Help! What are the other students doing while you teach small groups?

A key component to running successful small groups is the other student being independent enough to give you the time and space to actually run that small group. What student independent work looks like from class to class can differ dramatically. In some classrooms that student independent work is sadly just an afterthought. And who can really blame teachers for that? With so many expectations and standards around what you are teaching in small groups, it leaves little time to plan for effective independent activities. Often these activities turn into a quick worksheet you can print so everyone stays quiet and leaves you alone. But it doesn’t have to be like that. 

 

With some intentional instruction and planning when launching your student’s independence, you can create an environment in which the students are using their time effectively to move their academic skills forward even without you. After all, with class sizes continuing to increase, more students are working independently than are receiving the small group instruction. So shouldn’t the student independent work be well thought out and planned? 

 

In this post, I will give you easy to implement ideas you can start with your students as soon as tomorrow. 

 

What makes a student independent?

 

Student buy-in is one key factors in whether the student independent work will be effective and meaningful. If students are engaged in the work, their academic performance will continue to increase. The best way to get student buy in is to implement as much student choice as possible. The more choices students feel like they are making for themselves, the more invested they will be in what they are producing. 

At the very beginning of the year, we immediately start training read to self and writing stamina. We practice how long as a class we can read and write without breaking that stamina. As soon as anyone breaks that stamina, we stop, reflect, and try again. After a few stamina practice sessions with each of these, I immediately begin giving students the choice of which activity they will practice during our independent stamina practices: writing or reading. In the first week of school this already begins opening up the idea to students that they have some say over what they want to practice, what they want to learn, and puts the ball in their court. 

 

As the year continues to progress, I begin opening up more and more choices for the students. From word work to comprehension activities, I almost always give 2 activities; both tasks in which I want students to complete that have equal academic importance and rigor. By allowing them to choose which one they want to do, they begin to develop feelings of being in control of their time. They take ownership around being able to make choices that interest them. This automatically will increase ownership over their work. 

 

Consistent structure in independent work

 

Another key factor to your students being successful while you are teaching small groups is consistency. If your students understand and know what to do, it will create that space for you to focus on the small group in front of you. The activities you choose within your independent work time should always reflect a similar structure in which you can change the academic standard without changing the activity. For example, if you have a comprehension station a consistent structure you could implement is task cards. Once students understand how to complete task cards, you can then vary the type of task cards, the difficulty, and the topics. You can also offer multiple different sets allowing students to choose just 1 of the 3 presented options. This again promotes student choice and buy-in during their independent work time. 

This consistency is true for all the big components of literacy. So what are the big areas in which your students should be working on independently? From state to state and curriculum to curriculum that could look different. However there are some basic areas in which student independent work should be focused around:

• Reading
• Writing
• Studying word patterns
• Vocabulary 

Once you have broken down which big areas of literacy you want your students to focus on, you can then dive deeper into what activities you want included within each of those areas. 

 

Let’s dive a little deeper into the big areas of student independent work:

 

1. Read, read, read

It has been shown time and time again that best way to become a better reader is to simply have time to read. Yet as a fellow literacy teacher, it seems the curriculum constantly give me so many “things” that the time to read can easily get lost. It is essential that as reading teachers we create and protect this precious time for students to simply read. To read without pressure and expectations. To read without completing a graphic organizer. Just enjoy a book of their choosing. 

2. Write, write, write

I can copy and paste the paragraph from above and insert the word writing. Over the years, this time to simply work on writing has risen on my list in the value it can bring to the table for students. So often when it comes to writing and writing instruction, students are told what to write. There is almost always some sort of prompt that needs to be responded to. Or some genre in which the teacher is asking the whole class to write. However, these do not allow students to spend any time developing writing of their choosing. 

What about your graphic novel lovers? Is there any time in their school day that they could practice writing their own graphic novel? These types of interests need time to develop on their own without the pressure of “answering the question.” If you create the space and time for your students to develop writing on their own, I promise you will not be disappointed by the creativity and ideas that will flow from their very capable minds. 

 

3. Working with words and patterns

With the shift towards science of reading, the importance of students working with words and patterns continues to increase in importance. This can be tricky because before students are able to work on words independently, they need explicit direct instruction in that word pattern. You can check out this post that goes into further detail about  working with words whole group.

Once students have been explicitly taught word patterns, they need rigorous independent work that aligns with the science of reading principals. My two favorite ways to do that are through paper and pencil activities and digital activities.

The paper pencil activities I find the most beneficial are independent work stations that focus on sounds. Students can be using sound boxes and colors to identify the sounds within the word patterns. These types of activities are far more beneficial than a traditional rainbow write making each letter it’s own color. Making these type of instructional choices for your independent learners will continue to develop your reader’s understanding of words and word patterns even while they are not working with you at the small group table.

Digital activities are another great way to have students practice patterns of words. I love digital word work because the technology piece automatically increases student engagement. It also allows me as the teacher to focus on many different question types. I’ve created digital word work for the patterns I teach in 3rd grade that offer 8 different activities that all focus on pattern and sounds in words. You can check those out here.

 

4. Vocabulary

After decoding and phonemic awareness skills, background knowledge and vocabulary is the single most important indicator of a student’s reading success. Therefore, some of the student independent work needs to be focused around vocabulary. Research has shown that in grades 3-5, approximately 10 words should be taught explicitly each week for students to make the academic gains necessary. These 10 words can be worked on in a variety of ways including:

• Word webs
• Frayer models
• Categorizing activities
• Picture words
• Creating their own sentences & words
• and many more

 

An in-depth look at vocabulary instruction and student independent work to accompany it will be coming in a future blog post. So if you’re interested in more information on this topic, check back soon!

 

 

5. Comprehension 

Comprehension skills and strategies have long been a push of reading curriculums everywhere. In fact, every reading curriculum I have seen or been given to teach, has a new strategy presented every week. Therefore it is my responsibility to make sure these concepts are covered. Creating a comprehension choice for my students to work on has given me the ability to cover these standards in a variety of academic context. Because comprehension skills range so dramatically in application, the comprehension activity is probably the most changed station in our classroom. Depending on the skill, graphic organizers, independent readings, and task cards can provide engaging texts and questions to help your reader. 

These student independent work choices will help create student buy in and consistency. By practicing each structure, and the expectations, over and over again, your students will quickly develop independence. As this independence increases, so will the quality time you can spend teaching each of your small groups.

Interested in finding out more small group instruction time? I’ve created a FREE workbook just for you that you can print off, read through, and reflect on your own phonics instruction practices. As well as 7 tips you can implement in your classroom as early as tomorrow. Grab your free copy.