Do we have time for this? Analog clocks

There's some controversy out there around analog clocks. I've seen articles claiming that schools are taking them down because students can't read them. This causes an uproar. Two different sides are shared.

Let's look at some of the arguments proposed from both sides.

1. Students always have their phone which displays a digital clock. This is often true...but not always. Some students/adults don't have cell phones. Secondly, though you can set up your phone to display a digital clock, you can also display an analog clock. So we should tweak that statement to say: Many students have a phone that displays a digital clock.
2. Reading analog clocks teaches students how to skip count. It certainly helps build that skill. Even better would be if teachers also focused on multiplication rather than adding.  That's one 5, two 5's, three 5's, etc. as that aligns better to the numerals on the clock. 
3. Reading analog clocks teaches students about base 60. True, if a teacher has talked about that concept. It also teaches a student base 13...think about a 24 hour clock.
4. It teaches them how to read airline tickets. They have to know how to read a 24 hour clock. This is the only one that I think fails as an argument. Neither a digital nor an analog clocks teaches that unless it has 13:00, 14:00, etc on it. I'm not saying they don't need to know how a 24 hour clock works nor understand how to convert between the two formats. The fact that it's analog doesn't, by nature, teach that.

Those are just a few of the arguments for and against teaching analog clocks. I know there are more out there. I don't know if this is the reason analog clocks are being removed. I know that many have to be replaced due to old age and failure. Maybe they are taking them down because students can't read them in that school. I don't know. I haven't had an opportunity to delve deeper into the stories and it doesn't influence me in any way. My goal for this post is not to convince you either way because I'm not convinced either way.  

The bottom line is that I will teach students how to read both digital and analog clocks. Why? Because it's in my curriculum. In Alberta, it is addressed specifically in Grade 4. I am required to teach it. What clock type students choose to put on their cell phones or buy as a watch is totally up to them. 

So, how do I teach it? The same way I teach everything....by starting slowly, with visuals. Teaching time is NOT a separate unit that you dedicate a week to in January. Start it right away in September but go slow...very slow.

At the very beginning of the year.

First, take a clock that you can remove the inside circle from - the one that the numbers are written on.

Remove the inside circle. You can either do the next step right on that circle OR you can use the circle to trace out a brand new circle and write just the numbers 1-12 on it. I would prefer to draw a new circle with just 1-12 on it so that it removes the other info that's not needed yet. Honestly, either way is fine, though.

Draw lines from the center to each of the numbers 1-12. You'll be cutting it into "pie" shapes. Shade each of the sections in different colors. Write "ish" by each number. You'll have to place it in a way that the "ish" is in the correct portion.

I apologize that my numbers are so light. I was just working with a digital image.

Now, if possible, remove the minute and second hand. Or, if you can't or don't want to, color the hour hand so it stands out.

You may even want to draw arrows to help for each number.

Do a mini lesson on how to read this clock. The clock above shows that it's 10ish. Go through a few times. What would 4ish look like?

Yes, it's not very specific After a while, you can say something like, "it's 2ish almost 3."

Do this for two weeks, three weeks, four weeks. However long it takes. Do not rush this. You have all year to teach them about reading a clock. Once students are comfortable, you can move on to the next activity. 

Activity 2:

Did you know that you can tell what time it is within about 5 minutes even without the minute hand? Want to see? Open the following google slide presentation. Do not put it in presentation mode. On the second slide, place the clocks in the correct time order. You'll notice that one is at the bottom. During the actually activity, this would be sorted normally with all the other ones. While you are doing it, feel free to consider it during or after you are done the rest. Further on in my blog post, I'll talk about how I address that one with students. Then, move to slide 3 and add the times.

Now that you've done that, I'll explain the process I use with students.

I hand out 9 images of clocks that only have the hour hand drawn and hour numbers listed on it. These are the same images as you saw on slide 2. These have been cut out as separate images so they can be individually moved around. 

In pairs, students work together to sort them into time order.

Once they are done, they meet with another pair and compare their answers, sharing their reasoning, and moving clocks around some more if they choose.

I open up my google slides version and display slide 2 (not in presentation mode). It shows all of the clocks at the top (and one at the bottom). One student will come up and move a clock into the grey box. Another student will come up and place a clock that should come before or after it. They explain how they know it goes there. We repeat for all until we finally get to the clock that I placed at the bottom of the screen. Where does this one go? One student will come up and place it. I ask, "who else placed it here?" "Who placed it in a different spot?" That student comes up and places it in a different spot. "Interesting. We have two different answers. Talk to your partner. Which do you agree with and why?" The discussion then becomes: where does 12:00 go? Both spots! 

Now, I had out the cut out times from page 3. Students use these to match up to their clocks. They compare to a different group. As a class, we discuss.

The final page in the handout is an activity students will complete individually. Use this as a formative assessment to inform your teaching practices.

Now, use these types of phrasing when you are talking about the time in class. Again, don't rush this. Don't worry about using precise times yet. You'll notice that none of the examples referred to 3:15.

Activity 3:

Moving on to minutes? Don't refer to minutes yet. Give students an image of a clock that has the hour numbers written on it and the tick marks for minutes.  Have them count the ticks around the clock. What patterns do they notice?

Do they notice that it's in groups of five? Re-count the circle. one two three four five. That's one group of five (notice it's at the 1). 12345. That's two groups of five.. (notice that it's at the 2). How many minutes is that? 10 minutes. Interesting. Does that's always work? Keep checking. 12345. That's 3 fives. 15 minutes. Students figure out the rest. Now you're connecting it to multiplication.

Spend time working with naming regular times.  3:15 (not quarter after).

Activity 4:

Have students draw a circle and break it into quarters. What do they notice about that and how it relates to a clock? (If they drew it so the lines could be imagined as going through 12 and 6, 9 and 3, they should be able to make connections to quarter after.)

Make sure to talk about 15 minutes out of 60 minutes. 15/60. etc.

Activity 6:

Adding seconds? Have students figure out how high they can count in a minute. Time it according to just the minute hand. (Use a clock that doesn't have a second hand if possible and a really obvious shift from minute to minute). They count in their head. Share responses. Some will have counted really fast. Some counted really slow. That's ok. Talk about how we've decided to set a specific counting speed to help us be consistent. (It's humans who decided that there are 60 seconds in a minute.) Show a clock with a second hand and the minute ticks. Have them recount. Share responses. They're probably more consistent now. Then, have them focus on the second hand as it passes each of the ticks. That should bring them a lot closer to accurate timing.  

Now that they've done this activity, give them their own clock with tick marks to look at. What relationships can they find between the second hand and minute hand and hour hand. They might say, hour hand is shorter in length, second hand is longer in length. The longer the hand, the faster it moves. 60 seconds in a minute. 60 minutes in an hour. 

You can even give a puzzler: If I count to 60 that's 1 minute. How would you figure out how many minutes it would take me to count to 180.  Interesting enough, some may argue that it will take more than 3 minutes. Why? It takes longer to say one hundred seventy nine than it takes to say "one". Don't discount those arguments because they are absolutely correct! 

I can not stress enough: Go slow. Build understanding. Don't move on until they UNDERSTAND what's going on. You have all year.

Instructions and Handout:

Google doc
Word Doc
PDF

Presenting File:
Google Slides
Smart Notebook

Question for Self-Reflection:

How do you help students understand the concept of time? Not just reading a clock, but actual understanding of what time is?