Silence

The past two weeks I have been enforcing a very strict silent time for 20 minutes at the beginning of writing time. This is not the easiest thing to do considering our class is an open learning environment with 90 kids and three teachers. It can get quite noisy!

We normally have quiet time but this has been more test conditions. I didn't feel that good enforcing it at the beginning because I value collaboration but after seeing how productive the kids are I started to feel less uncomfortable. The kids were all very engaged and in their own writing worlds.

After twenty minutes two kids said they were finished and others started to stir so I called them back to the mat and asked them what they thought of the silent time. Of the 26 kids only two said they didn't like it, one because he wanted to talk to his mates and the other because 20 minutes wasn't long enough. The rest said they really liked it because they could focus on their work without any distractions.

I sent them off after this to carry on or to start editing their work with a buddy and most of them went back to their spot and ignored the others around them. I am waiting for them to publish their work now so that I can see how well they have done.

Next week I am not going to enforce the silent time as I want to see how productive they are without my help. I will post some of their work to compare productivity and quality in each environment shortly.