Small Groups: Making Every Minute Count

Hi everyone! It's Megan from I Teach. What's Your Super Power?

There has been a huge focus in the last few years on what kids are doing during small group time when they're not working with the teacher.  This hit me like a lightning bolt after reading the Daily 5 about eight years ago.  BUT . . .

What about those little people sitting in front of us?  One of my favorite resources for answering that question is this book by Debbie Diller:

This book is chock full of resources to help you wrap your head around small group planning.  It helped me plan my lessons more thoughtfully.  Most importantly, it's a practical book.  It's full of lists and not theories, lessons instead of philosophies.  I know we need theories and philosophies, but we also need real life resources for the little humans that are sitting in front of us.

Here are SOME of the lists and charts in this book:

When I say the book is full of resources, I'm not lying.

She does include lesson plan templates, but you know how teachers are-I had to make my own.  First, I made a master list of the concepts and areas of focus.  It helped me to see a big picture of all all the things good readers do.  I used that list to plan my lessons for the week.  You can grab my list here.

Here's a picture of one of my lesson plans from when I taught second grade.  This would have been from the very beginning of the year.

Basically, you need to get on Amazon and order this book.  This year I will be working only with small groups for reading and math and will be planning my reading groups this way.  I wish there was a matching math small group book!