With everyone now clear and working toward their reading or writing goals thanks to your conferring, small groups can multiply your instructional power—exactly what’s needed in this unprecedented back-to-school season. Jennifer Serravallo recommends seeing each student in your class every week, whether during conferring or in groups, to drive progress. That way every reader or writer in the classroom gets the benefit of direct contact with you, and you stay in touch with students’ progress and needs.
Whether for reading or writing, small groups provide a temporary space for you to meet with more students each day and each week. Sometimes the students in a group will have a common instructional need; sometimes they will all be practicing the same strategy; and sometimes they are all ready to celebrate their progress. No matter why you pull a small group, it allows learning to ripple across the classroom. Your observations of individual students in reading or writing conferences will drive decisions about whom to group and why.
Maximize your instructional time
The keys to great groups are knowing your students and seizing opportunities. For example, when different writers, even of different abilities, are working on the same goal, jump on the chance to pull them together for a new strategy, for reteaching that solidifies what they’re working on, or for guided practice. That said, you can and should plan small group instruction. Jen’s Planning Your Week tool can help you maximize your instructional time and ensure every student gets time for individualized instruction.
Small groups increase engagement due to time spent closely working with you, but they also have an important second booster effect. While working in the group, social bonds among children increase, and, often, small groups allow one child to support another whether you are present or with another student or group.
Grow the efficiency of your teaching with small groups, and you’ll provide highly tailored instruction to more students each day. That means more students make more progress more quickly, which is exactly what’s needed this year.
For more on small-group instruction, try Teaching Writing in Small Groups, and A Teacher’s Guide to Reading Conferences.
Jennifer Serravallo is the author ofThe New York Times' bestselling The Reading Strategies Book 2.0 and The Writing Strategies Book. These and some of her other titles have been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, and Chinese. Her popular books and resources help teachers make goal-directed, responsive, explicit strategy instruction doable in every classroom. Her newest titles are The Reading Strategies Book 2.0; Teaching Writing in Small Groups; A Teacher’s Guide to Reading Conferences, and the assessment and teaching resource Complete Comprehension for Fiction and Nonfiction.
Jen is a frequently invited speaker at national and regional conferences. She and her team of literacy specialists travel throughout the US and Canada to provide full-day workshops and to work with teachers and students in classrooms. She and her team are also experienced online educators who regularly offer live webinar series and full-day online workshops.
Jen began her career in education as an NYC public school teacher. Now as a consultant, she has spent the last twenty+ years helping teachers across the country create literacy classrooms where students are joyfully engaged, and the instruction is meaningfully individualized to students' goals. Jen served as a member of Parents Magazine Board of Advisors for education and literacy, and is on the NYC Reads Advisory Council as the city works to bring Science of Reading, Writing, and Learning-based practices to every classroom.
Jen holds a BA from Vassar College and an MA from Teachers College, where she has also taught graduate and undergraduate classes.
Learn more about Jen and her work at Hein.pub/serravallo, on Twitter @jserravallo, or Instagram @jenniferserravallo.
