Literacy Block Organization

Hi there again sweet readers,
If you have been following the Diggin’ Into series, you know that we have been writing about a different topic each week. This is the calendar of topics for the month of July:

Let’s get down to business.

Literacy Block organization

This is a topic dear to my heart and today I will be discussing how I organize it in terms of time. In a nutshell, this is it:

I have 120 minutes for literacy instruction each day, and I watch my time closely because I want to give each child the attention he/she deserves in order to meet his/her needs. My district has jumped into The Daily 5 bandwagon so I am expected to follow it as well. If you know the structure of The Daily 5 then you will know that The Sisters encourage the following pattern:

focus lesson – 1 round of Daily 5 – focus lesson – 1 round of Daily 5 – focus lesson – 1 round of Daily 5

Even though I deeply value their work and I have learned a lot from The Daily 5 and CAFÉ… I prefer to follow The Jan Richardson structure:

Focus lesson – 2 rounds of Daily 5 (or stations) – focus lesson – 2 rounds of Daily 5 (or stations) – focus lesson

Why?

Because it saves time from transitions and instructional time is non-negotiable!

Absolutely nothing! I am ~~darn~~ happy with the way I organize my literacy block.

I just finished these two products and I am so excited to be able to share them with you! My shared research activity packet finally brought sanity to my classroom (lol!) Every single year I could not figure out how to organize shared research among 7 year olds! I took the time to closely look at the standards and expectations and create some frames and clear areas of study. Let me tell you: this was a lifesaver! AND I am on a learning map kick lately…so I revamped my alphabet posters from my classroom. These posters can be printed and hung on the walls, they could be used during small group instruction, intervention groups, or they can even be projected instead of being printed!