"That's a great idea... but how will I ever find the time for it?"

I've listened to this refrain over and over in face-to-face and online professional development with teachers. While I never questioned that teachers are legitimately pressed for time with full days and increasing demands, I appreciate it more than ever now that I am deciding how to spend my own reading block.

Each week since school started, I have adjusted and readjusted my schedule to accommodate screenings, literacy testing, the limitations of student independence at this point, and all of my curriculum goals.  And each week I have felt disappointed when the equation just didn't balance.  There really isn't time for everything I want students to experience in my classroom.

Having more goals and ideas than time is not necessarily a negative thing.  It certainly challenges us to clarify our vision.  Whole group or small group?  Picture books or the basal story?  Guided reading groups or individual conferences?  Reading or writing?  Word study or vocabulary?  Teach to the curriculum guide or pull whatever I find ready-made from the basal?  All of it seems to have a place... so how do we choose?

I believe the first step is to shift our focus to the students.  We can get so caught up in deciding how WE are going to spend our instructional minutes, that we can forget to consider how STUDENTS are spending those same minutes.  This is much easier to do as an observer than as the instructor.  Using one of my favorite articles as a guide (Every Child, Every Day), I try to have students engaged in as much authentic reading, writing, and talking as possible in those precious minutes.

Some traditional practices, such as correcting sentences that students didn't write or completing worksheet test prep activities, are obvious minutes lost to real literacy work.  Other times, minutes are lost when we fall short of the conferencing and monitoring and feedback that students need to truly engage in the literacy practice that we schedule.  I was shocked this week when I started doing my first round of writing conferences.  All of the time I had dedicated to writing workshop over the last four weeks had resulted in very little writing for some students.  My plans, and how students actually spent those precious minutes, did not match up.

It is important to trace your reading block from the perspective of a student, especially that student who might need the most reading and writing practice to develop grade level skills.  Is that child getting the research-supported literacy experiences that have the greatest likelihood of impacting them positively?  For me, the honest answer to that question ("not always...") keeps sending me back to the drawing board in preparation for Monday morning.