5 Misconceptions About Self-Pacing

Welcome to the Modern Classrooms Project Podcast. Each week we bring you discussions with educators on how they use blended, self-paced, and mastery-based learning to better serve their students. In this episode, Zach Diamond sat down with educators Andrea Mahr, Beth Benavides, and John Tyler to discuss common misconceptions about the Modern Classrooms model and how their classrooms disprove these assumptions.

Because the Modern Classrooms approach is different from the traditional front-of-class teaching style, there are naturally a lot of misconceptions about the model - for students, other educators, even our administrators! We’re busting those misconceptions with the help of three expert educators.

Misconception #1: There are no deadlines in a self-paced classroom.

False! A self-paced classroom is not a free-for-all. “Self-pacing does not mean a removal of any sort of deadline,” John says. Each of our three expert educators describe their approach to self-pacing somewhat differently, but all emphasize the importance of deadlines as a scaffolding for support in the self-paced classroom.

“What this looks like in a Modern Classroom is more students working on chunk subsets of a unit at a time,” John says. “I do have solid deadlines for mastery checks … And if they haven't done that, then I'm pulling small groups. I'm working more one-on-one with students to scaffold and get them there.” This gives students the opportunity to self-pace, but provides additional support when they lack the self-regulation skills to get there.

Beth, on the other hand, self-paces within a unit, using hard deadlines for her summative assessments. “Sometimes if I notice that the whole class is behind pace, I'll adjust that deadline, but only by a day or two,” she says. “And that's usually because it's a problem with my pacing.” This allows the same kind of flexibility any traditional teaching method might provide, where you can push back the test date to ensure students have the time to prepare. Additionally, she requires her students to have their mastery checks checked by her before they can move on to the next lesson, so in the meantime, she has them complete aspire to do lesson activities. This might strategically slow down some of her faster-paced students, while ensuring she can catch and correct misunderstandings in the moment.

Andrea sets up her units to front-load with must-do lesson content, to ensure all students have the essential foundational skills, whether or not they are able to reach the should do and aspire to do content at the end of the unit. This type of backward planning allows her to personalize learning based on the student, without communicating to students that some lesson content is less important than others. She keeps each unit game board open and accessible to students, so they can revisit content and complete activities whenever they want.

Misconception #2: Students have free rein to do whatever they want in a self-paced class.

False! A self-paced classroom does not lack structure, or requirements. It may look different from a traditional lecture-based classroom, but that doesn’t mean that students are perpetually goofing off.

Andrea’s classroom is highly structured, with class routines around daily check-ins, reviewing the progress tracker, and goal-setting. “Kids are never really doing whatever, right? They have a goal, they have a plan, they have a path,” she says.

“Students are usually more engaged in my Modern Classrooms teaching than they were previously when I was doing traditional lessons,” John adds. Although that learning may look different from students sitting quietly and taking notes, it allows for a different, more active type of learning. “When someone walks into my classroom, they're not going to see everybody working on the same thing at the same time, at the same voice level.” 

And when students are unable to stay on task, John is able to sit with them to find out why. Instead of treating being off-task as a simple behavioral problem, he can determine why they are off-task: is it because they don’t understand a concept? Do they need additional support in developing self-control or executive functioning skills? John can actively address these issues because he now has the time and space to do so.

For Beth, she knows that establishing routines and expectations with her elementary school students is the primary way to prevent this type of off-task behavior. “You introduce it, you practice it, you set expectations - students will follow it,” she says. And when off-task behavior does occur, it doesn’t have to derail every other student in the room. “If I have a student off-task during a lecture, I have to stop my lecture to redirect their behavior. But if I have a student off-task during self-pacing, the rest of the class continues on learning, and then I can sit with that student and help them get on-task.”

Misconception #3: Self-paced classrooms don’t allow for collaborative work.

False! Self-paced classrooms can be even more collaborative spaces than traditional classroom environments because there is no requirement that students sit silently while learning from their educators. In self-paced classrooms, they can discuss content in real-time with other students, deepening their learning and motivation for completing academic tasks.

John’s classroom uses discussion groups as mastery checks, making even his formative assessments a collaborative affair. He also relies on whole-group reteaching to address misunderstandings that seem universal amongst his students. His room is set up in zones so that students who are working on similar content are grouped together. “If we are using that pacing tracker as formative data and making instructional adjustments based on that data, then we don't have students all working on different activities,” he says. “There's maybe a range of four or five activities that the 30 kids in my classroom could be working on,” which simplifies both the room set-up and the group’s progression through the unit.

Similarly, Beth does shorter whole-group instruction almost every day. She also incorporates games and interactive activities into her units, which are completed as a class. Student-to-student collaboration happens every day. “I allow collaboration on any piece of the unit with the exception of mastery checks, and so they know if they're on the same place as their friend, they can work together,” she says.

Andrea encourages her students to use one another as resources for support. “They really seem to love to work with each other and they will reach out to each other before they reach out to me,” she says. “I do have some kids who are a little more introverted and they would prefer to work by themselves and they tend to want to reach out to me,” so Andrea supports that, but also builds in collaborative opportunities that encourage them to reach out to other students and can help them to build social connections.

Misconception #4: Some students are too young to self-pace.

False! Just because students need additional support does not mean they are incapable of self-pacing. While they may not be experts in managing their own time yet, or self-pacing through content, that doesn’t mean they are incapable.

“Every good teacher knows the developmental level of their kids, what they're able to handle,” Andrea says. And she emphasizes that there will be roadblocks - some lessons will go better than others, and some students will need more scaffolding to develop the metacognitive skills to be successful. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be trying to help them develop those skills.

“It is true that some students come into our classrooms without the executive functioning skills that are necessary for self-pacing,” John adds. “And that's where we teach it. We teach it like we teach any other skill.” Just because a student hasn’t yet developed an academic skill, that’s no reason to avoid teaching it! Self-pacing, metacognition, self-regulation, time management - these skills work in much the same way.

Additionally, this allows students to get to know themselves and their own limits better. “I've heard students say, ‘I think we talk too much or I'm getting off-task. I need to do this.’ And that is not a conversation that I think naturally comes up with other models of instruction,” Andrea says.

Misconception #5: Teachers don’t teach in self-paced environments.

False! Just because teaching and learning looks different in a Modern Classroom, doesn’t mean that it’s not happening. In fact, self-pacing may get you completely rethinking what learning looks like! Who’s to say that students sitting, listening to a lecture are actually learning?

“Just because it looks a little chaotic doesn't mean students aren't learning,” John says. “Just because a teacher is up in front of the room, lecturing and content has been covered does not necessarily imply that genuine, authentic learning is taking place.”

“When you're up lecturing in front of the class, I feel like it's so hard to see when kids are really, truly doing whatever and not listening to you at all,” Andrea says. “Now you're walking and you're mingling and you're checking in, you can see so much better kids that are off-task.”

“I think that a lot of this misconception probably comes from ideas about education, that compliance equals learning or quiet equals learning,” Beth adds. “And I think that more and more educators are realizing that that's not true.”

This approach asks educators to redefine what learning looks like. Instead of compliance, or silent listening, perhaps it can look differently, and be more tailored to what students need to actually master content. “It's not just, ‘oh, you didn't get it. Here's your D, here's your C. Go sit back down.’” John says. “Instead, it's ‘okay. Here's where your misconception was. Here's how we can revise it.’ And then that same student who's used to just being given that D, that F, whatever the case may be, is actually having the opportunity to truly master something.”

If you’re interested in more tips on how you can maximize collaboration in a Modern Classroom, be sure to listen to this podcast episode!

Our Guests

Andrea Mahr is a current 5th grade teacher at a rural district in central Wisconsin. As a lead learner she is always looking for new better ways to reach her students and she fell in love with the MCP model. Along with her elementary education degree, she also has her administrative licenses for both Principal and Director of Instruction, which she hopes to tap into soon! Andrea is motivated by collaboration and can't wait for the MCP model to completely transform education! In her spare time, Andrea is snuggling one of her three kids or shuttling them off to some sort of event or practice. She is married to Jeremy, a progressive dairy farmer, bringing agriculture into their daily lives. She despises cooking supper, as she would rather just eat a cold bowl a cereal! So any cooking tips, send them her way!

Beth is an elementary teacher of all subjects. She currently uses the MCP model full-time in math, and dabbles with it in other subjects. She is passionate about providing her students with voice and choice in their learning every day.

John is a middle school teacher in Chicago, Illinois. He currently teaches English, Social Studies, and Writing; as well as sponsors the schools creative writing club. He has a BA in English and Secondary Education from Trinity International University, a Social Emotional Learning Certification, a DMCE designation, and plans to continue to study pedagogy and educational policy at the masters and even perhaps PhD level. John also has training as a restorative justice advocate and loves working with children. Outside of school he enjoys cooking, running, reading, volunteering at his church, and studies foreign languages.

Our Host

Zach Diamond studied Music History and Theory at Oberlin College and received a Masters of Music in Music Education from Boston University. He taught music for five years in Lima, Peru, and is currently a Middle School music teacher at DC International School, a language-immersion school where he teaches in Spanish. He began implementing the Modern Classrooms Model in the 19-20 School Year and enthusiastically continues his work with the organization as a mentor and podcast producer.

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