Block Scheduling

... It’s Not Working

BY GARY HALL
 

The four-period day has been in effect for five years at our high school. We are on the straight four-by-four block ... students take four classes per semester. Each class period lasts 90 minutes. A year’s worth of material is to be covered in 18 weeks, then a “new” year begins with four more classes during second semester. The following is what we have experienced in our instrumental and vocal programs:

Loss of music electives
We used to offer 15 different year long music classes to students in our high school. We now offer six different classes. Very few students not in band or choir ever take a music class now.

 Loss of curricular subjects during the school day
Our program used to offer two jazz bands and one or two jazz choirs every year. The classes were offered during the school day, lasted all year and, most important, any student who wanted to be in a jazz ensemble could afford to be in the group, be in band or choir, and still fulfill all academic expectations. Our first year on the block we tried to split the time 50/50 (45 minute for each segment) between jazz time and concert time. It was the least productive year we have ever had with our ensemble groups. We felt so rushed, that many of the curricular items we used to address were skipped or poorly covered.
     Students not in jazz ensemble with assignments or ensembles to practice  were left unattended. This worked for a little while, until we started to experience students who really needed to be supervised and instructed were wasting time. Also, our facilities are not adequate for 10 to 15 ensembles to be practicing at the same time ... it sounded like total chaos, and those skills you hope to hone with small ensemble (listening, balancing your part, tuning, etc.) were impossible to achieve in that environment. We actually had one student push another studclot down and break his arm while they were practicing unsupervised. The parents of the injured child could have probably sued us if they had so desired. We were working with the jazz bands in other rooms while that incident happened. To provide a jazz experience while simultaneously serving the needs of those students not in jazz required more staff than we had available. I felt much anxiety in that I really needed to be in three places at once.
    Note: We now offer jazz band before school (of course, there is no extra salary for this). Students must arrange their own transportation to the class. Many younger students have to arrange parental transportation or rides with their friends. Tardiness and attendance are real problems. We have also experienced the problem of some talented young musicians choosing not to join the groups at all because the boy friend/girlfriend or peer groups use the time before school as a social meeting time. We have periods of weeks where students are missing from every section ... almost all of the excuses for absenteeism or tardiness are valid parental excuses. It is difficult to start class on time, and to establish any kind of routine for warm-up, improvising, sight  reading, and history/listening. Additionally, since the class now falls under the description of extracurricular, grading is not permitted, in the same vein that the basketball team does not receive a grade for their participation on the basketball team. Our jazz choir has an even rougher time ... they.meet once or twice a week at lunch. They have all of the problems with attendance, tardiness, that the jazz band has, and also must contend with other elective meetings being scheduled during lunch time, as well an occasional lunch duty for the instructors. While the current before school/lunch times schedule is not ideal, it is still so much better than when we tried to split our block in half.

Loss of student enrollment inmusic electives
Our first year on the block we experienced a large drop-out of band students each semester. Many students were very upset to leave, but had no choice if the classes they needed were scheduled at the same time as band. Even more tragic is that although many students said they would return after missing a semester, only a handful ever do rejoin the class. Our conjecture is that after almost a year  of not playing their instrument, finding other interests, and the loss of skill during the that time off (five-month semester three-month vacation), students do not rejoin. We also lose many students from tile middle school whose parents have told us that since their student cannot academically afford to in band for four years, tiley decide not to join at all.
    On a positive note, some strategies we are using finally seem to be working in the band program that keep students involved for the entire year, and also hopefully for their entire time in high school.
1. EVERY day we’re recruiting. I constantly find and share articles with the members of the ensembles about the value of music to their own lives and education.
2. I try to get as many students as possible to attend all-state and other honor bands. I have yet to have a student  who achieved that level of nmsicianship quit.
 3. We play the highest quality literature and strive for a high level of performance and musicianship. I also try to get as many students as possible to play more than one instrnment. That keeps interest high.
4. We started a summer band camp. This seemed to re-establish a feeling of  “family” and commitment that we  used to have in the seven- period day.   (Our attendance this year was 107 students out of 111 .)
 5. We bring in lots of guest clinicians ... I ask them to make a point of stressing how important the student’s involvement in music is to the students themselves. This constant reinforcing seems to he paying off.
6. We keep the student very busy and active, and try to provide numerous opportunities for them (e.g., a trip to  Denver to see “Phantom of the Opera”  and perform concerts at a couple of  schools; hosting another school and sharing concerts with their students.)  On the negative side of doing all of the activities is that when school time is  used for these activities, there is a lot of make-up work to do in some of the classes the students miss.
7. Involve students in small combos, and ensembles.
8. Work with students when they are enrolling for classes in the spring.
9. Senior composite. Each four-year senior brings a picture of themselves holding their instrument to us. We have a local company place the student’s pictures in a frame with a large picture of the band and various photos and momentos from the past year.  We try to make the final product as beautiful and meaningful as possible. We unveil this to the band at our last concert of the year. This also seems to be working. We went from 11 seniors two years ago to 19 last year ... and right now we have 26 who we think will stay in all year. And as you are aware, experienced musicians can really enhance the quality of an ensemble.

Early Graduation
With the four-period day, students can amass enough credits to graduate midway or at the end of their junior year. More and more students are making that choice. To make early graduation, students take only required classes and a limited number of electives ... few of these students are choosing music as their elective choices. We’re not sure of the overall impact, but several of my top sophomore students are thinking about this as an option. It is a real problem that I see. During a student’s first two years their schedule is so full.they really have to struggle to find time for music electives...then, the last two years, students don’t take electives, in order to graduate early. It is kind of a “Catch-22” situation.

Conflicts with other classes
Some of the other academic programs have discovered that they cannot cover all of the material they need during the18 week time frame allowed. We now have foreign language classes that last all year, as well as calculus ... and more of our staff are talking about wanting to use all year for their AP classes as well. It is possible that in the future the top students will be taking year-long classes of math, foreign language, history, and English. I don’t see an open slot for other electives!

Few students can afford the class time to be in both band and choir.
When we were under the seven-period day a large percentage of the band were also in choir. Thle two classes complement each other. Currently, only a few students have the time to take both classes ... and both disciplines are weaker because of that restriction.
    To be fair, there are some parts of the current four-period day that I like. I do enjoy the longer rehearsal time, and it really has given me more time to work thoroughly and carefully with my younger band. Overall, however, I feel that it has greatly diminished the good that our music program was doing for all the students in our school. We have to individually, as teachers, work harder and spend a lot more time and energy to just maintain our band and choral programs at thcir current levels of enrollment and achievement.
    The real tragedy is that so many students are missing the opportunity to make music, and I feel that the schedule is the culprit that forces so many students to limit their choices. Who knows, perhaps a student with the potential to be the next Wynton Marsails is sitting at home today in our town with his or her parents deciding that, “Yeah, middle school band was great, but you only have limited options in high school and so you better drop music and get that math, English, social studies, science, health, Spanish, PE class and word-processing class out of the way this year."
Most frustrating!
Gary Hall is the current band director at Montezuma-Cortez High School  in Southwestern, Colorado. In 1992 he wrote his Master’s thesis on, block- scheduling, entitled "The Effects Of’The Four Period Day On Colorado High School Performing Arts Classes. “A copy of the thesis can be obtained by contacting MENC at (703) 860-4000.

School Band and Orchestra, October 1998