Why is pacing of lessons important

Pacing changes can be helpful to all students and teachers. Those that grasp content more quickly can work through material at an accelerated speed. Those who struggle with proficiency can have more time for practice or revision when the teacher slows the pace to include everyone.

The challenge is to find the right pace to help students at varying levels of ability at the same time. Teachers sometimes manage this difficulty by creating groups of learners, either at mixed levels of understanding or homogeneously.

Suggested Next Page: Responding to Students. Skip to main content. Main Menu Utility Menu Search. How do I ensure every student has the chance to learn through classroom discussion? How do I plan and manage student-centered discussions that achieve my learning goals?

What does the research say? One study demonstrates that providing opportunities for regular collaboration and interaction during class can help address performance gender gaps in the physics classroom while improving student understanding in general Lorenzo, Building on sociological research, one study finds that comfort in public speaking is highly gendered, with female students demonstrating markedly higher levels of anxiety than their male counterparts, underscoring the imperative for developing more secure, empathetic learning spaces Moffett et al.

Discussion as a way of teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Can it be displayed on the projector screen instead? Can there be just one copy on the group table for all to look at? Less passing out and collecting saves time and keeps the focus on the task at hand. Present Instructions Visually. This helps keep that pace uninterrupted. For each set of instructions, write them ahead of time on the board or have a slide in your PowerPoint or Prezi.

If you are relying on giving oral directions only, think of those students that have poor listening skills: "What are we doing again? Check for Understanding. Taking time to see where your students are during the lesson and adjusting accordingly means formative assessments play a key role in pacing.

Pair and share creates energy in the room following direct instruction. Keep it in short spurts, breaking up every five to seven minutes of new information with "turn and talk with your elbow partner.

These pauses for students to talk with each other can be as brief as 45 seconds. Choose Most Effective Type of Teaching. How will I get this new information to my students? Teachers must ask themselves this question continually when lesson planning. Sometimes new information is so new that students need to first see a visual representation and then require some information directly from their teacher to think about.