How Public School Days Are Often Structured

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I've been meaning to post this for those who like to structure their homeschool to replicate public school. It's a "time allotment for instruction" schedule from one Ohio public school system in which I substituted. This is the basic plan under which the teachers were supposed to arrange their daily lesson plans. I figured it might give you some ideas of what is considered to be adequate by the state. And you could use this type of schedule, inserting the subjects you cover, as your "brief outline of your curriculum" for these grades, which you could then submit with your annual notification.


Otherwise, please remember that public schools waste lots of time on things like travel between classrooms, libraries, gymnasiums, auditoriums, cafeterias, etc. Throw in PA system announcements, knocks on the classroom door and visitors who show up for various reasons, students coming and going to the office, the nurse, the restroom, their locker, and so on. I have been in very few classrooms where they actually manage to stick to this type of schedule. Plus they are ordinarily dealing with 25 or more students at a time, though that may be different now under COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. For what it's worth, here's the schedule:


K-6:  Recommended Time Allotment For Instruction


Kindergarten:

Opening Exercises - 10 minutes

Closing Activities - 5 minutes

Readiness Activities (Reading, Handwriting, Math) - 40 minutes

Other Kindergarten Curriculum Activities:

Divided between language development, social studies, science, health, art, music,

physical education - 110 minutes

Total for Kindergarten - 165 instructional minutes per half-day


Grades 1 & 2:

Opening Exercises - 10 minutes

Closing Activities - 5 minutes

Reading (Reading & Learning Center) - 97 minutes

Mathematics - 50 minutes

Social Studies - 20 minutes

Science - 15 minutes

Health - 5 minutes

Art/Music/Physical Education - 16 minutes (80 per week)

Educational Options - Recess - 30 minutes

Total for Grades 1 & 2 - 360 instructional minutes per day


Grade 3:

Opening Exercises - 10 minutes

Closing Activities - 5 minutes

Reading (Reading & Learning Center) - 92 minutes

English/Language Arts (listening, speaking, and written expression,

spelling, handwriting) - 80 minutes

Mathematics - 55 minutes

Social Studies - 24 minutes (120 per week)

Science - 16 minutes (80 per week)

Health - 5 minutes (20 per week)

Art - 16 minutes (80 per week)

Music - 16 minutes (80 per week)

Physical Education - 16 minutes (80 per week)

Educational Options - Recess - 20 (100 per week)

Total for Grade 3 - 360 instructional minutes per day


Grades 4, 5 & 6:

Opening Exercises - 10 minutes

Closing Activities - 5 minutes

Reading (Reading & Learning Center) - 60 minutes

English/Language Arts - listening, speaking, and written expression

(50'), spelling (15'), handwriting (10') - 75 minutes

Mathematics - 60 minutes

Social studies - 40 minutes

Science - 24 minutes (120 per week)

Health - 16 minutes (80 per week)

Art - 18 minutes (90 per week)

Music - 18 minutes (90 per week)

Physical Education - 18 minutes (90 per week)

Educational Options - Recess - 10 minutes (50 per week)

Total for Grades 4, 5 & 6 - 360 instructional minutes per day


Please understand that I am not posting this as an example that anyone should follow, or would be required to follow for home education. Rather, I would hope that parents could see that it would not be very difficult to match or better this type of schedule at home. As home educators we can schedule things in many different ways, adapting to the needs of each student in our family unit. We might, for example, do all our reading and language arts type studies on one particular day each week. We could combine math and science studies to one particular day, also. Social studies, health and physical education would combine well for another day. And you could combine music, art and any other creative options for yet another day. You could also do one week each of different subjects and explore them in many different ways.


One year early in my homeschooling experience I actually kept track of the instructional hours. Since we homeschooled year 'round, I learned that we were doing far more than the 900 instructional hours required by our state. After that I decided not to bother keeping track. We went with the flow, followed our inspirations, and I am quite sure we more than covered what was required.


However, I know that some people prefer to follow a more rigid schedule, that some families like to do what the students in school are doing. So I post this every year as a guideline, a reference, but that's all. Do whatever works best for you and your students and don't worry about what they are doing in the schools. Or, be grateful that you don't have to stick to this kind of schedule! Of course, with COVID-19 who knows what the schools are doing. I hear from friends who are still teaching and everything is up for grabs these days. Most don't know from one day to the next what they will be asked to do! Do what works for your family and for each student and don't worry about the rest.


Norma Curry


 

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