Implementing self-pacing isn’t always easy. But the alternative to self-pacing - lectures - present an inherent struggle: they require a passive sit-and-get learning style, they create opportunities for public behavioral issues and power struggles between students and teachers, and they assume that all students need the same support and learn information the same way. In theory, most educators accept that these outcomes are not educational best practice. And yet, educators continue to rely on lectures because they don’t know how to successfully implement other alternatives. Toni Rose met with Ms. Pollard, a Shelby County educator who has a self-paced classroom, and discovered some of her best practices for shifting away from lectures to a self-paced classroom and here is what we learned:

Time and time again, I’ve heard educators say that self-pacing is one of the most challenging things to implement in the classroom. I was able to spend time with Ms. Pollard this fall while traveling through Shelby County in Alabama. Ms Pollard shared how she realized that students need to be taught how to self-pace.

When you walk into Ms. Pollard’s classroom, you’ll see that every student has a checklist in front of them. These checklists are created with so much intention: it has columns labeled with lesson, lesson breakdown, suggested due date, type of activity, where to find activity, estimated time to complete, and columns for students to fill in actual completion time, and space to check off whether or not a task has been done. As someone who has really unlocked the keys to effective self-pacing for her 10th-grade science classes, here are three best practices she employs:

1. Provide an estimated time to complete tasks.

This is something I wish I would have incorporated into my own Modern Classroom. My 6th-grade ELA team did make estimates of how long the tasks would take for students to complete, but we didn’t share them with the students. We definitely should have! Seeing Ms. Pollard’s class in action, I now understand the impact of providing estimated time to complete tasks - it helps students with their time management and provides them with more information to be able to create a plan for their learning time. This is also a great reflective tool for the educator to collect data on whether their estimated time made sense or not for their students.

2. Include an opportunity for students to reflect on how long it actually took them to complete the task.

I spoke with one of Ms. Pollard’s students, and I noticed that while the first task estimated 20 minutes to complete, it took him double that amount of time. I asked him about this, and he was able to share confidently, “I’m a slow processor, and there were times that I got distracted.” Most students don’t have that level of self-awareness, whether related to their learning style or the factors that contribute to their challenges. This is essential information that supports students beyond the walls of Ms. Pollard’s classroom and along their future learning journey. By inviting students to reflect on how long it took them to complete something, Ms. Pollard encourages them to examine their learning process and learn more about themselves in the process.

3. Be clear with suggested and hard deadlines.

To be clear is to be kind. Teachers might get frustrated when students don’t do work as it is assigned to them, but students are equally frustrated when deadlines are difficult to track down and expectations serve as unwritten rules in the classroom. In Ms. Pollard’s classroom, any visitor or student can take a look at the checklist and see when things are due. After speaking to multiple students, there was a common theme: they love this way of learning because “suggested” means they won’t be reprimanded for turning in work late and they know that hard deadlines are non-negotiable. Students felt good knowing that they had two weeks to self-pace before taking their mastery check on a certain day.

This is our reminder that as important as it can be to relay content to students, it is just as important that we spend time teaching students how to learn.

Toni Rose Deanon

Toni Rose taught MS English for 10 years and will forever identify as a teacher. Toni Rose strives to be the teacher that they never had growing up, so they focus on anti-bias, anti-racist work and wants to create a brave space for everyone around them. As a queer Filipinx, they understand just how important it is to be represented, be valued, and belong. They especially love being a thought partner for and celebrating teachers.