Co-op Class Structure

  Before teaching Co-op classes, I taught in both private and public schools.  Schools have seven (or eight) classes each day, use a block schedule.  Block Scheduling has three or four classes each day; although, there are many variations.  Additionally, I had been an adjunct instructor at a local college.  

Co-op scheduling is more like teaching at a college.  The classes are for longer blocks of time.  When I was teaching Co-op and still teaching in a public schools, our class met weekly, after school, for an hour and a half.  When I started teaching Co-op exclusively, my classes met weekly for two and a half hours, plus a mid-morning break. The younger students met for ninety minutes in the afternoon.   Ten years ago we moved across the state to a new Co-op.  Our local Co-op meets three times per week.  

When you’re teaching for over two hours in a class, it’s important to vary activities.  Instead, divide the time into fifteen to twenty minute activities.  Ninety minutes decided by fifteen is six.  Every class we try to do five or six different activities.  (Two and a half hours divided by fifteen is ten, which implies breaking class into seven to ten activities.)  Here’s the rub.  The activities must foster instruction—not kill time.  You need alternatives to lectures!  Right now I’m teaching Anatomy.  Below is a typical schedule.  Take a look!

9:15–9:30: Review

Anatomy review of bones, lobes, names of muscles, flow of blood through the heart.  

9:30-9:50: Slide Decks and Lecture

Here I teach.  This is the lecture portion.  I try not to exceed twenty minutes.

9:50–10:10: Application

I vary activities among card sorts, POGILS, short videos, and clay or paper models.

10:10–10:40: Labs

I also extra time for labs, which might be a wet lab, dissection, or microscope work.  The labs vary enormously.  Recently, we did a simulated blood lab, sheep heart dissection, and sketched microscope slides.  

10:40-10:45: Clean-up.