Making Small groups work IV

Delivering Effective Small Group Lessons

Now that your groups are formed and the rest of the class is engaged, it’s time to focus on what happens at your small group table.

The number one thing to remember about small groups is to keep lessons short and focused (7-12 minutes).

Try to keep groups small  from 3 to 6,  any more in my opinion doesn't allow for a lot of time for immediate feedback and scaffolding when misunderstanding happens.

Pick a spot in your class that will allow you to be able to look up and see the class and what students are doing.  

This allow you to scan and reset behaviors via gestures or a phrase.  I say that, because that is what I use. I taught the kids the signals, and they kne if I said it or did it, they were off task and had 5 seconds to get it together. 

Planning  and Implementing Small Groups

• What data points are you using?
• Who are you pulling?
• What is the lesson focus?
• What materials do you need?
• Determine how you will  track progress/ anecdotal notes?
• How often will you need to meet with this group?

All of the answers to these questions are based on what type of small group you're planning for that day.  There are several types of Small groups and they all have their own purpose.There are 5 types that I have expereince using.

Once I  moved to middle school,  Strategy and Book clubs became the focus.  I use Guided Reading and Read Alouds when I taught Second and fourth grade.

Partnerships and conference are what I use when time becomes an issue. There will be days that some lessons will go longer than others.  This was a way o to ensure that I met with all learners and provided some type of feedback and teaching point.  I introduce partnerships and teach students how to interact as partners and pull them and confer with them, using a premade list of questions based on what they are reading and the reading work required from the genre they are reading 

Here are 5 common small groups that I have used during my 24 years of teaching.  I found that Strategy groups, Book clubs and partnerships are my go to, and the most useful in terms of observations/anecdotal notes to inform my next steps.

1.  Guided Reading Groups

2.  Strategy Groups

3.  Read Aloud  Groups

4.  Book Clubs

5.  Partnerships

✔ Use a structured format:  

         Review previous learning
         Introduce the skill or strategy
         Model with a mentor text
         Guided practice with student text

I was introduced to the structure:  Rally  Try 1, Try 2, Link.  This structure allowed for me to keep small groups to 7 to 10 minutes.  I was able to get 2 groups and /or a conference or partnership check in done as well.

Rally  - Introduction and/or recap 

Try 1  - I model the activity/task

Try 2  -The kids  either practice the same activity independently or with a partner 

Link 3 -Debrief activity and have kids to practice with  their independent books - (follow up with kids)                .

Common Materials I kept on hand:

A variety of  mentor text, sticky notes, highlighters, dry erase boards and markers, letter tiles, sentence strips,  a host of graphic organizers, skills and strategy anchor charts and book marks, clip board, stickers.

Teacher Hack: Use question cards, anchor charts, and targeted reading strategies to differentiate instruction and meet the unique needs of each group.

Before getting started with small groups,  everything else has to be running smoothly,  Introduce, model and practice expectations and routines for independent time until students are meeting your expectations. The  same for small group  expectations and procedures.  I suggest introducing  small groups whole class where you can reset and hold kids accountable for what is expected and what is not expected.  

Your independent Reading block needs to be tight,  it needs to be running like clock work where you are not having to stop small groups and reset things.  Every year  I would start with just conferring with scholars and them independently reading, so they know I would be checking in every now and they knew that independent reading was an expectations.   I then moved to partnerships, so I can help them understand how partnerships worked.  Once I had independent reading, conference and partnerships established and running smoothly, only then would I  start small groups and slowly start introducing one station at a time.

When small groups and independent reading are running smoothly,  you will find that you are solely focused on growing students as readers, and critical thinkers. 

Allow for hiccups and just modify and adjust.  Reset and try again.  It is worth it.  I have seen the power of Small groups, whichever structure I used students moved across reading bands of complexity, improved discussion and writing about reading skills, built their vocabulary bank and improved reading stamina. They also curated a bank of strategies and resources to refer back to without interrupting me, that they received during teacher student interactions. 

Do you want to know more?  Look out for blog V

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