Doable Data

When I was a primary teacher, I never taught  small groups at writing time. I couldn’t fathom how that would go.  It never crossed my mind that I should be teaching small groups. I  just conferred with writers.  Even as a coach, I know that small group teaching sounds great in theory but how do you actually get students  in these groups and how can I support teachers with that work?

 In the next few blog posts I will share with you some steps I have taken to unpack small group instruction in my building. I’m fortunate to have some amazing educators who are willing to open their classrooms and try some of this work. At times it can be really “messy’ and that’s okay. I believe you can’t get better at this work if you are not willing to practice and learn from the messiness.


Doable Data

 At the start of workshop time, the teacher and I have been taking five to six minutes to gather  “Doable Data”. This is a recording sheet that we can take quick notes on possible teaching points. When Dana and I move around the room, we try not to talk to the children. We just travel from kid to kid quickly, reading through their writing booklets and jotting notes. We may look through their folders too. If we can’t read the book, we may ask the child to read it to us. We try not to have conversations with the children. You can see below what these quick notes look like.



Looking at Notes

We share our notes and divide the students into groups. Some of the groups may be kids struggling with topic development and some students may benefit from adding more details.  Although we are doing this together, the implication is that Dana will be able to do this on her own. Once she gets her kids working independently, she can collect quick notes and start to work with kids on the rug. We are trying not to overthink small groups.

What to Teach
Of course, we have some ideas of what kids may be struggling with. For example, if it’s the start of a unit, kids often struggle with the new genre.  At the start of new units, lots of kids benefit from oral rehearsal. You can easily pull a group of kids over who could tap and tell each page of their booklet.

Who’s in the Group

When we are thinking about small groups, it is not always assessment based. Once you start teaching groups during writing time, two things start to happen. The kids are looking forward to being  in your group and you are working with more children in a workshop  than you may have thought possible.

In October, I attended a TC institute on feedback. Lucy Calkins and the staff developers did a lot of talking about the “New Thinking” their organization was having around small group. The biggest takeaway for me was that small group time should provide ample opportunities for kids to practice.

My next post will talk about the new small group structure I learned at TC.

Below are some checklist we have been creating for some of the units of study. Since the are in a Google sheet, you can make a copy and edit for your classroom needs.

Enjoy the day!
Melissa





narrative checklist
nonfiction checklist 
blank checklist 
name checklist