I noticed the author reiterated what we already know-that if students aren't proficient readers by the time they leave the primary grades they won't become proficient. During their block of time there were as many as 6 adults in each class instructing children- in my mind I could not come up with a scenario that would provide that number of adults for our classrooms. I do think we could be creative and use personnel more effectively. I was thinking about this direct instruction as also being guided reading group inclusive. I have always felt I should do all of my reading groups, but they use the parapros,etc. to work with more accelerated students. I think Title teachers have the potential to be much more effective with the longer time allotment.
In my classroom I only used a 30 minute block each day for Science or Social Studies which I alternated. Although, this is a short time there were many days I could have used that time to work on literacy activities I had not completed in the AM. I am not sure that we could completely dismiss these subjects because they are tied to state expectations. Maybe this could be addressed through read alouds and more of the text work addressed the second semester. I noticed the point was made that even though they didn't increase Math time the scores increased like the reading-indicating something else we already knew that Reading and Math are interdependent.