty level, and experiencing a high level of success.

“ALT” is the portion of engaged time during which students are not only actively learning, but are learning successfully.

Despite our obsession with time, little attention is paid to HOW time is used.

It’s About TIME!

School Year = 180 Days

School Year = 180 Days

Attendance (Time in the seats)

This varies with each individual student.

Tameka 180 Days Jose 140 Days Sue 110 Days

School Year = 180 Days

Attendance

School Day Length

5 hours

Tameka 180 Days Jose 140 Days Sue 110 Days

Constant School Year = 180 Days

Little Control Attendance

Constant School Day Length

Allocated Time

Little Control

Allocated time is that which the state, the district, school, or teacher provides the student for instruction. Sometimes it is called scheduled time.

Allocated TIME

Constant School Year = 180 Days

Allocated Time

Little Control Allocated Time

Instructional Time

Little Control Attendance

Constant School Day Length

Instructional Time

Instructional time is actual time spent on instruction.

Activity:

What are the variables that impact instructional time?

(Variables are not excuses.)

Huitt, Caldwell, Traver & Graeber found that student unengaged student behaviors could be classified as:

management/transition socializing discipline unoccupied/observing, and out of the room.

Management/Transition

Daily, routine classroom activities or “in-between” activities:

Distributing, setting up, or gathering equipment, supplies, materials, etc.

Taking roll Students standing in line Waiting for teacher’s help Listening to nonacademic directions Waiting for next activity to begin

Socializing

Two or more persons are interacting socially:

Whispering nonacademic comment to neighbor

Passing notes Watching someone else whispering

Unoccupied/Observing

Sitting or standing alone, wandering about with no evident purpose or goal, watching other people or unassigned activities, or playing with materials

Staring out the window Aimless behaviors Watching another student do a different

assignment

Out of the Room

Gone to the:

Bathroom

Nurse

Library

Principal’s Office

Guidance Office

Discipline

Adult is reprimanding a student, a student is being punished, or student is watching other student being scolded.

One student is being scolded and other students are listening

Head on desk as punishment

Two of the five categories accounted foralmost 90% of the unengaged behaviors:

management/transition socializing discipline unoccupied/observing, and out of the room.

Decreasing Time Off-task

Management/Transition

Unoccupied/Observing

Reference: Caldwell, J., Huitt, W., & French, V. Leader’s guide for student engaged time. Philadelphia: Research for Better Schools, Inc.

Since

Total Allocated Time (set) =

Time On-task + Time Off-task,

we can adopt the perspective to

focus on decreasing time off-task.

“Self-audit”

Huitt, W., Caldwell, J., Traver, P. & Graeber A. (1981) Collecting information on student engaged time.

Part III: Application

60 min. Allocated

15 min. Instructional Time

15 min. Engaged Time

30 min.

Behavior, prep, regroup, intercom, etc.

Discuss the necessary reasons, if any, for time off-task during the school day and explain how you would decrease time off-task to increase Academic Learning Time and, thus, student achievement.

Table Discussion (Optional Activity)

School Year = 180 Days

Attendance

School Day Length

Allocated Time

Allocated Time

Instructional Time

Engaged Time

Engaged time is the time that students appear

to be paying attention to materials/presentations

that have instructional goals.

A synonym for engaged time is “attention.” This implies a mental attitude in which concentration is given voluntarily and steadily by all during the

entire instruction.

Engaged Time

School Year = 180 Days

Attendance

School Day Length

Allocated Time

Allocated Time

Instructional Time

Engaged Time

Constant Planning & Checking

School Year = 180 Days

Attendance

School Day Length

Allocated Time

Allocated Time

Instructional Time

Engaged Time

A.L.T.

Recap

You know the context: curriculum. You know the theory of A.L.T. You know that you have to effectively use

instruction by matching your instruction to

your learners, being mindful of their needs. You know to constantly assess engaged time

to increase academic learning.

Academic Learning Time is the only time when students are learning.

Academic Learning TIME

“ALT” is that part of allocated time in any subject-matter area in which a student is engaged successfully in the activities or with the materials to which he/she is exposed and in which those activities and materials are related to educational outcomes.

Definition of ALT

ALT is a complex concept made up of time on task, success rate, & allocated time; however, it is NOT simply a time-based concept. These are interdependent qualifiers.

Any increase in any one yields a dramatic effect in ALT.

Reclaiming TIME

Time Variable Daily Annual

School Year - 180 DaysAttendance Year - 170 DaysSchool Day 5 to 5 1/2 hrs. 800 to 935 hrs.Allocated Time

(Basic Skills)165 to 210

min.440 to 595 hrs.

Engagement Rate 60 to 75 % 60 to 75 %

Engaged Time 99 to 158 min.

264 to 448 hrs.

Content Overlap & Success Rate

50% to 70 % 50% to 70 %

A.L.T. 50 to 111 min.

+ 61 min daily

133 to 314 hrs.

+ 181 HOURS

Recap

You know the context of A.L.T. - Curriculum

You know the theory of A.L.T. and which constructs you can and cannot control.

You know that you increase Academic Learning Time (A.L.T.) by decreasing interference with those things over which you do have control.

Baseball Example

Read Aloud

Discuss at table

A High Level of Academic Learning Time

Students are covering important (tested/evaluated) content;

Students are “on-task” most of the class period; and

Students are successful on most of the assignments they complete.

Activity

What specific strategies enhance learning?

Direction: On the list provided, order the strategies in impact value on Academic Learning Time, beginning with the one that most promotes A.L.T. and ending with the one that least promotes A.L.T.

What specific strategies enhance learning?

Tutorial Instruction Reinforcement Corrective Feedback Cues and Explanations Student Class Participation Student Time On-task Improved Reading/ Study Skills Cooperative Learning Homework (Graded) Classroom Morale Initial Cognitive Prerequisites

Home Environment Intervention

Peer & Cross-age Remedial Tutoring

Homework (Assigned) Higher Order Questions New Sci. & Math Curricula Teacher Expectancy Peer Group Influence Advance Organizers Socioeconomic Status (Not

alterable by Teacher)

Academic Learning Time

3 things you have learned 2 things that surprised you 1 thing you will include in your training in

August

3 2 1

Discuss the difference between focusing on increasing on-task behavior in students and what you have learned about Academic Learning Time. Give specific, original examples, as opposed to generalizations, in your response.

Discussion Question

How does a teacher’s classroom management plan, or lack thereof, affect Academic Learning Time.

The Theory

Research data that informs our practices: Berliner, D. (1991). What’s all the fuss about instructional time? In M. Ben-Peretz

& R. Bromme (Eds.), The nature of time in schools: Theoretical concepts, practitioner perceptions. New York: Teachers College Press. Retrieved March 2006, from http://courses.ed.asu.edu/berliner/readings/fuss/fuss.htm

Caldwell, J., Huitt, W., & French, V. Leader’s guide for student engaged time. Philadelphia: Research for Better Schools, Inc.

English, F. (1995). Developing, aligning, and auditing curriculum. Salt Lake City: The Video Journal of Education.

Huitt, W., Caldwell, J., Traver, P., & Graeber, A. (1981). Collecting information on student engaged time. In D. Helms, A. Graeber, J. Caldwell, & W. Huitt (Eds.). Leader’s guide for student engaged time. Philadelphia: Research for Better Schools, Inc.

Wang, M., Haertel, G., & Walberg, H. What helps students learn? Educational Leadership, 1993. Retrieved April 2006, from

http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/edlead/9312/wang.html