Small Group & Conferring Institute DAY 4: Small Groups in Reading

Evolution of Small Groups Across a Unit and Across the Year

Posted by Jen Burton

This is the day I had been waiting for, Small Groups in Reading! Like I had mentioned in earlier posts, I have felt comfortable with the concept of flexible grouping in the upper grades (2nd-ish through 5th) for a while now, but what does that look like in primary? I've actually walked away with principles that apply to both primary and intermediate, as well as the nuances between them.

Across the grades, we start the year off with conferring. We know how important it is for us to get to know our students, so this time is critical and fun. Treasure those moments of discovering who your students are, what they like and dislike, their strengths and challenges. As we begin a unit, we typically start off with table conferences, as this allows us to make sure everyone is on track, heading in the right direction. I had posted about different grouping structures earlier, so I won't go into those now.

Once everyone is on a roll and we've built some stamina to work independently, we can begin conferring. Once we've collected data through conferring, we may notice trends, and start pulling some strategy groups. What we are teaching in the strategy groups, the teaching points, are from the units, so they are developmentally appropriate. If students are off level, then you would go back to earlier, or later, points in the progressions. Since the progressions for reading don't start until second grade, we are using the F&P Continuum of Literacy Learning for our progression of reading skills for levels A-L.

It's when we notice students plateauing at a level, THAT is when we plan a SERIES OF LESSONS or as The Guide to the Reading Workshop refers to them, a ladder of lessons, to help move students along to the next level of text complexity; for intermediate we consider bands of text.

A series of lessons is designed around the idea of the gradual release model. The initial lessons with the students will start with a heavier scaffold, more support, more coaching, while the later lessons will have a lighter scaffold, less support, leaner coaching. The goal being to get them to independence at this new level or into the next band of text. After every lesson we ask, "How close are they to this new level?" and "What supports do they need to be successful at this new level?"

Before we can begin planning this series of lessons however, it is helpful to do a running record and some error analysis to know what kind of support, including word work, will best support moving the students into this next level. A series of lessons could look like this:

• Day 1 could be shared reading. Select words to cover and cues to give based on error analysis & based on that F&P level.  (High Scaffold)
• Day 2 might be strategy group. A teaching point is pulled from the F&P level descriptors and applied in their own or a shared text. (Medium to Low Scaffold)
• Day 3 might be a guided reading lesson. Pull a focus for meaning, structure, & visual to highlight in book intro. (Medium to High Scaffold)

Shared reading and writing will be relied on more heavily in the primary grades than the intermediate, especially to move students up the early levels of text.

The "aha" for me in this, was that the shared reading and strategy group sessions in a series of lessons is targeted to the F&P level or band, highlighting and explicitly teaching the behaviors from that level that we believe will bump them up.

As you wrap up the series of lessons these are possible next steps, based on what you notice about your readers:

• Possible Next Steps:

• If students rocked it. Then next time, do another guided reading group (leaner intro) (Medium Scaffold) or if they really rocked it a strategy group. (Low Scaffold)

• If students still struggle. Then maybe more shared reading in books at that level (High Scaffold) or guided reading with more support & coaching, and an introduction. (High to Medium Scaffold)

You continue with small groups until you run out of data. Then you return to conferring, until you have more data to form small groups again. This is the evolution or cycle of small groups and conferring. As we notice student behaviors, data, then we form small groups around:

• behaviors connected to the non-negotiable teaching points of the unit,
• behaviors that will move students through the levels of text complexity,
• behaviors connected to habits of thinking, motivation, or engagement.

This is what we form small groups around in reading. So much of this is dependent on our professional judgement.

In all of this we can't forget that what makes the most impact, along with targeted, explicit instruction, is lots and lots and lots of independent reading. One of our most important jobs is to get our students to LOVE to read. I'm so glad that Jennifer Serravallo's book, The Reading Strategies Book, has specific lessons to address engagement and motivation. If students aren't independent reading, it's not their fault, it's on us to use the instructional strategies at hand to support them in getting there.

Guided reading can be such a hot topic as there are so many interpretations of what it looks like. Here are some thoughts shared at the institute:

Guided Reading

• Lower Grade and Upper Grade Versions
• Monitor and Fix (Foundational Skills)
• Explicit teaching point at the end
• Same text (not independent level) to help get ready to move)
• Need support and scaffolds
• Work to release scaffolds
• Not everyone NEEDS guided reading

Guided Reading in Primary

Guided Reading up through level L is still supporting students in putting all the parts together. They are reading the same book, a text level just above independent.

• You can do a mix of guided reading and shared reading, along with making texts with kids (especially w/ ELs) because they’ve used what they know to make meaning.
• Stagger the pages kids are reading, so they are NOT reading the same page at the same time.
• IF finding way too much prompting shift to shared reading - gives a nice bump.
• Kdg - Sometimes in kindergarten, kids need time. Jan/Feb is a good time to start grouping.

Structure for Guided Reading at Levels A-L (10 minutes!)

• Book Introduction (mini - 2-3 minutes)
• Meaning: Give some background about the book
• Structure: Grammar or language structures to pre-teach
• Visual: Word study patterns to support decoding
• Coach - Get students reading quickly - stagger their reading of pages, so they are NOT reading the same page.
• Below H - subvocalize - whisper read
• H and above - read silently in their minds and ask to whisper read when you get to them.
• Discuss briefly
• Give a Teaching Point for that F&P level to move them up.

Guided Reading in Intermediate

Level L/M and up typically you don’t need a lot on monitoring words - you mostly need to support comprehension. Intermediate you really only need guided reading to move students from one band of text to another. :

• M to N
• Q to R
• T to U
• W to X

The best way to identify the behaviors to target is an error analysis of a running record. Then you can look for patterns and behaviors to support for comprehension or word work.

Structure for Guided Reading at Levels M-Z (10 min.!)

• Book or short text introduction and text level introduction (best with a series):  What will be new in this band to pay closer attention to?
• Leave it there OR
• Coach them to thinking, giving them prompts or ?s, rhetorical ?s to ask themselves, not quizzing, but prompting them to be thinking in a part of the text. So we can talk at the end of what they learned, give a teaching point to support them around.

If they are not yet ready, reflect on how close are they now. Then we can think, “How can we support them now?”

As students run into trouble don’t drag out prompting, leading them on, we can tell them:

• Could the character be doing...bc of this and this and this, go back and reread and see if this is a possibly.
• If miscue Pumpkin???? Could it be pumpkin, go back and reread, triple check the word. Ya it’s pumpkin bc there’s a pumpkin and there’s the word, now keep reading.

Try a couple of strategies, if they don’t work, give it to them so they can go.

Traps of Guided Reading

1. We spend a long time giving a book into. If we have to spend that long, students may not be ready for that level. We want to give just enough for them to be able to read. There should be things they’re struggling with and you’re giving them a bit of support. If the text is easily read, then they don’t need guided reading
2. Our prompting. We want to keep the readers moving. We get trapped with one student, giving too many prompts & strategies.

Hierarchy of Prompts - From lesser Scaffolding to More

• First prompt is always wait time
• Shrug
• Huh?
• First prompt w/o pointing
• Lean prompt - “Check that.”
• What part are you stuck on?
• Does that sound like a word you know?
• You know, _______ from our word wall, could that help you? (Then confirm how the kid knows it.)
• A couple tries - give it.
• Could that word be “around.”
• That word is “around.”

We wouldn't do all of these prompts at once, obviously, but knowing our students, we start with the leanest possible prompts first.

Other nuggets:

• Have multiple lenses as you do a read aloud. These are choices to jot about as you read aloud. Then they can practice in independent work.
• We can’t forget to support habits and thinking in conferences and small groups.
• Not everybody needs guided reading. Guided Reading was originally designed for very early grades to help kids in how to orchestrate the reading process. It has morphed and taken on the meaning of a group in which any type of guidance is provided.
• If you do guided reading all the time; they’ll always need you.
• We do guided reading when students are just close enough to that next level or band of text and with support of the behaviors needed for that next level or band, along with pre-teaching words/features they might miss, they will be successful and move to becoming independent at this level.
• Guided reading groups should be 10 minutes.
• Often kids are reading harder and harder texts, but not developing a depth of understanding. We just keep moving them ahead. We need to think about where text complexity intersects with student’s depth of understanding.
• Kids that get pulled out should be pulled OUTSIDE of their class reading time. That time should be 10 min of instruction and the rest of the time more independent reading.
• Small groups & conferences can often be extensions of the mini-lesson.
• We can use a hybrid of guided reading by bringing over four students and have them work in a book slightly above their just right” level, possibly giving a little introduction and letting them supporting each other, while we coach in how to be a supportive partner. You can also use an anchor chart or mini-chart, and post-its. Then every few pages put a post-it on the page and have students talk about it.

Primary prompts for partner work in hybrid guided reading:

• The character is acting like…
• ....is important because…
• What does the word _____________ mean?
• The character feels ___________, so next I think ________________.
• This part fits with the part when ________________________.

Intermediate prompts for partner work in hybrid guided reading:

• Here the character is learning ________________.
• This shows the relationship is ________________.
• This is an issue because ________________.
• The _____________ is a symbol for ________________.
• The setting her is showing the mood ________________.  (Don’t just say the setting say the mood too.)

Partnerships & Book Clubs

• Coaching Students to Talk…
• To use the criteria in the classroom
• To listen, clarify, extend, and challenge each other
• To come to new thoughts


• Better Content in Conversations - (substantive)
• Better Linking Ideas to Each Other
• Better Matched to Parts

There is a lot to consider when implementing small groups in reading. If we stick to what's most important, the idea of letting our students and what we notice about them as readers guide us, then we'll be on the right track. Trust your professional judgement as you consider how to best support your students and plan for instruction. The closing remarks from the institute were the best. Amanda Hartman encouraged us to go out and not just try one thing, but try everything and to not be afraid to fail miserably. It's suppose to be messy, that's when we do our best learning. I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues as I go back and figure out together what this looks like in the classroom. They also left us with some ideas of how we can study together:

What questions and new learning do you have about small groups in reading?
What do you plan to go and try?
How do you plan to collaborate in your learning?

Small Group & Conferring Institute DAY 3: Conferring in Reading

We started off today by comparing the many similarities of conferring in reading to conferring in writing:

• Similar structure: Research, Decide, & Teach (A conference with Jennifer Serravallo)
• A clear teaching point
• We give a compliment that is just at the student's edge of learning, something we hope they keep doing.
• Students have an opportunity for multiple tries
• We use a tool to support conferring - a demonstration notebook or a mini-chart
• We give students ambitious and purposeful work
• We take notes to inform our instruction

My new favorite way to take notes is with a class list. I like having three columns per skill to record repeated practice. This allows you to hone in on the non-negotiables of the unit:

There are important conferences to have with students:

Important Kinds of Reading Conferences

• Matching Kids to Book & Volume of Reading

• Thinking While Reading
• Solving Tricky Words/Parts (Identifying Trouble)
• Connecting and Synthesizing Parts of a Book
• Beginning and Middle and Ending of a book
• Preparing to TALK with partners or clubs (GREAT Video)

What is key to me that we talked about was the importance of studying student work. This is helpful for two reasons:

1. As we study students' work we'll see trends emerge and allows us to see a progression of learning. Not only do we use that to inform our instruction, but we can create a micro-progression on a chart to put up in the class for students to evaluate their work. This is my big take away from this week. I need to continue to work at supporting students to be independent in applying the non-negotiable skills and strategies from our units. Here is a GREAT video on micro-progressions from Kate Roberts & Maggie Beattie Roberts and their book DIY Literacy: Teaching Tools for Differentiation, Rigor, and Independence: Micro-progressions

2. Also, as we look at an individual student's work we can see possible compliments and teaching points. It was so helpful to practice doing this as a group. We watched a video of a student reading and generated this list. Here's how the progression of that work went as a group. (By the way I just loved my small group and the fun friends I met at large group! #friendsforlife)

We talked about getting ready for a conference, the research phase...

We talked about possible questions & lines of dialogue to ask and follow during research:

Then we watched a video to see what we could learn about this student as a reader and what questions do we have about her...

We generated a list of possible compliments and teaching points...

Then we prioritized them...

It was so helpful to collaborate around this work and share our thinking. There were many questions about, "How do we know what to teach?" And Katrina (@katrinadavino), my amazing small group leader, had some great words of wisdom, "As we build our content knowledge of the progression of skills for both reading and writing, then we will know what to teach, but until then, teach the teaching points from the lesson/unit." Take the pressure off, use the charts you've created to support your conferring and small group work!

I am struck once again by the importance of collaborating around this work. It's so much easier, and more fun, to develop our content knowledge together as we talk and share our thinking about student learning and our instruction to support that. Thank you to my small group, my large group, and the fun teachers and coaches from Lisle, IL that I collaborated with this week.

For me, I'm looking forward to tomorrow, Small Groups in Reading. I feel I am getting so much more clarity in this area for primary (K-1), but I need to be with my people and talk through some of this stuff! Can't wait!

Small Group & Conferring Institute DAY 1 & 2

The Small Group and Conferring Institute at Teachers College is four days long and so here is the breakdown:

Day 1:  Writing & Conferring

Day 2:  Writing & Small Groups

Day 3:  Reading & Conferring

Day 4:  Reading & Small Groups

DAY 1: WRITING & CONFERRING

I could have spent the whole institute on Day 4:  Reading & Small Groups, but I’m reminded that conferring is at the heart of workshop. It gets to so many core beliefs about why we do workshop. There are two that come to mind. The first is how conferring supports relationships and building a community of learners.  In our building we say, “It’s all about relationships.” I love that! Through conferring we can uncover a student’s intentions as a writer, which not only allows us to know a student better, but leads to the second core belief:  Choice.

When we work with students, letting them lead the conference, making decisions about what do work on next as a writer, we get buy-in, engagement, and motivation. Cha-ching!  Actually, I lied, there’s a third, accountability. I can see & support the skill or strategy the student is working on right there, on the spot. Talk about immediate feedback!

A huge take-away for me across both of these days is that we need to be incredibly intentional about the work we give students, so that it is replicable, that they can do it on their own, again and again. Getting students to independence is our end-game. That’s why it’s so important we give them meaningful and authentic work and strategies to get there. We have to have our own reading and writing lives so we know how to break down a skill or strategy into steps. in order to be able to guide students through this work. As a scaffold for us we have resources like Jennifer Serravallo’s books The Writing Strategies Book and The Reading Strategies Book. It's a process of incorporating these instructional practices into our repertoire of teaching moves. We need to remember that and not be so hard on ourselves. That's also why I love this work it's a journey. Enjoy the journey!

Our reading and writing workshops are all about building habits for students; helping them develop those, "go to" reading and writing moves, that move them forward in their learning. We don’t want them dependent on us for that. We want our students in charge of their own learning. And that is all wrapped up in the nuance of our teaching language.

So conferring is key because it supports:

• Relationships
• Choice
• Accountability & Independence

Here are a few other nuggets from Day 1:

• “If you don’t have an idea to say ‘more’ about in your writing, then how about you write a bunch of short entries until you find something to say more about.” I think this is a great idea! It takes the pressure off and gives the student choice.

• Conferring is a balance between responsive teaching (based on your “research” in the conference) and planning your teaching point ahead (based on looking at student writing).

DAY 2: WRITING & SMALL GROUPS

This all lead into Day 2: Writing & Small Groups. Amanda Hartman talked about how so may of the things are the same about conferring and small groups. Ultimately, small groups comes out of trends you are noticing in your conferring and makes your teaching more efficient. Here's a list of the different kinds of small groups:

Kinds of Small Groups

1. Table Conference: Ways to support habits and behaviors.

• Start with observing behaviors
• Confer with one student
• Complement the whole table
• Highlight one students’ strategies
• Then check in with each student

2. Start with an Individual Conference

• Notice what the student needs instruction in
• Gather a few more kids that need the same thing

3. Repertoire Small Group: Reminding them of something and watching them do it more. Check in with each person.

4. Using small groups to support partner work. Partners use the sign while listening to each other(one side: “Keep Going” Other side: “Oops!”) and the teacher coaches with lean coaching prompts.

5. Inquiry Using a mentor text or a piece of writing, have students notice craft moves and discuss. Coach students in their thinking and discussion about how and why this is helpful and how they can apply to their own writing.

Other nuggets from Day 2:

• We don’t need to look for a mentor text for every trait. We can find a handful of books that support many traits.

• First read of a mentor text, just read and let students get connected to the text.

• After a key mini-lesson, then take more time for small group to repeat, so you can allow more time for guided practice.

• The work we confer with students about should be BIG enough so they are working on it across many days in order to acquire the skill or strategy.

• Multiple Tries - How many times did the students actually practice? We have to set the expectation and teach students to work during small group instruction.

• Most small groups don’t have a demonstration. It takes too long. We want kids WORKING and us COACHING with LEAN prompts.

• Look for patterns in our teaching. What are the variety of scaffolds we use and do we differentiate? Or are we saying the same thing to each student in the small group.

• When you have tools (create a conferring toolkit), checklist or chart at the ready and your coaching prompts it helps us to not talk so much. So kids have more time to practice. This also gives students something else to rely on besides you.

Variety of Scaffolds at our Disposal

• Demonstration
• Explain and Example
• Restate the Teaching
• Give Directions or Prompts
• Ask Students to Think About Their Own Work
• Point to or Offer a Tool (Chart or Mentor Text)
• Use Gestures

Goals for Small Group Instruction:

• Longer and mostly practice (10 minutes-ish)
• Dr. Mary Howard - The one important thing to remember. “Meet with kids more frequently for less amount of time.” We don’t have to meet with all kids the same amount of time, but all kids should get equity.
• Variety of Scaffolds:  More or Less Scaffolds
• What are the prompts that I use
• How do I provide support and feedback in small group
• You can coach with a variety of moves
• Restate the teaching point
• Demonstrate
• Show a chart or checklist
• Did you respond to each student differently
• Did you stay on the teaching point
• Who needs more? Who needs less?
• Multiple Tries - How many times did the students actually practice?
• Series of Small Group Work
• Make them as engaging as possible
• Lead students to work with more independence

For me I definitely want to get students working during the small group, so I can see them taking multiple tries at a strategy or skill. It feels a little like whack-a-mole, but I think the more I practice the better I'll get at it. I also want to be reflective of the different kinds of prompts I'm using to coach in small group. Am I saying the same thing to each student or am I differentiating?

What are your goals for small group instruction?