Full Description
Make the most of every instructional minute with engaging literacy activities
Time—or lack thereof—may be the most precious commodity in the classroom. From covering all the necessary curriculum and imparting life skills to attending meetings and answering emails, educators are faced with real challenges when there never seems to be enough time to do it all. Although teachers don't have the power to create more minutes in the school day, they do have the power to be effective and efficient with the time given.
Molly Ness asks teachers first to examine their use of time in the classroom in order to make more space for literacy. She then introduces 40 innovative activities designed to replace seatwork. These literacy-rich alternatives for classroom transitions are presented alongside
Research on instructional time in K-5 classrooms
Strategies for how to maximize every minute of instruction
Suggestions for improving efficiency to expand independent reading and writing time
Reflective practices to help teachers examine how they use the time they have
The instructional day is ripe for redesign with a thoughtful and authentic time audit. Every Minute Matters guides educators through that process by outlining literacy-rich activities to optimize transitional times and minimize lost instructional minutes.
Contents
Guide to Literacy-Rich Experiences
Acknowledgments
Introduction: So Much to Do, So Little Time
Activity Walkthrough
PART ONE: Thinking Through Instructional Time
Time Audits: Why and How
Maximize Your Routines and Transition Times
Think Flexibly
PART TWO: Literacy-Rich Experiences at Your Fingertips
Rotate Your Writing
Reader's Notebook Tours
Library Love
Be a Book Matchmaker
"I Wonder" Writing
Beach Ball Bonanza
Laughing Through Rereadings
Read, Record, Reflect
Book Tasting
Go Fish
Concentration
Lining Up With Literacy
I Spy
Category Chain
Ghost Writing
Build a Word
Classroom Charades
Telephone
Would You Rather?
Hink Pinks
Human Hungry Hippos
Spelling Connect Four
Vocabulary Vase
Book Pass
Parking Lot
Sink or Spell
Headbands
Twister
Letter Formation
Sight Word Search
Letter Tile Table
Tower Tumble
Checkers
A to Z About
Sticky Sort
Reading Graffiti
Jot Lot
Wordoodle
Wordo
Character Cards
Categories
Character Chats
Blackout Poetry
Appendix
References
Index
