Pomodoro: get to work

Focused work in blocks, with the whole class at once, in two steps that repeat. Step 1, work: everyone works quietly and without interruption on the task until the time is up: questions get written down, not asked. Step 2, break: really stop, stand up, walk, look out of the window; no working on and no quick check. Together these two steps are one pomodoro. By default you do two, with fifteen minutes of work and five minutes of break, and after the last pomodoro there is no break, and the lesson moves on. The player sets the clock and switches from work to break by itself.

Because it is half of the technique. Barbara Oakley describes two modes of thinking: the focused mode does the work, the diffuse mode lets what you just did fall into place, and the second only starts when the first stops. A class that works through the break starts the second block with a head that is still full, and gets less out of it. So the break is not a reward for whoever has finished, nor time to catch up. Say it out loud once, then keep the break short and real: five minutes, stand up, no screen.

Shorter than the classic 25 minutes, for most classes. The player starts at fifteen minutes of work and five minutes of break, a round number to adjust from. A rule of thumb to start from: a work block no longer than your students' age plus one, in minutes. For eight-year-olds that is about nine minutes, for twelve-year-olds thirteen; upper secondary students and adults can go to 25. It is a starting point, not a law: watch when the class drifts off and adjust the work time a minute at a time. The break does not need to scale: five minutes works at any age.

With the default settings the whole structure takes ± 40 minutes: 2 rounds, briefing and look-back included.

With the default setting, 35 minutes: two blocks of fifteen minutes' work and one five-minute break in between. After the last pomodoro there is no break, so three pomodoros are 55 minutes: three blocks and two breaks. Add a few minutes to hand out the task and get started. With ten-minute blocks, two pomodoros take 25 minutes together; with the classic 25 minutes of work, 55.

No, and we would rather say so straight away. There is no role, nobody depends on anyone else, and there is no mechanism that gets everyone taking part, the three things that make the other structures in the library cooperative. It is focus time with a structure around it. It is in the library because that time comes up in nearly every lesson, and with a clock, a task on the screen and a real break it yields more than without. If you want students to collaborate, combine: first a pomodoro alone, then together. With placemat a group of four turns everyone's own answer into one shared answer, with pair coach a pair works through the hardest problems out loud.

Whatever the task has ready for them, which is why it belongs in it. A good pomodoro task has a concrete first step, a clear end and a sensible next step for whoever is quicker: an extra exercise, reading the text through once more, thinking up a question for the discussion. Whoever finishes does not start the break: it starts for everyone at once. If the task is not sharp yet, choose "AI writes a draft" in the preparation: it writes one to the same three requirements (a concrete first step, an end, a step for whoever is quicker), and you read the draft before you start. If you prefer your own assistant, such as Microsoft Copilot, copy the request there.

Have them written down, not asked. Whoever gets stuck puts a mark or a question mark by that part and carries on with the next; you take the questions in the break or after the last block. That is not strictness: every question asked out loud during the block costs the whole row around it their concentration, and so does your answer. With younger classes a help card on the desk works instead of a raised hand.

Yes, if the task calls for it. Set the number of people per task to two or more in the preparation; the screen then tells the groups to agree in ten seconds who does what, and then work. The steps stay the same: work, break, work. By default everyone works alone, because that is what focus time usually is, and working quietly side by side is more effective than discussing work that needs no discussion.

Mostly by doing beforehand what you no longer do during the block. Prepare the task with a first step and an end. Before the first block, say three things: what happens after the last pomodoro, that questions get written down, and why the break is a break. Start, and then do not walk around helping. In the break, stand up yourself too. After the last block, look back briefly; the player suggests questions, such as "When did you notice you were really into the task?", "What broke your concentration?" or "Was the work time too short, too long or about right?". The last answer adjusts your next setting.

Both are structures for independent work, without roles, but they keep the class together differently. In Pomodoro everyone works at their own pace on one task, and the clock handles the switch between work and break. In One by one there is one question or task on the screen at a time, the whole class works on the same item, and you decide when the next one comes, so you can see which item it gets stuck on. Pomodoro for work where time and quiet make the difference, One by one for a series of exercises you want to discuss together.

Francesco Cirillo came up with it as a student in the late 1980s, with a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato (pomodoro in Italian). His classic form is 25 minutes of work and 5 minutes of break, with a longer break after four rounds. Barbara Oakley recommends the technique to school and university students, with the two modes of thinking as the explanation of why the break works. The structure here is the classroom version: one clock for the whole class, shorter blocks to start with, and no break after the last pomodoro, because then the lesson moves on.