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Monday, January 30, 2017

Meeting Your Students' Needs... One Small Group at a Time


Why Small Groups?

We are social beings.  Our students are social beings.  Think of your own professional development and what causes you to engage more deeply… sitting and soaking in ideas independently?  Or do you find yourself more engaged when given the opportunity to connect and discuss ideas and application with colleagues?  Often, it is a combination of approaches that help us internalize our learning.  The same is true for our students.

We know that small group instruction, the opportunity for students to work together with the support of a teacher, is effective practice at any level.  “Hattie’s (2009) research suggests a .82 effect size boost in learning growth from the dialogue of group work” (Mattos, 2016).  Creating small groups allows us to practice differentiated instruction.  Differentiated instruction is not intended to result in completely individualized instruction for every student, but it is intended to better meet the needs of the wide variety of students we serve.  We see guided reading groups in primary grades and strategy-based groups that can work in a variety of levels.  Another way to create flexible groups is based on student needs, as determined through formative assessment.  Flexible grouping is not only great at any level, it works in any content area!

Our formative assessment data provides a wealth of information for us around what students are able to do and what misconceptions they still have.  When one creates groups based on learning needs, it allows a teacher to more easily differentiate content, process, or product for each group.  As groups work collaboratively on a task, it also allows the teacher to insert him or herself with groups to coach, prompt, and cue according to their specific needs (Fisher & Frey, 2014).  "These flexible groups gather students together who need reteaching, additional time, or extending learning."  The key to these groups is their flexibility, “we don't want to enter into systems that result in long-term tracking,” but instead when we create groups by target, by student, we are much more likely to provide responsive instruction for our students (Mattos, 2016).

For example, when reviewing student summaries, a teacher might see students who have all the key ingredients (main idea and supporting details) but need help putting it together in writing.  Other students might be able to recognize supporting details but are having a hard time synthesizing a main idea.  Still others might have the main idea but the details they've chosen are irrelevant.  Each group has very different needs all based around the same target.  A teacher can design collaborative practice for each group that will meet them where they are and help them move forward, while planning to coach or provide the additional instruction each group needs.

If you're interested in collaborating around needs-based grouping and instruction to meet the needs of your learners, contact your coach – we'd be happy to help!

Katie Coudron – Willow Creek & OJHS (kcoudron@owatonna.k12.mn.us)
Joanne Harmsen – Washington & Lincoln (jharmsen@owatonna.k12.mn.us)
Libby Zeman – McKinley & Wilson (ezeman@owatonna.k12.mn.us)

Fisher, D. and Nancy Frey (2014). Better Learning Through Structured Teaching. Alexandria: ASCD.
Mattos, M. (2016). Best Practices at Tier 1. Bloomington: Solution Tree.