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Small Group Instruction
Small Group Instruction
What is small group instruction?
Small group instruction is a teaching approach that provides focused attention and individual feedback. Small group instruction provides students with a reduced student-teacher ratio and allows teachers to work more closely with each student on a specific learning target, reinforce skills learned in the whole group instruction, and check for student understanding. It gives students more of the teacher's focused attention and a chance to ask specific questions about what they learned. Teachers can use small group instruction to differentiate learning and meet the needs of all learners.
Why Environment and Schedules Matter
A thoughtful environment can shape the way children participate, collaborate, and learn. Purposeful environment design helps nurture and foster independence with young children. The environment is an evolving system. More than the physical space, it includes the way time is structured and the roles we are expected to play. A learning environment's physical space and schedule should be carefully crafted, coordinated, and adjusted to support students' learning and independence.
SCUC Literacy & Math Workshop Models
SCUC Literacy & Math Workshop Models
Providing students with routines and procedures fosters independence. Participating in routines allows students to require little to no support from their teacher. In order to foster independence, routines and procedures must be explicitly taught. Explicitly teaching routines and procedures will empower students with independence and responsibilities and includes student accountability (to self, group, and the class).
When establishing routines and procedures consider teaching:
students how to transition around the room
students how to share ideas with each other and with you
students how to work with a partner or be in a group
students how to work independently
students material procedures and where completed work is stored
students a consistent signal for attention
Purposeful learning experiences are the activities or tasks students are participating in while the teacher is conducting small groups. As purposeful learning experiences are developed, consider the question "What purpose does this serve my students' literacy or math development?" If the activity does not serve a valid purpose, discard it.
Purposeful learning experiences or intentional learning activities with integration technology (SWIFT) includes:
Student Choice (Purposeful activities supporting individual needs)
Word Study
Independent Growth (Reading with Journaling/ Problem Solving FAST Model)
Fluency
Teachable Concepts
Flexible grouping is a range of grouping students together for delivering instruction. Flexible grouping creates temporary groups that can last an hour, a week, or even a month. It’s not permanent, but it is a temporary way for students to work together in a variety of ways and configurations depending upon activity and learning outcomes.
In order to successfully differentiate instruction through flexible grouping, teachers must consider student formative and summative assessment data. In order to promote maximum learning, formative and summative data need to be used to move students among groups according to their specific needs and learning progress.
In order to support the learning needs of students, consider:
Using a lesson plan to document student learning goals
Grouping students based on need utilizing a variety of data: formative assessments, summative assessments (Common Unit Assessments/CUAs), formal data (universal screeners and diagnostic assessments) and informal data (teacher observations, anecdotal notes)
Math Assessment Examples: Universal Screener (NWEA MAPS), Formative Spiral Reviews, Skill Checks, Fluency Assessments (SCUC Resource Material), Student Journaling (FAST Rubric)
Reading Assessment Examples: Universal Screener (NWEA MAPS), Diagnostic Assessments (DRA), Running Records, Fundations Skills Checks, Really Great Reading Surveys, Student Journaling, Teacher-created Assessments
Meeting with every student at least once per week
Having class experts to help with student questions
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