Target Time

Last week, I had the opportunity to go to a community council meeting at Manila Elementary School. The community council's job is to distribute funds, and maintain the functionality of the school, with primarily the students interests in mind. In this particular meeting they were discussing the school wide plans to improve end-of-year test scores to meet and accomplish the new common core standards. They did away with their typical 'flex-time.' Flex time was when students became proficient in a certain lesson, they were able to participate in a "fun" but non-academic activity. The students who did not meet the passing standards were re-taught the lesson. Students loved flex-time because they were permitted to play, and do non-typical school activities. But this summer, after the new common core standards were released, the school felt like they were wasting too much time with flex-time. They decided to re-vamp their schedule. Now, every Tuesday-Friday the grade participates in target time, where the students are divided up into 3 groups. Frustrational, independent, and exceeding. The frustrational group works with the teachers and they are being re-taught the material. The independent students continue to practice the skill on their own, while the exceeding students are doing an enrichment activity. The enrichment activity is academically based, and helps broaden the students learning. This use of target time differentiates for students on many levels, and meets their needs as learners. If my school that I am teaching at does not have a similar system, I hope to incorporate it into my own room.