Instructional Strategy for Small Group Instruction

Small group instruction usually follows whole group instruction and provides students with a reduced student-teacher ratio, typically in groups of two to four students. Small group instruction allows teachers to work more closely with each student on a specific learning objective, reinforce skills learned in whole group instruction and check for student understanding.

There are so many ways you can implement small group instruction into your classroom. The following is a list of small group instruction methods, other than station rotation, that can be used in any classroom. Here are just a few to get you started!

• Buzz Groups: (Class Size: Any) Present a question or sentence starter and student groups engage in an informal discussion. Students form groups of 3-4 people and discuss anything from key concepts that they learned, any content they had trouble understanding, defining a key concept, what they found was interesting. Come back to the whole class and have a general class discussion.

• Think-Pair-Share: (Class Size: Any) Students think, individually, about a question or a statement. They pair up and discuss their thoughts with a partner. The final step is to share with the whole group/class.

  • Want to learn more about Think-Pair-Share? Check out this episode of ITC Plugged-In!

• Circle of Voices: (Class Size: Any) 4-5 students form a circle and take turns talking about a topic. Provide students with a topic, give them a few moments to synthesize on their own and then each student gets an opportunity to speak uninterrupted for up to 3 minutes. For another variation and to encourage active listening, require each student to summarize the comments from the person that spoke before them or have them demonstrate how their comments relate to the previous person.

• Jigsaw: (Class Size: 10+) Divide a topic into “Puzzle Pieces”. Put students into groups of 3-5 and assign them a puzzle piece of the main topic. Students will brainstorm, develop ideas and research their topic as time allows. Once students have become an expert on their assigned topic, they will meet with members that have the other puzzle pieces (all different topics) to form a complete puzzle.

  • Want to learn more about the Jigsaw model? Check out this episode of ITC Plugged-In!

• Fishbowl: (Class Size: 10+) One group forms a circle and is provided a discussion question, roleplay scenario or skit. A second group forms an outer circle and observes the inner circle group. The second group in the outer circle will identify any themes, group dynamics, flaws or soundness of an argument. The teacher will meet with both groups and listen to their experiences.

• Station Rotation (Centers): (Class size: Any) Students are placed in to groups of 3-5 and will rotate through various activities. One station would be teacher-led or a direct instruction station where students can meet with the teacher to develop a new skill or review previously learned material. Other stations can include vocabulary, reading, review games, seatwork/classwork, etc. Dr. Catlin Tucker provides some inspiration for how to implement centers in each content area on her website.

Read about these methods and more by clicking HERE