Do high school students have the same lessons in the same order every day?
Posted by squeoj@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 151 comments
In movies kids talk about having a teacher for ‘3rd period’. In my country you do different lessons each day on a 2 week timetable.
Thing_On_Your_Shelf@reddit
Depends on the school I assume.
At my high school we had a total of 7 periods which were all your classes. Only 5 met per day so it was a rotating schedule of 7 different “days” A-G. So like “A” days would be periods 1-5, “B” was 6-3, and so on. That way all classes could meet and not every day was the same.
We also had different types of classes. Some were “super” classes, which meet every day no matter what. They either met during their designated period or during shorter 30min “extra” periods on days they didn’t meet normally. There we also “lab” classes that would meet for an extra 30 mins on days that class met normally.
Mondays were different in that every class (1-7) did meet.
Kinda difficult to explain but somehow I have a pic of our schedule still which explains it better: https://imgur.com/a/mTFReyd#b6AlfWC
Gallahadion@reddit
When I was in high school, we had classes periods that were numbered 1-7, plus an un-numbered period that could be used for various things depending on your schedule. The class numbers almost never matched the order, though. For example, 1st period might have been the 3rd class of the day on Thursday but the last class Friday. 7th period would be the first class of the day on Monday, but the 4th class of the day on Tuesday, and so on. There were only 2 class periods that were at the same time every day: 4th period was always right before lunch and 5th period was always right after lunch. And the un-numbered period was not at the same time every day, either. You still had all of your classes in one day, however.
Seniors (4th-year students) who had their privileges could come to school late and/or leave early if the first of last period(s) of the day was a free period (the higher the grade, the fewer classes we took, so the more free periods we had).
brzantium@reddit
It depends. I did. My high school broke the school day into seven 45-minute periods plus a half hour for lunch. My first roommate in college told me had a block schedule that a lot of other people have described here already - basically he had different classes on different days just like we did in college. We attended high in the same state, but three hours apart.
Ok_Jackfruit2612@reddit
In my district, kids have the same class schedule every day but not every student has the same schedule.
So, while one person has English for 1st period, another has History for 1st period.
In my kid's high school, there are 8 periods with 1 of them being lunch. So that means they are taking roughly 7 subjects at once, which can be pretty overwhelming. I think a block schedule like what you describe is much better.
Able_Conflict_1721@reddit
I had something like the rotating monstrosity below, where the Capital block was an extra 30 minutes longer than normal
a,b,C,d,e b,c,a,D,e c,a,B,d,e a,b,c,d,E b,c,A,d,e
Dangerous-Variation@reddit
Back in the 80s we had the same classes 5 days a week, but we’d have Gym/PE on Tuesday/Thursday and it would alternate with something like Band or Choir Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Other than that, yep. Same third period class, five days a week.
languagelover17@reddit
Every district is different! My school uses flex mod (look it up, it’s super cool!), but most places do 7-8 class periods per day.
bearsnchairs@reddit
Yes that is the typical setup. While not high school, my junior high moved the final period of the day after first period so it was constantly rotating.
Some high schools may also have block schedules with some classes one set of days and others on the other days.
icyDinosaur@reddit
Follow-up question: How many different subjects do you have? Because in high school I think we had something like 12 subjects, having the same schedule every day would have meant insanely long days!
bearsnchairs@reddit
High school was six periods for me. That is fairly common, but I’ve also heard up to 8.
icyDinosaur@reddit
So you'd only have six classes each semester?
For my fifth year (roughly ages 16-17, before we prune some classes and once all the subjects have kicked in) in German-speaking Switzerland I had:
Modern languages: German, French, English for 3-4 lessons per week each
Latin for 3-4 lessons (this one I picked as my "emphasis subject", if you didn't pick it you wouldn't have any Latin but an additional language or an advanced STEM or art class)
Maths for 3-4 lessons
Science: Physics, chemistry, and biology for 2 lessons each IIRC (physics might have been 3)
Other stuff: History for 2 lessons/week, Art or Music (you could choose) for 2.5 lessons/week, Geography for 2 lessons/week, Sports for 3 lessons per week.
One lesson covered 45 minutes. So it was actually 12 (although sports didn't count towards whether you'd pass the year or not), spread throughout the week - they liked using double lessons for things where you'd do some more practical stuff, so at least one semester I only had chemistry once a week for a double lesson practical.
jvc1011@reddit
We have at most two languages: English and one foreign language.
We do not have an “emphasis subject” like a college major. Even in college, you have to do general education requirements before you can graduate and it’s easy to spend the first two years on that.
We get one math subject per year or per semester, depending on what you choose. Likewise, one science per year. Art and music: most colleges have a requirement for a year of one of those. Geography is part of History, not a separate subject.
I’ve never heard of more than 8 per semester, more usually 6. We seem to go into more depth in each than you are accustomed to.
bearsnchairs@reddit
Six classes for the year. There were only a few exceptions where there were semester classes. Generally there is English which covers literature and language, a science, math, history or social studies, a foreign language, or an elective or two. Physical education was one of the required classes for the first two years. Sciences generally were a life science class, then physical science (these were very general), and then biology and chemistry the last two years. A student on an accelerated track would take biology, chemistry, and physics plus the “Advanced placement” versions of these courses.
It sounds like a lot of your lessons would be covered in a single course here.
icyDinosaur@reddit
I now wonder if part of it is that we don't have any concept of picking classes here, you're just selecting a profile once (at ca age 14) and then prune some classes for final year. So there are no year-long subclasses like "Calculus" or "US history", instead everything is its own multi-year curriculum (and has its own teacher, although teachers often cover multiple subjects, e.g. my German teacher and my Latin teacher both also taught history to other classes).
Also no accelerated tracks here, or rather those are separated out into different schools altogether - more or less the same as in Germany in case you're more familiar with that. The example I gave was for a Gymnasium, i.e. the highest level that qualifies you for university; if you're looking at a different type of school there is a ton more variety as in that case, years 10-12 (or 13 depending on program) depend a lot on what kind of career you're training towards.
bearsnchairs@reddit
Yeah I am aware of the tracking done in the German system and am not really a fan of that separation.
icyDinosaur@reddit
I think the Germans do it too early (in Switzerland it happens later and is generally more permissive), but feeling how much better it made me feel and how much better I functioned in an explicitly academically-minded school... I have a hard time opposing it. It genuinely did a ton for my mental health.
I think it only works in places that assign a lot of resources and prestige to their non-university education though - in Switzerland I would say it broadly works because our vocational training system is a source of national price and therefore generally seen very positively by employers, politicians, and also the people going through it.
bearsnchairs@reddit
I had a very similar feeling within my course track. I guess I don’t see a compelling enough reason to separate by schools instead of tracks within schools. All that duplicated overhead.
I think there are valuable experiences to be had interacting with all sorts of people.
icyDinosaur@reddit
They still physically can be in the same school (mine was at least). Honestly I think the main reason they are organisationally separate here is federalism - lower-tier schools are organised by the municipality whereas higher ones are run by the canton, and obviously nobody wants to give up their power.
I agree on the value of interacting with all sorts of people, but I never felt I lacked that. Sports clubs, other hobbies, and just existing in your town on the streets still exist.
MortimerDongle@reddit
Yeah, every kid has a different schedule (for the most part) so having different classes on different days would make scheduling even more complicated. It isn't like what I've heard in some countries where every student in the year might take the same classes
MortimerDongle@reddit
Mine was four classes per day, 1.5 hours each
Raddatatta@reddit
It varies somewhat. But a typical schedule would be English (so like literature and grammar and writing), a math (mostly algebra, geometry, precalculus or calculus), foreign language (Spanish and French are most common), science (generally biology, chemistry, physics), social studies / history (civics, world history, us history)
And those are your core 5 classes you'll mostly have one per year. And then you'll typically have a gym or physical education class and a health class for my school you'd have pe half the year and health the other half. Those are less graded or at least not as difficult. And then you might have an elective that will vary a lot.
So all of that plus a lunch is 8 periods that are 45 minutes each. And they'll be in the same order in most schools so after like the second day most people know their schedule.
All that was my experience at least. Could vary elsewhere!
ITrCool@reddit
I often think this is partly also to prepare students for set class schedules they'd see in college too. By the time they get to college, they're already used to the scheduled class structure so it's nothing new to them.
TruckADuck42@reddit
That, and science labs are a pain in the ass to fit into an hour.
max_m0use@reddit
Classes were 42 minutes in my high school. AP science classes were two periods back to back. Some other science classes had a lab period after class one or two days per week, with gym or study halls the remaining days.
Abi1i@reddit
Some classes definitely benefit from longer class times in a block schedule. Other classes, such as mathematics, benefit more from shorter class times every day.
Chessdaddy_@reddit
I had 4 of my classes on one day, and the other 4 on the following day, and they would alternate. Some places try to cram all 6-8 periods in one day
witchy12@reddit
I feel like most high schools do this, not some.
jvc1011@reddit
Not anymore. I’ve taught in both kinds, but these days it’s overwhelmingly block schedules.
Chessdaddy_@reddit
Probably depends on the area
PacSan300@reddit
We had block scheduling on just two days of the week, where we had 3 out of our normal 6 periods, plus a study period in one assigned classroom, and lunch. On Wednesday, we had our classes with odd numbered periods, and on Thursday with even numbered periods. Each class on these days was longer in duration than normal.
On the other days, we had all 6 periods as scheduled. However, they were shorter on Friday since school ended a bit over an hour earlier than the other days.
Spooky_Tree@reddit
Ours was 4 periods for half the year and 4 for the other half. It was pretty nice having 1½ hour classes, you didn't feel rushed
Pulp501@reddit
That long of class would have made me miserable, i would have completely zoned out halfway through each class.
Imaginary_Ladder_917@reddit
The teachers try to switch things up during that time frame, so it isn’t just a long lecture. That helps
Mysterious-Art8838@reddit
We had nine
AdamOnFirst@reddit
We did block scheduling but just with the same classes each day and core classes shortened to a semester instead. So you’d do all your core math in one semester instead of the full year, etc. Was useful for students who wanted to pack in more in one year, for example you could do two years of math in one year if you wanted simply by taking one of the classes first semester and the other second semester.
I know A/B is also very popular, probably more popular.
osteologation@reddit
we switched to block scheduling my junior year. i felt like we made less progress than just all 7 classes in one day. less homework though.
jvc1011@reddit
Most do not; some do. The periods retain the same name for those on a block and on a fixed schedule.
A block schedule has half the number of classes with twice the time, so you get two extra-long sessions per week of each class. The short day (which varies from school to school) generally has them all in a row.
When I was in school, most schedules were fixed. Every subject in the same order every day.
YoungBeef03@reddit
Yes (by my experience)
Euphoric_Ease4554@reddit
We had 7 periods every day, with the same 6 classes in the same order. The other period was study hall.
CountChoculasGhost@reddit
There is no federal standard for public schools.
There is no answer to this.
My school did A/B scheduling which meant 8 classes per semester that alternated every day.
4 classes one day, a totally different 4 classes the next.
WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs@reddit
We have 13,000 school districts and no two do things identically, and that's not even counting all the private schools.
purritowraptor@reddit
Depends on the school. We had ABCD days, wherein A&C and B&D were generally the same as each other with small variations in elective classes such.
sneezhousing@reddit
Generally yes.
max_m0use@reddit
In our school, mostly yes. Most of our core classes (English, Math, Science, Social Studies) met the same time every day, five days per week, all year. Some classes (PE) only met a few days per week, and some (typically electives, like computer, foods, art, etc.) only lasted for one quarter or semester. If you had an elective 3rd period for example, once that quarter or semester was over you would have a different elective that period for the next quarter or semester, but the rest of your daily schedule would remain the same.
WritPositWrit@reddit
In my high school yes we had the same order of classes daily. In my kids’ high school they did not, they had A B C & D days.
So it varies by school.
TheGabyDali@reddit
When I went to high school I went to the same six classes every day. My little brother goes to the same high school now and they have block schedule (3 classes one day and 3 classes another). When I worked at a high school we also had a similar block schedule.
youngpathfinder@reddit
I went to 3 different high schools who did in 3 different ways.
Way 1 - 4 classes per day alternating every other day. A total of 8 classes per semester.
Way 2 - 4 classes per day. The same classes every day. 4 classes per semester.
Way 3 - 8 classes per day. 8 classes per semester.
Longjumping-Oil-7419@reddit
Depends on each school
sideshow--@reddit
Yes, my high school had an A day and a B day. So I had classes every other day, but the periods were longer. Some other school just have one schedule that repeats.
MamaLlama629@reddit
This is very common
Teri-k@reddit
My grandkids high school is like this, with A and B days alternating. 3 As one week, 2 the next, so it's even. My school had every day the same, with shorter class times. As a teacher I prefer the longer periods less often, because you can go more in depth on things.
sideshow--@reddit
As a student, I liked it better. Homework tends to be more manageable.
Username_Here5@reddit
My HS also had A day and B day.
I hated it
Head_Razzmatazz7174@reddit
It really varies with the school size. Smaller school districts didn't have A-B days, you just signed up for classes and went when you were scheduled every day. Electives were usually half a semester.
Deer_like_me@reddit
Mine rotated periods, but I don't think that is super common.
Nondescript_Redditor@reddit
yes
MM_in_MN@reddit
We had a M W F and a T TH schedule. Class blocks were shorter on M W F. I think we switched classes 3x a year, but not certain on that.
TsundereLoliDragon@reddit
No and no.
Zenthane@reddit
When I was in high school it was 8 classes a day, every day in the same order. This changed at the winter break of some of the classes you had were only a semester long. Sometimes as a result of this change you might change teachers and times due a year long class to accommodate your new classes.
MageDA6@reddit
Depends on each school district. When I was in high school everyday was the same schedule. The year after I graduated they went to block scheduling so Mon/Wed/Fri were core subjects and Tues/Thurs were co/extra and fine/practical arts.
virtual_human@reddit
In the early 1980s yes, I had six classes a day and they were the same everyday.
GreyHorse_BlueDragon@reddit
My high school operated on something called a block schedule. This meant that you had a short class of each on Mondays, but tuesdays and thursdays were longer classes of periods 1, 3, and 5, whereas Wednesdays and Fridays were longer classes of periods 2, 4, and 6.
Sinchanzo@reddit
Interesting responses. We had a six day rotation, A through F. The classes were in the same order, but shifted one period later.
SilverB33@reddit
When I was in high school we had separate days for separate classes
thirdeyefish@reddit
At my school the weekly schedule was thusv thus:
Monday: Periods 1-6, one hour each Tue and Thur: Periods 1,3,5, Two hours each *Wed and Fri: Periods 2,4,6, Two hours each
There was a 0 period that was taught every day but was an optional sign up and did not have bus service. 0 period was for students who wanted to take an extra class and we're able to get to school without a bus. I had two electives Junior year and had Gym 0 period to free up space for the second elective.
Barisaxgod@reddit
It can vary from school district to school district, or even between schools within a district. Generally, to my knowledge, having the same classes in the same order every day seems to be the norm. However, my brother and I went to different high schools within the same district, (school boundary fuckery, don’t get me started) and our schools operated differently. I had the standard model with the same six classes every day, but my brother’s school had what they called “block days” twice a week. On one block day, they would only have 3 classes, but they were twice as long, then they’d have the other three double-length classes on the other block day.
MortimerDongle@reddit
Depends on the school but sometimes yes.
My high school used a system where you had four 1.5 hour classes per day, every day. Most academic classes were for half the year, some advanced classes were 3 quarters, and many electives were one quarter. So, for each quarter of the school year, you'd have the same classes every day.
New-Cicada7014@reddit
Some schools have A and B days, so there are two different schedules that alternate throughout the week
NMS-KTG@reddit
For us, we had "A" days and "b" days.
So a previous schedule I had:
A day: •Spanish Language and Culture •United States Government and Politics • Human Geography • Statistics
B day:
•Physical Education •Creative Writing • Latin American History •English Literature
anonymous_fart5@reddit
At my high school we took every class every day in the same order. Most of the other high schools in my area had block scheduling which was longer class periods and you took half your classes one day and half the other. When I got to college(whichbis closer to block scheduling) I thought it was a cakewalk compared to what I was used to.
davdev@reddit
a lot of schools rotate, so that first period is always the actual first period of the day. So if on Monday 1st period is actually the 1st period, on Tuesday second period will be the first period and First period moves to last. This goes threw the whole period rotation, and resets after it gets through them all. How many actual periods there are depends on district with any between 5 and 7 being common.
Prestigious-Dog-2150@reddit
No. I had an American friend in the Netherlands who took over for a Dutch teacher who was retiring. He taught the American way by trying to vary the class from day to day. The former teacher invited him to afternoon tea and explained the routine he was to carry on day after day. His students didn’t like variety.
TeamTurnus@reddit
We mostly did week to seek. Our schedule was
Monday-wed-friday have all (6-7) periods Tuesday-Thursday double periods each with half . The order on the day stayed the same all semester.
TheNerdofLife@reddit
Depends on the school, but it usually depends on the length of the section of content being taught. Many have the same order of subjects each day that alternate between different days, but the actual content taught in class may differ. Some topics may take multiple days to teach with how much there is. In my high school, we'd have seven periods. 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th periods (in that order) would be one day and 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 7th periods (in that order) would be taught the following day in an alternating format. In that format, which is common in many American schools, people will have the same teacher in each period for that subject (unless they were ill or something in which case there'll be a substitute teacher).
Illustrious_Code_347@reddit
Usually (every school is different) but usually it is a weeklong timetable where students have a set schedule for each day and the only classes that are on the schedule every day are the main 3-4 subjects or so, like Math, English (which is not a language class, but a literature/writing type of class), Science (of some sort, my school changed the science each year, so first year would be biology, then physics, then chemistry, but there was always a prominent science class on the daily schedule as part of the core curriculum), and sometimes history or geography or civics or some other sociological type of subject like that. Those four would be on the schedule every day, usually in the same order, but then the rest of the schedule was stuff like art, Spanish or some other language, gym, music, and none of that was daily, so it would be dependent on the day.
malachite_13@reddit
That’s how it was when I was in high school in 1998 to 2002. All seven classes every day in the same hour. Now I’m a teacher in the same high school I graduated from and it’s different. They do block scheduling so they go to different periods every day.
StupidLemonEater@reddit
My high school was like that, yes.
Ivy7424@reddit
My high school we had 7 50 minute periods with 4 minutes between classes and a single 40 minute lunch period. I had the same classes and teachers every day. On fridays each class was about 8 minutes shorter so we left approximately an hour earlier.
At the mid year mark, some of the electives ended and classes for that period changed. Which meant if I were taking a semester long elective like art 1, if art 2 wasn’t available that period then I had to take what ever half year elective was available. Or I’d end up in an aide position. Or CORE, which was basically a class where you were sent to work at one of the local businesses as free labor for them and experience for you.
YoshiandAims@reddit
Varies with the school.
Ours were typically "day of the week" Certain core classes every day, then certain classes that shifted with the week.
Random example: Monday/Thursday: gym/history/geography Tuesday: choir/language/elective Wednesday: art/shop/study hall Friday: economics/typing/english
North_Artichoke_6721@reddit
Some do, some rotate. Depends on the school.
river-running@reddit
Starting when I was in middle school, in 2000, we had block scheduling. Half your classes on one day and half on the next, then rinse and repeat, for the whole year. That continued through high school.
madogvelkor@reddit
Depends on the school, often they have alternating days. So you'd have Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes and Tuesday/Thursday classes. With Tuesday/Thursday being longer.
University is similar, though some don't have regular classes on Fridays.
holiestcannoly@reddit
I did
ThingFuture9079@reddit
In my high school, the day was divided into 7 periods that were 50 minutes each with a 30 minute lunch and you got 4 minutes between classes to go to your locker, grab your stuff, and use the bathroom. My schedule was the same day where 1st period was English, 2nd was gym, 3rd was social studies, 4th was divided into A & B because you were either class A and lunch B or lunch A and class B so in my case it was lunch A and science class, 5th was math, 6th was French, and 7th was art.
blipsman@reddit
Each school district sets their own schedules, but it’s common to have same schedule or very similar one each day.
When I was in high school, we had same class for same period for an entire semester (1/2 school year). Only variation was that science classes were double period labs twice a week and we had a study hall the other 3 days.
old-town-guy@reddit
Depends on the school. Some do it that way, some have a rotating block schedule, some have systems different than either of those.
Astro_Queen@reddit
My high school had the same 2-7 periods in order every day, but would alternate the first and last period every other day.
Longwell2020@reddit
Yes and the predictably was one of the hilights of my day. I hated seeing the TV cart. Later I would discovered i was what some people call fanTistic.
Winter-Warlock8954@reddit
Typically you would have the same rotation of classes every day for a marking period.
Example: say a marking period is two months long; you would have the same 5 or 6 classes every day at the same times for that entire marking period, and every class lasts about an hour usually.
So you would have homeroom in the morning which I think would be 15 minutes, then English for an hour, then math, social studies, lunch, and then the rest of their classes. Between every period (class) is usually 5 minutes for the kids to move from one class to another. The order would repeat every day from Monday to Friday until the end of the marking period.
MrLongWalk@reddit
In my school we had rotating schedules
manicpixidreamgirl04@reddit
In both of the schools I went to, most subjects were every day, but a few like PE were every other day.
DragonScrivner@reddit
My kid’s schedule shifts depending on the day so he’s not always doing the same thing at the same time, day after day. The same was true of my HS
Mountain_Remote_464@reddit
When I was in high school, we had 1 set of classes Monday and Wednesday, a different set Tuesday and Thursday, and then all classes (but half length) on Friday.
RealCarlPanzram@reddit
It’s not the same lesson every day. But you do have set class schedule. So you might have English first period, math second period, history 3rd period etc. that’s usually the same schedule for either a whole year or a semester depending on the class.
ThatGirl_Tasha@reddit
That's the standard tradition. But every state, every town, or school district is different. A lot of schools change it up while still using the terms 1st period, 2nd period. So they might say 2nd, 3rd and 4th on Wednesday and 1st, 5th and 6th on Thursday. My kids' high school used school colors to denote the order. Orange day is a particular order, black day was another order.
A lot of schools changed up after covid. They found they liked some of the longer classes on fewer days for certain subjects.
An8thOfFeanor@reddit
We had seven periods per semester, but only six of them in any given day. We started the rotation by dropping the first period, making the day periods 2-7. The next day, you'd drop period 2. The day after, Wednesday, was homeroom, so you'd drop periods 3 and 4. Then Thursday, drop period 5, Friday, drop period 6, then the following Monday, drop period 7, then Tuesday starts the rotation over, then Wednesday drops 2 and 3 and so on.
msh0082@reddit
Think of it like subjects. It varies by school. In the 90s my school was non traditional that we had a block schedule for 6 periods.
Mondays were all 6 periods.
Tuesday and Thursday were periods 1, 3, and 5
Wednesday and Friday were periods 2, 4, and 6.
I preferred this because we got more time in each class to actually get more things done.
Sowf_Paw@reddit
In my school district we had block scheduling in middle school up until my junior year of high school. This was eight periods over two days. First through fourth period were "A day" and fifth through eighth period were "B days". This meant that most weeks you would either have three A days and two B days or vice versa.
For my senior year they switched back to having every period every day.
seecarlytrip@reddit
Our district has trimesters. 5 classes per day, switch three times per year.
RotationSurgeon@reddit
When I was in high school (graduated nearly a quarter of a century ago), we had six different classes covering six separate subjects each day. We had five minutes between classes, and 30-minute lunch breaks.
bonanzapineapple@reddit
Depends but my high school did. But Wednesdays we got let out an hour earlier so each lesson was 5 or 10 min shorter than other days
Pulp501@reddit
I forgot we did that too except we started an hour later not ended early. It really did make a positive difference. Should have done it for the whole week cuz it never felt like we got less work done.
KalamityKait2020@reddit
Essentially yes. There are 2 schedule types: an 8 period or block schedule. If your school has 8 periods then you do the same 8 classes in the same order every day for the school year. Classes are roughly 50 minutes. For block schedules you do 4 classes at roughly 90 minutes each on day A, then day B you have your other 4 classes.
Of course because our country is so big things vary between school districts and between public vs private.
Time-Subject-3195@reddit
Schools in the US are organized on a local level so the school district will decide for itself exactly how to organize things.
In my high school we had A days and B days which would alternate. You would go to one schedule of classes on A days and another schedule of classes on B days. This would mean classes could be twice as long, so students had more time to work on one subject before switching modes, also less time used to move between classes.
tlamy@reddit
It's been a while, but iirc high school for me was 6(?) periods plus lunch and a home-room-like class. Mondays were every class back to back and the classes were shorter. The rest of the days the classes were longer but it was odd classes on Tue/Thur and even classes on Wed/Fri. Something like that
IsopodKey2040@reddit
Depends on the school. For my school, all of our "core" classes (english, science, math, etc) were the same every day. What changed day to day was gym, art, study halls, and even lunch period.
Apprehensive-Pop-201@reddit
They generally have a set schedule, in the same order, but they learn different things. Say, English first hour, then Math, then Science, etc
Pulp501@reddit
I did
Chapea12@reddit
Depends on the school. Mine had 7 blocks and 5 a day. They were in the same order rotation, so one day would be classes 1-5 and then the next day would be 6,7,1,2,3. So you didn’t have the same classes every single day, but when one class ended you always knew which was next and there would always be one day a week where that class didn’t meet
Accomplished_Joke255@reddit
Like most questions about the United States, the answer is that it depends. My son went to a school that was an A/B schedule so classes rotate. Then, he was at a school with block scheduling, so classes changed by semester. But, the magnet school housed in the same building didn’t have block scheduling, so they kept the same classes the entire year. My daughter’s high school had block scheduling.
There are more than 20,000 high schools in the United States, so…
Responsible-Chest-26@reddit
They may have alternating schedules on different days like having gym 3rd period on an A day but on a B day you may have study hall or another elective but the day is still broken up into periods roughly 45-60 minutes long with a few minutes in between for transition. The high school here has a rotating 4 day schedule so one week you may have a class on a monday but the next week its on a tuesday. 20 years later I still have nightmares about not remember my schedule for that day and what class im supposed to be in
the_wyandotte@reddit
If you want confusing, my school had a 6-day week but only, ofc, 5 days of school each week. M-F. What that means is *most* things were the same time every day. English was always 1st period, lunch was always 11:00, stuff like that. But somethings alternated. We didn't have Gym/PE every day and we didn't have science lab every day. So maybe day 1, 3, 5 was gym at 3rd period. On the first week, that's M W F. But then next week, Monday is Day 6, and it's lab. Then Tuesday is Day 1, and it's gym on Tue and Thur that week, days 1 and 3. Monday the next week is day 5 and we have gym 3rd period M W F on Days 5, 1, and 3.
Yeah.
Sheetz_Wawa_Market32@reddit
Education in the U.S. is largely a local matter (regulate by the states and, to a lesser extent, the federal government.)
So each school district (of which there are 13,000) can do this how it wants, to say nothing of thousands of private and other independently managed schools.
That being said, my kids (who attend excellent public schools) have had schedules with a high degree of uniformity throughout the week, with only some non-core subject alternating in the same time slot day after day.
Here is one current 7th-grade (i.e., middle school) schedule of my youngest. The numbers are the “periods” throughout the day:
So this means they have these subjects every day:
and these every second day:
TheKiddIncident@reddit
Yes, it's very common to have the same classes in the same order each day. Makes it easier to ensure the students show up to the correct class.
Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit
I went to a junior high where we had a 6-day rotation called A B C D E and F. Our schedule wasn't even necessarily the same on every A B C D E and F day. There were core classes on all of those different days but we had free time around that to fill in with different study sessions and resource centers. The first thing you did every morning was fill out your schedule for that day and have your homeroom teacher approve it. When you got to F you started the next day again at A.
AdamOnFirst@reddit
Most high school class days will have “periods” or “hours” where classes are subdivided into 6-8 periods of the day. Some places use block scheduling where you have only ~4 periods and they alternate days or classes aren’t year round or various other adjustments, but leaving that aside.
Mostly, for at least an entire quarter or semester, you’ll have major subjects like math, English, history, etc at the same period every day. So this semester you have math first hour, history third hour, whatever. Then you’ll have shorter electives that fill in.
Occasionally schools will have an A/B schedule, meaning days will alternate. So you’ll still probably have math first hour every day, but maybe second hour subdivides so one day is comparative politics and the next day is an art class and it alternates.
There are a million little variations on this, but that’s the basic idea. I’d never heard of an American school that does one subject all day in a 1-2 week timetable.
Saurrow@reddit
Schools are not regulated this strictly on a national level, so different schools in different states can have different rules. For some states, even different school districts in different cities/counties can have different rules. Also, private schools can have different rules than public schools. For public high schools in my area, kids have 4 classes each semester. Each class is an hour and a half long, and the four classes are in the same order for the whole semester. The semesters run from August to December and then January to May. The four classes change each semester.
OkayDay21@reddit
The high school I student taught in had moved to a schedule where classes rotated every day. It was so that kids didn’t have the same class first thing in the morning every single day, or the same class after lunch, or the last period of the day, etc… whatever. They also went from having eight periods a day to six so they could have a longer lunch. They still had eight classes but not all in the same day.
At first I was like “this is insane” but after being there for a while, it made a whole lot of sense.
Educational_Horse469@reddit
Usually, but depends on the school. My kids had a 7 day rotating schedule. It was a nightmare for scheduling doctor appointments.
Trolldad_IRL@reddit
Every day, yes. Not all students have the same schedule though.
One might have history first period, another might have social studies, another might have math.
Icy_Consideration409@reddit
My daughter does.
PlayfulOtterFriend@reddit
It depends entirely on the school, there is no enforced consistency. At the high school in my district, they run on A/B days that alternate. On A days, you go to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 8th periods. On B days you go to 1st, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th periods. Kids typically only take 7 classes, so one of those periods is study hall / free time. I wouldn’t be surprised if no other school anywhere operates on that same schedule.
dobbydisneyfan@reddit
Depends on the school. But in my area…nope. It’s all on a rotating schedule.
Jewish-Mom-123@reddit
We had a crazy 6-day rotating schedule in which one class out of 7 was dropped every day. Two long periods and three short every day, plus a middle of the day home room class that included attendance and announcements and was not skipped.
anneofgraygardens@reddit
depends a lot. I attended a high school with block scheduling and we had the same classes every other day. Like, A Day might be Spanish, English, and History, and then B Day might be Math, Science, and Art, and then they'd switch off.
And then at least once a year you'd accidentally bring your A Day notebook on B Day and have an annoying day where you don't have any of your handouts.
HueyLongest@reddit
America doesn't have a standardized approach to almost anything. It's like asking "in the EU, do people prefer beer or wine?"
seaofcitrus@reddit
As always, results will vary district to district. My experience was having 6 total periods and 5 periods per day. The classes just rotated as follows
Day 1: 1,2,3,4,5
Day 2: 2,3,4,5,6
Day 3: 3,4,5,6,1,2
etc.
Round-Lab73@reddit
No, each day is different. The cycle is usually weekly
ImGoingToSayOneThing@reddit
At My high school we had 9 periods (classes) a trimester.
Then we had A and B days. A were for odd periods and B were for even periods.
The core classes were the majority of the periods. Math. Science. English/literatrue. History etc
The rest were electives like if you wanted to take an art class, or law or religion studies or like volleyball or band or weight lifting.
Because there were so many students at my high school the lunch period was split in half. If you are in the first half the other half of the kids in that period did study hall and then they'd switch.
If you made honor roll or higher then your lunch period was a free period and you could go be wherever you wanted for that period.
packersfan823@reddit
My school system had 8 classes. They were split between 2 days. There were 4 A day classes and 4 B day classes. It was nice, we had 90 minutes per class instead of 45.
goblin_hipster@reddit
Some of them are only on certain days--for example, IIRC, I had health class instead of gym class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We also had the concept of "A weeks" and "B weeks" which indicated when you had lunch.
Other than that, for me, yes, it was in the same order every day.
Online_Discovery@reddit
In my schools, we had one of two setups
1 was the same classes every day for the whole semester
The other was rotating between A days and B days where you go to each set of classes every other day
Antitenant@reddit
My school had everything in the same order every day. The only exception was gym, which on some days was replaced by an extra session of science class.
whatisakafka@reddit
It varies. The most common are probably traditional period schedule like you're describing, but A/B schedules are fairly common too, where you have an A day with certain class, and a B day with other classes, and that just go through the year. There are other schedule types too, but what you're describing as a different lesson each day would be very uncommon here
DOMSdeluise@reddit
when I was in high school the first two years we had the same classes every day (except for our electives which met... a few times a week so we had them on different days) but then in my last two years the school switched to having longer classes, but you only did them every other day. Or that is my recollection anyway, this was more than 20 years ago.
At any rate, each school has a lot of autonomy so it is going to just depend on what school.
No_Cauliflower633@reddit
For me yes. Each year the classes were set at the start of the year and were in the same order each day.
Chrisg69911@reddit
I wanna say most schools have a rotating block schedule now. 4 rotating schedules (A, B, C, D) throughout the week. My school had it where you'd have 4 morning classes and 4 afternoon classes, but only 3 would meet each day. Each class would rotate on the schedule, so if the start of the week was an A day, you'd have classes 1 2 3 Lunch 4 5 6, and then the next day would be B, so 2 3 4 Lunch 5 6 7, and then keep rotating.
Redbubble89@reddit
Every school district and school is organized differently. We had 7 periods and on red days they would be odd number and blue days (our school colors) would be even number with 7 being everyday but shorter. We were small enough at the time for everyone to have the same hour lunch. A student at the same high school now might have a different structure but alternating days.
shammy_dammy@reddit
Depends. For main subjects, yes. 6th period algebra will be the same through the year. With some electives, those may only be half of a year, so you can start the year with Drafting as your 4th period class, then have Journalism as your 4th period class for the end of the year.
_iusuallydont_@reddit
Depends on the school. We had block schedules so it wasn’t the same everyday. We’d have the same classes on Monday and Wednesday and the rest on Tuesday and Thursday and Fridays would alternate.
animepuppyluvr@reddit
My school did not. I have a friend who's school did. 🤷♀️
Joel_feila@reddit
mostly yes. You might have something like an extra long after school practice on two days a week
KellyAnn3106@reddit
My high school did. There were 8 equal length periods in a day and you had the same classes each day.
AbiWil1996@reddit
Depends. We had a A and B day
damutecebu@reddit
When I was in high school in the 1980s, we mostly had the same classes every day during one of eight periods. One of the periods was for lunch however. And most people only took six classes a semester so another one was also "free" or a study hall.
Key_Beach_3846@reddit
Depends on the school. Some have shorter class periods to fit the same 6-7 classes in every day. Some have longer class periods and have 3-4 classes on an alternating schedule (usually A day and B day in my experience)
Keeperie@reddit
Usually they have a set schedule for everyday yes. Some have the same schedule every week.
Some have like an "A" schedule and "B" schedule which rotate. So the same classes happen in the same order on any "A" day. And then Monday might be A one week and the B next week.
Wild_Ticket1413@reddit
Depends on the school. We had the same schedule every day.
RachelWhyThatsMe@reddit
Yes, but you select your classes on a semester or yearly basis. So you have the same order for sept through Dec, and an entirely new set of classes with a new order Jan through May
dragon-queen@reddit
Mostly they do have them in the same order every day. Some schools might have a rotating class or something, but it’s still mostly the same schedule. Some schools might have just 4 classes a day for a semester, then 4 different classes for the second semester.
rh681@reddit
Mostly and usually? In high school I had some music electives that were not every day. Those are the only ones I remember being different.