Do you think a teen should take math classes that are 45 min. or 90 min.?

Question

I am writing a portfolio piece for school and I need a good argument about why a student should take a math class that is 45 minutes all year long or a class that is ninety minutes long for half the year. I need all the help I can get. Please list examples and why you think your answer is right. Thank you so much.

Answer 1

High school students have short attention spans and need to be presented with small chunks of information to process at a time.

For this reason, I feel that 90 minute classes are too long. They often have to present more than one concept during that 90 minutes in order to stay on schedule. Then students have multiple concepts to review that night and more math homework to complete.

In a 45 minute class, a teacher must be efficient. Having a warm-up, homework review, lesson, and closure activity is difficult, but it is possible. This length class is short enough that the kids don't get bored as easily. They're usually only covering one topic in the lesson, so they can just work on mastering one concept in their homework.

Also, there's a problem with the way that block scheduling makes kids take a break from their subjects. Some students, for example, might take their first math class in the fall of freshman year and then not have another until the spring of the sophomore year. This leaves over a year between the courses and can be quite detrimental to the students' skills. Some schools eliminate this problem by offering A/B days, yet this means that they're taking all of their courses all year.

The only classes for which I see a benefit in having 90 minute periods are sciences. Labs require a lot of prep, set up, and clean up in addition to the time they require for the actual experiment.

Of all of the formats I've taught, I personally prefer the 60 minute class. It maintains the brevity that students need, but allows a little extra time to go over students' questions and offer guided practice in the classroom.

I went to a high school that used a rotating schedule of 4-60 minute classes per day and 1-90 minute class. The 90 minute class was part of a 2 hour block during which time we ate lunch and was the fourth class of the day. We took 7 classes throughout the year, but each day we only had five of them.
The days looked like this:
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67123
45671
23456
71234
56712
34567
Some of the benefits of this schedule were that the 90 minute period rotated, so teachers could plan special projects or long tests for those days. Also, the last two classes of any day weren't on the schedule for the next day. This allowed students some flexibility with respect to when to do their homework. Also, since we didn't have the classes at the same time of the day, there weren't problems with kids always being tired in their first class or always missing their final class for sports.

Wow, I've written a lot. Hope that helps you.

Answer 2

Take it from a student who has to sit through a math class that is practically 90 minutes long. My classes at school range from 80 to 87 minutes long. 90 minutes is too long for a math class. By 40 minutes, most kids have stopped paying attention to what they're supposed to be learning, and even the students that are trying to pay attention can't because of all the distractions happening around them.

I recently studied the attention spans of my fellow classmates. Believe me, at the sophomore/junior level, our attention spans are considerably low to sit through such long classes. There are a select few of us that are able to bypass distractions of our classmates and pay attention to the teacher.

Unfortunately for us, even the teacher starts getting burned out after that 45 minutes. My Algebra II teacher has usually given us our homework 50 minutes into the class, and we have another 35 minutes that's wasted anyways. So what is the point of having the 90 minute classes if the students nor the teacher can even keep going for that long?

Answer 3

I'm in the 90 minute camp. Studies have shown that people learn better in a longer class, because it takes them longer for their minds to get "geared up" for this.

It's also good prep for University and College where you can have either a 60 min, 90min or 180 min class. If you're too used to sitting and learning for 45mins, you will have a harder time with a 3 hour class than if you're accustomed to 90 mins. Also, many classes offered (at least in the University of Windsor English department. . .) are 90 minutes long, so there is MUCH less adjustment necessary on the part of the student.

Answer 4

Maths class for teen age student should be of 90 minutes because maths is a subject which needs concentration & time, while u teach mathematics, u need to explicitly explain each & every step to the students specifically for teenagers & then give the time to make them understand & practice, so 90 minutes stretch class give proper time & attention to the students instead of 45 minutes calss.

Answer 5

I prefer 45 minutes math class to 90 mins,
Due to strain most of the students lose their concentration and their mind will be wandering around so they will miss the remaining portions in that class and teachers energy will be wasted .also class can be continued for another 45 mins after a break

Answer 6

45. I think 90 should be spent on learning about american history and our constitution daily. And instead of double length of other classes, introduce more.

Math gets to a point where it is non realistic. A computer takes on the job, and even then only the programmer must know the method to make that math happen in the computer.

Answer 7

90 minutes - it takes 10 minutes to settle down, 15 minutes for the teacher to introduce the concepts and then the rest of the time you spend actually learning - so a 45 minute lesson gives you 25 mins of actual learning time, while a 90 minute lesson gives you 65.

Of course that's just my guess - the only real way to know is to compare the mathematical aptitude of pupils who have followed the different routes, or to ask successful math teachers what they have found works best.

Answer 8

I think the 45 minute class because math is so boring, so its easy to get bored of it. If it was 45 minutes, then they could concentrate the whole class and actually learn something instead of concentratin for only half the lass of a 90 minute one

Answer 9

My thoughts on this are pro 90 minutes. Here's the thing. You complete the subject in half the time. Have more time with the teacher who can solve any questions, and I think the time is better quality time. At the end of the term (semestered) you only have 4 exams to do VS. 8, This means your home work is limited to 4 subjects rather than 8, and you only have to study for 4 exams rather than a full years worth.

Answer 10

well if you take math class for half the year you will probably learn less regardless of the length of classes. and also you probably won't remember as much for the next year of school. if you take math classes for 45 min for the full year you can learn more material at a better pace.