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I know this an old edition but it really is my favorite.

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The Continuum of Literacy Learning, Grades PreK-8, Second Edition: A Guide to Teaching

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A combination assessment tool and guide for teaching identifies the literacy goals appropriate to grades PreK-eight and offers tools to help analyze students' strengths and identify areas needing teaching support.

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This is a sample schedule NOT the only schedule.

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(and pretty much everything by her on the topic)

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Sample Chapter - Introduction

A Very Brief Introduction to Principles, Research, and Theory, and How to Use This Book

When I showed an early draft of this book to a colleague, she remarked, "It's like you're making a reading teacher's version of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything!" (2008) I could see the analogy-this is a book of "reading recipes" in a way. A clear, concise cookbook is a great model for what on-the-go teachers might need to pick and choose strategies, to target what each reader needs, and to support their differentiated instruction.

You might wonder why I decided to write this book, now. Part of the inspiration came from emails, tweets, and in-person requests from the readers of some of my other Heinemann books. Since Conferring with Readers (Serravallo and Goldberg 2007), I've been asked almost daily for "More of what's on page 93," which is essentially a one-page table that includes bunches of strategies that you'd use for readers who read at level L.

And I get it-why create your own recipe for beef bourguignon when one already exists? Wouldn't it be helpful to have a big list of what someone else has already thought up? Not that any cookbook, or this book for that matter, would become a script that you'd follow like a robot-in your kitchen you might swap out the beef stock for chicken stock, or decide you like the meat browned before you stew it, or use a different type of red wine than what the recipe calls for-but it is nice to have a place to start. Like your favorite cookbook, what I've attempted to provide you within The Reading Strategies Book is a comprehensive collection of good ideas from experts that you can use right away and from which to inspire your own innovations.

So, much like Bittman just said, "Here's what I know, go to town," I'm trying to give the strategies I rely on most often over to you all. I acknowledge that this book doesn't include literally everything, just as Bittman's doesn't, but it does cover a lot of ground. I hope that I've offered a slew of helpful "reading recipes," but also helpful suggestions for how to tweak them to make the teaching your own, so that it best suits the learners in front of you. I hope that this book becomes as dogeared, sticky-noted, and coffee-stained as your favorite cookbook, but I also hope that by using this book you become ever more confident in your teaching and your ability to coach and prompt readers. I hope that one day you internalize all that's in here and outgrow it.

Just as Bittman includes recipes for stir-fry, though he certainly didn't invent the idea of a stir-fry, the strategies I've crafted in this book stand on the shoulders of decades of research and master teachers from whose work I've been fortunate to learn. I've tried to offer thanks to these greats by "tipping my hat" to them when I could. Although I fear there are places where I've forgotten people, or haven't properly credited the absolute origin of an idea, I feel grateful to be a part of a profession where there is so much sharing and comingling of thinking that one can imagine this would be a hard thing to do.
Click here to download an extended sampler of this book.
Goal 1: Supporting Pre-Emergent and Emergent Readers

Strategy On every page, try to sound like a storyteller. You can look carefully at the picture to say what the character is doing and what the character is saying.

Teaching Tip You can teach this to readers who are reading a familiar story as a way to prime them to try to remember what characters say and do. This also works well in a book that is unfamiliar. In the example that follows, I'm imagining (or inferring) what a character is saying. In the actual story, the character doesn't say anything on the first page.

Goal 2: Teaching Reading Engagement

Strategy Make very small, short-term goals for yourself (such as jotting on a sticky note or reading a few pages). As you read, and as you accomplish each goal, move your arrow sticky note up the ladder. When you get to the top, you'll "party"-have a short celebration you and I have agreed to.

Teaching Tip The idea behind this strategy is that you'll be breaking down something that feels far away and possibly insurmountable to a student who is currently having little success with reading for a long period of time. The "ladder" makes the longer stretch of reading into a series of short-term goals with a reward. In essence, each move to a new "step" will be a reward in and of itself as it is a visual representation of progress toward a larger goal.

Over time, as a student becomes more capable with the current series of steps, you'll want to help him or her modify the tool to add a new challenge. For instance, if a child first planned to move up the ladder for every three minutes of independent reading, then once the child is able to accomplish that with independence you may decide to increase the short-term goal to five minutes. Or perhaps you'd want to add three more three-minute steps on the ladder to increase the amount of time before the "party."

In any case, the goal is not for the child to become dependent on this ladder to read independently-quite the opposite. You want to increase the amount of time or length of the task until it's just one step: read for the entire independent reading period. At that point, the party ladder can be eliminated as a tool altogether.

Goal 4: Teaching Fluency
Strategy It's important that when you're practicing reading smoothly, you are focused on what's happening, what you're learning about, or the meaning the author is trying to get across. Depending on the type of text, and the topic, you may change your voice. Have a voice in your head saying, "What's this about?" and make sure your reading matches the meaning.
Teaching Tip The lesson that follows is an example of noticing character emotions to match intonation and expression. This lesson can also be modified to work with other genres. For example, the way it sounds when a person reads nonfiction might be to read it in a, "Whoa! I never knew that!" kind of voice. You could teach a lesson where you show examples of you reading a persuasive piece and a narrative piece and discuss together how your intonation sounds different based on the genre. You will notice that some of the Prompts may work better for narratives, while others will work best for informational texts.

Goal 5: Supporting Comprehension in Fiction-Understanding Plot and Setting

Strategy When you retell, think about the problem (uh-oh), how the problem gets worse (UH-OH!) and how the problem gets solved (phew!). Use a story mountain with these parts to retell, touching the parts of the mountain as you go.

Lesson Language A story goes like this. (Draw a story mountain.) Uh-oh (problem), UH-OH (problem worsens), UH-OH! (problem worsens), and the problem gets solved (phew!). If I were going to retell Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds (Adler 2004), I would start off with the uh-oh-the problem. In this story, the problem is that someone steals diamonds from the jewelry store at the mall. The problem gets worse and worse-UH-OH and UH-OH!-when Cam and Eric go looking for the thief. They are in a dangerous situation outside the house where the thieves are, and even worse when the baby starts crying and they get pulled inside the house. But then the police show up (phew!), and the criminals are caught and taken away by the police.

Goal 6: Supporting Comprehension in Fiction-Thinking About Characters
Strategy Craft a theory about your character by compiling all the smaller ideas you have. Look across character's traits, wants, desires. Pile them up. State a bigger theory about who the character really is or what she or he really wants, not just in one spot but as a pattern across the text.
Lesson Language In more complex books, characters also get more complex. In one scene or one place in the book, the character may show one side of his or her personality. You may have an idea in that spot about who that character is. A little while later, the character may act another way. It's the pile of all these thoughts you have here and there that will give you a bigger theory. For example, in The Great Gilly Hopkins (Paterson 1978), we first meet Gilly, who is brash, rude, and really hard to handle. She talks back to adults and frightens some people. Later in the book, we notice how she longs for her mother, and she acts desperate, and much more mild. Toward the end of the book, we see her as a caretaker when Trotter and William Earnest are sick with the flu. We may start to pile these details about her together to get a theory. When does she act one way? When does she act another? It seems like she's rude, you might say, to keep people at arm's length. She wants to protect herself, so she'd rather people leave her alone than try to love them and get hurt. She's already been abandoned by her mom, and she can't take that kind of heartache again, you might theorize. She acts tough to protect herself, although she's really soft on the inside.

Goal 7: Supporting Comprehension in Fiction-Understanding Themes and Ideas

Strategy Read the back cover blurb. If you read it before reading the story, you might have a hunch about what theme or two might be in the story. If you read it after or while reading, you can think about what happens in the story and how the blurb connects. Then ask yourself, "What does this story teach me?"

Lesson Language Back cover blurbs often give the reader a gist of the story-just enough to entice us to really want to read it and find out what will happen. Listen to this blurb from the back of Julian's Glorious Summer (Cameron 1987):

Bicycles-shiny, whizzing, wobbly bicycles-scare Julian more than lions or tigers. But how can he tell that to his best friend, Gloria? She can already ride with no hands. So instead of telling the truth, Julian makes up a little fib. And he almost gets away with it-until his little fib backfires and Julian finds himself in the biggest, most confounding fix ever.

Doesn't that sound like a great story? It makes me want to read it to find out what the biggest fix ever is going to be. But even before reading, I have a hunch that something about the importance of being honest with your friends might come up in this story. I got that hint because I know that he's struggling with telling Gloria a fib that ends up backfiring, which means it's going to be a problem for him-and we know that problems are often also clues to the lessons characters learn.

Goal 8: Supporting Comprehension in Nonfiction-Determining Main Topic(s) and Idea(s)

Strategy Be aware of the author's reason for writing and any potential bias that comes from that. First, learn about who the author is (from an author bio included in the book). Then, consider what stake the author has in the topic based on his or her background. As you read, consider what facts are being included and what is being excluded. Consider if there are any "opinion words" being used alongside the factual information.

Lesson Language The book Face to Face with Whales by Flip and Linda Nicklin (2008) at first glance looks to be a straightforward book about whales-there are photographs, lots of facts. But I wonder if the authors have a certain perspective on the issue that will shape the kinds of information they include? One look at their bio tells us that they live in Alaska and Hawaii, two places good for viewing whales. OK, good, that helps to make them experts on the topic. I also see they've written four other books about the subject. Again, all signs point to expert. At the end of the bio, it says, "He is active with Whale Trust, a conservation and research organization." If I thought about that, what kind of person would join the Whale Trust and what kind of slant might they have on the topic? I think someone who loves the creatures and wants to do all they can to protect them. Let's look inside to see if there are any opinion words that go along with that idea. I see on page 5: "I've been lucky to spend my life with whales" and excited on the next page: "They are better swimmers than we are" and thrilling. The author is clearly excluding any details that would make you feel terrified of these large creatures and is including details and opinion words to lead you to believe they are beautiful, fascinating creatures, a perspective that goes along with his bio!

Goal 9: Supporting Comprehension in Nonfiction-Determining Key Details

Strategy After reading a fact, stop and think: "Does this fact support the main idea of this page (or section or book)?" If it doesn't, it may be that the author included something interesting, but that isn't necessarily important to understanding the main point of the page (or book).

Lesson Language For information to be considered a key detail, it has to be a detail that connects to the main idea that the author is presenting. In most nonfiction books, though, the author fills the pages with information that is important (or key) and also information that is meant to wow, amaze, gross out, or otherwise keep the reader reading. It's all great information because it keeps us reading and engaged. However, when we go to summarize a text, we need to sort through all the information and just present what's most connected to the main idea. For example, if I'm reading the section "Harsh or Heroic?" in a book about the Middle Ages and I read "Joan of Arc was accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake" I might think, "Whoa! I can't believe that. Things were crazy back then" (Kenney 2007). Though I'm interested in that fact, I also have to figure out if the detail is also important, so I have to check to see if it connects to the main idea. The main idea of the page is that although the times of castles and knights seems exciting, few had power and many lived harsh lives. The fact about Joan of Arc is certainly loosely related, but I think there are other facts in this section that better connect to the main idea. I'd file this one away as interesting, but not important to the main idea.

Goal 10: Supporting Comprehension in Nonfiction-Getting the Most from Text Features

Strategy Read the heading or subheading that's causing confusion. Back up to a title or heading from earlier in the section. Think, "What can I infer this section might be about, based on what the whole book or section is about?" Read on to gather information from that section. Go back and reword the confusing heading in a way that is clearer.

Lesson Language Some headings and subheadings are like the boldest, clearest traffic signs: They tell us exactly what's to come and help us navigate the text. Other headings and subheadings, however, are worded in a less clear way. The author may have been clever or creative, but it's leaving us a bit confused! When you notice that the heading or subheading is written in a way that can't literally mean what it says, you'll have to infer the meaning. Often, you won't be able to fully infer the meaning until you read the whole section and then go back to the heading to think about it. For example, in Bobbie Kalman's What Is a Primate? (1999), I came to the section called "Thumbs Up!" and thought, "What could this section be about?" I backed up to the larger section that this smaller section was in-the title was "A Primate's Body." So then, I started thinking that "Thumbs Up!" must be about how thumbs are important to primates. I then read the section to check to see if the details matched.

Goal 11: Improving Comprehension in Fiction and Nonfiction-Understanding Vocabulary and Figurative Language

Strategy Find or figure out the definition of the word. Think about the context. Ask yourself, "What's the feeling, mood, tone, or connotation of the word, based on how it's used?"

Lesson Language Words that authors use may have a denotative meaning and a connotative meaning. That is, when we look up a word in a dictionary we can find the technical definition of the word, but the word may also carry some unofficial meanings, or layers of meaning, as well. We can read alert to descriptive language that might communicate something deeper than what the word literally means. For example, the words youthful or juvenile both mean young, but carry different layered meanings. Youthful is often positive, and communicates a "full of life" kind of feeling. On the other hand, juvenile usually is used in a negative way to communicate someone who acts young and immature when they should act more mature. You can stop to think about why the author chose the precise word she or he did, and what that word choice is helping you to understand about what's being described.

Goal 12: Supporting Students' Conversations

Strategy Each member chooses her or his best thoughts on sticky notes and stacks them in a pile on an individual square of the playing board. One member selects an idea and places it in the center. All members of the club think about, focus on, and talk about the idea in the center. Move on to a new idea when there is nothing left to say about the one in the center.

Lesson Language Create a playing board with a spot for each club members' stack of sticky notes and a square in the center. The first person takes his or her best sticky note, reads it, and moves it to the center square. The idea in the center is now "in play." All club members try to focus on talking about the one idea that is "in play" for as long as possible. When it feels like the idea is talked out, then a different club member takes a new idea from his or her pile, reads it, and moves that one to the center so that it becomes "in play." If at any time someone forgets about what the focus of the conversation is, you can look back at the center of the playing board for help.

Goal 13: Improving Writing About Reading

Strategy Take several of your best ideas that you recorded on sticky notes as you read. Put them on an open page and look across them. Try to make connections between the ideas-either by putting them together, comparing the ideas, or contrasting the ideas.

Lesson Language To take the thinking you do in the moment on a page and grow it into something larger, you can try to put ideas together. Sometimes you'll put them together and merge them into one greater idea. For example, if in one part of Freedom Summer (Wiles 2005) you noted "I think the spongy tar is a symbol" and in another place you noted "The narrator seems to admire John Henry," you might put those ideas together to grow an idea that incorporates both, such as "It takes a lot of courage to go against the grain, to not be stuck in what everyone expects or thinks of you." You might also put two ideas alongside each other and realize that you have something to say that brings about the differences in the idea. For example, if you said, "There is such disrespect in this place and time" and "The narrator seems to admire John Henry," you might see the difference here is between the children in the story, like John Henry and the adults, who are really the ones who perpetrate the negative stereotypes. The point of all of this is that by trying to see the relationships between your ideas, you'll hopefully develop new thinking.

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The Reading Strategies Book - Serravallo

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When I showed an early draft of this book to a colleague, she remarked, "It's like you're making a reading teacher's version of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything!" (2008) I could see the analogy-this is a book of "reading recipes" in a way.

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For writing your own mini lessons:)

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A reading mini lesson for older students fromTCRWP

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Whole Class Instruction to Help Students Read Informational Texts Fluently, with an Eye Towards Main Ideas and Key Details (3-5)

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Whole Class Instruction to Help Students Read Informational Texts Fluently and with an Eye Towards Main Ideas and Key Details (3-5)

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Short Nonfiction for Guided and Independent Practice

"These articles lend themselves to active reading, giving kids a great place to annotate and work out their thinking as they read."
--Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis

In response to the overwhelming demand for more high-quality, age-appropriate nonfiction texts, Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis have developed the four-volume series Toolkit Texts: Short Nonfiction for Guided and Independent Practice. Each volume provides a library of age-appropriate nonfiction articles in a reproducible format. Personally selected and edited by Harvey and Goudvis, each article is matched to the strategies
...
Special Offer: Save 30% off our list price automatically when you buy 15 or more.

"These articles lend themselves to active reading, giving kids a great place to annotate and work out their thinking as they read."
--Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis

In response to the overwhelming demand for more high-quality, age-appropriate nonfiction texts, Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis have developed the four-volume series Toolkit Texts: Short Nonfiction for Guided and Independent Practice. Each volume provides a library of age-appropriate nonfiction articles in a reproducible format. Personally selected and edited by Harvey and Goudvis, each article is matched to the strategies described in Toolkit series.

The articles in each volume:

focus on high-interest topics that help build strong readers while also building background knowledge in numerous content areas

give students an opportunity to read and process the kinds of passages typically found on state tests

present information in a range of formats typical of nonfiction texts including time lines, sidebars, interviews, and maps and diagrams

are supported by teaching strategies that describe how to integrate the articles into your Toolkit instruction.

Plus, the accompanying CD-ROM provides all of the informational texts in English and Spanish.

Select the volumes that will best address your students needs.
Toolkit Texts, Gr. K-1
Toolkit Texts, Gr. 2-3
Toolkit Texts, Gr. 4-5
Toolkit Texts, Gr. 6-7
Save when you order the entire PreK-7 Toolkit Texts Library for one low price.

For a comprehensive overview of the Comprehension Toolkit series including sample lessons, a new Summer School Literacy Guide, free nonfiction short texts in Spanish (K-2), lists of alternative texts, teacher feedback , and presentation materials visit http://www.comprehensiontoolkit.com

(click any section below to continue reading)

Contents

The 40 articles (68 pages of student text) in grades 4-5 explore a range of topics of interest to young children including articles about animals, ecology, sports, Native American history and culture, social and environmental change, and paleontology.

Dozens of Dinos

Scoop on Dino Poop

Amazing Antarctica

Living at the Bottom of the World

Dear Mother Earth: An Earthly Advice Column

Iceburgs: Floating Iceburgs

Rainforest Hero

Craig Kielburger: Kids to the Rescue

Ryan's Well: Clean Water for Kids

Seeing the Needs of Others: Guide-Dog Puppy Raisers

The Braille System: The Language of Touch

You Have a Choice

The Struggle for Equal Rights

Words of Peace

War: What Happens When Nations Don't Work it Out?

Jai Alai: The Fastest Game in the World

Queen Alliquippa, Seneca Leader

Three Shades of Chocolate

Chocolate Belt

Chocolate: The Happy Food (or, Take Your Medicine)

Strange Tree

Ancient Mexico--Where and When

Aztec School Days

Fighting Fire from Head to Toe

Firefighting through the Ages

Great Chicago Fire

For Men Only? Not!

Interview with a Fire Inspector

Negro Baseball Leagues

Women of the Negro Leagues

Jack Roosevelt Robinson: Baseball's First Black Superstar

My Name is Now. . .

Where in the World Did We Come From?

Inalienable Rights

Riding for Freedom

We Were Here, Too

A Magical Pen

Swim School

Long Swim

Shark

Related PD Services

Seminars
Email planningservices@heinemann.com if you would like to contact Stephanie Harvey directly about professional development support.

Seminars
Email planningservices@heinemann.com if you would like to contact Anne Goudvis directly about professional development support.

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"These articles lend themselves to active reading, giving kids a great place to annotate and work out their thinking as they read." --Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis In response to the overwhelming demand for more high-quality, age-appropriate nonfiction texts, Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis have developed the four-volume series Toolkit Texts: Short Nonfiction for Guided and Independent Practice.

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I always get a lot of questions about how I schedule my ELA Block. I've been working on this post for awhile, and I'm hoping it proves to be helpful for some of you who are new teachers and for those who need to revamp your current schedule. I am getting more into the Workshop Model this year, so this is a thing that is subject to change for me;
as always you have to do what works best for you and your kids!

I've broken this post down into steps in hopes that it will help you plan out your own schedule. At the end of the post, I'll share a Schedule Freebie that I made and adapted for my classroom needs.

If you have any questions, please post them below.

Decide first what you are not willing to give up. What does that mean to you? For me, first and foremost it's choice and time for Independent Reading. My kids get 20-30 minutes a day and this never gets shaved or omitted. UNLESS THERE'S A FIRE.

A Student reads in the Recycling Bin during Flashlight Friday

Two Students share Victoria Jameson's Roller Girl during Independent Reading Time

Students get cozy in the library area

Conferences are also very important to me during this time: this is when (at the beginning of the year, I get to know my kids and their interests) I talk with students about reading. If you are intentional during this part, you cut out the guesswork in who is reading and who hasn't found the right book yet. Touch base with students and find a schedule that works for you!

This year I simply kept track of who I met with and when to make sure I was meeting with everyone. This year, I'm working on a more detailed system that will help guide the next conference with each student. It's a work in progress and you have to find something that is EASY and EFFECTIVE.

I hope you read out loud to your kids! There is so much research suggesting that Read Aloud is a vital part to our older kids learning, too! I love to use short stories, articles, blog posts and picture books to guide mini-lessons. You're also letting students HEAR a fluent reader and it's a great time to model reader thinking! Plus, who doesn't love being read to??

The moment when I connected a CCSS strand to Independent Reading :)

While I may not be the Common Core's biggest fan, those are the standards my district follows and I do like having a sort of Blueprint for what my kids should know. I like to tie my daily standard to the mini-lesson and talk with kids about applying it to whatever they're reading for IR. Works for us!

Another non-negotiable for each day is Writing about Reading. Last year, I started using Reading Response Letters and I loved the outcome. We also wrote to Authors, wrote Book Reviews and recommended books to our friends. This year, I'm looking to get other outlets involved. We will be blogging, tweeting, skyping Authors and writing RR Letters to help share what we are reading.

Decide what you would not want cut from your day and go from there!

If you use a Workshop Model most of the things included in Step One should be revisited here. Make plans, schedule out your Read Alouds and have Mini-Lessons ready to go. This is the set that I am heavily working on this school year! I am researching great children's books to help me (gently) teach the CCSS. I'm working on Mini-Lessons that are planned and organized and ready to start the year.

If you're looking for something to help with Reflections at the end of Workshop, this is something I'll be using this school year!

Find them here in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store!

Some things come up and there's nothing we can do about it. Don't all teachers have the middle name, Flexible? We have to be ready to move things around at the last minute and adapt to our always changing days. I've found that keeping yourself organized really helps here. Make sure you keep a Teacher Planner or Binder and as you get emails write down dates and times for meetings and schedule changes. I also keep a desk calendar on my desk and that helps me keep organized, too!

Keep track of Book Release Dates to help build anticipation with Students!

Use binders or some other filing system that works for you!

I'm a big fan of Erin Condren, but again, you have to use what works for you. I have a Life Planner, Notebook and Teacher Lesson Planner. When school is in, I use all three almost daily!

My Notebook helps keep my ideas organized and in one place.

My Teacher Lesson Planner keeps all of my grades, contacts, plans and schedules in one place. It's also easy to pick up and take to meetings.

Keep all of those schedules and pop-up changes at bay whichever way is best for you!

If you are conferring with students on a regular basis, you KNOW if they are reading during IR time. If you see that they've been on the same book for a really long time, talk about it. If you see that they need to sample more genres, talk about it. TALK TO YOUR KIDS! Get to know them so you can build a strong relationship and ultimately classroom community. You can start giving them recommendations, because guess what? When you're looking for books you'll be reminded of your kids! You start to learn their tastes and what genres they love. Nurture that reading love!

Have students keep track of their reading lives, just like real readers do.

Maybe not all readers keep a reading notebook, but guess what? I'm a reader. I leave reviews for books, I make plans to read books, I keep a mile long wish list on Amazon and I jump on Twitter and Good Reads updating page by page as I'm reading a great book! Teach your kids how to do the things that real readers do. Reading in the Wild has all the forms you could need for this part. Our key components are Status of the Class, Books I've Read, TBR (to be read) List, and our Genre Chart where we start to see our habits and tastes on paper in a nice visual format. Encourage kids to read widely throughout different genres. You will have kids that love graphic novels, or realistic fiction, or non-fiction. Don't discourage them because they show preferences, that's what real readers do. The 40 Book Challenge helps encourage kids to sample different genres without being a jerk about it. Guess what, there's no one to tell me to stop reading the heck out of Graphic Novels, and I'm still a reader, a functioning reader with good comprehension skills.

Like Donalyn says "All readers are valued, all reading is valuable."

Leave me now and go read this book if you haven't yet.

This is an area of personal improvement for me. I'll be attending the Scholastic Reading Summit next week and I'm going to a session about Troubleshooting Conferences. Notice where you need help, and then get the help you need to be better for your kids.

This last step has some other important considerations... Everyone will want to look over these and see if any are factors in your schedule. We all have different amounts of time to work with, again, do what will be best for your situation and your kids!

Okay, now, it is with great caution that I share with you the time I get for ELA. This year, I will have two hours a day with my students to teach Reading and Writing. Before you start drinking HATERADE, just remember that each district is different and I recognize that I am very lucky to have the class time that I do...

With that being said, my schedule is going to look different than yours! My recommendations are this: Keep a Read Aloud and Mini-Lesson and then do Independent Reading... If I only had 60 minutes that is what I would do with it. 30 minutes for each. I would also recommend using the mock schedule where one week you have a Reading Focus and the next is a Writing Focus. Every week will be filled with both subjects, but one week you may be doing reading mini-lessons and the next it will be writing.

This was my schedule last year (this year, I get a little less time):

I would like to share a schedule I use that was adapted from a Reading in the Wild (see, Mrs. Riedmiller is to Reading in the Wild as Mr. Schu is to Kate DiCamillo) Book Study last summer. I took someone's schedule (one that was originally a sample in Donalyn's book) and made it work for me with the addition of Genius Hour, because I LOVE GENIUS HOUR. :)

Enjoy and I would love to hear some feedback. Also, kudos to you if you made it through this very long-winded post! I hope it helps you in the classroom.

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I always get a lot of questions about how I schedule my ELA Block. I've been working on this post for awhile, and I'm hoping it proves to b...

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This is the start of a new journey for me and my students. My professional mentor text has been Jessica Lifshitz's Blog: Crawling Out of the Classroom. I use Jess's blog because a professional goal of mine has been to more towards a more equitable, social justice serving classroom space. Her blog constantly provides the layout of this work although she teaches fifth graders while I teach fourth. Using this mentor and the personal help of Jess has helped moved my work from a far-fetched dream to reality. This post is the one where she lays out the work for Literacy Studio, how she learned about it and how she is trying it with her kids. This post also contains the great conferring forms (more about that later) that I have been using. Jess- I cannot thank you enough for helping me through every step of this journey.

I began the week by telling my students that I was thinking about how often we finish a reading mini lesson and set off to work and I am quickly approached by someone asking me if they can finish a "personal story they are working on." Or how often we finish a reading mini lesson about our realistic fiction work and they are burying their noses in an informational text immediately after. Noticing their wants and involuntary questions had made me rethink our time and I had to share an idea with them. An idea that I believed would offer a good solution to this really excellent "problem" to have. They were intrigued. I wanted to change class a little bit? I noticed that they wanted more time to finish their Fox Detective, Lost Unicorn and Sports Comics? I had their attention.

They were beyond enthusiastic about the change! So, we got straight down to business and figured out how much time we have together in class and how that time SHOULD be used to help us do these core things: become stronger writers, become stronger readers and become stronger citizens (social studies). We messed around with the schedule until we achieved what we believed to be the ultimate path to achieve these goals. Each day would look like this:
Reading Workshop (30 minutes)
10 minute mini-lesson
20 minutes independent reading (in the unit genre, teacher picks goals)
Writing Workshop (30 minutes)
10 minute mini-lesson
20 minutes independent writing (in the unit genre, teacher picks goals)
Independent Studio Time (30 minutes)
30 minutes (read OR write, any genre, any format, student chooses goals)
Social Studies (20 minutes)

Once a schedule was in place we decided to try it out. My students are already accustomed to conferring with me during reading and writing workshops each day. I explained that the independent portion would be a third time that I could confer with them during the day. My first class had a lot of students who chose to write during that independent block, and my second class had quite a few that decided to read. No matter what they chose, when I met with readers and writers, I had a conversation with them about how they would decide to balance their independent time. Some students decided on an every other day schedule, some said it would depend on the day of the week and how excited they were about their current book or writing piece (I love this response, by the way) and some students knew that the balance piece would be a struggle for them. We decided we would continue to work on it as we went on.

First off, there wasn't ONE student who wasn't engaged during this independent time. Everyone had a plan for what they wanted to do during that time. Students worked during the whole time because they had full choice over the piece or the book. Again, my kids are used to this with books, but opening it up for writing was a game changer. I always noticed kids wanting to write fantasy stories during realistic fiction and this was finally their opportunity to get to have full choice when it came to class time.

We are about three days in and I have already noticed a big difference in my students. They are even more excited and enthusiastic about class time. They also are setting their own goals with ease because of the form I am using from Jess's post. It breaks down conferring time by asking kids what they are noticing in their books and what they are proud of in their writing, once students do this part the teacher names what they are doing so students are much more likely to try doing the work again. My kids have responded to these forms and this teacher language in a positive way. Instead of basic summaries, conferences are turning into more like this: "wow, I don't know if you know this but what you just did was explain character change. That is deep reading work." Then students decide which noticing or proud moment they want to turn into a personal goal. They decide how they will keep track of the goal and when they want to meet with me again. It was unreal to hear my kids talk about their reading and writing in the ways that they did this past week. I told a colleague that I wish I had actually videoed a couple conferences so I could look back and remember that charge of excitement and EMPOWERMENT in their voices! My Intervention Specialist and I have already decided that we will use these student-created goals to have students rewrite their IEP goals. We then plan on having them track their work in their reading and writing notebooks and use them as their trials and evidence of work towards those goals. How powerful, right?

This outline moves me towards my goal of more student choice and agency in my classroom. It lays down a foundation for some serious social justice work that I want to take on with kids. A possible change would be reconsidering letting students work in partnerships. They are now and some are using them well and some are not. This is an area I know I'll need to be flexible and willing to intervene on. I am leaning towards not turning them down with it comes to partnerships because think of the critical thinking and problem solving they are doing within those spaces! Something else to keep an eye on is my consistency with conferring. I have to be willing to use that great chunk of time to really get in there with kids and help them improve their reading and writing.

Using this format allows me to stay true to the workshop format and some beloved units of study in both reading and writing, dip my toe into inquiry based learning, social justice standards, and Kristi Mraz's Mindset work all while remaining true to my core heart belief that student choice and voice should rule the day.

I am excited about this new layout and I am already impressed with the ownership out of my kids. I can't see how much further they take it!

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This is the start of a new journey for me and my students. My professional mentor text has been Jessica Lifshitz's Blog: Crawling Out of the Classroom. I use Jess's blog because a professional goal of mine has been to more towards a more equitable, social justice serving classroom space.