I’ve taught on a block schedule for 12 years and I love it! If you’re starting out with a block schedule- don’t panic! You will be OK! After you get settled, you will wonder how you managed the whirlwind of 45 minute classes. It’s really nice seeing your little stinkers trolls darlings every other day! Writing one lesson plan that lasts for 2 days is awesome. And trust me, you’re going to LOVE your block planning period!
So how on earth do you fill up the little darlings with comprehensible language for an entire block period?! These are the things I consider as I plan my 90 minute blocks. (I used to teach on a 110 minute block and I miss those 20 minutes!)
- Have them read every single class period. Reading is awesome. Reading is awesome for them because they get lots of rich input. Reading is awesome for you because if they’re reading silently or with a partner, you’re saving your voice. Win/ win! Most days we start with Free Reading (You can read a bit about our Free Reading program here, if you’re so inclined!) because it is such a nice, stress free way to begin class.
- Shoot the breeze/ Chit-Chat/ Check in. Every day I sit on my stool and chit chat with them for a few minutes, in Spanish. I try to channel Ellen DeGeneres at the beginning of her show, warming up the audience. Maybe we talk about what’s going on in the world or school. Who has a game today? The soccer team is playing today! Class, is our team going to win or loose today? Should we ask the Magic 8 Ball
? Or maybe a little Weekend Talk or Calendar Talk or current events. Perhaps I’ll ask them who’s missing today and we’ll make up a wild adventure for the absent student. When you’ve got 110 minutes before you, you’ve got time to slow down and talk to your kids. It’s beautiful-they think you’re distracted and they’re keeping you from your lesson plan, when really, your whole plan is to pack their little cabezas full of español comprensible!
- Plan 5-6 activities for a 90 minute block When I taught 110 minute blocks, I’d plan 7-8 activities per class. The trick is to plan more than you think you’ll need, and just roll over whatever you didn’t have time for to the following period.
- Timing is tricky on the block- I’ve been doing this CI thing for 12 years now and still I can’t get my timing down…Generally my last planned activity is a bonus. If we fly through the other stuff, it’s ready to go, but it’s no big deal if we run out of time. I also like my last activity to be flexible- something that can last 10 or 25 minutes, depending on the time we have left. Here are a few ways to use up those last few minutes if you need something more 🙂
? Or maybe a little Weekend Talk or Calendar Talk or current events. Perhaps I’ll ask them who’s missing today and we’ll make up a wild adventure for the absent student. When you’ve got 110 minutes before you, you’ve got time to slow down and talk to your kids. It’s beautiful-they think you’re distracted and they’re keeping you from your lesson plan, when really, your whole plan is to pack their little cabezas full of español comprensible! Update– tonight I learned the most brilliant, life changing tip EVER on the iFLT/NTPRS/CI Teaching Facebook Page (which,BTW if you’re interested in CI teaching and you’re NOT on that page, you’re missing out on excellent (and free!) professional development!) Lisa Larriva shared that she has a poster in her classroom with different time marks for particular chunks of her lesson, to help manage the pacing of her lessons:
In her poster (above!) the Dark Green color shows the class start time, the light green is the half way point in class, the blue indicate the end of 20 minute chunks and the red is 5 minutes before the end of class. Simple math for me is anything but simple and this will be so helpful for me! Thanks so much, Lisa! Here’s how I adapted Lisa’s idea to my schedule…feel free to make a copy and edit to work with your schedule, if simple math is anything but simple for you, too!
5. Plan something fun- Usually in my class it’s a game (we play a lot of games in my classroom sweet portable). I like to have fun with them, and I want my little darlings to have fun because in my state Spanish is an elective so if I want any job security at all, I need to have my little darlings banging down my classroom portable door, excited for another day of Spanish. BUT…that doesn’t mean I’m willing to sacrifice Comprehensible Input…Oh no! Just disguise more input as a game! Mua ha ha!
6. Move them around! This is the most important thing to think about when you’re teaching on a block: if their bum is numb so is their brain!
My rule is that students need to stand and do something active every 10-15 minutes. That doesn’t mean after every activity…sometimes in the middle of the activity they need a quick stand up, partner up, do something and then back to business. Here are my favorite ways to get them moving around while staying in Spanish.
So…what does this look like? Here are a few sample block lesson plans:
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Sample Lesson #1 |
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Free Reading 10-15 minutes |
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Chit-Chat regarding their books 10-15 minutes |
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Introduce new vocab with motions and Personalized Questioning 20 minutes |
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Movie Talk (with breaks- students stand and answer questions!) 30-40 minutes |
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Listening comprehension quiz (T/ F statements from Movie Talk) 5-10 minutes |
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POP UP game 15-20 minutes |
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Sample Lesson #2 |
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Introduce new song with CLOZE activity 15 minutes |
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Chit-Chat: Weekend talk or Calendar Talk 10-15 minutes |
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Whole class reading: Either a chapter of novel or short story 10-15 minutes |
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The Lucky Reading Game 20-30 minutes |
| Special Person Interview 10-15 minutes |
| Quick Write/Timed Writing and wrap up 5-10 minutes |
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Sample Lesson #3 |
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Free Reading 10-15 minutes |
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Vocab Quiz 10 minutes |
| Chit Chat: Move if… 10-15 minutes |
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Create a class story or character (with breaks!) 30-40 minutes (Or just the start…usually our stories span a 2-3 class periods) |
| Write and Discuss (Just as much as you’ve created) 15-20 minutes |
| Quick Draw Game 10-15 minutes |
I’m always looking for new activities to add into the rotation (Our brains crave novelty, right?!) What Input Activities do you love that help break up a long block period?
Señora Chase 
I student taught in a block schedule, it was fun and hard at the same time. I often had too many activities which was good and bad so I could use those activities for the next day.
Love your posts!! I’ll be a first-year teacher in Sept.
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I love using Goosechase scavenger hunt when we have a long block! (But I only use it about 2 times a year!)
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That’s right! I learned about GooseChase from your blog and I’m excited to try it out this year!
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Breakouts are great for a block! I also love teaching with film on a block! I start every block with FVR and my upper levels do Gran Hotel immediately after.
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I just learned about Break Outs last year! I’m obsessed…my goal is to write a few more this year. We love Gran Hotel in Spanish 4!
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[…] big deal about the whole thing: WOW! You’ve only been in Spanish for 90 minutes (I teach on a block, remember) and look! You can read an entire paragraph!! You must have a really amazing teacher […]
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[…] the day of the event we taught a regular lesson for about an hour (we’ve got block periods, remember!), then students put on their “jersey” (really just a 1/4 sheet of paper with their team […]
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[…] Not sure about an alternate schedule, but I teach on 90 blocks. And I wrote about it here: Breaking up the Block: Comprehensible Input and long class periods. […]
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[…] I always have a stack of Quick Quizzes ready to go…I considered playing one of Pablo Roman’s Dreaming in Spanish videos… BUT they had just taken a test, it seemed mean to make them take a listening quiz AND I didn’t have time to preview one to use AND I had 45 minutes to fill, so that wasn’t going to cut it. #BlockSchedule […]
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What about when you have block and see your kiddos every day since it’s only a semester long?We are new to block this year (I did use it my first year teaching but I’ve changed a lot since 2001-2002) and I find it hard planning stuff for all levels of Spanish and I’m new at CI and like you Spanish is an elective and more kids already take French where she shows disney movies or they play monopoly in English.
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Hi, gosh, I don’t know! I’ve never taught on that kind of schedule. The principals would be the same (get them moving, read every day, etc) but that’s a lot to plan every day!!! Are you teaching all levels? A lot of teachers will do a similar lesson plan in all levels, but adjust the language, so for example you do the same movie talk and Write and Discuss in all your classes, but it sounds a lot different in level 1 than level 4!
Win those kids over to the Spanish side!!
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Hi AnneMarie. Can you tell me what your block schedule looks like? Is it basic 4×4, A/B year-long? Doing some research for an inevitable change here at my site.
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Hi- our kids take 7 classes a year. 6 are blocks that meet every other day A/B (those are 90 minutes) and they have one “skinny” period, which is 50 minutes and it meets every day. I’d like the skinny much more if they were strategic about planning classes on the skinny, but it’s just a regular class. So this year I teach Spanish 4 on the block and on my skinny and the planning is a pain. Next year they’re trying to implement a “freshman seminar” for the skinny period… we’ll see how that goes!!
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How often do you “lose” a bunch of students for extra curricular activities?
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Often!! I don’t know that there’s any way around it! And the worst with the block and sporting events, like my skiers have races on Tues and Thurs, which means I’ll miss them for the entire week some weeks!! I used to make myself crazy trying to have them “make up” Spanish stuff when they’re out of class- I had all sorts of assignments for every time a kid was absent: listen to a podcast, watch a tv show, read a story… but it was so much and really not a good replacement for class. A few years ago I stopped. If they miss something that goes in the gradebook, they make it up. If not, we don’t worry about it. I’m much happier 🙂
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[…] New to a Block Schedule? […]
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Moving to the block for all next year. This has been very helpful! Would love to know how you might change anything given our new restrictions?
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To tell you the truth, I haven’t spent too much time thinking about it yet! Our school hasn’t announced our plans and I promised myself that July would be a ‘no school zone’. In August we’ll (hopefully!) have a plan and I’ll figure out what that looks like in my classroom!!
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[…] 15 minutes a class, 5 days a week nearly pushed them to the brink. (All my other classes are on a 90 minute block, but I see my heritage darlings every day for 50 minutes- weird schedule, I know!) I listened, […]
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