Structuring Literacy Blocks
Structuring Literacy Blocks
Episode #46 Show Notes
Scheduling literacy blocks and finding enough time in a day is an ever-present challenge in our classrooms. How do we do it, and where do we start? Today, we’ll go over some of the challenges we face, what to do about them, and how we can get in the time we need to teach literacy.
The Challenges of Literacy Blocks
Not enough time
Teachers are interrupted many times a day with student needs, broken copiers, announcements, and so on. There’s sometimes simply not enough time in our day to implement literacy blocks in the way we’d like.
Overload of materials
You may have a phonics program, fluency program, a comprehension program, etc. All of these materials are simply too overwhelming. And when we get overwhelmed and don’t know where to start, what actually happens is that we don’t end up starting at all.
Over-adopting curriculum
With the rise of the science of reading (yay!), many districts have adopted new curriculums. Although the intention is good, this leads to an overwhelming amount of resources. When we over-adopt curriculum, start valuing quantity over quality.
The Literacy Block Prerequisite
Before we can even talk about structuring our literacy block, we need to be sure we have a deep understanding of the science of reading.
We must understand the components of proper literacy instruction, what’s appropriate for our students, and know that literacy instruction needs to be systematic, explicit, and structured.
These six components of literacy include: phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing. Each of these components is critical and we must incorporate them into our daily plans.
How to Structure a Literacy Block - Whole Group Instruction
A literacy block should contain all six literacy components.
For K-2, be sure to include whole group phonics in your instruction time.
Phonics & Phonological Awareness:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday- 20 minutes total
5-6 minutes - Phonemic awareness drills. Research says 6 minutes a day is really plenty here.
5-7 minutes - Direct phonics instruction. Include high frequency words during this time.
5-10 minutes - Decoding. Do this with sentences, sentence pyramids, and use strategies like choral and echo reading and supported independent reading.
Thursday and Friday - 20 minutes
Apply the phonics skills they learned and spend time in text. Apply phonics skills to writing through dictation and reading through decodables.
5 minutes - Dictation practice with both sounds and sentences.
15 minutes - Focus on decodable texts with fluency-building activities such as phrased and partner reading. Be sure to differentiate the text based upon student abilities.
Check out my phonics slides that help with this portion of the lesson. They include phonemic awareness warm ups, blending drills, high frequency words, and more.
Reading Comprehension & Vocabulary:
Research tells us that vocabulary in isolation isn’t the best way to teach students. Therefore, we need to combine comprehension and vocabulary together.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday- 20-30- minutes total
Front load lots of information on the topic you’re covering through your read loud.
Visit the new text by reading it aloud together, building background knowledge, having discussions, talking about vocabulary, inferring, and asking questions.
Thursday and Friday - 20-30 minutes total
At the end of the week, revisit the texts with some guiding questions and some think-pair-share activities.
No matter what text you’re working on, writing deserves lots of dedicated time. Follow reading up with a writing activity that incorporates what you’re learning about, along with the text’s vocabulary.
Writing:
Writing solidifies phonics, critical thinking skills, grammar, vocabulary, and more.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - 5- 10 minutes total
Mini lessons like sentence structure, grammar, and organizing content. Teach them how to write a proper sentence.
Spend time doing shared writing activities with chart paper. Brainstorm a sentence together and have them come up to write a sentence on the chart. Work through the sentences, pointing out words they know, high frequency words, and words they can decode.
Combine all of the skills they learned within a writing activity.
Thursday-Friday - 5-10 minutes total
Refine their writing and edit it.
Look for capital letters, punctuation, and have them ask: Does my writing make sense?
How to Structure a Literacy Block - Small Group Instruction
Allocate 40-60 minutes for small group instruction per day
It’s in small group where we can really teach to students’ needs by giving them targeted support.
Monday - Friday
3 min - Phonemic awareness (you might do less if you’ve covered it in whole group.)
3-5 min - Cumulative review through visual drills and vowel intensives.
3-5 minutes - Explicit instruction on whatever phonics skill they need.
5-8 minutes - Work through the application of these skills with dictation and decodables.
Key Takeaways
If you don’t have 120 minutes in your literacy block - don’t fear! You might need to alternate between language and writing or maybe even need to combine some literacy components. You may need to adjust the time you have and work with that.
It’s important to have a method for scheduling so that you can ensure you’re covering all your components. Look at your literacy block at a daily, weekly, and yearly glance. This allows you to zoom in and out where you need. As you progress through the year, you may need less time in certain areas. This helps identify where adjustments are needed based upon student need.
Consider where your students are and the amount of time you spend on the literacy components. For example, if you’re teaching kindergarten, you may not need 30 minutes at the beginning of the year to model sentence writing and instead may need only 10 minutes to focus on handwriting.
You can do it! If you're feeling overwhelmed, just ask yourself: What is truly necessary for my students? It’s okay to adopt your curriculum in a way that works best for you and your students!
In Case You Missed It:
Literacy Edventures Resources:
Check out these awesome resources at Literacy Edventures that can help you with letter formation in your own classroom!
