You have small groups. Now what?

Hi, friends!  Happy Tuesday!  I'm sure that most of you are teaching right now, or maybe on your way to school still, but I'm sitting in the living room with our Christmas tree on and the twinnies are napping sweetly nearby.  I'm going to hit this hard and fast so we can be done before the boys wake up and I need another cup of coffee.  =)

If you've been following along at all, you know that I've been blogging lately about making small groups.  (I'd like to call it a series, but these posts have been so random and intermittent that I think series is too generous.)  In my last post here, I talked about how I made small groups.  So now I want to talk about what the heck you do with these small groups once you have them.  I think the obvious answer is that we all make small groups for SGI (small group instruction), so that you can give kids more targeted instruction, whether it's for reading or math.  What's less obvious is the best way to plan for SGI and actually run those small groups.

There are about a thousand ways to organize for SGI; most of them involve some type of work station, whether you're using Daily 5, Cafe, project based learning, or something else.  (To be honest, my previous literacy coach always pushed upper grades to do SGI during independent reading because she felt that was more authentic than work stations, but I think that's a little impractical in early grades, mostly because their stamina for independent reading doesn't match the amount of time you really want to spend with small groups.)  So, assuming you're balancing SGI with work stations the first thing you should decide is how often will you do SGI?  (For the record, I'm using SGI to refer to both guided reading and math,although I realize the process might not be the same for both.  We'll separate them out in a later post.  Fear not!)  Here are the three SGI schedules that I encounter most often.  I've used two of them myself.

SGI Plan 1 (this is what I used teaching first grade):  SGI occurs daily in reading, and almost daily in math.  Teacher sees all groups at least once a week, strategically choosing groups who might need extra sessions to see teacher multiple times.  Student rotation groups go to each work station once/week.  Pros to this style are that teachers see every single student at least once weekly, so you have a good feel for student progress, challenges, etc.  Cons:  If students are out the day you see them  you miss them for that week.

SGI Plan 2 (I used this teaching kindergarten):  SGI occurs daily, and 3 times/week in math.  Teachers see all groups daily (in reading), and each student within a week (math).  Pros:  Students gets lots of instruction targeted specifically for them and generally make pretty significant growth as a result.  Cons:  high work station churn; very difficult to run without 2 teachers in the classroom.    

SGI Plan 3 (I have never used this myself):  SGI only occurs several times per week (2-3), and teacher prioritizes students with highest needs.  Pro:  frees up classroom time for other aspects of instructional day.  Con:  students with high needs don't get as much targeted instruction.

I'd love to hear about which SGI lay out you use in your classroom.  I'm hoping to be back before the end of the week to talk about how I actually plan for SGI.  Have a great Tuesday, and don't forget to check out the TpT Cyber Monday & Tuesday sale!  Everything is 28% off until midnight tonight!  Start your shopping here!

Stay dry!
xoxo

Making Small Groups

Hi, team!

I hope you're having a great weekend!  I can't believe it's already been 2 weeks since my last post; I didn't mean for so much to pass since my last post, but well, babies.  Those poor guys get blamed for a lot.  Most of it is their fault.  =)  I'm just coming to you tonight with a super quick post about how I make my small groups.

In my last post, I talked about how I have all students in two groups--their rotation groups, as well as their teacher table group.  I don't know about you, but I'm pretty visual.  When I was in the classroom, I always had a set of name sticks that I used all the time every day.  I made them at the start of every school year; I wrote the kids' names on the big popsicle sticks, and I kept the sticks in an empty Crystal Light jar.  (Seriously, if you're throwing away the Crystal Light jars you're making a mistake.  Let's talk.)  Alright, so I'm making two sets of groups. so I go through this process twice.  The first thing I do is think about students that absolutely cannot be in the same group together, for whatever reason--they talk too much, they distract each other, they're mean to each other--whatever.  I start my piles with those students, separating one into each group.  After I separate out those nuggets, I go back to the sticks that are still left.  I essentially then fill in students around those who had to be separated, trying as much as possible to have all ability levels in one rotation group.  (I talked about why I feel that's important in this post, but basically it helps students use other students as their main resource during SGI, rather than you.)  When I'm done with this process, I'll grab a piece of paper or draw a quick table in my notebook so I can remember who's in which group.  It will end up looking something like this:

Then, I use a combination of my name sticks and my data binder to make teacher table groups.  These are obviously the groups that students will be in when they come to my table for guided reading or math SGI.  These are not the same as their rotation groups, and these groups are generally more homogenous, ability level wise.  I then make the same chart for their teacher table groups.  I'll share more in a future post about how I plan for all of my small groups, but one last thing--the only set of groups that I post in my room is the rotation groups.  Those are the only ones on the chart.

Alright, team; I hear those babies moving around, so I'm out.  Have a great weekend, and I'll be back before the end of the month with a post on how I plan for small groups.
Happy Sunday!
xoxo

Shuffling Those Small Groups

Y'all.  Can I just first say that I get abnormally impressed with myself when I blog twice in one day?  Like it's probably a little ridiculous.

From my excellent IG and Twitter creeping, I can tell that many teachers are preparing for their first round of Parent/Teacher Conferences (PTCs), or just recently made it through.  If you just made it through, way to go!  Self-five!  You did it!  Conferences can be hard, but you nailed it!  If you're still preparing, you've totally got this and you're going to do a great job!

I know that when I was in the classroom, PTCs generally occurred around the same time as a data cycle, which means that generally when we were prepping for conferences we were also assessing like mad(wo)men.  And generally, when we have new data we use it to make sure that we're still grouping students appropriately and meeting the needs of all our kids.  I'm here today to briefly talk to you about how you go about creating your small groups.

Now, when I first started teaching I felt really strongly that students needed to be ability grouped and that the groups students used for work stations (LWS) had to be the same groups they used to come to my table.  If that's how you feel comfortable, great.  However, I want to tell you about how I group kids now that has totally changed the way I manage LWS.  The short version is this:  I put students into rotation groups but those rotation groups DO NOT match the groups of students who come to my table.  When I started as a teacher, I thought this was stupid because I was doubling the work of group making.  However, as an older and wiser (ha) teacher I am 100% in favor of having rotation groups and teacher table groups not match.  Let me tell you why.  First, when you ability group your rotations you're essentially putting your highs, lows, and mediums in the same group, so all the lows are together, all the highs are together, etc.  What I LOVE about having unique rotation groups is that you can mix up the levels of students within the groups, which is great because you can split any potential talkers/misbehavers, and you can also make sure to have some kids that others can ask if they forget what the activity is.  Second, having different rotation groups means that there's never a work station that's totally empty.  It also makes it more likely that students are getting to every work station in a week.  Lastly, the thing that's great about having rotation groups and teacher table groups is that you can call an audible and flex group students if the need arises.  So if you notice that there are 4 students who need work on answering two-part questions, but who might not be on the same level, you can call them to your teacher table without really disrupting the flow of your rotation groups.

When I ran work stations with different rotation groups and teacher table groups, I used pocket charts to indicate rotations.  I had cards with group names and members on it, as well as cards that showed the work station.  Here's an example of what the rotation group cards looked like.

And underneath the group card would be the 3 cards showing their work stations for that day.  So, for example, underneath pumpkins it might show word work, read to others, work on writing.  Here's an example of the work station cards.

I planned for this to be more concise than this actually was, but I just really feel strongly about having different rotation and teacher table groups.  :/  If you try it let me know if you love it, too.  And if you don't maybe I can help you regroup your students so you do love it.

Happy Novvember!
xoxo

The drought ends here.

Hello, friends!

Well, as I'm sure you can tell, 2014 is not playing around.  These 20 days have been incredibly busy; we went right from the holidays into weddings, birthdays, and apartment hunting.  Currently, I'm back home in the glorious Midwest for a family funeral.  I have to email in my sub plans for tomorrow, but I REALLY hate writing sub plans, which is why I almost always haul my butt into school if it's at all possible, but since it's not possible tomorrow I'm taking a break to revive my little blog.

I'm here today to share with you 2 quick tips, if you can call it that.  To be perfectly honest, I generally feel that I'm not a very tricky teacher, and I sort of feel that organizationally I'm not really dazzling anyone, but just in case you're looking for new ideas here are two things that have been incredibly helpful for me this year.

The first thing that has been incredibly time saving for me is our work station rotation board.  Right now I only have one for literacy work stations, because those are the work stations I use daily.  (We generally do math work stations only about 2-3 times per week.)  Unfortunately, I'm going to have to just describe this work station board to you all since I don't have any pictures.  I'll write myself a note to take a picture and share it with you later.  =)

Basically, I have 5 groups and I give each group an icon (usually it's seasonal) and those are lined across the top.  Each card has the group's icon, the group name, and the names of each student in the group.

This is a mini-sample of how our group cards looked in the fall.  So these cards line the top of the pocket chart.  We only do two work stations each day (which was hands down the hardest adjustment I had to make in my literacy block this year), and I show the students which work stations they are going to by putting two picture cards underneath their group card.  We have 6 work stations in our classroom--word work, independent reading, fluency, writing, iPad, and inquiry and investigation.  Each work station has a corresponding picture card, which looks something like this.  

I made 4 for each work station so that 2 groups can go per day, plus there are a few extras.  So I stack the two picture cards under their group to show them where they're going.  What's really nice is that now, at this point in the school year, organizing the work station board is a job that I can delegate to more responsible kids.  I can generally have a kid organize the work station board during morning meeting.   What's also really nice about using picture cards is that kids who are coming back to the classroom during our work stations can find their group/activity much more easily than they could in the past.  It's really helped those students transition back into the classroom with minimal disruption.  

My other tip, in addition to picture based work station rotation cards, is picture based anchor charts with directions.  I'm part of a fellowship this year and technology is part of it, so I was able to receive a small group set of iPads for my classroom, which has been great.  As a school, we've been using 2 programs this year that I put my kids on during iPad time--Lexia and Reading A-Z.  We took time earlier in the school year to make anchor charts together showing the step-by-step directions for students to use both Lexia and RAZ Kids.  Adding small pictures to the anchor charts really helped kids integrate those directions into the routine.  My students know that they have the first 90 seconds of a work station to get their iPad and bring it to the Question Box to have it unlocked.  After 90 seconds they have to wait until I have a break in my group instruction.  Having the anchor charts has really helped the kids understand what to do, but it's also really helped me with redirection.  When kids don't follow the routine it's easy to point to the pictures and help them understand what the routine is.  

I promise to be back more this week with some peeks into my classroom, although this will be a short week--I'll be out Tuesday, with a field trip on Thursday, and an early dismissal on Friday.  

Enjoy the holiday!  =)

xoxo

What? Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK?!

Holy moly.  I can't believe this is the last week of school before Thanksgiving.  That means November is basically over, y'all.  I can't even handle it.  I've been cooking up this post for a while, and I finally feel semi-organized before 9:00pm on a Sunday so I'm here to share some ideas with you today.

First, before I forget I wanted to let you know that I just made some table points trackers, if that's a thing you're into.  You can snag them for a measly $1.50 right here.  My littles this year are having a hard time seeing the big picture.  They keep getting caught up on fussing at each other, and if we're being completely honest it's driving me NUTS!  I'm a teacher, not a referee, yo!  So I'm hoping that this will be helpful to us.  I'll make sure to let you know how it all shakes out.

I also wanted to get in on the work station posts that everyone does.  When I started this blogging experiment I talked a lot about how I teach math in my classroom, but I wanted to take a break from that and talk about how guided reading and work stations looks in my classroom.  First, they look REALLY different from last year for several reasons.  1.) My kids last year had a crazy high stamina and were great at working together, so I frequently did 3-4 guided reading groups in one day.  And 2) my distract revamped their expectations for guided reading and literacy work stations (LWS), so I'm trying to fall in line like to good little worker bee that I envision myself to be.  =)  Basically, the way that we're doing work stations this year is that we have 5 different work stations--fluency, word work, independent reading, writing, and inquiry and investigation (otherwise known as the work station that keeps me up at night).  The activities in each work station are up to you, but you should have all 5 of them up and running and kids should cycle through them each week.  The big change that's been giving me the 1-2 punch this year is that we're only supposed to pull 2 groups each day.  That's right.  Just 2.  I've also been having a hard time balancing that because I also have a Fundations Double Dose group right now that's supposed to meet 3 times a week (M, W, F).

I will say one thing that has really helped keep us on track this year is a visual work station rotation board.  I always kind of scoffed at them and had never used one before, but I have to say that I really am on board for it now.  So helpful.  It's also really helped me shift responsibility to my little nuggets.  Plus, it's great for kids who transition back into the classroom during work stations.  They just get their folder, check the board, and then go to meet their group.  The other tool that I'm in LOVE with is our Scholastic guided reading library.  DC bought it for all their elementary schools last year and it is amaze-balls.  It has reading behaviors to teach at each level, and it has a matrix that lists each book, the level of the book, and what the book is designed to teach for word work and comprehension.  It makes planning for guided reading a snap.

How many groups do you pull in a day?  What resources do you use to plan?
Happy Football-watching!  (Who-dey!)
xoxo
Rachel

Two Posts in Two Hours?!

It's because I'm a sucker for a good linky party.  And, of course, my paralyzing FOMO.  An old roommate gave me FOMO and since then it has really negatively interfered with a lot of my productivity.

In any case, Susan over at Thank God it's First Grade just moved from Las Vegas to Mass, and is hosting a super interesting linky.
                                          
And, since I have a paralyzing fear of missing out on fun, I of course need to participate.  Despite that the fact that I have already blogged once today and despite the fact that I have a grand total of zero lessons planned for tomorrow.  Actually, that's not true.  I have one lesson planned for tomorrow.  I planned my whole week of Fundations before brunch this morning.  Without any more babbling here's my schedule:

And here are some preemptive answers.  My grade level partner and I set this schedule together, and our admin team approved it, so we have roughly the same schedule, but we set our blocks.  Some times (GLM, specials, lunch, etc) are set by admin, but outside of those times we set our daily schedule, which is a nice piece of autonomy.  We have duty 4 times a week--3 lunch and 1 breakfast.  I didn't mark this on my schedule, which I also didn't realize until now, but when I go to GLM my students go to 2 consecutive specials.  If there's no GLM one week then I have all of that as personal planning time (which is really nice, but doesn't happen terribly often).  Earlier this summer I blogged about Responsive Classroom and the RC structures that our school uses.  Morning Meeting is one of them, so MM has a very distinct structure and the kids really get into the structure/routine of it--greeting, share, activity, morning message.  I've also added in calendar math this year, which isn't really part of RC, but has been helpful for me and building in some additional math time for my littles.  

If you have any other questions about my daily schedule I'd be happy to answer them.

Happy Sunday, y'all!  (And go Colts!)

xoxo

Rachel

Mid-Day Update

Friends!  Are you totally LOSING your mind getting ready for back to school, or is that just me??

I finally yesterday put every last stinking book into a book bin and I honestly think at this point if I find another unsorted book I might just throw it away.  That was such a never ending project! I'm 100% making that a kid's job during the school year.  Handling it from the end of the school year over the summer was plenty for me. That is one job I will happily pass off to a kid.  Now I'm just feeling nervous because my room is covered with random mess and we're in teacher meetings all week and I'm heading out of town this weekend.  Yipes!

My lunch break is over and our afternoon session is starting, so I just wanted to let you all know that I finished my guided reading planning templates.  You link directly to my store here to check them out.

Keep on keepin' on, friends!  =)