Running head: ACTION RESEARCH 1

Action Research Project:

Using Temporal Awareness to Improve Pacing, Productivity,

and Time on Task in Secondary Music Instruction

Benjamin Mohr

Grand Valley State University

College of Education
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Using Temporal Awareness to Improve Pacing, Productivity,

and Time on Task in Secondary Music Instruction

The Problem

Throughout this school year at Crestwood Middle School I have noticed that valuable

rehearsal time is lost in two main areas of the class agenda: the sharing of good new and sight

reading exercises. These are activities that are done every day and are part of the class routine,

however the amount of time spent on these activities can vary. While three minutes is the

expected amount of time for Good News, it can easily consume five to six minutes of class time.

On most days, we want to allot between five to ten minutes for sight-reading exercises as the

time should vary based on the difficulty of the exercises and the skill of the students. While some

classes stick to this timeline, it can be easy to spend almost double the goal on sight-reading,

which then takes away necessary rehearsal time for the selected repertoire.

The goal of my action research was to improve in class productivity by adhering to the

allotted amount of time for the selected events. Time limits were not going to be placed on

rehearsing repertoire as that is a more fluid process; repertoire can be worked on as long as the

students remain focused and haven’t reached saturation with a specific piece or skill.

The Research

I know from lectures in my advanced conducting class how important it is to sequence

rehearsals and to provide guiding time limits for different activities. My professor, Dr. Engle,

noted that this timeline can be fluid, but having one in place helps to improve the pace and

engagement during a rehearsal. This is a widely held belief, one that is touted in many a music

journal: “the first step in creating good pacing during rehearsals is to plan the appropriate amount
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of time needed for each segment” (Manfredo, 2006). In his article on effective time management

Manfredo suggests planning out rehearsals by the minute, and then most importantly, sticking to

this plan. While he recognizes that “the best planning will never work 100 percent of the time,”

having a detailed plan keeps rehearsals moving and helps to get them back on track after the

timeline is disrupted.

In his article, How to Practice Sight Singing, Leon Harrell lays out a four simple steps to

guide one’s practice: “use a practice journal, get your materials ready, stay focused, and use a

timer” (Harrell, 2018). In my class, keeping a practice journal was not necessary and the

materials were always prepared ahead of time— often students had their own copies as well as

viewing a projected version. His ideas of focus were more aimed for the individual, isolating

specific skills, but it was the last piece of advice that seemed the most beneficial: using a timer.

Harrell stated that using a timer provided an immediate goal for each practice session and helped

to keep one focused on the task at hand.

Finally, an article in the Washington Post lead me Doug Lemov’s book, Teach Like a

Champion. Contained therein are 62 strategies and techniques that successful teachers use in

their classrooms. One of these techniques is that teachers would often provide lessons or tasks

"in highly specific increments, often announcing an allotted time for each activity” (Lemov,

2011).Lemov promotes not only providing specific times and countdowns, but using the readily

available technology that most classrooms have to project a stopwatch or timer so that students

have a visual stimulus as well. He argues that it creates a sense of urgency in the class. It

reminds students that time is limited and important.

The Plan
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For this project I decided to involve three of my choirs across three different grade levels

that struggled with managing time the most. I decided that in the first of two weeks I would use a

personal timer, either my phone or my watch, and I would end the time as my schedule directed.

This would allow me to compare to the second week when I would project a countdown for the

entire class to view. To facilitate this, I used the countdown that google provides, making it full

screen. The data wouldn’t translate well into numbers or graphs, but rather would be

observationally determining how well the action worked.

The Action

In the first week where I used a personal timer, I noticed an improvement in the sharing

of Good News, but little change in Sight Reading. Any failings with Good News ultimately came

down to me: I felt badly about interrupting students when the timer went off or having to deny

students who still had their hand raised. Some days I would add little 10 second extensions on

myself so that more student could share. In Sight Reading I noticed almost no change. Students

did not seem to focus any more than before. While I would try and give small increments to them

verbally, “spend one minute practicing line #4 with your neighbor using solfege and hand signs,”

it became easy for me to get distracted helping students, which meant that time was lost.

The second week saw continued improvements in streamlining Good News and a marked

increase in productivity during Sight Reading. With a projected timer, students could see how

much time they had left and worked to distribute it more evenly. Students with longer anecdotes

to share would ask to go at the end. I no longer had to be the one cutting students off— the timer

did that for me. The main difference is this phase of the research was with Sight Reading. Not

only did having the timer projected and counting down enforce our ending time, but I noticed
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students engaging and focusing more on the task at hand. I know from talking to one student that

she enjoyed “racing against the clock” because it felt like a “competition.” With the timer

projected, even if I lost track of time listening to or helping students, another student would say

that it was time to move on.

The Results

The results of using a timer in the classroom and projecting it were positive to the pacing

and productivity in my rehearsals. The main difference really came about by projecting the timer

and involving students in the process. By increasing students’ temporal awareness and giving

them some of the control in the classroom, pacing, productivity, and time on task was improved

during Good News and Sight Reading. Going forward, I continued to use a projected countdown

timer with Sight Reading and would use it with Good News as a class needed it. I believe that

involving students in the process was crucial to its success. While I don’t think that the rehearsal

would benefit from adhering to a strict, unbreakable schedule at all times would be the most

productive, I could see the benefits of providing students with a more detailed agenda that

includes time stamp benchmarks of when to switch activities.

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References

Harrell, L. (2018, April 25). How to Practice Sight Singing. Retrieved from https://nafme.org/

how-to-practice-sight-reading-in-15-minutes-a-day-in-just-4-steps/

Lemov, D. (2011). Teach like a champion: the complete handbook to master the art of teaching.

San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Manfredo, J. (2006). Effective Time Management in Ensemble Rehearsal. Music Educator's

Journal, 42–46.