Pivoting into Small Groups
Teacher Moves that Keep Learners Moving Forward
Teachers across the nation share the similar sentiment. They want to differentiate by tailoring instruction to meet students’ needs, but pulling off regular and consistent small group work is difficult. Typically, if small group work exists, it looks and sounds similar to the ways described below:
1. Small groups meet with the teacher, based on students’ reading levels or areas of need across content areas, and the structure of the group resembles teacher-guided instruction.
2. The teacher meets with small groups a lot, but focuses more time and energy on “struggling readers” or “struggling learners”, leaving the rest of the students with little to no small group work.
3. The teacher puts together a robust small group meeting schedule, but it falls short when the teacher feels that students “aren’t independent and ready for small groups” because management of the classroom is a challenge.
4. Small groups meet as long as the teacher is available and prepared.
5. Students meet in groups similar to Lit Circles or Book Clubs and the teacher may or may not join in regularly and may or may not have read the text or book along with the students.
These groups, while they work some of the time, are difficult to launch, sustain and manage across time because they are hyper-focused on the text level or students’ weaknesses and/or are overly dependent on the teacher leading the small group. This workshop will focus on pivoting, or switching up groups regularly, so that we can respond to students’ curiosities, passions, habits, and needs – reaching all learners regardless of strength or areas of need. We will focus on curriculum-centered reasons, social-emotional reasons and individual reader reasons for pivoting. Participants will learn tips for listening into small group conversations and tips for joining in and contributing to small group experiences. Participants will leave the workshop understanding different types of groups to pivot into and out of so that they can begin to make grouping decisions for their students starting the very next day.