One-on-one instruction: Students who are struggling after a second mastery check get individual instruction from me. Together, we go over each question from the mastery check, which then leads to me asking where they would find that information in the practice or the notes. Once that is located, the student recalls the correct information to me, and I mark that as being correct. Students who have missed many days will usually require a quick five-minute check-in just to make sure they understood the work (or did the work) while they were gone. The beauty of this format is that the student can miss a day of school, and once they do the work and notes, it’s like they were in class. 

Small group instruction: Small groups are usually used for students who are all making the same common mistake in their practice. For example, I will say, “If you are struggling with absolute vs. relative location, come up to my desk.”  

Whole group instruction: Whole group instruction is usually reserved for the first five minutes of class. I go over expectations and a quick layout of the lesson through the class website. I usually instruct when there is a major idea or topic that the students will be getting familiar with for the next week. For example, most of my 8th graders have never seen a polar map, so we go through what a polar map looks like and how they are navigated.