This block may include a small group reading an easy book with on-level instruction. The block usually ends with one or two children sharing their books with the class in a reader s chair format. The children write their own stories on topics of their choice. The teacher helps the children revise, edit and publish their writing. The block ends with an author's chair, with several students describing work in progress or published books.
Students practice new and old words daily.
Children learn spelling patterns using phonics to read new words and learn the patterns that allow them to decode and spell new words. Currently, few large-scale empirical studies have been conducted on this method. In the past decade since the Four Blocks framework was used initially in one 1st-grade classroom, however, schools and districts throughout the country have implemented it s instructional strategies. The Indiana Department of Education is gathering multi-site data at 32 schools currently using the Four Blocks framework. Research findings are not available at this writing, but are expected later in the 2000-2001 school year.