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.
You can read more about independent reading in my classroom here and find the slide for my small group schedule here.
What Happens in Our Small Groups
Two of my classes this year are pretty homogenous with mostly high performing students. In these classes, the groupings are random and during that small group time, we can do a few different things.
- Review students' exit tickets. Students turn in a sheet for their bell ringers and exit tickets at the end of each week, but in the small group I can give students individual feedback on their responses throughout the week, which also means those sheets can go right in the recycling bin at the end of the week.
- Share sticky note summaries. Students write a summary of what they've read the night before on a sticky note. Sharing these in the small group helps to keep students accountable for doing them, and like the exit tickets, I can give students individual feedback on their responses, and then those sticky notes can go right in the recycling bin at the end of the week.
- Check in about what students are reading. Sometimes we just chat about whether students are liking their book, what they plan on reading next, and if they need help finding a new book.
Targeted Small Groups
In my third class, three of my groups throughout the week target students' weak areas: informational texts, literature, or vocabulary. This is based on data from our MAP testing each trimester. We use students' independent reading books or our whole class texts to preview, review, or do a close read. Using a text that we're already reading in class also helps integrate these small group lesson into what we're already doing as a whole class.
Informational Focused Small Group
If we are currently working through a nonfiction text set in our textbook, sometimes we pre-read a text to begin building students’ understanding of that text. Other times if we’ve already read a text, we’ll re-read key sections of the text and answer text dependent questions to continue building students’ understanding of the text.
I also have short passages from a Scholastic resource that are perfect for use in our ten minute sessions. I use these when our whole class text is fiction or poetry.
Literature Focused Small Group
Using students’ independent reading books, we will set a purpose for reading, read for 5 minutes and then share out. I might ask students to think about their character’s traits, or the settings impact on the character, or the development of the conflict.
Similar to the short passages I sometimes use when I meet with my informational group, I have a separate set of short passages focused on literary texts from a Scholastic resource that are perfect for use in our ten minute sessions.
Vocabulary Focused Small Group
We use Sadlier’s Vocabulary Workshop as a whole class so sometimes we’ll do additional practice activities with our current unit or review the word webs students create as part of their homework, adding additional synonyms, antonyms, examples, and non-examples to continue to build students’ understanding of these words.
If we are currently reading a text from our textbook, we can review the text, identifying context clues for vocabulary bolded in the text. There is usually also a short activity reviewing those vocabulary words at the end of the selection that we can work through together.
If I didn't have a vocabulary program to lean on, I would use this Scholastic resource focused on context clues.
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