CONNECTIONS TO OTHER AREAS OF PERFORMANCE
In a general sense, many areas of performance relate to the concept of Momen- tum. In Management: Attention does, insofar as students are kept interested or at least focused on learning experiences; Routines do, in that efficient design of routines for recurrent procedures expedites organizing and setting up, and speeds transitions; Space does, in that effective arrangement of space facilitates students’ finding things and getting involved and minimizes distractions; and Time does, in that appropriate schedules provide for the ebb and flow of pupils’ available energy and attention span, avoiding unreasonable demands.
In Motivation: Expectations for work do, in that teacher persistence and clarity about how things are to be done enable students to work more automatically and make students individually efficient at moving from one thing to another; Personal Relationship Building does, in that students’ regard for the teacher makes them less likely to resist or disrupt.
Several of the Curriculum Planning areas of performance (Objectives, Assess- ment, and Differentiated Instruction) can also have an impact on Momentum. Mismatched material that is too hard, too easy, or inappropriately presented
When momentum is effectively maintained, students experience smooth and rapid transitions from one event to another.
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PART TWO | MANAGEMENT | MOMENTUM
can lead to bored or frustrated students who will certainly break the momentum of classroom flow. In a broad sense, any mismatch of curriculum or instruction to students tends to break momentum.
But to cast Momentum so broadly is to subsume all of teaching under its um- brella. Indeed, any area of teaching performance, whatever the primary purpose of the behaviors it considers, does have a secondary effect on momentum. How- ever, we believe that it is valuable to focus on aspects of teaching that relate pri- marily to maintaining momentum in the classroom. Therefore, we narrow our definition of Momentum to eight key subareas (or kinds of teacher behavior) whose primary purpose is to keep things moving along. Otherwise, if ignored or improperly done, they break the orderly flow of events.
The eight categories of Momentum behaviors are an eclectic group, compris- ing items that pertain to maintaining or at least enabling student involvement in learning experiences, as all other management areas of performance do. But unlike the behaviors in other management areas of performance, which can be associated with other missions, these eight do not fit any other area of perfor- mance and are primarily aimed at Momentum. They are (1) provisioning, (2) overlapping, (3) fillers, (4) intrusions, (5) lesson flexibility, (6) advance notice, (7) subdividing, and (8) anticipation.