Minutes per objective, and what has to come out

Pacing is arithmetic: the minutes you really have, divided by the objectives you really have, gives the minutes each one gets, and if that number is too small then something comes out of the unit.

Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.

What it is for

In March you are six lessons behind and you find out by running out of March. The unit plan knew in January. Nobody did the division.

How to think about it

Count the teaching minutes you actually have, after the assembly and the trip and the two lessons the calendar eats. Divide by the number of objectives. Compare that with what one objective honestly takes. Then cut objectives rather than minutes, in January, chosen by you.

Worked example

18 lessons × 50 min = 900 min

The nominal time.

3 lessons lost, so 15 × 50 = 750 min

The time you actually have.

750 / 12 objectives = 62.5 min each

Just over one lesson per objective.

One objective honestly takes 90 min, and 750 / 90 = 8 fit

Twelve planned and eight fit. Four come out now rather than in March by accident.

Your turn

A unit has 640 teaching minutes and 10 objectives. Write the line that gives the minutes per objective.

640 / 10 =  min per objective

The trap

Cutting the practice to make the objectives fit. That keeps the list and loses the learning; cutting an objective keeps the learning on the ones that are left.

Practise pacing a unit on HoneA question on it now, a real problem where there is one, and it is remembered for review. Free, no email needed.