Develop Grouping Plans
Think about the ways in which students were grouped in the classroom video clips: whole class, small group, partners, and individual performance. Now consider your own classroom--the strengths and needs of your students, and the grouping options that address them.
In this activity, you will develop classroom charts identifying students who will work together in reading because of their strengths, needs, interests, and work habits. You can use the charts you prepare in this session to group students for practice in reading and writing, and revise them throughout the year as you assess student performance. When you have finished, save your charts to submit as an assignment.
- Create a classroom list of students who can work together because of similar needs in reading. List the students by group and include the specific areas of literacy learning that you will address in your instruction. The fewer groups you have, the more time you can spend with each group. It is more manageable to have three groups, but you may need to have four depending on the needs of your students.
- Create a class list of students who can work together because of similar interests in a given subject or topic that you are teaching. Include the common areas of interest or background knowledge that the groups can use when reading and responding to texts. These students may differ in reading level. You may want to conduct an "Interest Inventory" to determine common interests among your students.
- Create a class list of students who can be paired for reading and writing activities because of work habits. You may want to pair a student demonstrating stronger work habits with another student who needs support in this area.
- Create a class list of students who can be paired to read or share their writing for feedback on revising and editing. These students may be paired because they are working on reading and/or writing of common books or topics.
Use these charts to group your students for varied reading and writing activities during the day. You may want to explain to students that they will be working with different groups and that groups will be changing continually. Review your student groups each month. Revise them based on changes in student performance and to ensure that students have opportunities to interact with many of their peers.
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