Why Do I Implement Small Groups or Centers
Let me begin by saying that I know the last few years have drastically shifted our ability to put students together and have them work cooperatively. And it also hasn’t been easy to ensure that students can attend to tasks independently. I respect that, and am writing this in hopes that you can slowly implement a few of these ideas in your classroom as we all return to normal or at least our new normal. If you need to pick and choose, do it! I also know that there are years where your class is better prepared for a small group. With all of these things in mind, I hope you will give this a quick read and see if there is a little encouragement here for you!
Why bother with small groups or centers?
As a classroom teacher, I liked having time for small group work so that I could really dig in and offer differentiation. In order to do this, I would have to spend some time practicing the actual tasks and procedures with my students. See my social media posts for my suggestions on this!
Now let’s be honest: when doing this at first, it felt like the room seemed to fall into complete chaos. OK, it wasn’t really that bad, but as with anything, it took a lot of practice, and that practice paid off when my students could get in some extra reinforcement via the small group/center. But there is still hope and definitely still a need for small groups, whatever that looks like for you.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
If you are beginning to explore a structured approach to literacy, you will see where systematic instruction in decoding and encoding is necessary for some but good for all. You will also see where review and reinforcement are vital to proficiency with these skills. When implemented thoughtfully, I found my small groups could give that support. My Orton-Gillingham instruction in the classroom was strengthened when I started to shift my center work to reinforce the strategies and concepts included in our study of language.
I also liked my small groups because they were flexible.
Yes, students may stay in the groups for a week or so, maybe longer, but students moved between groups. They may move between groups either because of growth, a need for extra support, or because I wanted them to have a chance to learn with different peers.
Yes, my instruction is direct, explicit, carefully planned, and carefully implemented. However, I have found in my years of teaching that sometimes giving students a chance to work with each other allows for moments of aha magic to occur. Maybe their peer uses language or explains it in a way that what I have been teaching finally clicks.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
Making the shift to build my small group work around the concepts we were covering felt like a lot of work at first. I reminded myself to take small steps as the year progressed and bigger steps when there was time (summer break, long weekends, or an actual planning period). I DID NOT do it all at once! That isn’t realistic and if you are like me and try to do it all at once you will be so overwhelmed you won’t do it at all.
Here are a few suggestions to get you started:
Raid all of the free resources from peers in the field. Start with mine …. right here on my Resource Center. Put all of them in your cart and download them at once. Note that the link expires 24 hours after your first download.
Read my previous post with pictures and descriptions of a few low prep ideas to get going!
Ask your students if any of them would like to help you cut out or organize during a break. Yes, I did this and yes, I had to let go of perfectly cut cards.
Visit the Florida Center for Reading Research here and see what they have to offer!
Speak to your school librarian to see if they can include some controlled reading options in their next order for the library.
Find a storage system that works for you. Purchase 1-2 of each “container” and give it a test run before you go all in. Not that I have ever done that and have ended up with stacks of plastic bins that I “just didn’t like.” Here is a post I wrote with a few of the storage items I like to use!
Lastly, the most expensive part of shifting and implementing your small group time to be more focused on structured literacy concepts will be your own time. I know that time is invaluable and something we all do not have as much of it as we might wish. Scroll back up and read what I typed about NOT doing it all at once. Take manageable steps and it will come together.
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