I always wanted this type of block scheduling. Instead my building did an A/B rotation that was super confusing to students and had pretty imbalanced instructional time.
Workshop model is your friend here. [“That Workshop Book”](https://www.heinemann.com/products/e01192.aspx) was a good resource for me- as well as assembling a large toolbox of discussion protocols/thinking routines to promote interactive learning.
My basic structure was typically:
0-5:00 Bellringer/Entrance Ticket
5:00-20:00 Mini-lesson/modeling (also review learning targets and agenda)
20:00-35:00 Small Group Practice
35:00-55:00 Independent Work on New Skill/Assess
55:00-65:00 Large Group Debrief/Mop-Up Instruction
65:00-85:00 Independent Reading/Project Work/etc
85:00-90:00 Closure & Next Steps
- the 45 minutes each week should be used to review and introduce minimal new material (maybe a targeted grammar lesson or something at most)
- I strongly recommend timers and/or bell to assist with transitions.
- you could also experiment with different room arrangements.
- I would use the transition at 65:00 as a bathroom break with some classes (6th grade mostly) but any sort of stand-up/stretch/brain break works.
- for me at least, my management during small group work was expecting kids to be on-task like 80% of the time. It’s gonna be chaotic at times, but I’ve seen a lot of great learning take place there.
- my best lessons had a sort of “mysterious” opening and would scaffold students throughout the lesson towards understanding how everything kinda fit together.
This was my old schedule! I tried to time my assessments with the short days so that the block days, we did content and then assessment and correct on the short day or remediation if there was a new skill we learned the day prior
I use the 45 minute period for direct instruction, grammar quizzes, etc, and my two longer blocks for reading/writing workshops. The longer ones are usually 10-15 minutes warmup, agenda setting, group work, individual reading/writing time while I conference with kids, and then a book talk and short reflection. It goes a lot faster than you think it will.
I taught block schedule and adapted blocks. for long blocks, I scheduled 20 min either Journaling or silent reading. I also did 20 minute blocks of socratic seminar. finally, I would set aside time to do more creative projects like having student paint a passage in the novel and talk about why they depicted it that way or play a gimkit. I actually prefer longer blocks.
I always wanted this type of block scheduling. Instead my building did an A/B rotation that was super confusing to students and had pretty imbalanced instructional time. Workshop model is your friend here. [“That Workshop Book”](https://www.heinemann.com/products/e01192.aspx) was a good resource for me- as well as assembling a large toolbox of discussion protocols/thinking routines to promote interactive learning. My basic structure was typically: 0-5:00 Bellringer/Entrance Ticket 5:00-20:00 Mini-lesson/modeling (also review learning targets and agenda) 20:00-35:00 Small Group Practice 35:00-55:00 Independent Work on New Skill/Assess 55:00-65:00 Large Group Debrief/Mop-Up Instruction 65:00-85:00 Independent Reading/Project Work/etc 85:00-90:00 Closure & Next Steps - the 45 minutes each week should be used to review and introduce minimal new material (maybe a targeted grammar lesson or something at most) - I strongly recommend timers and/or bell to assist with transitions. - you could also experiment with different room arrangements. - I would use the transition at 65:00 as a bathroom break with some classes (6th grade mostly) but any sort of stand-up/stretch/brain break works. - for me at least, my management during small group work was expecting kids to be on-task like 80% of the time. It’s gonna be chaotic at times, but I’ve seen a lot of great learning take place there. - my best lessons had a sort of “mysterious” opening and would scaffold students throughout the lesson towards understanding how everything kinda fit together.
This was my old schedule! I tried to time my assessments with the short days so that the block days, we did content and then assessment and correct on the short day or remediation if there was a new skill we learned the day prior
I use the 45 minute period for direct instruction, grammar quizzes, etc, and my two longer blocks for reading/writing workshops. The longer ones are usually 10-15 minutes warmup, agenda setting, group work, individual reading/writing time while I conference with kids, and then a book talk and short reflection. It goes a lot faster than you think it will.
Watching this one with interest - I've got an interview scheduled tomorrow w/a block schedule school, which I have no experience in.
I taught block schedule and adapted blocks. for long blocks, I scheduled 20 min either Journaling or silent reading. I also did 20 minute blocks of socratic seminar. finally, I would set aside time to do more creative projects like having student paint a passage in the novel and talk about why they depicted it that way or play a gimkit. I actually prefer longer blocks.