Diving Into ELACCGPS

After attending a County wide meeting to learn about ELACCGPS for first grade, we were inspired to begin looking at how a 2 1/2 hour block of ELA time would look in the classroom. We developed a plan, and we are now working to create a unit that we feel would meet the goals of the new standards.

With ELACCGPS, we understand that there should be an extended text used in a read aloud time, and that other texts used withing reading and writing instruction should relate to the extended text. Students should be reading around 50% fiction and 50% non-fiction. This is a change since we have mostly read non-fiction in the past.  It is also important that students are writing with reading. The students should be learning to write and use specific details from the texts to support their writing.

So, instead of having an hour of reading and an hour of writing time separately, we now see one large block of time used to focus on both. Our schedule of this time will be: 10 minute read aloud from the extended text, 30 minutes of  small group instruction, 20 minutes of share time, 30 minutes small group instruction, and 20 minutes of share time. There will be a separate 30 minute block of specific phonics instruction at another time in the day.

Reading is not the only thing that will change through this plan! In math we complete a story problem each day, and it will relate to the extended text. Also, in science and social studies we will use small group instruction and the learning will relate to the extended text also. Many of our non-fiction books used in reading will integrate both science and social studies with reading. We will also use reading during science and social studies. As you can see, all areas support insturction in the other areas.

We are very excited about this plan! Our next posts will detail the "unit" that we have planned and how it will work in the classroom. We would love to hear your thoughts and opinions about how you think this will work. If you have any questions, please ask those also. We are very excited, but we realize that this is not a perfect plan. Your comments and questions will help us to see areas that we can improve. If you would like to join us by following this plan in your classroom, we would love to hear your ideas and how it works for you!