How to Organize Your Structured Literacy Block in the Classroom

Do you ever feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get done all that you need to accomplish with your students?

Creating a schedule that maximizes time and includes sacred periods for instruction, free of interruptions, can be a challenge.

This was one of our biggest stressors in the classroom.

There were two different blocks of time during the day in which we refused to budge, these were non-negotiables in the classroom:

1 - Read Aloud Time

The gift of time to read aloud with students will forever be the time we cherished the most with them. The opportunity to fall in love with characters, feel an emotional pull with a story, and connect with each other through the shared experience of a book is priceless. Some of our favorite days were the days we just couldn’t bear to tear ourselves away from a story for even a moment, so we would read aloud as we waited outside of the lunchroom or the specials class. Again, maximizing every minute.

2 - Literacy Block 

We know this time is so critical for our students, but it could feel so frustrating at times. There was so much to accomplish during this time and each year we tried to find new and more effective ways to squeeze every minute out of that block.

It became easier once we adopted a Science of Reading aligned approach. The scheduling nightmare seemed to become a little more manageable. One of the core components of a Science of Reading-based approach is that lessons consist of specific activities, that follow a systematic framework. This made it easier to figure out how to fit the specific activities into a schedule that met the needs of our readers every day.

Over the years, we’ve worked with various reading/phonics programs. They all had one thing in common; our kids’ levels were all over the place.

While we are fierce advocates for differentiated instruction, sometimes this went too far.

The result was that we felt like we spent our time running from student to student to check in on their sorting or word work, but rarely had time to give them explicit instruction before we had to move on to the next student. This left our kids with gaps and holes in their decoding/encoding skills.

So, we want to share with you a method that differentiates for varied needs through small group instruction but also has an opportunity for whole group or universal instruction. This is a lifesaver in the classroom.

By introducing your whole class to one concept, one phonogram, and one syllable type at a time, you can keep your instruction systematic and cumulative.

Then, within this common concept, you can differentiate instruction to meet the needs of each small group.

Step One -Begin with a whole group mini-lesson.

This allows you the opportunity to introduce the target syllable type and phonogram to the class. Together, you can review the target syllable type and phonogram by brainstorming words, making anchor charts, and possibly looking at a text that highlights these targets.

By focusing on one common target, you can devote more time to really digging into this syllable type and phonogram rather than feeling scattered and trying to teach multiple phonograms or sound patterns at once.

Step Two - Break into small group instruction.

Through ability grouping, you can easily differentiate a lesson to meet your students’ different needs.

In order to make this work, you can use centers or independent work to set up workshop stations easily.

Students can use games and workbook pages to review concepts and cement the learning that took place during their small group instruction. These same activities can be used with classroom volunteers.

Step Three - Give yourself some grace.

While the literacy block often feels like a blur, know that you are delivering valuable, amazing instruction for your students! It’s an incredibly important time and one that will make all of the difference in the world for your students!

We have tried a million different schedules, workshop models, center rotations, and small-group instruction plans over the years, and feel your pain! You’re not alone and you can do this!

How To Schedule Your Literacy Block -

We put together this Suggested Literacy Block Organizer that we hope can be the answer to all of your scheduling woes. It aligns perfectly with the Science of Reading and allows space to differentiate to meet the needs of your struggling readers, grade-level readers, and advanced readers. Now, this looks a bit different depending on which grade level you teach so be sure to take that into consideration when planning the skills you want to address.

The schedules were designed to help make delivering instruction to a whole group on a universal level while differentiating for targeted small groups easier.

The idea is that the big picture concepts are taught in the whole group setting and then more targeted activities are saved for small group instruction so you can see where breakdowns may be occurring for your students.

This is a GAME CHANGER when you only have 20 minutes with a small group!

Suggested Small Group Organization

If you know us well, you know by now that we LOVE targeting our activities to meet the varying needs of our readers. In order to get the most out of your small group time, we recommend breaking students into four groups.

Group A - On grade-level readers

Group B - Students struggling with decoding/word recognition (these students struggle to sound out words)

Group C - Students struggling with comprehension (reading or listening comprehension)

Group D - Students struggling with decoding and comprehension

By grouping students in this way, you can spend that precious small group time getting maximum benefit for your students.

The other benefit of using this framework is that it aligns your instruction for your students. You’re not feeling scattered trying to teach different phonetic rules or different concepts. You can really focus on going deep with one syllable type and one phonogram at a time, and this ensures that your instruction is systematic and cumulative. And to make it easier for you - we wanted to share our How to Create Systematic, SOR-Aligned Lesson Plans workshop with you!

This workshop will help you determine what actually needs to be included in a Science of Reading-based lesson, how to build a lesson plan based on the Science of Reading, and how to optimize your lesson plans. Plus, we’ll share our lesson planning guides!