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Guided Study Halls - ST Week 7.1

Study halls. The sometimes coveted, sometimes looked down upon free periods where students can work on whatever tasks are currently occupying space in their agendas. While I remember middle school study halls as the free periods only students who did not take band or chorus had the luxury of fitting into their schedules, I have learned that some school systems offer multiple types of study halls for different student needs, and also that some students are assigned to specific study halls for guided studies at EMS. If managed well by both students and teachers, study halls prove beneficial to the academic and emotional needs of students, particularly in areas like work completion, stress and time management, working memory, and attention/focus. Of course, the temptation to aimlessly browse the internet with music playing in one’s ears is rarely irresistible to students who live in school districts with 1:1 technology ratios and/or have trouble finding time to decompress throughout their busy school week. However, I would like to believe that most students use their study hall time wisely, and although this may not be true across the board, I have recently seen how schools can improve their study hall programs in a way that makes the extra work time beneficial for students who want and/or need it.

Every other school day at EMS, Team Nova’s special educator runs a guided study hall for five students who need more intensive instruction in any or all of their core classes. Even more, these students tend to need extra support when it comes to time management, selecting/transferring appropriate skills for a task, organization, and self advocacy. Each student sits at their own small round table and works quietly on classwork, homework, and make-up work while listening to music and/or fighting off the too frequent distractions that having internet access can provide. Nova’s special educator spends time with each student individually, sometimes working with two or more students together on the same task if needed. This past Monday, I was fortunate enough to join Nova’s guided study hall, and I was able to help three of the students begin their Humanities test review for our westward expansion exam coming later this week. I must admit, working with these students (whether in their guided study or in our Humanities classroom) offers some of the most rewarding yet challenging classroom experiences I have encountered thus far, and I hope to continue my visits to Nova’s guided study throughout the remainder of my student teaching semester. The idea of study halls serving a purpose greater than an open-ended free period that easily fills a student’s schedule with a location and an adult to make sure they are still in the building by the end of the day is something I had not considered before my placement at EMS. My own school experiences featured study halls as something I longed after as a busy student whose higher level classes prevented my access to a free period (even though those classes were the reason I wanted one so badly in the first place). Guided study halls, especially the one run by Nova’s special educator, are a novel concept to me both as a student and as a future educator, and I deeply appreciate the targeted academic and emotional support Nova’s students receive throughout their school week in this program. I know that guided studies may sound like another form of “intervention” or “enrichment” instruction, but the clear difference here is the pairing of academic and emotional support with a special educator’s guidance on completing core curriculum. While I have yet to observe how other students perceive the guided study halls (and I sincerely hope that there is not a negative association between the structured study halls and special education or student support), I have seen an obvious shift in work ethic among these guided study students within the two short weeks of this elective course cycle starting. In the future, I hope that I will be able to provide my students with an option for guided work time based on their academic and emotional needs. Whether my future school offers guided study halls or not, I now believe that even general study halls can and should be run in a more student need-based fashion.

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