Welcome to the first blog in this exciting twelve-part series on setting up your ELA blocks! I know how daunting it can be to organize your Literacy instruction in a way that’s both effective and engaging for your students. That’s why I’m here to help! In this series, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about ELA block planning to create a stellar ELA block that meets your students’ needs and aligns with standards.
To kick things off, I’m diving into one of the most important steps: planning. Specifically, I’m focusing on three key questions you should ask yourself when planning your ELA block. These questions will help you clarify your goals, structure your time, and ensure that your students are getting the most out of their ELA instruction. So grab a cup of coffee, settle in, and let’s get started on this journey together with a focus on ELA Literacy Block Planning!
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Questions to ask yourself before planning your ELA Literacy Block
Now, let’s dive into the content! Let’s discuss all of the brainstorming and questions to ask yourself when planning ELA.
ELA is all-encompassing. It cannot be considered just one subject. ELA covers six different “subjects” or “domains,” so we need to ask ourselves: What subjects should I cover during my ELA block?
According to National Common Core State Standards, the six domains that should be considered when planning your ELA block are Literature, Informational Text, Writing, Language, Foundational Skills, and Speaking & Listening. Reading Literature and Reading Informational standards are going to be the CCSS (or state) standards that teach students how to understand the fiction and nonfiction texts that they read. Writing standards are going to cover Narrative, Opinion, Informative and Research Writing, in addition to Revising, Publishing, and Editing standards.
Language standards are going to be those that you’d think of as “Grammar” skills. This is where you will work on parts of speech/conventions, sentence structures, and vocabulary acquisition. Foundational Skills will incorporate your Phonics, Phonemic Awareness and Fluency skills, and you can’t forget about Speaking & Listening standards! It’s a lot to consider when coming up with the questions to ask yourself when planning ELA.
Question to ask yourself when planning ELA 2: How much time do you have for your ELA block?
This question is VERY dependent on your specific school. Some schools automatically allow 2 hours for an ELA block, requiring all domains to be taught within the 2 hours. Others have 90 minutes. Some teachers teach their domains separately in smaller chunks of time. Regardless of the way you intend to teach your ELA standards, you need to start with the question, “How much time do I have?” Once you know how much time you actually have, you can look further into how you will use that time.
If your school already has a structured schedule of your day, then you can use those blocks of time to schedule out your ELA time. However, if you have a more open and flexible day, then try a few mock schedules to see how long you’ll have for your ELA block.
Question 3: Where will my students be and what will they be doing?
Now, you need to start thinking about where you envision your students during this time and what they’ll be doing. We will discuss ELA structures in another part of this blog series, so for now, focus on where and what? Are your students going to be at their desks? In flexible seating options? In tiered groups? Working independently? Will your class have structured activities or centers? Are you going to be teaching small groups? Whole Group?
For now, make a list of the different things you’d like your students to be doing during this ELA block. When we get to the teaching structures part of this series, you will know which fits your style best!
Follow here for the next post in the blog series…
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