January 31, 2025

What Small Groups Look Like During Independent Reading In My Classroom

I meet with small groups daily during independent reading time, which allows me to check in with all of my students each week and target weak skills.

This year I wanted to add more small group time to my classroom routines. I often use rotations, including a teacher-led station, but not every day or week. I thought about how I could incorporate a weekly check-in with each student. I decided to use independent reading time because it already happens daily. 

In past years, I've had to add small groups to my classroom routine part way through the year to target underperforming students (my school reviews our MAP data each trimester and sets goals focused on students in the lowest quintiles).⁠
It was always a hassle to figure out how and where to add groups, and the change in routine meant some students felt singled out while other students thought that if I was talking with a group, that meant they could be talking at their seats.⁠
This year I decided to start with small groups during independent reading time right from the get go. I had already created a schedule for who got to read on our classroom rug on what days, so it was easy to add my groups into that rotation. With 24-25 students in each of my classes, 4-5 are sitting on the rug each day and 4-5 are meeting with me at my small group table.



What Fluency Looks Like In My Middle School ELA Classroom

Fluency practice has benefits, even for older readers. This is how I incorporate it into my daily routine in my middle school ELA classroom.

Over the summer I took a professional development course focused on improving reading for older students, which was something I'd had my eye on for a while. ⁠Since I was trained as a secondary English teacher (my original certification is in grades 7-12), I didn't really have any background in actually teaching students to read.⁠ 

One of the key ideas I took away from the course was fluency practice. If you teach middle or high school students, you might be wondering why it is so important, even for older readers.⁠