IDE Corp. takes two approaches to teaching in the block: one for those who are ready to embrace LATIC and one for those who are not quite ready. We will work with both groups within a school so that everyone succeeds at teaching in a longer block of time.
LATIC - For those who may be in a cohort learning to design Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classrooms, teaching in extended periods of time is a welcomed structure! Time in LATIC is really in the hands of students, not teachers. When teachers design activity lists, they should focus on all of the learning they expect to promote over the course of a week or two Students then schedule their time. When they need to move on from class, they just note where they left up and pick up there the next class visit. So whether a student has forty minutes or eighty minutes does not really matter from a scheduling standpoint.
Non-LATIC - For those who are spreading their wings with a new approach to instruction, we offer the Beginnng-Middle-End approach. Teachers use the first ten minutes of class to introduce the content for the period of time; they then design choice-driven activity lists for the middle of the period; and they then bring the group together to synthesize in the end. Here is our Planning in the Block resource for this approach.