Leap Into Literacy
December: Grade 5
Digital Resources
Finding Time for Individual Instruction, Part 2
Very often it seems like there’s just not enough time to fit it all in. We know that it’s important to meet with students every day, but how can we fit in an effective mini lesson, share time, and work with every student individually? Here are some more tips for finding the time for individual instruction during writer’s workshop.
Try strategy groups. When I first realized that I could pull a few students at a time instead of working with every student one at a time, it made me so much more efficient! It makes sense to pull a few students who are struggling with the same issue instead of repeating the same teaching point over three or four times. The structure of the strategy group is similar to that of a conference, but you are sitting with two, three, or even four students rather than just one. Since you already know the teaching point, you can discuss the strategy, model it, and then coach students as they try to apply the strategy to their own reading or writing. An important point to remember is that if most of your class is struggling with the same teaching point, then it’s time to address that in a mini lesson. Check out three tips on forming strategy groups on the Two Writing Teachers blog: Ideas for Planning Small Group Instruction
Consider moving around your classroom to meet with your students rather than having them move to your desk or table. This practice can help you eliminate that lost transition time that sometimes occurs when you wait for students to come to you. “As you move from table to table, conference to conference, to the meeting area or carpet to pull a small group, you are also able to look over students' shoulders and get a sense of how their work is going” (Cruz, 2014). As you get a feel for what the other students are doing, you might even get some ideas for mini lessons or teaching points for strategy groups. Check out Colleen Cruz’s blog post that expands on this idea: Time for Balancing Small Groups and Conferences. She also includes a sample schedule that might be helpful as you plan your conferring/strategy group schedule.