Too Many Curriculum Demands? Integrated Literacy Lessons is the Answer.

Whether you have to tightly follow a specific curriculum, you have a great deal of freedom in what materials you use to teach, or you fall somewhere in the middle of that continuum, the demands are high.  No matter what, there are still a million standards to teach.  There are still multiple components of literacy to pack in.  No matter how much or how little you must adhere to a given curricular program, you still have a wide variety of student needs to tailor small group instruction to.  And no matter what, the thing you wish for the most is more time.  We cannot change the length of the school day or how much there is to get to.  But we can change the way we structure what we’re working with.  How?  By integrating your literacy lessons.  

And it’s the answer to the age-old teacher dilemma:  too many things to teach in too little time.

It’s the answer to I just can’t fit it all in.

Let me explain with an analogy.  Think about a small closet.  Let’s say it’s already pretty packed.  There are coats, shoes, dresses, and tops.  To keep up with trends and new seasons, more items are added.  Pretty soon, there’s no more hanger space.  So piles of jeans, sweaters, and more shoes begin to rise.  In no time, no one wants to open the door, and trying to put an outfit together is a laborious, time-consuming process.  Finding something to wear becomes overwhelming.  

That’s a lot like the literacy day.  There’s reading aloud, vocabulary, phonics, and morphology.  There’s direct reading lessons, fluency teaching, and comprehension strategies.  There’s independent reading, conferring, and small group work.  And that’s just reading.

If you’re truly embracing the science of reading, you know that writing instruction is crucial.  Which means there’s also modeled writing, shared writing, and independent writing to fit in.  There are grammar lessons, sentence structure lessons, and teaching how to use punctuation. 

Then it’s time to plan it all.  

If thought about separately, the task of planning lessons to truly hit it all  can cause anxiety to set in.

But it doesn’t have to be that way!

Let’s go back to that closet.  There’s a way to make it work.  Rather than continuing to pile more things on top of the other, a functional closet organizer system can create order from the chaos.  Once that system is in place, not only is outfit planning far more efficient, there’s also room to spare.  

That, my friend, is exactly what it’s like when we plan purposeful, integrated literacy lessons.  

Integrated lessons create order out of chaos.  

Like the organized closet, integrated lessons streamline all those standards and all those literacy components.  

They save loads of prep time.  

They open up instructional time so you can actually get it all in–including conferring and small groups.  

And they make the reading-writing connection much more clear for students, so learning is deeper.  

And this approach is absolutely backed by science.  

Researchers Graham and Hebert (2010) have told us for years how much writing strengthens reading.  Graham and his wife Karen Harris have also talked about reading-writing integration for a long time.  Their 2017 meta analysis of research proved that reading and writing are inexorably connected .  Shanahan’s work also supports it.  In fact his findings with this idea goes back decades, when he and Robert Tierney wrote about it in the Handbook of Reading Research back in 1991.   

It’s high time we put this research-backed, effective practice into our classrooms, don’t you think?

High time we approach literacy planning in a way that works better for teachers and better for kids.  

Wondering how integrated reading and writing lessons actually work?

It’s actually pretty simple!  

The heart of these lessons is the interactive read aloud.  This is big comprehension work.  These texts are also a vehicle for teaching vocabulary, fluency, and strategies like monitoring for understanding.  Sentences to serve as models of grammatical structures and conventions abound in any strong read aloud.  And because every book (except wordless books) is full of words written by an author, they serve as excellent models of exemplary writing.  

And if you’re allowed to, deliberately choosing texts that tie to your content studies will only build students’ understanding of the concepts you’re teaching in social studies and science in a stronger way…making teaching those subjects easier for you and make more sense for students.  

If you aren’t allowed to choose your read aloud texts? 

Not a problem–every text is an opportunity to build knowledge.  Every text is an example of an author’s writing.  It’s not the text that matters–it’s how you leverage it. 

Books are full of examples of vivid words, dialogue, and punctuation. This naturally makes them the best teachers of how to do these things in students’ own writing.  The books you choose are vehicles for teaching text structure, figurative language, and plot development.  They’re the best models for showing kids how to add voice, whether that’s in narrative or informational text.  There’s no need to spend time or money searching TPT for games, worksheets, or task cards for any of these things.  Almost everything you need is right inside your carefully chosen read alouds.  (Phonics needs its own, dedicated time.  Here, I’m talking about the other big pieces of literacy).

I could go on and on.  Really, the sky’s the limit with what a read aloud can teach.  Yes, books are for reading.  But they are also writing.  Two sides of the very same coin.  Through integration of the two, you pack a powerful instructional punch.  Aiming for just a couple of integrated lessons a week will bring a huge sigh of relief.

And save a whole lot of time!

Even integrating just a couple of lessons a week will make a huge difference.  

If you’re ready to save yourself time in both planning and actual instruction, I’m here to help you! 

There are several ways I can support you.  You can check out this post, where I walk through an integrated literacy day.  Or this one, where I share many benefits of an interactive read aloud.  

For even more help, download my free guide to helping you efficiently choose the strongest read alouds that will give you the very most bang for your buck.  And if you’re so short on time you can’t even begin to think about choosing books, access my Read Alouds guide, where I give you 20 of my favorite interactive read alouds that are perfect for integrated literacy lessons…I even provide a list of lesson ideas for deep comprehension work with every single one.  

Or shoot me an email and we can work together to plan efficient, purposeful integrated lessons!  I’m here to help!

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Who is Coach from the Couch??  I’m Michelle, a 25-year veteran educator, currently a K-5 literacy coach.  I continue to learn alongside teachers in classrooms each and every day, and it’s my mission to support as many teachers as I can.  Because no one can do this work alone. I’m available to you, too, through virtual coaching calls!  Simply email me at [email protected] or reach out for a coaching call!

Or, consider joining my Facebook community–a safe, supportive environment (really–no blaming or shaming allowed!)  where you can ask questions, learn ideas, and share your thoughts among other literacy-loving educators!