Efficient Small Group Instruction Made Easy
One of the most common questions I get asked is regarding strategies for more effective and efficient small group instruction. Chances are, you wonder that, too. So, let’s get right to it!
1. Ensure that your small groups are data-driven.
No teacher has time to do things that aren’t necessary. Keeping the focus very targeted instruction will mean less time is needed per group.
This is why strategy groups for reading are more effective and efficient than long, traditional guided reading lessons. For most grade levels, these frameworks pack in waaaayyy too much (more on that in #2), which means too little time is spent on what’s actually most needed. We need to just get in, teach the thing, and get out. Kids need less time listening to the teacher talk and more time applying the strategy for the greatest impact.
“Thoughtful reading assessment allows teachers to maximize their time and focus on matching instruction and content to goals. When an assessment is directly aligned with instruction, both the teacher and the students benefit.”
Dr. Kirstina Ordetx, ISME Journal, 6/3/21
2. Structure.
Another reason why traditional guided reading is not efficient and often not effective is the structure itself. Traditional lesson structures often include a bit of a text preview, some vocabulary introduction, some phonics/word work, a teach point, and some writing. Plus, of course, lots of time listening to kids reading, where the teacher will often provide more/different feedback to each child. These are all great things, but it’s a lot! Because this structure includes so many pieces to it, the lessons are set up to last at 20-30 minutes.
While I always recommend prioritizing short strategy lessons, there can absolutely be a place for a traditional sort of lesson, too, especially for end of year first graders and second graders (or kids at those reading levels) transitioning into chapter books. But consider breaking these lessons up into smaller, 10-15 minute chunks instead. That way, you get in all the components, but keep it short and sweet–so you can see another group or do some 1:1 conferring–and so the group of students in front of you has more time reading the text vs listening to a long lesson.
Ensure that the structure you use is set up in a way that you hit just the most important things that kids need. This data-driven teaching will go a long way to both efficiency and effectiveness.
But…
A one-size-fits-all, never-changing structure won’t work for every grade level nor will it work for every type of small group you want to do. If the structure is exactly the same for every group but only the text changes, it might be time to try something different.
Why? Because that means you’re really just teaching the same thing to every group. And that makes leveraging more whole group instruction, like shared reading, a more efficient use of your time.
Something more flexible can help you stay laser-focused on the data-driven needs of your students. Whatever lesson plan structure you use, try to limit your lesson plan to a page or less. That will also help you keep things short and efficient.
A word of caution about small group instruction.
Keep in mind that the term “guided reading” simply means guiding readers. As Dr. Mary Howard wisely reminds us, “Guided reading is a small group teacher-supported, student-engaged instructional context that occurs through active participation in ways that raise intensity.” That’s it. How the teacher decides to structure that support, engagement, and intensity can look many different ways.
If you’re looking for a template to follow, I can give you some resources that I myself lean on–and they’re absolutely free! Jennifer Serravallo’s Reading Strategies book explains a very simple framework for short, impactful strategy lessons (plus it includes hundreds of actual lessons). And Jan Richardson has a newly-streamlined guided reading lesson framework for early, emergent, transitional, and fluent readers.
Richardson’s 15 minute lesson templates work beautifully with any kind of text you want the kids to read, whether that be decodable text, leveled, or “grade level.” The structure of both Serravallo’s and Richardson’s templates are extremely simple, can be used for a huge variety of lessons, and are designed to keep it quick. 10 to 15 minutes max.
3. Be flexible.
When teachers have set in stone schedules for kids, as many rotation schedules do, students come to know that schedule awfully quickly.
If Monday is set A of kids, Tuesday is set B, Wednesday, set C, and so on, it very much limits how flexible and responsive you can be to student needs. You’re pretty locked into that set weekly rotation. It’s what makes “meet the teacher” as a set rotation every week problematic. This model very much limits how effective our small group instruction could be.
It also instills a sense of complacency in students.
What so often happens when teachers do this is that they display the list of students that will be seen, and the rest of the class would be either reading independently (hopefully) or working on some kind of center. Because it is all on display, and is so often regulated by a timer, the teacher often doesn’t leave the small group table at all.
Which means that teachers don’t really know what the rest of the class is actually doing. When kids know that the teacher is going to be sitting at that back table and not monitoring very much what’s going on, it’s quite easy for them to check out. And that’s not an effective use of their time.
Instead…
For sure don’t include yourself in the rotations, if you use that framework. This does two things. One, it allows you much more flexibility to meet small groups or 1:1 with kids as the differing needs arise (from your observations, exit tickets, assessment data, etc). Two, it frees you up to truly see what kids are doing as they work. Not only can you respond to these needs, too, but kids are far less likely to lose focus when you make your presence known.
Better yet, just have your students read independently, from a selection of carefully-selected books, while you work with small groups. This is far easier for you to manage, so your attention isn’t divided between the kids in front of you in your small group and supervising management of rotations. It’s also far quieter this way, so both you and the readers in front of you are better able to concentrate. In addition, all kids are getting more intentional practice applying the reading skills they’re learning to actual texts, which is, of course, the entire point of reading instruction.
Flexibility in when you meet with students, using a small variety of simple, straightforward lesson formats, and laser-focused, data-driven teaching. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s truly the key to effective and efficient small group instruction. Pretty simple!
One last thing.
If you’re looking for ways to ensure the time kids spend reading independently is truly time well-spent, check out my free webinar, where I share some pretty common ways this time can become a waste–and how to avoid every one of them.
Who is Coach from the Couch? I’m Michelle Ruhe, a 25-year veteran educator, currently a K-5 literacy coach.
I continue to learn alongside teachers in classrooms each and every day, and it’s my mission to support as many teachers just like you as I can. I’ve got more details about who I am and what I’m all about here.
Looking for an online community that’s all about actionable, simple ways to improve your instruction?
Join my Facebook group!. It’s a place where questions can be asked without judgement. (Seriously–I don’t tolerate it). Where you can share your successes and frustrations with literacy instruction without feeling embarrassed or so nervous you have to post anonymously.. If this is what you’re looking for, join the community here!
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