Below is what Dana does with her blocks in New Delhi. I like that it is a process (graceful) and not a lesson plan (klutzville). Any single one of these activities can be expanded as long as they remain interesting. The SSR knocks out 15 min. right off the bat (we tell them it’s 10′ but we lie), the Calendar activity (aka “Small Talk”) can also be stretched out for awhile, and of course we all know how OWI, the story, the Reading Options can really eat up minutes, days really. Then there is always a quick quiz possible to end class with an exit ticket. For gnarly classes not behaving as we demand we can give them two quick quizzes during the block (for which we need a good Quiz Writer over in Hub A with the story writers and the artists). Certain classes who need it made more clear can have three and I wouldn’t put it past myself to give them four quizzes, one every fifteen minutes. This has a way of making them listen, when they know their grade can tank in just one class. With such a class the message would be, “I’ll give as many quizzes, and not fail to record them in the grade book, as I need to get your attention. And if that doesn’t work, do you see those wonderful worksheets over there next to my desk?” Another point – the Reading Options, if you do them all, easily take up two 90′ blocks.
When our instruction is a process and not a lesson plan of activities, the strategies all build on that one original image, that one character that they either created as a class or as individuals, and it’s a cornucopia, a cascade of CI. When a lesson is based on a character or a even a good plot (Matava) it just has more mojo. You can also include the Reveal and Great Reveal and maybe a replay of the story that was recorded on video for the documentary film maker the day before. The extension activities (see the Invisibles Star Sequence – https://benslavic.com/blog/invisibles-star-sequence-updated-sept-2017/ – are all rounded out at the end of this nice taxonomic process with a rousing game of the Word Chunk Team Game. The process is simple, streamlined, interesting, lighthearted and eats up minutes like nothing I have ever seen. We therefore keep up the interest without having to work so hard for it.
And to think that it all started in the same classroom where the Invisibles were invented half way around the world almost two years ago. Thank you, Dana, this process is great! I love me a good process.
Weeks with just 2 blocks:
Day 1 – SSR 10-15 minutes; 10-15 minutes Calendar, weather and chit chat; OWI or Individually Created Characters, either one, to set up an Invisibles Story
Day 2 – SSR 10-15 minutes; 10-15 minutes Calendar, weather and chit chat; Review of Story, Reading Options, including dictée
Weeks with 3 blocks:
Day 1 – SSR 10-15 minutes; 10-15 minutes Calendar, weather and chit chat; OWI or Individually Created Characters, either one, to set up an Invisibles Story
Day 2 – SSR 10-15 minutes; 10-15 minutes Calendar, weather and chit chat; Review of Story, Reading Options, including dictée
Day 3 – SSR 10-15 minutes; 10-15 minutes Calendar, weather and chit chat; 15 minute Free Write; Word Chunk Team Game
Once in a while, I’ll do a Story Listening fable or fair tale or let the kids review in partners (just go over their stories and vocab lists.