Meeting the instructional needs of all students is a bit overwhelming! There are some instructional approaches that can help teachers to better meet the challenge. One approach is teaching students in small groups, 4 to 6 students. Student groups can be developed using different formulas based on the intended outcome of the small group instruction. Small groups allow for more “intimate” or one-on-one conversation that help you, the teacher form a better idea of their academic and social needs. They also allow teachers to monitor and or scaffold student interactions, like collaboration or discussions. Every student wants their voice heard; each student needs to learn how to listen to others. Small group instruction gives the teacher opportunity to teach focused lessons that may include a new task or reteaching of a previous task. Small group instruction also allows for the other groups of students to practice a task, new or old.
Some of the reasons that I develop groups of students are to:
- Develop social skills, usually 2-4 students
- Group projects, can be efficient with 2-6 students depending on the project to be completed
- Learning level instruction—most classrooms will have 3-5 different learning levels for math and reading, 4-6 students, grouped by data
- Reviewing
- Introducing
When working with a new group of students, I often use different ways of building groups, such as student choice, drawing names, or numbering students. When grouping students by ability to teach, I tend to focus on the data—current assessments and observations. I usually ask the following questions when I group or regroup students.
- What is the activity?
- What should the final outcome look like?
- How will students react to the task?
- What is the learning level of students? Will they need help in completing the task? Who would be most helpful to those needing assistance? Not completing the task for them, but leading them to the completion of the task.
- Who will be here for the lesson? Most classrooms have students entering and exiting the classrooms throughout the day.
- How will students work together?
- How many “parts” to the task? I asked this question when grouping students for group projects.
When grouping students remember that each group is growing and may need adjusting along the way.
