The Five Components

To better understand the purpose behind the design of this hour of instruction, read about each component of ALL Block and how they promote proficiency and growth.

Accountable Independent Reading (AIR)

Content-related reading at students’ independent reading levels; free choice reading

In recent years, it has become more apparent that one of the reasons strong readers are strong readers is because they read a lot. Research confirms what common sense might tell us: The more one reads, the more one knows—about a topic, about vocabulary, about syntax, and even about related topics. With this firmly in mind, volume of reading has been intentionally built into our curriculum.

Through research reading, students build background knowledge and vocabulary. Free choice reading builds knowledge and vocabulary, too, but not as quickly as reading on the module topic. Therefore, free choice reading serves to build students’ motivation and love of reading. The ALL Block gives students additional time for both kinds of reading.

Additional Work with Complex Text

Rereading complex text from the module with a specific focus—for example, making inferences

The new college- and career-ready standards emphasize the importance of all students successfully reading and understanding complex text throughout the grades. It is crucial to prepare students adequately for college and careers by ensuring their ability to navigate complex texts. Deep knowledge, rich syntax, and strong vocabulary all result from frequent and successful immersion in complex texts (Shanahan, 2002; Hiebert, 2012; Gomez, 2008; Liben, 2010, et al.). The ALL Block provides students with additional time to engage with the complex texts from the module lessons.

Furthermore, a growing body of research suggests that instruction with increasingly complex texts within the study of a single topic (such as the American Revolution) can lead to significant gains in reading rate, vocabulary acquisition, and comprehension (Adams, 2009; Morgan, 2009; O’Conner, 2010; Williams, 2009). Essentially, as students learn more about a topic, they can read more challenging texts on that topic—and, if given support, improve their foundational reading and comprehension skills. Then, they can read even more complex text on new topics.

Reading and Speaking Fluency/ Grammar, Usage and Mechanics (GUM)

Practice with oral reading, speaking with expression, and grammar rules

If students are going to read and write successfully and proficiently, they will need to read fluently (silently and orally) and speak and write competently in Standard English. The ALL Block combines practice with these literacy skills into one section for two reasons: 1) convenience in scheduling and 2) understanding the standard conventions of written English helps students read more fluently.

Reading and Speaking Fluency: When a student reads fluently, they read smoothly, name the words correctly and automatically, use appropriate phrasing, and pay attention to punctuation. When one listens to a fluent reader, one is able to pay attention to the meaning of the passage. More importantly, the student who is reading fluently is also able to pay attention to the meaning of the passage because they do not have to stop and decode words individually.
GUM (Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics): When students write, the writing must make sense to other people. Thus, it is important that students learn the standard conventions of written English, including usage, mechanics, capitalization, and punctuation. Research tells us that the most useful way to teach these conventions is through good models, as well as through the use of targeted mini-lessons on the editing stages of writing.

Writing Practice

Writing fluency practice; quick-writes; additional practice with specific skills

Students need to write for different purposes. Broadly, they need to write to learn for themselves and to construct and communicate meaning to others. Within this broad construct of “writing practice,” students need to become fluent in writing and develop the skills of writing structure and craft.

Writing Fluency: Fluent writers are not stopped by any of the physical or cognitive aspects of writing. They are comfortable with the pencil and/or keyboard and they are not hindered by the questions of where to begin or how to connect ideas in writing. Fluent writers also have writing stamina, meaning that they are comfortable with a grade-appropriate task and can sustain writing about it for the appropriate amount of time.
Writing to Learn: Students need many opportunities to write brief summaries of what they think they know, reflect on the significance of an idea that they’ve been working on, or respond to a thought-provoking question. When students use writing in these ways, they are literally learning and discovering from the act of writing itself, and all students need these opportunities frequently.
Writing to Communicate: Ultimately, students write so that they can communicate their thinking to others—clearly, accurately, and effectively. It is important that students practice creating clear structure in their writing to make their knowledge and understanding clear to their audience.

Word Study and Vocabulary

Structural analysis of specific words; vocabulary work from module content

Word Study: In the primary grades, students have an entire block (the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block) devoted to foundational reading skills such as decoding, spelling, and fluency. In grades 3-5, “word study” is still important but is approached differently. Research tells us that readers in intermediate grades benefit from a more contextualized approach to teaching phonics and word recognition (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 2003; Bloodgood & Pacifici, 2004). Students in these grades will need phonics instruction about how words are built, including syllabication patterns and more complex spelling patterns, but they also need an increased focus on the morphology of words (I.e., affixes and roots) as it relates to word meaning. Therefore, the ALL Block gives students opportunities to practice all these aspects of word study in a variety of activities, including vocabulary games, vocabulary squares, and Frayer Models.
Vocabulary: Recent research also emphasizes the need for and benefit of a large vocabulary in terms of one’s ability to read rich and complex text. Explicit vocabulary instruction is a key feature in the module lessons. Besides this explicit vocabulary instruction, students get a great deal of implicit instruction in general academic and domain-specific vocabulary through exposure to many complex (and less complex) informational texts, and some literary texts. In the ALL Block, students have additional time to practice module-related word analysis through word study games and activities.

Additional Language and Literacy Block