Here's a sample time lesson plan that's miserably bad, in my opinion:
http://www.time-for-time.com/lesson1.htm

I found it by googling for "teaching time", and picking the first link that contained a lesson plan, which happened to be the second link in the search results, then clicking through to the first lesson plan for teachers. I don't want to exhaustively list all the problems with the sample lesson plan, but in my opinion the scattershot focus in the reinforcement activities would actually tend to be confusing as to the mathematics of telling and converting time, as I don't see a correct foundation being laid before all the fun games start to be played. This is the sort of tripe that's been fostered by the multiple intelligences idea and "learning styles" thinking in general. So much activity-based focus on the idea that the numbers one to twelve must be arranged in a circle, which might seem to be valuable foundational work to a teacher or parent, is really treating the children like idiots, at least if they know what a circle is and how to arrange numbers up to twelve in order. They will see these numbers arranged in a circle each time they encounter an analog clock face for the rest of their lives; it needs no reinforcement.

You may also want to check out check out the other lessons on the same site. I won't pick apart everything I see wrong with the sequence of concepts presented, or how each one is taught.

It might violate copyright for me to post samples of good and bad time-teaching from widely accepted curriculums or books, and in any event I don't tend to retain bad books (except for bad poetry). I'm guessing that if I went right now to local booksellers I could at least find numerous examples of workbooks that present time using confusing conceptual sequences or methods.


Striving to increase my rate of flow, and fight forum gloopiness. sick