A three-month observational study was conducted to determine the time allocated to each subject matter in six elementary school classrooms and the specific time allocations for skills within the language arts and reading curriculum. Teachers recorded their instructional activities through daily self-observation logs and weekly planning schedules, and outside observers conducted weekly full-day classroom observations, giving special emphasis to recording the instructional statements made by teachers. All classroom activities were coded to compare non-instructional and instructional time, subject matter allocations of time, time allocations within language arts activities, and variations in the language arts time allotted to individual students within a classroom. Results indicated that the amount of time spent in language arts instruction, especially in writing, varied considerably across the seven classrooms; that in some classrooms, on certain days, as much as three-fourths of the time was spent in language related instruction; and that integrating the content of language arts with other subject matter varied in its frequency of occurrence across teachers. (Autbor/AEA)