Let’s Talk About Small Group Instruction!

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Welcome back to the Education Connection. I am your host, Robin Wilson. I am a public

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school teacher with a master's degree in elementary education from Indiana, Wesley,

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and University. Teaching is my passion. I love to teach reading, and so today my topic

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is about teaching small group reading instruction. So let's talk about small group, small group

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reading instruction today. But before we can get to small groups, we need to get our assessments.

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Depending on your grade level, you need to assess your students differently. So in first grade,

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what we are right now testing is for alphabet recognition, sounds, reading level, and sight

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words. So we've been in school for about a month, and we've been working on this since the beginning

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of school, and I still have some left to do. But we want to get our students kind of leveled

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about where they are in their reading, because further down the road, we're going to set them

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up in groups according to their level. But right now, we're just going to talk about their procedures

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today for setting up small groups. Once you have your levels, and actually even before you get your

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levels, you can actually practice this with your groups in any level. You can put them together in

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different levels right now for just practicing. But I love to start with quiet reading groups, and I

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say quiet, however they are not quiet. They must read out loud to understand the text at this age,

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and actually anything that is above your level, you find yourself reading out loud. I know I do. If

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I'm reading the back of directions of a medicine bottle or a bill that isn't making sense, or a

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medical article, I find myself reading it out loud to understand. And this is what your students are

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doing too. Eventually, I like to try to get them to whisper reads so that other students can focus

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on their books too. Anyway, it's day one of practice. You can put leveled books in their groups, or

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maybe topic books on each table, such as dinosaurs, bears, fairy tales, or cats and dogs. So get their

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attention, have them all be looking at you, sit down with them at one of the tables, and model for

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them how to reach in, pick a book, sit down, turn the pages, and pose as a reader. You're going to

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have some that know their sounds and their letters. You're going to have some that don't even know

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that. I've had years where they weren't even able to understand their letters and sounds. So what I

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like to do is model for those students to picture read until they get to a place that they are

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starting to read. So I actually pick up a picture book and I start modeling and making up the story

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just looking at the picture so that they can see how to do that. And they can actually become a part

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of the reading process, even if they're not reading. This ensures that every child in your room is

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actively engaged in the reading process. You're going to have some that know small sight words. So

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for these students, you're going to model for them to how to find the sight words. So you might say,

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oh, I know the word A on this page, I'm going to write that down. I know the word the on this page.

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I know the word he on this page. And our desks are actually the whiteboards. So what we like to do is

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give them dry erase markers, and then they can actually write down the words that they know on

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that page. And even if they're not reading the book, they are finding words that they know.

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For readers, I go ahead and demonstrate how to whisper read. So I might read an actual page or

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two for those students, because there are going to be readers in your room, you're going to have

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all levels. Either way, every single student in your room is reading or reading the pictures in

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some fashion. After I've demonstrated this procedure, I show them what not to do. Now,

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this is kind of fun. It's kind of silly, but it's very needed. I pick up a book and I pretend to

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throw it. I don't release it, but I pretend like I'm going to throw it. And then I talk about why

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we don't throw books in our classroom. I might walk around and pretend to show someone just very

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dramatically across the room that my dinosaur book is so cool. I ask the teacher if I can sharpen my

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pencil. I will take off running around the room. Of course, I get a lot of giggles, but this shows

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them what they cannot do. And if you don't show them what they can't do, they're going to assume

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they can do it. They're young children and they need that differentiation for you to show them

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physically what they can do and what they should be doing. We're going to continue to practice this

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until we understand what a quiet reading group is or whisper reading group looks like. Now,

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this takes anywhere from three to five days of practice. I have had it take up to a week and a

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half, close to two weeks. Some years, it is even taking longer. So you just have to determine in

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your class how long it's going to take. Very first time we do this, I'm going to set a timer for

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five minutes and celebrate if we can all do this group correctly without breaking procedure. The

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next day and the second time, I challenge the class to see if we can go a little bit longer. The

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third day, we might try for eight minutes. The fourth day, we try for 10 minutes. And so you can

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see how this kind of takes a little bit longer from than a practice. And we can just continue to do

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it until we get it down for the most part. While they are quote reading, walk around the room and

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make small corrections to those that still need help and remembering to do the right thing. At the

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end, give everyone a positive reinforcement you have set up in your class. One thing we do in our

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classroom is give positive tickets to earn extra recess. Plan on a few students that will break

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that procedure. So you might have to have a mini conference with them at a private time away from

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the other students just to go over the procedure again. This just lets them know how important this

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is to you and how serious you are taking groups. And so that you really do want them to follow that.

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We just practice again and again until they understand your goal is to help them begin

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to become independent. So later, you can pull groups back to work with them at their level or

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gaps that they have extra that need extra support. The second week or until you have established

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procedures in this group, you can begin another group of your choosing. We will establish computer

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groups next. Most corporations have a set computer program that is required for your students. The

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first day you're just showing them how to carry their computer. That's all you have to do that

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first day, how to get it out of the computer cart, unplugging it correctly, how to walk with it with

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both hands to their seats and how to sit down correctly. Once everybody is sitting down, you can

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reward. And that's really enough for the first day. With older students, you can move faster. So

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day two, you you can log on. Now, one of the biggest things I learned early on is that I needed to

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have something else for the students to be doing while I'm getting each one of them logged on or

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showing them how to log on to their computer. So we might explain how to play with blocks first or

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how to color a picture or something until we can get around to everybody because what you're

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going to have is you're going to have 20 students tapping you, surrounding you, some with tears,

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because they can't get logged on, they're calling you out, they're asking you for help to help them

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get logged on. So if you have something able else for them to do, maybe even some groups on the

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floor and then you call them over when you're ready to help them one at a time, the first time

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then you can give them your individualized attention and they can be occupied until you get to them.

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It saves so much to do that. So there you have it. The third week you continue with a station of

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your choosing and so forth. Once you have three stations that are following procedures, pretty

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good, you're ready to start small group reading stations to where you can be doing four different

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stations. So three stations are independent and then one station you're able to pull back and work

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with them individually because that is your goal. Your goal is to get them independent so that you

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can really work with groups at their level and not always just the students that are not reading

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because that also gives you time when you pull back the students that are your high readers to take

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them even higher and maybe not reading higher level books but maybe just going deeper with

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comprehension and with some deeper level thinking about that or even sometimes you can get a book

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club started with your high reading groups so that they're not bored with you know learning that

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ABCs are tapping out the letters like maybe some of the other groups are. So that is all I have

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for today and I hope you enjoyed this podcast. Thank you so much for joining in.