Marisa Hansard Katie Heath

 How do transition times affect student learning?  How does structure and organization in the classroom affect students being on task?  What can we change to create a more organized, structured classroom with smooth transition times?

 tos/mcIntosh37-1.pdf tos/mcIntosh37-1.pdf  This article states that transition times are the times when misbehavior is most likely to occur and educational time is wasted. It is important to keep in mind that students do not always come to school with the knowledge of how to behave during transitions; this must be taught to them. Teachers need to fully explain what is expected during transition times and practice proper transition times. To improve transition times, it is important to set up classroom routines, so that the students know what to expect. Successful transitions require pre-planning in how the classrooms is set up and run. Decreasing transition times can lead to increased instruction time and decreased behavioral issues.

 ng-transitions ng-transitions  Transition times seem to be the most chaotic times in classrooms. Many teachers seem to just “resign themselves to chaos” and do not do anything to improve transition times. However, this article offers several suggestions on how to reduce the chaos. Students need clear expectations; students need to know what is expected of them in transition times. In other words, have a clear routine each day on how the class will run and transition. This article also suggests that the teacher provides warnings before cleanup or transition times (saying you have 5 minutes until cleanup or the lesson, etc). The article pointed at that proper transitions times need to be a taught skill; we cannot assume that students come to school knowing the proper behavior. Expectations need to be clear and followed daily.

  Children experience numerous amounts of transitions throughout the school day. With this said, it is important that teachers incorporate transitions that cause the least amount of chaos between each activity. Although many children can adapt easily to frequent changes, it may be hard for some children to stay focused when moving from one activity to the next especially if the transitions are not carefully planned out. Challenging behaviors that could occur during transition times and should try to be avoided are refusal to stop the current activity, refusal to move to the next activity, disturbing and/or distracting others, disruptive behaviors because of a non-preferred task. Organizing classroom environments to facilitate transitions can lead to minimizing non-productive time for children as well as enabling more instructional time to take place, which is essential. It is vital that teachers keep in mind the amount of time needed for each transition as well as specific child expectations. It is important to ensure that the strategies used are appropriate for children from linguistically, socially, economically, and cultural diverse backgrounds are taken into consideration when planning transition activities.

 Long transition times  No daily structure – different routines each day  Incomplete assignments  Missing work  Running out of time – rushing through the new content  Off task behaviors  Lack of continuity

 Clearly defined routine/structure  Do Now  Activity  Independent work – small groups  New content – whole group  Led to shorter transition times between activities  Changing the organization of the room  One spot for all the materials  Turn in trays on tables  Structures within table groups  Task manager  Paper collector  Colored pencils  Book distributor  Led to less people moving around the classroom

 An average of 90% of students are now turning in completed homework compared to 60% prior to adjusting the transition process  Test scores increased from an average around the 60 th percentile to the 80 th percentile  Available time for one-on-one work with small groups and RTI students increased to a minimum of 20 minutes each class  Available time for instruction of new content was increased to a minimum of 40 minutes each class

 Organization of classroom environment is key to creating structure.  A clearly defined structure leads to shorter transition times – the students know what to expect.  Smooth transitions led to more on-task behavior for students, which ultimately led to increased test scores.  Overall improvement of student learning and success due to more focused/structured classroom environment (one-on-one and sufficient time for new content)