In today’s episode, we’re diving into five key strategies to help you build a more effective literacy block in your classroom. As teachers, it can be tempting to compartmentalize every aspect of literacy instruction into separate chunks, but that often leads to time constraints and missed opportunities for students to apply their skills holistically. We’ll explore why it's crucial to avoid teaching everything in isolation and how we, at the Stellar Literacy Collective, have designed resources to make it easier for you to integrate different literacy components seamlessly into your schedule.

Flexibility is key when planning your literacy block. While routines and schedules provide structure, being adaptable to your students' needs is just as important. Today, we’ll discuss how to balance the consistency of your literacy routines with the flexibility to adjust your pacing based on student responses. Remember, the goal isn’t to rigidly follow the schedule but to focus on the content and let your students' progress guide your instruction.

We’ll also talk about setting realistic expectations for what you can accomplish in your literacy block. By auditing your time and building in buffer moments, you’ll become better at predicting how long activities will actually take. Along the way, we’ll touch on why focusing on mastery over mere completion leads to meaningful progress, and why the traditional five-day school week shouldn’t be the sole dictator of your schedule. So don’t be afraid to introduce new lessons or assessments on any day of the week!

Join us in the Stellar Literacy Collective Membership: stellarteacher.com/join!

Sign up for my FREE private podcast, the Confident Writer Systems Series, here!

Sign up for my FREE Revision Made Easy email series here!

Follow me on Instagram @thestellarteachercompany.

To check out all of the resources from this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.stellarteacher.com/episode219.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Comprehension Reset: 4 Days to Unlock Student Understanding

We are hosting a FREE four-day Comprehension Reset Challenge to help you unlock student's understanding.

Here’s what you’ll get:
✅ A clear plan to build lasting comprehension in your students.
✅ Effective, evidence-based strategies you can use immediately.
✅ Confidence that you’re teaching comprehension in a way that works.

📅 Challenge Details:
🔹 The challenge runs from January 12th - January 15th, 2025.
🔹 You’ll receive daily videos with actionable strategies.
🔹 Connect with other teachers in our pop-up Facebook group for Q&As and giveaways!

🌟 Sign up for The Comprehension Reset: 4 Days to Unlock Student Understanding: stellarteacher.com/reset 🌟