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I have to admit, I was being a little sneaky in my last post and didn't share ALL of the details about how I make my word study routine work, but today I'm going to give away my 2 best tips for any word study schedule {no matter what program you are implementing}.

Note: Links to the Words Their Way books are affiliate links. This means that I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Read my full disclosure here.

I started using the Words Their Way Word Sort books for word study a few years into my teaching journey and I never looked back. Having a ready-made, differentiated word study program like the Words Their Way word sort books is still my #1 recommendation for alleviating the stress of planning and teaching word study. But, today, I have two tips about how to schedule your word study block that will help you make your time more enjoyable!

Tip #1 : DITCH MONDAY-FRIDAY THINKING

My first tip is to stop planning your word study activities based on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday routine. Instead, I recommend that you think of your word study activities as a cycle. In my classroom, students cycle through all activities that I've built into my word study routines for each new word list. I set aside 20 minutes for word study with the goal of consistently having our word study block 3-4 times a week. (Don't forget, you can get more information about our activities in this post).

When I planned our schedule based on Monday-Friday routines, I was often frustrated. Our schedule would get interrupted quite a bit and word study would get pushed aside at least once a week. Often, it really felt like a joke to try to maintain a regular word study block {can you relate?!}. Year after year, I found that training students with a "This is what we do on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday..." did not work and I decided to stop the insanity with my cycling approach.

By shifting my thinking from having all of my students do something specific each day of the week to expanding our word study schedule into a 6-7 day cycle, so many scheduling issues were alleviated!

With a 7 day cycle, I have a lot of flexibility and less stress about the unavoidable interruptions in our schedule. We take about two weeks to complete our seven activities, including two whole-group days that I've built into the schedule where everyone is working on the same thing at the same time (one is a vocabulary day and the other is a "writer's notebook" spelling day.)

Although it takes to cycle through the activities for one word list than it would with a Monday-Friday routine, we value word study more because we know ALL of the routines are going to happen for that word list.

Tip #2 : sTAGGER YOUR GROUPS/ACTIVITIES

My second revolutionary tip is to try staggering your groups so that students are NOT doing the same thing on the same days. {This was another remnant from the "We do this on Monday, this on Tuesday..." approach.} Staggering your word study groups to do different tasks on different days is extremely beneficial for "Meet with the Teacher" day and for "Spelling City" day if you do not have enough computers/devices to go around.

Finally, what you've all been waiting for...a closer look at my schedule.

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2 Tips for Making Any Word Study Schedule Work - Tarheelstate Teacher

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Hi Y'all! I'm back today to share more with you about how I make my word study schedule run more smoothly.

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From 2004 to 2010, a team of researchers and teachers at FCRR collected ideas and created Student Center Activities for use in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms. The activities are designed for students to practice, demonstrate, and extend their learning of what has already been taught, sometimes with teacher assistance and sometimes independently. Students can complete the activities in small groups, pairs, or individually.

Accompanying these Student Center Activities is a Teacher Resource Guide that offers important insights on differentiated instruction and how to use the Student Center materials.

Component

Name of the reading component: Phonological Awareness (PA), Phonics (P), Fluency (F), Vocabulary (V), or Comprehension (C). Each component is color coded: PA is purple, P is orange, F is red, V is green, C is blue.

Subcomponent

Name of the reading subcomponent, which is a subskill of the component.

Activity Name

Activity Number

The letters correspond with the reading component (PA, P, F, V, or C). The numbers are listed in ascending order within each component. The activities are sequenced from simple to more complex within each component and subcomponent.

Student Icon

The suggested number of students for the activity. One student icon indicates that students may work independently or with a small group. Two student icons indicate that the activity requires students to work in pairs. Two student icons with a plus sign indicate that the activity requires two or more students.

Objective

States the goal of the activity, which is aligned with the subcomponent.

Materials

Materials are located on the pages that follow the Activity Plan. Most materials are non-consumable to be prepared and used repeatedly (e.g., word cards can be laminated). Some materials are consumable and will need to be duplicated for each student doing the activity. Other materials, such as counters, are commonly found in most classrooms.

Activity Statement

One sentence explanation of the purpose of the activity and what students do to complete the activity.

Activity Steps

The first step describes how to setup the center. The second step begins with: The student, Students, Working in pairs, or Taking turns depending on the number of students needed to complete the activity. The second step also starts the series of steps to complete the activity. The next steps explain what the student does to complete the activity. The last step lists one of three accountability methods: Self-check, Peer evaluation, or Teacher evaluation.

Example

A visual of the activity and key materials.

Extensions and Adaptations

Suggestions that extend or provide an adaptation for additional practice on the skill addressed in the activity. Materials for the extensions and adaptations are included after the pages that align to the Activity Plan.

Users may use the FCRR Student Center Activities resources as long as modifications are not made, the resources will only be used for non-profit educational purposes, and the copyright belong jointly to the Florida Department of Education and the Florida Center for Reading Research. These resources may not be used for any commercial purposes. These resources on our site may be linked to but not reposted, reproduced, modified, or copied to other sites. For questions about the use of these resources, please contact The Florida Center for Reading Research at fcrr@fcrr.org.

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From 2004 to 2010, a team of researchers and teachers at FCRR collected ideas and created Student Center Activities for use in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms. The activities are designed for students to practice, demonstrate, and extend their learning of what has already been taught, sometimes with teacher assistance and sometimes independently.

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Word Study 101 Archives - Spiral Warmups

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Word Study 102 Archives - Spiral Warmups

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Three Research-Based Vocabulary Strategies Archives - Spiral Warmups

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In this quick course, you will gain five best practices for teaching vocabulary to your students. Plus, you will receive downloadable files and links to resources because we believe learning can happen without reinventing the wheel.

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Connecting Word Meanings Through Semantic Mapping

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Semantic maps (or graphic organizers) help students, especially struggling students and those with disabilities, to identify, understand, and recall the meaning of words they read in the text.

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The new question-of-the-week is:
What are your recommendations for how best to set up and organize small groups in classroom instruction?
Many teachers find that well-organized student small-group work facilitates learning and effective classroom management.

It's the "well-organized" part that can trip many of us up, though.

This four-part series will share "tried-and-true" strategies for maximizing the effectiveness of this kind of instruction.

Today, Valentina Gonzalez, Olivia Montero Petraglia, Jenny Vo, and Jennifer Mitchell provide their suggestions.

You might also be interested in a previous series on small-group instruction, as well as Best Posts On The Basics Of Small Groups In The Classroom.

'Teach the Routine'

Valentina Gonzalez is a former classroom teacher with over 20 years in education serving also as a district facilitator for English-learners, a professional-development specialist for ELs, and as an educational consultant. She is the co-author of Reading & Writing with English Learners and works with teachers of ELs to support language and literacy instruction. Her work can be found on Seidlitz Education and on MiddleWeb. You can reach her through her website or on Twitter @ValentinaESL :
Image by Valentina Gonzalez
I didn't learn overnight how to make small-group instruction work for my students and for me. When I taught mainstream language arts (reading and writing in elementary school), we planned together as a team. Planning went very quickly because the more experienced teachers would bring their lesson plans from previous years and tell us "newbies" what we would be teaching. We all taught the same thing and mostly the same way.

It quickly became clear that teaching in a whole-group setting wasn't meeting the needs of all my students. Some students breezed through what I taught because they already knew it. Others had no idea what just happened. And most of the time I felt like students did not understand their role in learning. We were all just going through motions.

It wasn't long before small-group instruction organically formed in my classroom. After teaching a whole-group lesson and formatively assessing, I divided the class. For example, at the end of a lesson. I asked students to write a ticket out or gave them five questions to answer on a sticky note. Based on their answers, I quickly formed three groups for our next lesson; one for Enrichment, one for Guidance, and one for Reteach.
Image by Valentina Gonzalez
Here's what I learned along the way.
1. Teach the routine.
This is make or break. If students understand what small-group time is going to look and sound like, they will be more successful with it. Before you begin implementing small groups, hold a lesson with students telling them what small groups are and why you are doing them. If possible, model for the class what a small group will look like AND what the rest of the class will be doing. By teaching the routine, you set students up for success. On the other hand, if you don't teach the routine, don't be disappointed if while you are working with your small group the remainder of the class is off task. Clarity is key!

A few things to teach students about the routine are:

the time frame for instruction

what you expect from the time

the acceptable noise level

how students can move about

when it's acceptable to interrupt the small group

how to interrupt the small group

2. Teach students what to do independently.

It's possible that one of the biggest reasons why some teachers abandon small groups is because they become frustrated when they feel they've lost control of the classroom. To avoid this, clarity in goals and expectations for the end result is a must. Be as explicit as possible with instructions before sending students off to work on their own.

Tips for teaching students what to do independently:

write out the goals on chart paper or under a document camera and keep them visible during the lesson

show examples and nonexamples of end products if applicable

give options/choice

Keep in mind that while you work with small groups, the rest of the class can be working on various learning tasks. In primary grades, some teachers implement "centers" or "rotations" while gathering small groups. These can be described as short and interesting learning activities that students move through tied to previously learned skills. Older students can be reading or writing independently, working on research, problem solving, experimenting, or more!
3. Keep groups fluid.
These are your small groups. As Penny Kittle says, "Follow the child." Don't get too firm about them. Do what students need and keep flexibility alive. Today, "Jasmin" may be in the enrichment group but next week, she may need reteaching when we move to another topic. Small groups are fluid. They move and change with the time, topic, and needs of the learners.

There are so many reasons to hold small groups. Your small groups might include:

'Practice, Practice, Practice'
Olivia Montero Petraglia began her teaching career as an upper-primary bilingual teacher in San Diego. Over the last 23 years, she has served in leadership, as an instructional coach, language-acquisition specialist, consultant, and teacher in international schools in Colombia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Laos:
To be fully present and have quality instructional time with small groups of students is golden. While we all know what the research says about the positive impact of small-group instruction, it can be challenging to set up and manage.

Something I wished I would have understood earlier in my teaching career is that setting small-group work is a process that requires an investment in time and a collaborative classroom-community effort. A carefully co-crafted approach can transform small-group work into much more than just ideal conditions for differentiated instruction. It is also a great way to build community and help students develop skills such as self management, time management, and independence. Dedicating two to three weeks at the start of the school year to learn about your students while practicing different aspects of small-group work routines will gain you lots of mileage throughout the remaining school year.
Grouping students
When I start the year, I usually plan heterogeneous groups to work through fun, low-stakes activities. This allows me to notice several learning behaviors at a time. By keeping these initial sessions short (8 -12 minutes), valuable data can be collected quickly and minimize the pressure to form "perfect" groups straight away. What you notice from each day's session will help you regroup students and identify learning objectives for upcoming sessions. As the weeks go by, you will have opportunities to triangulate a range of data to inform different groupings and learning objectives linked to the curriculum; however, you will have had the opportunity to establish dispositions and a sense of community that will help support small-group work for the duration of the school year.
Invite students into the process
Be explicit when sharing the "why" for small-group work. A simple, yet critical initial exercise is to facilitate a circle-time discussion about small-group work. As students share their ideas, record responses on chart paper so that you can refer back to their plan as needed throughout the year.

What good things can happen as a result of small-group learning opportunities?

What things might get in the way of quality group work and what can help us to have the best small-group learning opportunities?

Visual guides
Create anchor charts or digital slides to display bullet point steps for each session. If a student is not sure of what to do after you have provided instructions or a mini-lesson, instead of telling them, point to the visual. Over time, you will condition students to reference the visual instead of asking you. For younger students, you can use numbered images as reminders. This one simple step can be such a game changer.
Prepare checklists
Create a spreadsheet for yourself of weekly or daily "look fors" to make it easy to record quick notes and keep you focused on key data. This also helps keep track of how frequently you meet with students.
Practice, practice, practice:
Think Vygotsky's "i + 1." Introduce different aspects of small-group work one step at a time. For example, to start, provide the whole class with an independent activity that will keep them engaged for the duration of the time needed for you to meet with one or two small groups. As students begin to understand expectations and routines, gradually add more complexity to the dynamics of small-group work sessions.

Discuss and post a "What to do when I'm done" list ahead of time that includes low prep activities such as independent reading, journal writing, or practice for skills previously learned. No need for students to ever be off task even when they finish work.

Debrief at the end of every small-group practice session. Prompt students to offer feedback for feed forward for improvement during the next session. Celebrate successes and name what students are getting right, and you are more likely to see it again and again.

Use music as a scaffold for transitioning. Starting a two- or three-minute song can cue students to move around, gather needed materials, get to their learning spaces, check in with others, and aim to be ready by the end of a song. Resist giving instructions; let the music do the work. Keep practicing until everyone knows what to do. Kids love this, and with carefully selected music, it can also be a mood changer.

I used to think that I couldn't start small-group work until I had time to get to know my students better. Now I understand that there is no better way to get to know students than engaging with them. Small-group interactions make it possible to take careful note of students' learning behaviors, strengths, and academic gaps.

'Flexible & Differentiated Learning'
Jenny Vo earned her B.A. in English from Rice University and her M.Ed. in educational leadership from Lamar University. She has worked with English-learners during all of her 26 years in education and is currently the Houston area EL coordinator for International Leadership of Texas. Jenny proudly serves as the president of TexTESOL IV and works to advocate for all English-learners. She loves learning from her #PLN on Twitter so feel free to follow her @JennyVo15.
What is small-group instruction? Small-group instruction is when you teach the students in small groups ranging from 2-6 students. It usually follows whole-group instruction. There are many benefits of small-group instruction. It is effective because the teaching is focused on the needs of the students, with the goal of growing their academic skills.

Small-group instruction provides opportunities for flexible and differentiated learning. With the smaller number of students, students have more chances to participate. Teachers are able to monitor the students better, thus providing better and more individualized feedback and support. Small-group instruction can be used in all content classes and is beneficial for students of all levels.

How do you best set up and organize small groups? There are a variety of ways you can set up and organize small groups. How you do it depends on your objective and goal for the lesson or activity. Some ways you can group students include: by ability, strategy, expert/interest groups, cooperative tasks, and student choice The three setups I use the most are by ability, by strategy/skill, and by interest.

Grouping by ability: You can group your students by ability, such as by reading level or language-proficiency level. Having students of the same ability in the same group will allow the teacher to provide lessons and activities that are more focused and targeted to the needs of the students at that level. There is less pressure because the students know that they are on the same playing ground as the other group members. For English-learners at that same level, they will feel less intimidated to take chances to speak.

Grouping by strategy/skil l: Strategy groups are great when you want to provide instruction on a specific skill or strategy. Let's say you gave an assessment. Looking at the data from the assessment, you see that certain students need more instruction and practice with a certain skill or strategy. Instead of reteaching the whole class, you can group together students based on the skill they need to work on. You can have reading groups working on inferencing, main idea, or summary. You can have math groups working on multistep problems, graphing, or data analysis. Your science groups can be working on food chains/webs, force and motion, or adaptation. Strategy groups very much rely on data. Groups should be short term and should be very fluid.

Expert/interest groups: Grouping students by subject knowledge or interest is a great way to work with small groups for projects. These types of small groups are perfect for science and social studies classes. Because students are grouped based on areas of interests, they consist of students of varying ability levels. With these groups, it is best that there is a cooperative grouping structure where roles are assigned so that responsibilities are equally divided. In that way, one or two students are not doing all the work or taking over the project and not letting the others be involved. English-learners can benefit from being in this type of group because they can share their knowledge since they may know more about the topic than the other members. It also gives them opportunities to improve their language by hearing more advanced students speak.

What are the other students doing while I'm in small-group instruction? I hear this question a lot when there is discussion about implementing small groups. My answer is: They should be working on activities that you have planned where they can work by themselves, with a partner, or in a small group that will allow you to focus on the group you are working with. For the language arts block, they can be reading and responding to their reading independently or working on their writing. For math, you can set up different workstations with activities focusing on different skills for review. Workstations can also be used for science and social studies class. Giving students a menu of activities to choose from is also a very effective way to keep the rest of the class engaged while you do small groups.

If you have not implemented small-group instruction in your classroom, I encourage you to try it. You will come to see the benefits to the students with your own eyes. With anything new, do it in small steps. Try one way of grouping. Try it once a week and slowly add more time. It is a great instructional approach to add to your teaching toolbox!

Student Leadership
Jennifer Mitchell teaches ELs in Dublin, Ohio. Connect with her on Twitter: @readwritetech or on her blog:
The myriad benefits of partner and group work are clear (particularly for ELs), but a system of purposeful, long-term groups with student leaders can transform classroom culture. Leading groups of 3-5 classmates for a quarter, semester, or year, my "squad leaders" (a structure and term I borrowed from my years in marching band) start group discussions and keep them going, remind their squad members about materials and on-task work as necessary, and, perhaps most importantly, build our community by demonstrating genuine caring for their squad members. As role models for their classmates, these leaders challenge themselves not just to grow academically but also to step out of their comfort zones and hone their leadership skills.

I encourage them to use purposeful small talk and tap into identity-related assignments, just as I do as a teacher, to forge strong connections. They also serve as points of contact between me and their classmates, providing clarification or help to their squad members when possible, notifying me of any concerns, and even pointing out when their squad members excel.

Choosing leaders:

The success of this structure hinges on the effectiveness and buy-in of the squad leaders. It's tempting to choose students who are academically (or linguistically) strong and/or socially popular, and while these can be great characteristics in a leader, they are not as important as the student's desire to improve the classroom culture and grow personally. In fact, it's students who care deeply for others and/or have the personal drive to challenge themselves who are most likely to become effective squad leaders.

Through careful observation during the first month of school, I can usually pick out a few students in each class who will be my leaders. It's so essential to have the right students that if I can't identify at least a couple strong leaders in a given class, I do not move forward with implementation. I've tried and failed to push students who weren't ready, and the whole structure loses credibility too quickly. It's better to stick with typical groups (possibly implementing squads later) than to end up with a class that will never buy into the vision because they've seen it fail with leaders who didn't follow through. (For this reason, it's essential to put careful work into supporting and developing your leaders throughout the year!)

Implementation:

Once I select the leaders, I invite them to a special meeting to introduce the role in more detail, and each leader reflects and sets goals based on their application responses. Next, it's important to discuss the vision of the squad structure with the whole class before seating them with their new squads. I share how powerful this structure was for me and my friends in marching band in terms of personal growth, group excellence, and social-emotional support. Then we split into squads for community-building activities, and from then on, the squads are together for nearly everything. They collaborate, share and reflect on their work together, engage in discussions, and participate in deeper connection-building activities with the squad leaders serving as the glue that binds each group ever more closely. Frequent leader meetings, conferring, and mini-tasks challenge leaders to reflect and problem-solve. Within a classroom culture built around reflection and goal-setting, a focus on learning, and SEL, the squads grow into supportive communities that provide a stronger sense of purpose and belonging in our classroom.

Thanks to Valentina, Olivia, Jenny, and Jennifer for contributing their thoughts.
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email (The RSS feed for this blog, and for all Ed Week articles, has been changed by the new redesign-new ones are not yet available). And if you missed any of the highlights from the first 10 years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. I am also creating a Twitter list including all contributors to this column.

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What Are the Best Strategies for Small-Group Instruction? (Opinion)

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For teachers starting out, take small steps in introducing small-group instruction. Try a single strategy, and add time as you go along.

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We need more strategies than fist to five or thumbs up thumbs down. Teacher Mike Roberts give five strategies that can help us with formative assessment AND classroom management. #5 Episode of Season 3 of the 10-Minute Teacher
www.coolcatteacher.com/e331
Sponsor: Advancement Courses has more than 200 graduate level online professional development courses for K-12 teachers. You can take these courses for continuing education, salary advancement, or recertification. They are practical courses that have teachers developing tangible resources to use in their classrooms immediately. Go to advancementcourses.com/coolcat and use the code COOL20 at checkout to get 20% off any course. With this coupon, a 3 grad credit course is only $359.

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5 formative assessment strategies to help with classroom management

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10 minute teacher podcast with cool cat teacher

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‎10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher: 5 Formative Assessment Strategies to Help with Classroom Management on Apple Podcasts

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We need more strategies than fist to five or thumbs up thumbs down. Teacher Mike Roberts give five strategies that can help us with formative assessment AND classroom management. #5 Episode of Season 3 of the 10-Minute Teacher www.coolcatteacher.com/e331 Sponsor: Advancement Courses has more than...

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Dr. Marc Brackett, founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and lead developer of RULER, a systemic, evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning reflects on where students are now and how to reach them. This Social Emotional Learning (SEL) focused episode is relevant for Fall 2021 as students and teachers return to school.
https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e762
Today's sponsor is NaliniKIDS, creator of wordworkouts.org, a fantastic free SEL resource that will bring reflection and movement to your classroom. At wordworkouts.org you can select a word as the focus to help students get in the right mindset for a day of learning while making connections between academics and daily life. Wordworkouts.org is great for morning meetings, brain breaks, class transitions or advisory and is a wonderful relationship-building tool for your classroom community.
Dr. Marc Brackett - Bio as Submitted Marc Brackett, Ph.D., is founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and professor in the Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine at Yale University. His grant-funded research focuses on: (1) the role of emotions and emotional intelligence in learning, decision making, creativity, relationship quality, and mental health; (2) the measurement of emotional intelligence; and (3) the influences of emotional intelligence training on children's and adults' health, performance, and workplace performance and climate. Marc has published 125 scholarly articles and has received numerous awards, including the Joseph E. Zins Award for his research on social and emotional learning and an honorary doctorate from Manhattanville College. He also is a distinguished scientist on the National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development and on the board of directors for the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL).
Marc is the lead developer of RULER, a systemic, evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning that has been adopted by over 2,000 public, charter, and private pre-school through high schools across the United States and in other countries, including Australia, China, England, Italy, Mexico, and Spain. RULER infuses social and emotion learning into the immune system of schools by enhancing how school administrators lead, educators teach, students learn, and families parent. Research shows that RULER boosts academic performance, decreases school problems like bullying, enriches classroom climates, reduces teacher stress and burnout, and enhances teacher instructional practices. Marc is the author of Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive (Celadon/Macmillan), which will be released in September of 2019.
Marc regularly consults with large companies on best practices for integrating the principles of emotional intelligence into training and product design. He is co-founder of Oji Life Lab, a corporate learning firm that develops innovative digital learning systems for emotional intelligence. With Facebook, Marc has developed a number of products, including: social resolution tools to help adults and youth resolve online conflict; a bullying prevention hub to support educators, families, and teens; and InspirED, an open-source resource center to support high school students in leading positive change in their schools. Marc also holds a 5th degree black belt in Hapkido, a Korean martial art.

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a "sponsored podcast episode." The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and T

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sel spotlight:  dr. marc brackett - how kids learn right now

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10 minute teacher podcast with cool cat teacher

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‎10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher: SEL Spotlight: Dr. Marc Brackett - How Kids Learn Right Now on Apple Podcasts

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Dr. Marc Brackett, founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and lead developer of RULER, a systemic, evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning reflects on where students are now and how to reach them. This Social Emotional Learning (SEL) focused episode is relev...

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3rd Grade LinkTree to a Variety of Resources

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3rd Grade LinkTree to a Variety of Resources

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Miss Hecht Teaches 3rd Grade | Facebook, TikTok | Linktree

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Welcome to my Link Tree! I hope you enjoy the resources I have created!

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But walk down the hall of most K-12 schools, and you can expect to see most teachers standing at the front of the room. There may be an occasional cold call. But for the most part, teachers talk, and students listen.

Part of the reason teachers disagree is because small group instruction means different things to different people.

In some schools, teachers are required to arrange their desks in groups, in the hopes of promoting collaboration. Other schools focus on "learning stations" or "centers" where students move in groups from activity to activity. But it's a lot easier to change seating arrangements than it is to change how we teach.

Many of us went to school in a time when whole-group learning was the standard. So it can be hard to tell which model of small group instruction is best. And once we pick a model, how do we do it right? And how can we tell whether it's working?

What Does Small Group Instruction Look Like?

An elementary school principal once asked me to help her increase student engagement through small group instruction.

"Sister Dorothy" had recently attended a conference where she learned about the station-rotation model. She was enthralled by the idea. S tudents would have a technology table, where they engaged in personalized learning.

At another station, they would complete paper-based collaborative activities. And at a third station, teachers would work with a small group of students.

She wanted teachers to use cooking timers, and when the bell dinged, the students would quickly and quietly move from one station to the next.

"As I walk down the hall," she explained, "I want to see room after room of station rotations, humming like clockwork."

But there was a catch. These teachers had never done small group instruction. Few had ever used technology in their classrooms. They weren't familiar with effective group work strategies or how to teach students to collaborate.

I suggested we work on each learning model in sequence. We could start by having all students explore personalized learning. Or we could start with collaborative learning. Or we could show the teachers how to use data to plan small group lessons for leveled groups.

But Sister Dorothy wasn't interested in any of that. "I want three stations, timers, and students moving from group to group every ten minutes."

We set it up. She walked down the hallway a few times to verify it was "working." And a week later, everyone went back to what they'd always done - lecturing from the front.

What Matters Most in Small Group Instruction?

This example reflects why many teachers struggle with small group instruction. When a teacher stands in front of a room filled with desks in rows, it's easy to see that it's a teacher-centered lesson.

Many educators know that we allow students to work in groups. And it's a lot easier to change seating arrangements than it is to change our instructional methods.

So we get learning centers with multiple choice worksheets. Or a kidney-shaped table with a teacher delivering the same old lecture to five students at a time.

But what matters is harder to measure. Are students engaging in active, inquiry-based learning? Are they learning to collaborate effectively?

Small group instruction is meant to increase student engagement. But actual engagement can be difficult to define, and even more difficult to measure.

There are a dozen or more models of small group instruction being used in schools today. Project-based learning can provide wonderful opportunities for students to engage in thoughtful learning, while working with their peers. The jigsaw model sounds interesting as well, though I haven't seen it used effectively in a real classroom. Both of these are somewhat complex, and could be overwhelming for educators who are new to small group instruction.

In my experience, the workshop model is the most effective and easiest to implement. I also think stations are worth addressing, as they are extremely popular. They also have a lot of potential, but can easily go off-track.

Small Group Instruction with Stations

Stations are a popular but challenging model for small-group instruction.

I hear from a lot of teachers who are required to use stations in their classes. Many are overwhelmed. Frequently, these are elementary teachers, who are responsible for teaching their students language arts, math, social studies, and maybe even science. Now, instead of planning one lesson per subject, they need to plan five stations.

It's easy to see why many administrators love stations. It keeps the teacher from lecturing for an entire period. There's also a common myth about attention spans, which claims that a child's attention span can be found by doubling their age. If you believe that seven-year-olds can only focus for 14 minutes, of course it makes sense to have them move from station to station every ten minutes.

The reality is that attention has more to do with the quality of an activity that its length. Deliver a monotone lecture, and students are tuned out in under a minute. Design an engaging activity, and students can easily focus for an entire period.

Here are three tips to making stations effective without spending hours planning for each lesson.

1. Practice Transitions

Before you try to use stations for an actual learning activity, make sure students understand how they need to move. Students will be more engaged and energized by moving about the room. But if you're not careful, stations can easily devolve into chaos.

Students need to understand that when the timer goes off, they need to move to the next station. Even if they're not finished.

Give them a warning so they have time to wrap-up what they're doing. Anyone gets frustrated when they're interrupted in the middle of a task, and students are no different.

When it's time to switch, make sure everyone stops what they're doing. All it takes is one student to lag behind to throw off the entire rotation.

2. Make it Interesting

The key to good centers is coming up with a simple, yet engaging activity. Of course, students should also learn something valuable.

I see a lot of "stations" or "centers" activities sold online that are just worksheets. Simply having students move around the room to do worksheets doesn't count as small group instruction.

One of my colleagues designed a great stations activity to introduce a unit on the Renaissance. It was nothing more than a set of ten folders, each of which had an image with a question. One was a Leonardo Da Vinci flying machine sketch, with the question "What do you think this machine does?" Another was Don Quixote charging at a windmill with the question, "What is the man on the horse doing?"

Students had an absolute blast. They had never seen these images, so their curiosity was sparked. And the open-ended questions got them thinking creatively about the Renaissance.

It did a great job of generating interest in the upcoming unit, and giving students context for what they were about to learn.

You can find a number of engaging classroom activities for any subject in our resources shop.

3. Keep it Simple

I once designed a stations activity on area of for grad school. One station had a square cut out of graph paper. Students were to find the area by counting the squares. Next, they found the area of a triangle by folding a square in half. At another station, they used the area formula.

I even set up a google docs for them to record their answers. At the end, we would go over the group's responses.

I used it once. I realized too late, that the stations needed to be done in a specific order - but there was no way to do that without having groups wait around. And students weren't connecting the dots as I'd hoped.

I figured I'd eventually work out the kinks, but I never did. What teacher has the time to design such complex activities on a regular basis?

The beauty of the Renaissance stations was their simplicity. I ended up borrowing the model for the rest of the units in the course. All I did was find ten images for our China unit, and wrote ten question. Then I found ten for our Medieval Europe unit, and so on.

I even used the model as a demo lesson for an interview. They were learning about Andrew Jackson, so I found ten political cartoons about Old Hickory.

Students got a lot more value from the simple activities. Notice, I didn't say easy. The questions were open-ended, and prompted some really deep thinking from students. But the directions, structure, and my preparation time were all pretty simple.

I could find ten images and write ten questions in around 30 minutes. Given the benefit students gained from the activity, that was definitely time well-spent.

Small Group Instruction with the Workshop Model

While stations can be a simple way to engage students and spark inquiry, they don't allow students to engage deeply with a topic. They also aren't great for promoting mastery of standards.

Stations make great appetizers. But when I want small group instruction to promote deep inquiry, my go-to model is the workshop.

The workshop lesson model was first developed by John Van de Walle for use in math classes. But his three-part model has been adapted for use in any subject.

1. Engage and Inspire: Prepare students for activity by connecting prior knowledge, but without explaining the concept to be learned.

2. Exploration: Students engage in a problem-based activity, allowing them to learn through problem-solving.

3. Share and reflect: Review the activity, correct misunderstandings, and help students cement the day's learning.

Workshop lessons can be extremely engaging and effective. But they are very different from what most students and teachers are used to. Here are four keys to an effective workshop.

1. Intentional Grouping

There's more than one right way to group students. But there are hundreds of wrong ways.

The most ineffective way to group students is randomly. If you want students to pick their groups, that's a choice. And if you trust them to pick their teams, this could be the right approach. Or maybe you want them to choose the wrong partners so they learn how to pick better.

There is also a time and place for leveled groups. But you should only use leveled groups if you have different activities for each group. If you level students and give them the same activity, all your doing is magnifying inequities.

I usually start by ensuring each group has a strong leader who will help the group focus. Then, I split up students who tend to tray off-task. I also look for complementary skills, like grouping a good writer with a good public speaker.

2. Productive Struggle

Inquiry-based learning is supposed to be challenging. When students engage in productive struggle, they learn more, develop confidence, and retain what they've learned.

We often underestimate our students. When students are disengaged, they don't learn much. Many teachers misinterpret their achievement as their potential. When we slow down and overscaffold, students can become even more disengaged. It becomes a vicious cycle.

It's a delicate balance. We need to make sure we are targeting a student's Zone of Proximal Development. A good inquiry-based activity should push students just outside their comfort zone.

If students breeze through the activity, we haven't created productive struggle. And if they don't know where to begin, we need to lower the bar.

If students are new to workshop, we may want to use simpler content while keeping the rigor of the assignment. They will be learning how to learn through inquiry, so we should let them focus on one thing at a time.

3. Don't Spoil the Surprise

When I plan a workshop lesson with a teacher who is new to inquiry learning, many of them can't help but spoil the surprise.

We find a standard, and together we plan a great workshop. It has an engaging hook, a rigorous activity, and a meaningful close. Sometimes I even do a demo lesson beforehand.

Then, at the last minute, the teacher gets cold feet. Instead of going through with the inquiry-based approach, many will explain step-by-step, how students should solve the problem.

In math classes, this often means giving students a formula. In the humanities, it means telling students what points to address in a short answer question.

Once the students start working, they quickly repeat what the teacher told them. They finish early. And they learn, once again, that all the right answers come from the teacher.

When introducing a workshop, the goal, as Dan Meyers puts it, is to "bait the hook." Show students why they should care about the topic. Show them how it connects to what they already know.

But just don't show them how to answer the question.

4. Provide Structure with a Timer and Rubric

Workshop lessons are all about creating a lively and creative atmosphere. But that doesn't mean there is no structure.

In order for students to learn through exploration, they need boundaries.

When I pass out an activity and just tell students to get started, they tend to take a while to get going. They'll talk about the game last night. They'll spend 20 minutes deciding who does what job.

It's amazing how much more productive students are when I give them a time limit. As soon as they see a timer counting down, they get down to business.

A group work rubric is helpful for two reasons. It helps students understand what's expected. And it lets them know they are receiving a grade for the activity.

I know some educators believe students shouldn't be graded on classwork. And I agree, in theory. I'm in favor of doing away with grades completely. But if we grade tests and not classwork we are sending them a confusing message. "Today doesn't matter. Next Friday does."

And then we wonder why students don't put their best effort in on regular class days. Or why they all start looking for help the day before a test.

Unless you're prepared to stop grading your students, let them know that workshop matters. Assign a grade.

Getting Started with Small Group Instruction

If you've been wanting to try small group instruction, I hope this article has given you enough to get started. If you still have any burning questions, post them in our Facebook group, the Reflective Teachers Community.

Stations are relatively easier to implement. All you need to do is put activities on separate tables, and have students move from one to the next.

Workshops require a bit more of a shift. It's very different from a lecture-based or textbook-based approach to teaching. If you'd like to start with a pre-made lesson, you can find some on our Teachers Pay Teachers page:

Team Story Analysis: Students groups choose a story to read together, identifying plot elements, vocabulary, and more

Fraction Number Sentence Proofs: Students work with expressions and equations involving fractions, proving with both calculation and reasoning

Sieve of Eratosthenes: Students find and explain patterns in the times tables, and connect multiplication to factors and multiples

You can also download our free workshop lesson plan template. It walks you through the key elements of planning a three-part workshop, with suggestions for each part of your lesson.
GET YOUR FREE PLANNING TEMPLATE Author Bio
Jeff Lisciandrello is the founder of Room to Discover and an education consultant specializing in student-centered learning. His 3-Bridges Design for Learning helps schools explore innovative practices within traditional settings. He enjoys helping educators embrace inquiry-based and personalized approaches to instruction. You can connect with him via Twitter @EdTechJeff

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Small Group Instruction: Station Rotation vs Workshop Model

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But walk down the hall of most K-12 schools, and you can expect to see most teachers standing at the front of the room. There may be an occasional cold call. But for the most part, teachers talk, and students listen. Part of the reason teachers disagree is because small group instruction means different things to different people.

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Student-Centered World: A Student-Centered Learning Resource

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Utilizing small group instruction is not a new concept in education. However, in terms of student learning, there is often a grey area about what the best practices are for making this education model effective for individual students and lesson objectives.

Using small group planning and instruction consistently serves a bit of a different purpose than a more traditional method of instruction as it addresses specific students' needs in a natural way, increasing student participation and being able to use effective feedback to drive further instruction (which is what the goal is when teaching, regardless of whatever the current trend of teaching is in your classroom, school, or district level).

A 2002 study recognized the importance of small-group instruction to the engagement of students in specific skills and subject areas. The findings stated that "multilevel ordinal regression analyses showed that children were three times more likely to be cognitively and behaviorally engaged and one-and-a-half times more likely to be emotionally engaged during collaborative groups than direct instruction" (Sun, et. al., 2022). These results are significant because they provide educators with preliminary data to support the use of small-group instruction in their classrooms.

Despite the study and others like it, many educators remain hesitant to utilize small group instruction in their classrooms due to a lack of understanding about how to effectively manage and monitor student learning in this environment. However, with proper planning and execution, small group instruction can be an effective way to differentiate instruction and meet the needs of all learners in a classroom.

The Benefits of Small Group Planning and Instruction

When used effectively, small group instruction allows educators to:

- Differentiate instruction based on students' readiness levels, interests, and learning styles

- Monitor student progress and understanding in real-time

- Provide targeted feedback and support

- Maximize student engagement and motivation

- Encourage higher-level thinking and problem-solving

There are many benefits to doing this properly. For starters, it allows for more personalized and targeted instruction. Additionally, small group work can be used as a form of assessment, providing educators with valuable data about student understanding. Finally, when students are engaged in small group work they are often more motivated and excited about learning, leading to improved academic outcomes.

Understanding How to Group Students for Small Groups

Knowing how to group students in small groups is a critical skill for effective small-group teaching, and it plays a pivotal role in promoting active learning and tailored instruction. It's a great way to address the diverse learning needs of students, as it allows teachers to assemble small groups based on their skill levels, common interests, and identified skills.

Much like fitting puzzle pieces together, careful planning ensures that each group is well-balanced and aligned with the end goal of the lesson. In small group discussions, students benefit from different perspectives and collaborative problem-solving, enhancing their critical thinking skills.

For example, grouping students by their ability levels for sight word practice, and using colorful index cards or popsicle sticks with students' names, ensures that they receive instruction at the appropriate level and pace. It also fosters student interaction and engagement, as they work with different classmates and share new ideas.

Furthermore, small groups allow teachers to employ various teaching strategies, such as cooperative learning groups or project-based learning teams, to enhance students' learning experiences. This approach is particularly effective for English language learners, as it provides the right support for their language development.

Ongoing assessment, such as using exit tickets or Class Dojo data, helps adapt and modify groupings as needed. By understanding the strengths and learning styles of their students, teachers can group them into cooperative and flexible groups with similar interests and learning objectives, ensuring that each student's learning needs are met. In essence, grouping students for small groups is an effective method of enhancing classroom instruction, promoting active learning, and enabling students to learn from one another while progressing at their own pace.

It is a key component of flexible grouping, breaking down larger teams into smaller, more interactive units that contribute to overall learning objectives. This practice should be part of the classroom routine, benefiting students in the primary grades and beyond, and making learning a more engaging and enriching experience.

Creating a Plan for Small Groups

When first starting small-group learning, here is what you need to take into consideration as the key characteristics of small-group teaching:

-The type of activity or project

-How students will be grouped

-The materials and resources that will be used

-How you will monitor student progress and understanding

-What level of support and challenge each group will need

Types of activities:

There are three main types of activities that can be used in small-group learning, and they are:

-Projects: These are long-term activities that require students to use higher-level thinking skills and collaborate with each other.

-Problem-solving: These activities require students to work together to find solutions to problems.

-Practice: These activities give students the opportunity to practice new skills or strategies.

How students will be grouped:

There are a few different ways that students can be grouped for small-group learning, and they are:

-By readiness level: This is when students are grouped based on their ability to do the task at hand.

-By interest: This is when students are grouped together based on their interests.

-By learning style: This is when students are grouped together based on their preferred learning style.

Based on the objective(s) of the lesson plans, educators can determine which students will be grouped together. For example, if the objective is to practice a specific skill (or even new skills), then students should be grouped based on their readiness levels in order to provide appropriate support and challenge. If the objective is to explore a new topic, then students can be grouped based on their interests. If the objective is to practice a specific strategy, then students can be grouped based on their learning styles.

Once students are placed with other group members, it is important to monitor their progress and understanding in order to provide targeted feedback and support. This can be done through questioning, observing, and using data from formative assessments. If students are struggling, then the educator can provide additional support. If students are not challenged, then the educator can adjust the level of difficulty. If students are not engaged, then the educator can try a different approach, which could be anything from smaller groups to different activities.

Materials and resources:

The materials and resources that will be used in small-group learning will depend on the type of activity that is being done. For example, if students are working on a project, they will need materials such as paper, pencils, scissors, glue, etc. If they are doing a problem-solving activity, they will need materials such as puzzles, games, etc. And if they are doing a practice activity, they will need materials such as worksheets, flashcards, etc.

Monitoring student progress and understanding:

It is important to monitor students' progress and understanding in order to provide targeted feedback and support. This can be done through questioning, observing, and using data from formative assessments. If students are struggling, then the educator can provide additional support. If students are not challenged, then the educator can provide more difficult tasks. And if students are not engaged, then the educator can try a different approach.

Differentiating instruction based on students' readiness levels, interests, and learning styles can be time-consuming, but if you are naturally collecting the data in all the things you do in the classroom (when, if done correctly, there should be no extra work on your part), it is much easier to accomplish on a daily basis. This truly is what makes effective small-group teaching one of the most popular methods of achieving intended learning outcomes.

Elementary teachers preparing for small groups:

What might this look like in a K-5 environment? Elementary teachers are often tasked with preparing for whole-class instruction, which can be difficult to balance with preparing for small-group instruction. However, switching this to small group instruction can be as simple as dividing the class into groups based on readiness levels, interests, or learning styles.

If you are using a data-based approach to small group instruction, you will likely already have an understanding of which students need more support and which students need more challenge. You can use this data to create groups that will be most successful.

For example, if you have a group of students who are struggling with a particular skill, like reading a short text, you can create a small group that will focus on that skill. Or, if you have a group of students who are excelling in a particular subject, you can create a small group that will focus on enrichment activities.

Small Group Activities in Middle School:

Middle school students are often ready for more independence, so small group activities can be more student-led. However, it is still important for the teacher to provide guidance and support. For example, if you are working with a group of students on a problem-solving activity, you might give them a list of materials they will need and then let them work together to figure out how to use the materials to solve the problem.

If you are using data to inform your decisions about small group instruction, you might use it to create groups that focus on different skills or content areas. One small group may be working on an activity focusing on math skills while another has a more structured approach with a step-by-step explanation, and yet another may focus more on peer discussion of the topic. The possibilities really open up when you take the needs of individual learners into consideration.

Central concepts of planning for a small group of students in high school:

The same key elements apply when planning for small groups in high school: focus on students' needs, differentiate instruction, and use data to inform decisions. However, there are a few other things to keep in mind when planning for small group instruction in high school.

One of the most important things to consider is the maturity level of the students. High school students are typically more independent than elementary or middle school students, so it is important to give them activities that will allow them to work independently. However, they still need guidance and support from the teacher.

Another thing to consider when planning for small group instruction in high school is the level of rigor. High school students are ready for more challenging activities than elementary or middle school students. This doesn't mean that the activities need to be more difficult, but they should be more engaging and require higher-level thinking.

Finally, it is important to consider the time available for small-group instruction. High school schedules are often more hectic than elementary or middle school schedules, so it is important to use the time wisely. This means that the activities should be well-planned and focused on the needs of the students.

Possibilities when Implementing the Key Elements

The key elements here are focusing on students' needs, differentiating instruction, and using data to inform decisions. With proper planning and execution, small group instruction can be an effective way to meet the needs of all learners in a classroom. By implementing collaborative learning and then analyzing the success of any small group, the assessment data (be it formative assessment or otherwise) will help hone in on the particular skill (or skills) that need to be a focus and allow the individual needs of students to be the focus in small group lessons.

The more you move from whole group instruction, the more possibilities open. For instance, when lesson planning you can look at learning stations (and/or a station-rotation model), your seating arrangement, learning materials, etc. The possibilities are truly endless and give that instructional support that only teaching with a reduced student-teacher ratio can give.

Think about it: if you're trying direct instruction with upwards of 30 students, you are not going to know the right level of all your students' needs. However, if you have a system where you are working with them in more intimate numbers, you will see that these strategies increase student engagement and the retention of knowledge, which is exactly what the different formats of small group teaching not only suggest but hone in on the principles of effective instruction.

The benefits of small group instruction make it worth the effort. Small group instruction allows educators to maximize student engagement and motivation, encourage higher-level thinking and problem-solving, and provide targeted feedback and support. With proper planning and execution, small group instruction can be an effective way to differentiate instruction and meet the needs of all learners in a classroom.

This systematic approach to teaching addresses gaps that may slip through the cracks with a more traditional model of instruction. It allows for additional help that different groups of students may need but are too embarrassed to ask for. It is an important part of course design and not only works in each content area but will allow for a deeper understanding of content in the amount of time you are allotted within the school year.

Small Group Planning and Instruction and the Four Keys

Finding ways to implement small group planning and instruction effectively isn't necessarily difficult, it just needs to ebb and flow with the students and where they are (physically, mentally, and emotionally). Being flexible is the key to making all of this work. The key is engagement. There are four keys to student engagement that I discuss in my video training challenge called "Finding Your Student Engagement Formula" and it walks you through those four keys and how to implement them in the classroom.

If you are interested in registering (it's totally free), visit the Finding Your Student Engagement Formula Challenge registration page and you will be notified the next time the series is available.
This article was originally published on April 5, 2022 References:
Jingjing Sun, Richard C. Anderson, Tzu-Jung Lin, Joshua A. Morris, Brian W. Miller, Shufeng Ma, Kim Thi Nguyen-Jahiel, Theresa Scott, Children's engagement during collaborative learning and direct instruction through the lens of participant structure, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Volume 69, 2022, 102061, ISSN 0361-476X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2022.102061 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361476X22000200)

After moving from a teacher-dominated classroom to a truly student-centered one, Jenn found herself helping colleagues who wanted to follow her lead. In 2018 she decided to expand outside of her school walls and help those out there who were also trying to figure out this fantastic method of instruction to ignite intrinsic motivation in their students. Read more about her journey with Student-Centered World at studentcenteredworld.com/about

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Ways To Maximize Small Group Creation for Students

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Utilizing small group instruction is not a new concept in education. However, in terms of student learning, there is often a grey area.

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When teachers began asking for time to work with students in small groups, Humboldt Elementary found the time for them. In addition to adjusting the schedule, they empowered students by mixing scaffolded supports with a variety of student-friendly elective enrichments.

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When teachers began asking for time to work with students in small groups, Humboldt Elementary found the time for them. In addition to adjusting the schedule, they empowered students by mixing scaffolded supports with a variety of student-friendly elective enrichments.

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Formative assessments matter because teachers make important instructional decisions based on the data they provide.

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From the book, Why Are We Still Doing That? by P & W Himmele

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From the book, Why Are We Still Doing That? by P & W Himmele

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chapter 4 - Formative Assessment Imposters

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In classrooms across America, summative assessment is the reigning, undisputed champion when it comes to collecting data on what students have learned. But should this be the case? Does summative assessment do what we need it to do? Is formative assessment a smarter, stronger, faster, and/or better option? Let's explore.

Definitions

Summative Assessment evaluates what students have learned after completion of a unit of study by comparing scores to a predetermined standard.

Formative Assessment monitors student progress during a unit of study to help educators improve their instruction, and thereby improve student learning.

The Tale of the Tape

Let's unpack the above image. is for learning because the intent is to improve instruction and increase learning. These assessments are done continually during the teaching/learning process and allow teachers to adjust their instruction. Summative assessment merely checks what a student has learned after a unit of study is complete. At this point, it is too late to adjust instruction.

Formative assessments are low-stakes because scores are not generated and grades are not involved. Data from these types of assessments are merely used to inform future lessons. Summative assessments are considered high-stakes because things like grades, class rankings, graduation, and college acceptance are often on the line.

Examples

Summative Assessments

midterm or end of course exams

cumulative projects

End-of-unit tests

Standardized tests such as SATs

Formative Assessment s

A Matter of Life or Death: A Metaphor About Assessment

Let's say that a friend of ours has recently passed away. A doctor performs an autopsy to discover the cause of death. It is learned that our friend had a heart condition that led to his untimely death. The autopsy gave us answers, but our friend is gone and it is too late to take corrective actions.

A different friend schedules a medical appointment for an annual checkup. The doctor discovers that this friend also has a heart condition, but is able to recommend a diet and exercise regimen to help our friend improve her health. The doctor orders additional tests and schedules periodic checkups to support our friend.

The autopsy represents summative assessment . Sure, we might find out what was wrong with that friend, but he is still dead. It is too late for us to do anything about it. Summative tests are similar. A student might get a poor test score due to lack of understanding, but the unit is over and it's time to move on to the next one. That student will probably never get a chance to update her learning.

The annual checkup is like formative assessment . The patient gets feedback in real time and the doctor can determine if different procedures might be helpful. Formative assessment not only allows teachers to give immediate feedback to students, but lets the instructor consider how to make changes to support student learning.

The Outcome

It is clear that formative assessment offers a number of advantages over summative assessment . Formative assessments can be quick, inexpensive/free, and low-pressure for the students. Many of the formative assessment strategies are engaging and can feel like games to the students. Most importantly, formative assessment allows teachers to collect real time data and make changes to teaching strategies accordingly.

To be clear, summative assessment has its place and is not going away anytime soon. Statewide testing, SATs, etc. are likely here to stay. But, as classroom teachers and administrators we can consider whether or not traditional end-of-unit tests are as valuable as we think. I would argue that we tend to rely on these tests because "that's the way it has always been done."

The Decision: a knockout victory for Formative Assessment !

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Formative Assessment vs. Summative Assessment: Which is Better? -

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In classrooms across America, summative assessment is the reigning, undisputed champion when it comes to collecting data on what students have learned. But should this be the case? Does summative assessment do what we need it to do? Is formative assessment a smarter, stronger, faster, and/or better option? Let's explore.

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Formative assessment is a proven technique for improving student learning, and the strategies shared here by Jay McTighe work both in the classroom and remotely.

Bob Daemmrich / Alamy Stock Photo

Using formative assessments designed to check for understanding and provide students with feedback and support is one of the most effective ways to improve and enhance student learning. Yet because of the need to cover large amounts of information and develop many skills, teachers may not take time checking to make sure students understand a concept or can effectively apply a skill, and, if they don't, figuring out ways to improve their learning.

Thankfully, there are practical, proven formative assessment techniques that teachers can use as a quick "pulse check" to gauge students' understanding. The eight techniques here can be applied across grades and subject areas in virtual, hybrid, and in-person learning environments.

The results of these checks should not be graded since the purpose of formative assessment techniques is to obtain feedback to use in improving teaching and learning, not to evaluate learning. It's important that students understand the purposes of these techniques, that mistakes are OK-and even expected-and that they will not be graded on their responses.

Thumbs up: I understand _____ and can explain it in my own words.

Wave hand: I'm not completely sure about _____ and doubt I could explain it.

Thumbs down: I don't yet understand _____ and cannot explain it.

Ask students to display a designated hand signal to indicate their degree of confidence in their understanding of a concept, principle, or process. For example:

Self-assessment and self-reporting can be unreliable, so use a random calling technique to periodically select students with their thumbs up (e.g., pull names out of a bowl) and ask them to explain.

In virtual learning environments, students can signal on camera or post designated emojis to signal their understanding levels.

Present students with a few binary-choice statements or questions containing an understanding or a common misconception and have them select a response (e.g., True or False, Agree or Disagree) and share it via a whiteboard, cell phone app, or hand signal (e.g., thumbs up or down). This efficient technique is particularly effective to use in checking students' prior knowledge or potential misconceptions before beginning new instruction.

True/False: When dropped from the same height, a bowling ball will land before a marble.

Agree/Disagree: Is this an example of alliteration?

Here are a couple of "choosing" formats with examples:

In virtual learning environments, students can use the chat box feature to record their choices, or respond to a poll.

3. Picture It

Draw a visual web of factors affecting plant growth.

Develop a concept map to illustrate how a bill becomes a law.

Create a story map or sequence diagram showing the major events in the story.

Visual representations, such as graphic organizers and concept maps, are widely used to enhance learning, and can also be used as formative assessments. Have students create a visual or symbolic representation (e.g., a graphic organizer, web, or concept map) of information and abstract concepts and then be prepared to explain their graphic. Picturing techniques are especially useful to see if students understand how various concepts or elements of a process are related.

In virtual learning environments, students can post their visuals on a Google slide or Pinterest board, or in Nearpod or Jamboard.

4. Troubleshoot It

1. Identify the flaw or error, and (even better)

2. Correct it.

One of the most efficient and effective quick checks for understanding involves troubleshooting. Present students with a common misconception or a frequent procedural error. See if they can:

Present a rough draft of writing and ask students to serve as an editor to mark compositional and grammatical errors.

Have students review work on a multistep word problem to identify computational mistakes and reasoning errors, and correct them.

In a photography class, show photos reflecting common compositional errors or flawed exposure or lighting, and have students recommend needed corrections using photo editing software.

Their responses will provide a quick check of the depth of their understanding.

5. Summarize It

Compose a tweet in 280 characters or less answering the question: What is the big idea that you have learned about _____?

Record a one-minute podcast or vodcast using an app on a smartphone or tablet to summarize the key concepts from one or more lessons.

Prepare a weekly letter to your teacher (or parents) summarizing something that you now understand as a result of your learning during the past week.

Here are a few examples of this technique:

Create a "real life" word problem to see if other students understand how to calculate surface area.

Locate a news article or blog post that presents an example of the tension between individual rights and the common good.

Find examples of symmetry somewhere in our school or on the playground.

Understanding is revealed when students can transfer their learning to new situations. Accordingly, one of the best checks for understanding is to see if students can apply material in a somewhat novel context. This technique includes asking students to find or create new and novel examples to illustrate a newly learned concept.

Develop a five-minute lesson to teach a younger student about how supply and demand can affect the price of things. Use one or more specific examples that we have not discussed.

Your friend has been absent and missed the last two lessons where you learned about community helpers. Draw a picture of at least five helpers in our community to help them understand the concept of a community helper.

This is a more involved, but valuable, formative assessment technique. Ask students to teach a new concept or skill to someone else-a new student, a student who has just returned from absence, or a younger child. You'll be able to gauge their degree of understanding as you review or observe their lesson. Here are two examples:

In virtual learning environments, students can record a lesson using a laptop, tablet, or cell phone camera.

8. Analogize It

A more sophisticated technique invites students to develop an analogy or metaphor to illustrate a newly learned concept or skill. The effectiveness of their explanatory analogy or metaphor can give you insight into their understanding. However, be cautious when interpreting student responses to this technique-a student may very well understand a concept but be unable to generate an appropriate analogy. Asking students to explain their analogies will give you further insight into their understanding.

A fraction is a part of a whole like a wheel is a part of a bicycle.

Formative assessment is like tasting a meal while you're cooking because it provides feedback that a cook can use to make adjustments to improve the meal.

Here's a prompt for students: A _____ is like a _____ because _____.

Students can also create visual analogies (combining techniques 3 and 8). In virtual learning environments, students can post their analogies and metaphors in a chat box or on a Google slide or Pinterest board.

Note: Several of these techniques (especially 1, 2, 5, and 8) can be naturally used in conjunction with another popular formative assessment technique-an exit card-given to students at the end of a class period or end of the school day.

While these techniques can provide valuable information about the effectiveness of teaching and the quality of students' learning, they're not ends in themselves. Instead, they should be seen as the first step in a " feedback cycle." The next step is to act on that feedback-reteaching something that many students failed to learn; correcting misconceptions that may be revealed; and/or providing scaffolded support to students who need it. Moreover, when students are given feedback, they must also be given opportunities to use it, such as revising their work, practicing the skill, or correcting errors. (Getting feedback without a chance to use it is like eating without digesting!) Then, the formative assessment cycle reboots as revisions can be assessed again, with progress noted and new learning goals set.

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Formative assessment is a proven technique for improving student learning, and the strategies shared here by Jay McTighe work both in the classroom and remotely.

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With school starting back for many teachers, lesson plans is at the top of the to-do list, and planning creative and effective lesson plans is a high priority. One important component to any lesson is checking for students' understanding. A quick and simple formative assessment can be beneficial not only to the students, but to the teacher as well because this quick assessment can help the teacher know what the students understand and what they don't. Here are 10 of my favorite ways to quickly check for understanding that will work for almost any lesson.

Thumbs up/Thumbs down. Use this strategy by simply asking questions. If the students agree or think the answer is correct, they give a thumbs up. If they disagree or think the answer is incorrect, they give a thumbs down.

Individual White Boards. Students can write a simple answer on the white board and turn it around. This is a great way to quickly see who understands the concept and who does not. This is great for math or for any short answers that can be quickly seen by the teacher.

Quick Write- This is a timed writing response. Give students a prompt related to the lesson and a minute or two to write a response. The teacher can take up and read to quickly determine if further instruction is necessary.

5 Words- Students use 5 words to describe the topic of the lesson and explain and justify their word choices.

Top 10 List or Top 10 Takeaways. Students simply list their top 10 ideas that they feel were the most important key points to the lesson. This one is great for the end of of longer unit of study.

Opinion Chart- Have each student to draw a T chart on his/her paper. At the top on the left write Opinion. At the top on the right, write Evidence. Students complete the chart by writing an opinion about the topic they have just learned, then on the right, justify their answer with evidence from the lesson.

Yes/No cards. Simply use index cards and write (or have students to write) Yes on one side and No on the other side in large letters. Ask review questions about the lesson that require only a yes or no answer, and instruct students to hold up the correct answer. This is a quick and easy way to assess students understanding.

Physical Response. This can be a fun way to end a lesson, and students love this! Ask students to do something such as raise both hands or stand up if the answer is_______. For example, if you are studying parts of speech, call out a word and tell students to raise both hands if it is a noun or turn around if it is a verb. This could be done with True and False answers. Call out a question and instruct students to hop one time if the answer is true and turn around if it is false. There are many possibilities to this fun activity.

Show Me the Card Activity. This is a fun activity similar to the Yes/No cards that can be found FREE in my store. If you are studying there, their, and they're, download this freebie. Call out a sentence (provided in the freebie) and instruct students to hold up the card with the correct spelling. Quickly assess who knows and understands the meanings and spellings of each of these words. This is another activity that students love. Just click the link in the pictures below to get your free set.

Exit Slips- Exit slips are a great way to quickly assess students' understanding of a concept. An exit slip is a wonderful tool to use in your classroom at the end of a lesson to help you quickly assess students' understanding of a concept and plan the next steps accordingly. This fun set of exit slips that are found in my store, can be used with almost any subject. Your students will love the variety of these eye-catching exit slips, and you will love the simplicity of having a closure activity for your lessons that will help you assess the progress of your students. To purchase, click the link in the picture below.

No matter which method you use for a quick check for understanding, adding these simple formative assessments to your lessons will help you know what your students are actually learning.

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10 Ways to Quickly Check for Understanding: Formative Assessment

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Checking for Understanding Formative Assessment Exit Slips

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If you've been around for awhile, you know how much I love to share picture books and chapter books with kids. There's something so exciting about getting caught up in the characters and storyline. But I also know how important it is to share nonfiction texts with students. Here are several reasons why children need nonfiction in the primary classroom.

BENEFITS OF NONFICTION TEXTS IN THE PRIMARY CLASSROOM

Nonfiction Texts Allow Students to Explore Interests

Many students already gravitate towards nonfiction, especially when they are interested in a particular topic. Since kids are naturally curious, nonfiction encourages students to read and find the answers to those questions.

Build Background Knowledge

When students are able to read and build background knowledge about a particular topic, they can apply that learning in new and unfamiliar situations.

Teach Children About Their World

Rudine Sims Bishop wrote, "Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real, imagined, familiar, or strange." These informational texts open the windows to the world around us without the need to leave home.

Nonfiction Texts Expand Vocabulary

When presented with a nonfiction text, there will often be new or unfamiliar vocabulary within the pages. Reading these texts help students increase their word knowledge and expand their vocabulary. Kids also have many opportunities to learn these terms through context clues, photographs, and the glossary.

Provide Opportunities to Practice Reading Skills

Nonfiction texts expose students to photographs, tables, charts, graphs, diagrams, and more. As students learn to navigate these nonfiction text features, they can determine what is important in the text and how to access that information more quickly. Students also have opportunities to work with various text structures.

Prepare Students for Upper Elementary and Beyond

Reading is a lifelong skill. No matter what path students choose, they will face informational texts in the future with textbooks, manuals, contracts, online articles, and more. Using nonfiction texts in the primary grades will help students in the long-run.

Nonfiction Series Books for Kids

Ready to add some nonfiction titles to your classroom library, but not sure where to start? Here are some of my favorite nonfiction series books for kids. As always, please make sure that the books you share have accurate and up-to-date information in them.

Do you already have nonfiction texts in the classroom, but need resources to pair with them? I can help! Click on these links to learn more.
National Geographic Kids
Magic Tree House Fact Trackers
Fly Guy Presents
All Nonfiction Companions
Happy Reading!

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Benefits of Nonfiction Texts in the Primary Classroom

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If you've been around for awhile, you know how much I love to share picture books and chapter books with kids. There's something so exciting about getting caught up in the characters and storyline. But I also know how important it is to share nonfiction texts with students.

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Promoting Student-Led Learning in Elementary School

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Giving students chances to make classroom decisions and manage discussions guides them to take agency in their learning.

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The Common Core State Standards have established new expectations for literacy in all content areas. The expression "all teachers are teachers of reading" has never been truer.

We should be intentional, however, about the way we approach literacy in the content areas. When discussing the integration of the Common Core Literacy Standards, a social studies teacher may reach for support from colleagues. "So we should ask our ELA teacher about this, right?" This is a crucial moment in the intent and design of a literacy program within a school.

Examples of Literacy In Content Areas

When an ELA teacher designs the whole-school literacy plan we will often end up with general reading and writing strategies that can be applied in multiple contents and contexts. Instead, content area teachers should discuss, plan, and design strategies specific to their discipline.

A historian, for example, understands the human element of every text and source. Professionals in this discipline analyze:

the author's purpose

where the document fits in time and space

and if the information is credible through a process of corroboration.

In math, words act as functions and can represent specific processes. Writing a proof in math is quite different than writing a poem in ELA.

How do we prepare students for the discipline-specific demands of college and career in the 21st century?

Rather than relying on the ELA department to plan and implement literacy across the contents, we must consider disciplinary literacy school wide. Consider the following as a place to start:

1. What texts, sources, and stimuli are common in my discipline? Are there strategies to effectively read and write about discipline-specific texts?

2. What reading and writing skills do professionals in my discipline use? How can we support and apprentice our students towards these skills?

3. How often are my lesson assignments allowing for discipline-specific reading and writing?

Example of Disciplinary Literacy in Social Studies

Here is an example of the shift:

Traditional literacy approach in social studies: Read the textbook chapter on the Boston Tea Party. After each section, write a $2 summary. After completing the reading and summaries, answer the prompt, "How did the Boston Tea Party contribute to the conflict between the Colonies and the British government?"

Here we have students reading a grade-level text, practicing summarizing throughout the reading, and responding to a cause and effect writing prompt at the end. All sound general-literacy practices.

Disciplinary literacy approach in Social Studies: Read the Boston Gazette's report of the Boston Tea Party published on December 23, 1773. As you read the text, distinguish details in the text as either facts or opinions. Add important facts as evidence to a constructing argument graphic organizer. Use the graphic organizer to respond to the prompt, "What was the intent of the author in writing this article? State your position and justify it with reasons that may be supported by the facts from the text. "

This example uses a source that a historian would use to write a textbook but allows the student to engage in the discipline-specific skills. Students will inevitably have to engage in the language from the time period. This creates a teachable moment for using context clues in a discipline-specific text, which is a necessary skill in conducting primary research.

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Literacy in Content Areas: Effective Literacy Instruction - Learning-Focused

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The Common Core State Standards have established new expectations for literacy in all content areas. The expression "all teachers are teachers of reading" has never been truer. We should be intentional, however, about the way we approach literacy in the content areas.

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Vol. 60

No. 3

How do schools and school districts respond to the ever-increasing challenge of meeting state and national standards in the content areas, while at the same time improving students' literacy skills? Considerable research supports the integration of reading and content-area instruction.

For instance, Akerson (2001) argues that connecting language arts to elementary school science instruction makes sense because many elementary school teachers' strengths are in language arts. In addition, she contends that elementary students need to read, write, and communicate about something, and science can provide that purpose. Akerson also agrees with Yore, Craig, and Maguire (1995) when they point out that the reading process parallels the process of scientific inquiry: Both areas require skills in questioning and setting a purpose, analyzing and drawing conclusions, and communicating results.

Draper (2002) believes that, as in science, students cannot be fully prepared in mathematics unless they are skilled in understanding the text. She contends that literacy activities can engage students and teachers in conversations around mathematical texts. To keep mathematics within the reach of all students, teachers must help their students make meaning from the text. Johnson and Giorgis (2001) have investigated the process of integrating literature and reading into other content areas. They feel that reading in the content areas motivates students to read. For instance, reading in geography can focus on areas that interest young learners, using such informational books as atlases and fictional stories that contain narrative text.

Guthrie and his colleagues (2001) have investigated the effects of integrated reading instruction on reading achievement in the upper elementary grades (4-6). Using findings from a study of 545 teachers in 33 schools in Maryland, they found that when students had more opportunities to read and teachers integrated literacy instruction in the content areas, the result was increased reading comprehension, conceptual knowledge, problem-solving skills in science, and motivation to read.

Chittenden, Salinger, and Bussis (2001) believe integrated reading should begin before the 4th grade. These researchers state:Although the importance of learning to read in the early grades is emphasized more than any other single topic, too little is said about the enabling purpose of this skill. Not until the later grades does there begin to be expressed concern about children's ability to learn from reading; that is, to read widely and deeply in expository as well as narrative texts. Yet the study amply documents that beginning readers can and do extend their knowledge from meaningful books. If children do not encounter meaningful content in books until the 3rd or 4th grade, the major message they may be learning in the meantime is that reading lacks purpose. (p. 72)

Harmon and Wood (2001) implemented a teaching strategy for use with middle school students who were reading below grade level. The strategy integrated reading, talking, and writing in the content areas. It engaged students in different levels of discussion as they read the text, gathered and interpreted information, and then wrote about their interpretations. Doing this taught them ways to extend and share their ideas with others.

The symbiotic relationship between reading and content should not be limited to the elementary or middle school students. Friend (2000/2001) observed powerful results with high school and college students who were instructed to include written summaries in their content-area reading. She discovered that students who had learned to summarize did significantly better than a control group on such measures as identifying important concepts, excluding un-important concepts, and constructing the thesis of the article.

In addition to summarizing, Sinatra (2000) found that concept mapping helps readers gain a greater understanding of the content by helping them formulate mental plans of comprehending and composing as they read and write. By teaching students to understand text organization plans, content-area teachers enable students to cover meaningful content topics in greater depth and to connect new knowledge with prior knowledge.

The examples cited here reflect a general consensus throughout the research literature: We should not overlook the obvious benefits of integrating literacy skills in the content areas. This approach produces stronger readers who possess a greater understanding of content knowledge. The benefits are found throughout the K-12 curriculum.

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Research Link / Integrating Literacy with Content

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Vol. 60 No. 3 How do schools and school districts respond to the ever-increasing challenge of meeting state and national standards in the content areas, while at the same time improving students' literacy skills? Considerable research supports the integration of reading and content-area instruction.

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How Important Is Teaching Literacy in All Content Areas?

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Students do plenty of listening in our classes, but what about reading, writing, and speaking?

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When kids explain their mathematical thinking to their peers, they learn there's more to math than just the right answer.

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George Lucas Educational Foundation

Explore and share tips, strategies, and resources for helping students develop in mathematics.

Sort by:

How math choice boards can enable new elementary teachers to meet the needs of their individual learners while employing mathematical rigor.

Writing improves learning by consolidating information in long-term memory, researchers explain. Plus, five engaging writing activities to use in all subjects.

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Explore and share tips, strategies, and resources for helping students develop in mathematics.

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Using Blended Learning to Strengthen Math Skills

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This effective method allows students to be flexible, develop critical thinking, and use math creatively outside of direct instruction.

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jan richardson picture sort video - Bing video

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Differentiated Instruction

If differentiated instruction is too personalized and complicated, teachers won't be able to keep it going. Here's how to do it for the long haul.

Differentiated instruction in schools can be as straightforward or as complex as we make it. We do have a tendency, however, to overcomplicate it. We convince ourselves that the more individualized instruction is, the more personalized it will be. This results in unsustainable practices for personalizing learning, such as planning concurrent lessons for leveled groups or even playlists that are hard to maintain over the course of the school year.

My experience with these unsustainable practices while working for a personalized learning company in Silicon Valley led me back to the tried-and-true practices for meeting learners where they are. Not only are these best practices, but they are sustainable. Teachers can use these without spending nights and weekends planning and assessing learning.

Stage I: Identify the desired results of a unit of instruction. This offers an opportunity to deconstruct standards and anticipate both prerequisite skills and varied levels of proficiency.

Stage II: Identify success criteria and tools for generating and collecting evidence of student learning.

Stage III: Create a learning plan that accounts for the aforementioned varied levels of proficiency, meanwhile providing all learners access to grade-level standards.

Design With the End in Mind

We can't meet learners where they are if we don't have a solid learning plan. Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe's backward design framework helps us create a flexible and sustainable learning plan in three stages. When we use design units of instruction backward, with the end result in mind, we find clarity in what we're teaching, why we're teaching it, and how we'll universally design instruction along the way for all learners.

Within this learning plan, sequence open-ended tasks, and create a menu of choices that accounts for varied needs.

Use Open-Ended Tasks

In order to differentiate, teachers often mistakenly believe they need to create leveled groups and plan different activities for each group. This is both unsustainable and inequitable, leading to tracked groups of students: Students with lower test scores will have access to lower levels of activities than their counterparts with higher test scores, exacerbating opportunity gaps.

The alternative is to use open-ended tasks, designed with varied access points for different learning profiles. In order to differentiate, anticipate learners' potential responses to the task. For instance, with students studying multi-digit subtraction in second grade, recognize that some learners may need manipulatives like base-10 blocks or number discs, while others will require number lines or grid paper. Consider ways to enrich the task, too, supplying learners with larger numbers or opportunities to analyze algorithms to determine which is the most efficient.

In literacy, this could entail having learners write alternative endings to stories or journaling openly about their interpretations related to character development or theme within a story, which shifts learners away from "correct" answers and instead opens learning up to a myriad of interpretations.

This also makes differentiation sustainable: Teachers plan one open-ended activity, while learners leverage their agency to choose paths that work for them.

Create Menus of Choices

When learners feel empowered to work at different rates, it means we've created an environment where they feel comfortable being themselves. This raises challenges too. Some learners will finish open-ended tasks earlier than others.

To address this, create menus of after-task choices. These should be aligned with the learning goals from your unit plan and account for anticipated levels of proficiency. For instance, in the aforementioned second-grade unit on addition and subtraction, teachers might provide learners with two to three different math games to play.

Choice in literacy can be even simpler. When we build independent reading routines and coach learners on book selection, students can engage in a ritual of choosing and completing books, using their extra time to read independently-one of the strongest influences of sustained reading achievement. In writing, learners can choose between peer feedback, revising, editing, or starting a brand-new piece within the genre unit of study.

Encourage Self-Reflection

What worked today?

What didn't work?

What will you do differently tomorrow?

In order for differentiated instruction to be sustainable, we must make learners' roles in the classroom clear so that they know what they need to do. This starts with giving them choice in activities they feel will meet their needs, meanwhile regularly encouraging self-reflection. After all, it's important to coach learners in making productive choices that are meeting their needs.

Try this generic reflection structure as a place to start:

This offers learners opportunities to reflect on strategies, methods, or responses from the open-ended task, while also reflecting on their choices from the learning menu. Some students might decide that they need a more challenging math game or that they want to start a new writing piece tomorrow.

What Really Matters

The goal of differentiated instruction is simple: Meet learners where they are. But we know that teacher burnout is a real issue in schools, and therefore our approach to differentiation must be sustainable. What matters most is that these choices keep learners engaged in meaningful activities, sustaining their engagement without the teacher having to micromanage them.

Changing the approach to differentiated instruction also must be sustainable. If you're just getting started, don't make all of these changes at once. Start with incremental shifts in practice like encouraging self-reflection, and when you're ready, begin exploring open-ended tasks or learning menus. Setting incremental but meaningful goals will be critical to sustained success with meeting learners where they are.

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A Sustainable Plan for Meeting Learners Where They Are

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If differentiated instruction is too personalized and complicated, teachers won't be able to keep it going. Here's how to do it for the long haul.

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There are currently a lot of brilliant nonfiction books for kindergarten aged kids. Most of the time, they should balance information with a narrative; the art should be enthralling while the book's writing dispenses easy-to-digest knowledge. These 21 nonfiction books for kindergarten have done this very well and can be read over and over as either a story or information book. Over the last two years, working mostly in the children's library, I've actually begun to default to younger children's nonfiction for my own knowledge-seeking needs. The art! The accessibility! The get-to-the-point-and-get-out!

Here are some choices split by topics: STEM, animals, sharks, bugs, dinosaurs, history, and toys/books. For rad nonfiction about fearless females, see this list. If you are interested in some nonfiction books for older kids, there's a Must Reads right here.

STEM Books For Kindergarten

Power Up by Seth Fishman and Isabel Greenberg

This book is doubly awesome, with its interesting science facts plus a self-esteem boosting message: "Look at your pinkie. That little finger has enough energy to light up one of the biggest cities in the world for an entire day". A perfect mix of science concepts and exciting illustrations, the book is a follow up to A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars.

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Award-winning author and illustrator Portis's latest features a young girl's growing realization that water is everywhere and can take many forms (tears and snowmen, for instance). The book also contains information about water cycles and conservation.

A cute STEM-focused picture book about a bunny named Charlotte. The forest animals have fallen sick, and Charlotte wants to help her friends get better. She sets about deducing the mysterious illness plaguing the forest, but no one seems to be taking her very seriously. Will Charlotte let that stop her? (Spoiler alert: no.)

Easy-to-follow facts meet adorable space art. In Earth!, the facts told by the Earth itself are informative and witty, with jokes that will make the book a fun read for families to discuss together.

Animals Nonfiction Books for Kindergarten

First of all: the cuteness. Such adorable illustrations! Animals are grouped together by common traits: colors, stripes, etc. The end is filled with animals names and includes information about extinction levels. A good way to explain to children about the importance of animal conservation!

Can a porcupine whine (and other noise-related animal questions)? It's true that animals make plenty of weird sounds, and this book encourages loud, silly times as it describes the various grunts and barks of familiar and strange animals.

History Books For Kindergarten

An immigrant mother and child struggle to fit in to their new home of San Francisco until they discover the local library and all its benefits. The art is gorgeous, a collage of styles and images, and the writing is poetic while still grounded in information. Also, the incorporation of Spanish phrases was nicely worked in.

Jenkins's incredible paintings bring to life the story of 18-year-old Langston Hughes dreaming up his famous poem, " The Negro Speaks of Rivers." This is a poetic, first-person exploration of creativity.

A primer to the Civil Rights Movement and to activism in general; here is the story of Clara Luper, the Oklahoma City teacher who inspired her students to use nonviolent protest as they battled segregation.

This one is an award-winning nonfiction book that will send readers looking for more info. Living as a slave, Dave formed incredible clay pottery and inscribed each piece with a short poem. It's a very moving account of a man mostly lost to history; he is known as Dave the Potter because, as a slave, his last name was taken away from him.

Sharks & Other Watery Creatures

Eugenie Clark has never been afraid of sharks; in fact, her love led to studying them. In Shark Lady, written by zoologist Jess Keating, shark facts combine with the story of a woman pursuing science despite people's biases against women in the field.

Sharks shouldn't be seen as scary, and Williams uses a family boat trip to teach readers about the essential role that sharks fill in the ocean ecosystem.

Originally recommended to me by a marine biologist, readers won't soon forget clever Inky. Montgomery's book has vibrant illustrations, interesting facts and an exciting story about an adventurous, squiggly octopus who escaped from an aquarium.

Dinosaurs Books For Kindergarten

Sure to delight dino fans of all ages, the information is simple - Microraptors were smaller than the average chicken - and the illustrations are cute and slightly silly.

Based on the true story of a dinosaur fossil's (Diplodocus longus) journey from Utah to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

How are dinosaur fossils found and assembled? Barton's book is about six paleontologists, and describes their job accessibly.

Bugs

A Beetle Is Shy by Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long

From the font to the colourful art, Aston and Long's work will catch the eye of future entomologists. Beetle facts are surprisingly fascinating. Along with this title, the author/illustrator duo has a series of similar science books ( An Egg is Quiet, A Rock is Lively, etc).

The Honeybee by Kirsten Hall and Isabelle Arsenault

Isabelle Arsenault's whimsical illustrations accompany Kirsten Hall's minimalist text in this informative book. The Honeybee has a poetic flow, but will still give science fans some interesting bug knowledge.

Toys and Books

Everyone loves a slinky! Here we have the story of Richard James, an engineer who created the slinky with the help of his wife Betty. Ford's art is unusual - a mix of paper doll figures, two-dimensional drawings, and three-dimensional objects - and contains a buoyancy that is well-matched to the story.

Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré by Anika Aldamuy Denise and Paola Escobar

Pura Belpré, New York City's first Puerto Rican librarian, championed bilingual literature. This inspiring, beautifully illustrated biography comes in a Spanish-language edition as well - Sembrando historias: Pura Belpré: bibliotecaria y narradora de cuentos.

An award-winning children's biography about Peter Mark Roget, creator of the thesaurus. Roget was shy and awkward when he was younger, seeking comfort in books and lists. He continued making them for many years, his indexes of related words becoming larger and more in-depth. In this story of Roget's Thesaurus, big and small language lovers will find an enthralling story brought to life by illustrator Sweet's multimedia artwork.

What do you think are the best nonfiction books for kindergarten libraries? Hit the comments to share your favorites!

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The More You Know: 21 Best Nonfiction Books for Kindergarten | Book Riot

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There are currently a lot of brilliant nonfiction books for kindergarten aged kids. Most of the time, they should balance information with a narrative; the art should be enthralling while the book's writing dispenses easy-to-digest knowledge. These 21 nonfiction books for kindergarten have done this very well and can be read over and over as either a story or information book.

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6 Things You Should Know About Guided Reading

1. ...Guided Reading does not stand alone. It stand within the confines of a balanced literacy program. Balanced Literacy Framework includes read aloud, shared reading, independent reading, and writing workshop.

2. ...Guided Reading is more than sitting at a table and watching children reading an easy book. Students should be reading slightly challenging text that encourages a productive struggle so they can practice using strategies.

3. ...Guided Reading is not following a curriculum. It is following a child and asking "What does the child need to learn next?"

4. ...To be effective as a guided reading teacher you need an understanding of the reading process.

5. ...If you follow Jan's framework of integrating reading, writing, and word study you will see much faster acceleration and more powerful productivity with time.

6. ...Guided Reading is the best opportunity to scaffold comprehension.

Click on " Jan Richardson Video Clips" above and you will be able to see a variety of videos of Jan Richardson modeling activities that you can do with students in Pre-A lessons, Emergent lessons, Early lessons, and Transitional lessons.

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Guided Reading does not stand alone. It stand within the confines of a balanced literacy program. Balanced Literacy Framework includes read aloud, shared reading, independent reading, and writing workshop. ...Guided Reading is more than sitting at a table and watching children reading an easy book.

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What is Social and Emotional Learning?

How do we define social and emotional learning (SEL)? Researchers generally agree upon five key competencies of SEL ( Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor & Schellinger, 2011; Weissberg, Durlak, Domitrovich, & Gullotta, 2016). These competencies provide the foundation for maintaining high-quality social relationships and for responding to the challenges of life.

1. Self-Awareness:

What are my thoughts and feelings?

What causes those thoughts and feelings?

How can I express my thoughts and feelings respectfully?

2. Self-Management:

What different responses can I have to an event?

How can I respond to an event as constructively as possible?

3. Social Awareness:

How can I better understand other people's thoughts and feelings?

How can I better understand why people feel and think the way they do?

4. Relationship Skills:

How can I adjust my actions so that my interactions with different people turn out well?

How can I communicate my expectations to other people?

How can I communicate with other people to understand and manage their expectations of me?

5. Responsible Decision Making:

What consequences will my actions have on myself and others?

How do my choices align with my values?

How can I solve problems creatively?

Learning Outcomes

A meta-analysis of 213 programs, primarily covering three decades of research, found that social and emotional learning interventions that address the competencies listed above increased students' academic performance by 11 percentile points, as compared to students who did not participate in such SEL programs (Durlak et al., 2011). The social and emotional learning programs also reduced aggression and emotional distress among students, increased helping behaviors in school, and improved positive attitudes toward self and others (Durlak et al., 2011). Effective SEL programs addressed the five key competencies listed above, explicitly and sequentially, and used active-learning techniques to engage youth in developing understanding of them. Specific practices and programs shown by multiple, rigorous, peer-reviewed studies to benefit K-12 youth are described on the Evidence-Based Programs page of the SEL research review.

SEL Skills and Academic Success

Relationships and emotional processes affect how and what we learn. By reducing misbehavior and the amount of time spent on classroom management, SEL programs create more time for teaching and learning. SEL also strengthens students' relationships with their peers, families, and teachers, who are mediators, collaborators, and encouragers of academic achievement.

Researchers have documented the importance of caring teacher-student and student-student relationships in fostering students' commitment to school and in promoting academic success (e.g. Blum & Libby, 2004; Hamre & Pianta, 2006; Hawkins, Smith, & Catalano, 2004; Jennings & Greenberg 2009; cited in Durlak, et al., 2011). Safe and orderly environments that encourage and reinforce positive classroom behavior have been identified by research as one of the necessary conditions for academic achievement ( Marzano, 2003).

There are also several person-centered reasons SEL can promote academic success. Self-regulation, the ability to control and manage thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, has been linked to academic achievement in numerous studies. Students who are more self-aware and confident about their learning capacities try harder and persist in the face of challenges (Aronson, 2002; cited in Durlak et al., 2011; Dweck, Walton, & Cohen, 2014). Students who set high academic goals, have self-discipline, motivate themselves, manage stress, and organize their approach to work learn more and get better grades (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005; Elliot & Dweck, 2005; cited in Durlak et al., 2011). Finally, students who use problem-solving skills to overcome obstacles and make responsible decisions about studying and completing homework do better academically (Zins & Elias, 2006; cited in Durlak et al., 2011).

According to a national survey of middle and high school students, less than one third indicated that their school provided a caring, encouraging environment, and less than half reported that they had competencies such as empathy, conflict resolution and decision-making skills (Benson, 2006; cited in Durlak et al., 2011). By strengthening students' social support networks and their skills in self-management, SEL can help to unleash the potential within academic environments to support students' well-being and success.

Several studies explore the long-term benefits of social and emotional learning programs. In one, researchers examined how SEL intervention programs (such as social skills training, parent training with home visits, peer coaching, reading tutoring, and classroom social-emotional curricula) for kindergarten students impacted their adult lives, and found that these programs led to 10% (59% vs. 69% for the control group) fewer psychological, behavioral, or substance abuse problems at the age of 25 ( Dodge et al., 2014). Another study examined kindergarten teachers' ratings of their student's prosocial skills (e.g. kindness, sharing, and empathy) and discovered a strong correlation to adult outcomes such as higher educational attainment, stronger employment, and better mental health, in addition to reduced criminal activity and substance use ( Jones, Greenberg, & Crowley, 2015). In 2015, researchers analyzed the economic impact of six widely-used SEL programs and found that on average, every dollar invested yields $11 in long-term benefits, ranging from reduced juvenile crime, higher lifetime earnings, and better mental and physical health ( Belfield et al., 2015). Additional research supports the long-term benefits of SEL programs, finding evidence that investing in high-quality programs for all children can increase the number of productive, well-adjusted adults and yield positive economic benefits in the future ( Jones et al., 2017). Finally, a 2017 meta-analysis of 82 school-based SEL programs found long-term (between 6 months and 18 years) improvements in four areas: SEL skills, attitudes, positive social behavior, and academic performance. Additionally, decreases were found in three areas: conduct problems, emotional distress, and drug use ( Taylor et al., 2017).

A 2015 economic analysis found that in the period from 1980 to 2012, automation has increasingly replaced repetitive and analytical tasks, placing greater demand on jobs that require social skills ( Deming, 2015). In a 2015 Amici Curiae brief, nearly 50 Fortune-100 and other leading American businesses argued that in order to be competitive, businesses need to be able to hire workers who have experience sharing ideas and viewpoints with diverse groups of people.

A 2017 research review found that SEL programs can promote academic success and increase positive behavior, while reducing misconduct, substance abuse, and emotional distress for elementary school students. In addition, effective SEL programs are enhanced when schools partner with families and when they are culturally and linguistically sensitive ( Dusenbury & Weissberg, 2017).
Continue to the next section of the SEL research review, Evidence-Based Programs.

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Social and Emotional Learning Research Review

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How do we define social and emotional learning (SEL)? Researchers generally agree upon five key competencies of SEL ( Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor & Schellinger, 2011; Weissberg, Durlak, Domitrovich, & Gullotta, 2016). These competencies provide the foundation for maintaining high-quality social relationships and for responding to the challenges of life.

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Morning Meetings: Creating a Safe Space for Learning

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PRODUCED BY The George Lucas Educational Foundation

CREDITS
* Director Alyssa Fedele
* Cinematography Mario Furloni
* Editor Daniel Jarvis
* Graphic Design Jenny Kolcun
* Associate Producer Doug Keely
* Web Producer Lora Ma Fukuda
* Senior Manager of Video Amy Borovoy
* Executive Producer David Markus

Alyssa directed this short documentary for The George Lucas Educational Foundation.

Teachers at Mount Desert Elementary School in Northeast Harbor, Maine, use proven Responsive Classroom techniques - such as relationship-building, morning meetings, and engaging student-led activities - to get students focused and ready to learn.
See the full story at edutopia.org

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Edutopia - Social Emotional Learning-COLLECTIVE HUNCH

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PRODUCED BY The George Lucas Educational Foundation CREDITS * Director Alyssa Fedele * Cinematography Mario Furloni * Editor Daniel Jarvis * Graphic Design Jenny Kolcun * Associate Producer Doug Keely * Web Producer Lora Ma Fukuda * Senior Manager of Video Amy Borovoy * Executive Producer David Markus Alyssa directed this short documentary for The George Lucas Educational Foundation.

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Elementary school social studies classes are a good time to guide students to ask important questions about the world.

Kids wonder about everything. If you're an elementary school teacher, you undoubtedly fielded questions today such as "What's for lunch?" and "How are caterpillars insects if they have so many legs?" Our students are naturally inquisitive and built for inquiry.

Using the inquiry method is engaging and full of opportunities. In addition to being developmentally appropriate, inquiry is at the heart of social studies standards in many states. Although teachers sometimes hesitate before implementing inquiry in their classrooms, inquiry is easy to implement in elementary school social studies classrooms.

How Does Inquiry Work?

There are several models of inquiry. In social studies, the C3 Framework's inquiry arc is particularly popular. It involves four dimensions: questioning, applying disciplinary concepts and tools, evaluating sources, and communicating conclusions and taking informed action. Each dimension fosters curiosity, flexibility, and independence, all of which are important for learning in and beyond social studies.

Inquiry provides various inroads and opportunities for the variety of learners in your classroom. Thinking of inquiry through a universal design lens can facilitate for all students. To tailor your instruction, first consider your target outcomes for the inquiry. From there, you can modify your teaching and sharing of materials or how students take action and express their learning.

For example, to meet students where they are, you can substitute an audio text or text-to-voice technology for a written source, or you can support students to read with a partner or in a small group. You can also give students the choice to represent their learning in writing, orally, or pictorially. Many inquiries explicitly provide suggestions for multimodal formats. If you get stuck, consider browsing inquiries for younger grades to see what types of processes and tasks they are taking on and with what types of support.

All Kids Have the Skills and Knowledge for Inquiry

Elementary teachers are excellent observers of their students and know it's essential to meet them where they are in order to develop skills, content knowledge, and dispositions, all of which are aspects of inquiry. When we work with educators around inquiry, they are generally enthusiastic and in favor of inquiry-based practices in the abstract. It can be more difficult for them to envision inquiry in their own contexts, however. We often encounter resistance based on students' skills, knowledge, and experience. We hear statements like "Inquiry is great, but I couldn't do it with my kids because they're so behind" and "My kids aren't ready for that type of independence."

The good news is that inquiry is for all students, including those who are still building the skills that inquiry requires-perhaps even, and especially, for those kids because it provides so many opportunities to adjust instruction and scaffold learning. So if your students don't yet have the skills they need, that's OK. This is an opportunity to teach them in a motivating context. You can do so by embracing their questions, like "Why do we have to follow rules?" or "What does it mean to be a citizen?"

The power of student-generated questions is that they increase motivation to engage in productive struggle as students learn new skills like reading to understand a primary source; writing to complete a sentence, a paragraph, or a graphic organizer; or presenting one's ideas to an audience in any number of multimodal ways.

Inquiry Teaches Independence

Some teachers worry that their students aren't independent enough to participate in inquiry. None of us wake up one morning independent; we learn to be independent. Independence is a skill that can and should be scaffolded for our young learners within the inquiry process. So if your students don't yet have the skills they need, that's OK. This is an opportunity to teach them in a motivating context. Many elementary educators use an " I do, we do, you do " model of instruction.

As students learn content through inquiry, they also learn disciplinary and interdisciplinary skills. For example, rules are a key social studies concept in the elementary grades; a teacher could begin a study of the topic by prompting students with the question, "Why do we follow rules?" To make the exercise more concrete, teachers might ask specifically about rules for home, classrooms, or the playground. In each of these places, rules exist to keep people safe.

If students are not yet ready to brainstorm and record their own lists of ideas, the teacher might first model recording a few of their own ideas in response to the compelling question using shared writing (I do). This gives the teacher the opportunity to help students build literacy (i.e., composition, spelling, grammar) and inquiry skills (e.g., reflecting on social concerns, applying personal experience to broader concepts) as needed.

Following this experience, it may be that some students would benefit from working in a small group with the teacher (we do). This small group might explore various examples of rules from "Clear your dishes after dinner" to "No running in the hallway," and share and debate their perspectives on them. This, again, builds overlapping literacy and inquiry skills in the form of making claims and supporting them with evidence. Exploring specific examples of rules that students experience in their everyday lives sets the stage for teachers to ask probing questions and further engage students in the inquiry process.

Students don't always move through the full "I do, we do, you do" sequence in one lesson and may or may not make it to the "you do" stage of independent work. They may need more or less time in each stage, depending on which skills are being built and students' previous experiences. Though pace and pathways may differ, all students can gain skills through repeated opportunities to engage in inquiry processes (e.g., asking questions, exploring evidence, making claims). These opportunities help students as they gradually move from more supportive (teacher-led) to less supportive (independent) practices of inquiry.

Most of us don't have the vast knowledge base that it would take to answer the questions and curiosities that our students have about the world. The beauty of inquiry is that it gives teachers the opportunity to model leveraging skills for the authentic purpose of gaining knowledge and satisfying (or increasing) curiosities. In every classroom there are children who fall along a spectrum of skills and knowledge. Inquiry is for all of them.

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Using Inquiry to Channel the Natural Curiosity of All Students

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Elementary school social studies classes are a good time to guide students to ask important questions about the world. Kids wonder about everything. If you're an elementary school teacher, you undoubtedly fielded questions today such as "What's for lunch?" and "How are caterpillars insects if they have so many legs?"

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Teachers can take a step back and create lessons that put student explorations at the center of learning.

When we create a classroom that is less teacher-driven, our approach becomes more strategic and proactive. If we think about partially removing ourselves as a classroom focal point, that does not mean we erase ourselves from the equation. Rather, we develop the dexterity to meet a number of ever-shifting demands with students who we intentionally prepare to meet new challenges. This idea probably sounds desirable in theory but unattainable in practice, particularly given the very real and pressing needs students project on a constant basis. To further explore what it looks like to have a learning environment that partially transcends a teacher, let us first compare a static, teacher-directed classroom model to a student-centered dynamic one.

Static or Dynamic Instruction?

Imagine a high school large enough to house its own wing for math classes. Teachers of like teams have been placed in proximity to one another for easier collaboration, and on this particular day, an instructional leader has planned to observe two geometry classes back-to-back to determine how well the same subject area in different classrooms aligns. In this scenario, teachers have coordinated the content of their instruction but not the delivery method. Classes are working to create tables and then graph linear equations, and the instructional leader is eager to see how well students are understanding some of the fundamental concepts of fulfilling this learning objective.
Courtesy of W. W. Norton & Co
In the first classroom, the teacher stands at the board with a word problem projected onto the screen. Students sit quietly in rows with their notebooks, watching as the teacher demonstrates a word problem. The teacher models the process of converting the results of the word problem into a table and then plots the numbers on the table into points on a graph. As the teacher talks, some students take notes while others simply watch. The more passive members of the class may be paying attention, or they may be off-task with any number of distractions, from texting on their phones to taking a subtle nap. More outwardly active, vocal students are raising their hands to ask questions. The teacher repeats the process of solving the equation with two more word problems before transitioning to the next phase of the class. When the teacher is finished demonstrating the process of graphing a linear equation, she projects a new word problem onto the board. "Your turn," she says.

Students open their notebooks to a fresh page and begin working on the problem. Some of them complete the task quickly and without struggle. Some students stare into space, ignoring the task until the teacher (who is circulating) comes within proximity of their desks. A certain number of students raise their hands and ask for help, having not fully understood the demonstration at the board. One student wanders around the room, offering help to other classmates without being directed to do so. When the bell rings, students gather their notebooks as the teacher says, "We're going to have a quiz on this tomorrow, guys. Be ready."

The instructional leader then heads next door to the second geometry class. Once again, students are learning to graph linear equations. As the class begins, the teacher projects the same series of word problems that her colleague used in the previous lesson onto the board along with an image of a blank table and graph. Students once again have notebooks, but their desks are no longer in rows. Instead, they are arranged in small-group clusters. The teacher has placed half slips of paper marked with an empty table and graph on each set of desks, along with table tents that are marked A, B, or C. These letters correspond with the projected word problems, also marked A, B, or C. In the classroom, there are two groups for each of the letters, making a total of six groups.

The teacher instructs students to look at the word problem their group has been assigned to study. "I know that we have not learned how to do these word problems yet," the teacher says. "In your groups, take about 10 minutes to look at the word problem. On your half sheet of paper, write down some questions about the problem. These questions could be about the situation in the problem, or they could have to do with ways to approach the task. No question is wrong. Just think of as many open-ended questions as you can together, and then we'll come back together as a group."

Students huddle in their groups, looking back and forth between their assigned word problem and the empty table and graph on their half sheet of paper. Slowly, as they adjust to the teacher's request, they begin to talk. One student asks, "What is the connection between the table and the graph?" In another group, a boy frowns as he says, "I don't know what the word 'linear' means." One of his group mates encourages him, responding, "Maybe write that down?" As students talk, the teacher circulates but stays relatively quiet, listening carefully and observing the groups. As she walks, she places large pieces of chart paper on the walls all over the classroom. Each piece of chart paper is marked on top with A, B, or C. On the board at the front, a large digital countdown clock is projected along with the directions, holding both the teacher and students accountable to the stipulated work time.

When the timer goes off, the teacher addresses the class. "Let's take a moment and record our questions on the chart paper. Then, we will discuss." Students write the questions they just developed in groups on the pieces of paper, and the teacher speaks again. "Walk around the classroom and look at the questions," she says. "What are some patterns that we see with the questions? What questions do you wish you had asked? Think about whatever strikes you and be prepared to talk about it." Students move around the classroom in their groups, looking at each set of questions and talking about them as they encounter ideas that resonate.

Throughout the remainder of the class period, the teacher guides the class through looking at the questions, sifting through the various categories they fit into, and encouraging groups to begin approaching finding possible avenues to solving the problem. Before class ends, the teacher explains, "This inductive approach allows you to explore some creative ways to work through making tables and graphing linear equations before we look at some more tried-and-true processes tomorrow. Before you leave, please go back to your half sheet of paper and take a moment to put a star next to a burning question you have about solving these word problems. It can be a question you already wrote, or it can be a new question. Then, give it to me on your way out the door."

In this tale of two classrooms, one model is predictable while the other is divergent. Aside from obvious benefits of a safe environment for risk-taking and questioning that the active student ownership of learning provides in the second model, the structure of the class also enhances its power. The students in that classroom have become accustomed to being listened to and they are comfortable taking risks that put them at the center of acquiring new skills. If the teacher were to be absent, the second group of students would be able to work collaboratively to reach learning outcomes, and they would also believe in their ability to make progress without the constant presence or prompting of an adult. The students in the first group are highly dependent learners who wait for the teacher to direct all of their activities; the students in the second group do not need to see their teacher to know what to do because they have taken responsibility for their own learning. The teacher in the second classroom believes in her students, and she knows that she can learn more about what students need by observing rather than talking.

In the first classroom, both the teacher and the students will remain static, in the same circular pattern, all year long. With each new geometry concept, the teacher will demonstrate a problem on the board and students will either complete the work satisfactorily or struggle. If the latter occurs, the less successful students will most likely be viewed as lazy or less capable, and the teacher will be frustrated at her inability to reach them as the cumulative nature of math instruction places students who are unsuccessful further and further behind. In contrast, responsiveness is an organic part of how the teacher approaches instruction in the second classroom. Student voice is clearly a high priority in both the planning and executing of lessons, and the comfort each student will feel in being heard and in making mistakes results in a classroom that embraces unpredictability and risk-taking.

A classroom free of micromanagement is not driven by a task-oriented approach. Teachers who prioritize learning outcomes and see the bigger picture of what students need to know can more effectively manage the stresses of covering a curriculum. As the class makes collaborative meaning of content, every single learner's perspective is valued. When students see how the power of their voices contributes to the class, the learning community becomes increasingly centered on student efficacy, giving us the freedom to step aside and watch the magic of a student-owned classroom take hold.

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Creating a Classroom That Is Student, not Teacher, Driven

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Teachers can take a step back and create lessons that put student explorations at the center of learning. When we create a classroom that is less teacher-driven, our approach becomes more strategic and proactive. If we think about partially removing ourselves as a classroom focal point, that does not mean we erase ourselves from the equation.

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5 Ways to Begin the Shift Toward Project-Based Learning

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The idea of bringing PBL into your classroom can be both intriguing and overwhelming, but there are many tips and resources to help you get started.

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The characteristics of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), one of the most common childhood neurodevelopmental disorders, often get misinterpreted as intentional misbehavior or daydreaming in the classroom. But when teachers engage their student with ADHD in exploring what works for them, it can lead to stronger connections and more academic success. To find more strategies and resources for working with students with ADHD, or to learn more about the studies and articles cited in the video, visit the links below:

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Understanding and Supporting Your Student With ADHD

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ADHD can be frustrating for both teachers and students, but coming together to find strategies that work helps your student-and your relationship-blossom.

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Neurodiverse students often struggle with organization in middle and high school, but they can be successful with the proper supports.

Learning is the journey the brain takes when acquiring new information, and executive functioning is a critical component of this learning journey. Executive function skills require students to utilize memory, self-control, and attention flexibly to follow directions, plan, and multitask. Consequently, developing these skills is critical for students in secondary grades.

Secondary and postsecondary success often requires students to manage multiple tasks and courses, plan out completion of long-term projects, and set and reach ambitious goals. However, these skills can be challenging for secondary students to refine and master.

Students with disabilities are even more likely to grapple with executive dysfunction, particularly those with a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Neurodiverse students' executive functioning skills are an often-overlooked area of need during individualized education program (IEP) development. When we design accommodations and modifications, and engage in secondary transition planning, it's often related to supporting students' executive functioning skills to access the instruction.

For example, a student may have an accommodation that requires directions to be read aloud. This is a skill that can support students in comprehending and carrying out multiple steps. Students with and without disabilities can often benefit from explicit supports related to executive functioning. These skills can make the difference in students' ability to successfully navigate college, trade school, and independent life after graduation.

As a special educator, I'd say it's our responsibility to lead the charge in our schools by providing opportunities for all students to learn, practice, and refine executive function skills.

Executive dysfunction almost always plagues students with disabilities who are served via IEPs and 504 plans. However, all students can benefit from explicit executive functioning assistance. As such, I'm challenging special educators to lead the way in this area of instruction-let's teach students to manage themselves and the demands of life alongside the content of literacy, math, STEM, and history, etc.

5 Ways to Support Building Executive Function Skills

1. Bring your directions to life. Think aloud. There is power in narrating your thought processes when sharing expectations, organizing an equation, or annotating information. Consider how your lesson requires students to complete multistep directions. How can you break this direction down and model it aloud? Maybe today's independent task requires students to organize information from a passage. How can you bring this task to life? Think aloud.

2. Graphic organizers are your friend. Always provide students with options of graphic organizers to use when completing assignments independently. This will allow them access to tools for organizing and synthesizing information. Always model how to use these organizers with real tasks in your class. You may choose to make graphic organizers available via hard copy in your classroom or in a shared digital folder for students to access at all times.

3. Leverage technology. Use media, images, and video to provide visual exemplars of ways to organize information, plan tasks, and set goals. You could let your students see examples of how others annotate text in unique ways. In math, provide multiple ways that students can organize information in a multistep math word problem or use math journals to support students in organizing daily notes and content.

4. Incorporate executive functioning into grading. Consider allowing students to earn points toward an assignment or in a given course by applying executive function skills. For example, students may be able to receive additional points for a cumulative assignment by turning in a copy of the outline and short-term goals they created as they planned out the assignment.

Incorporating executive functioning into the grading system can encourage goal-oriented students to practice and apply these skills to support their success.

5. Use apps. There are limitless options of applications that allow for managing lists, utilizing timers, generating reminders, setting goals, and organizing information. Be sure to share them with parents and students, with permission. If appropriate, you may even choose to allow students to utilize the apps during class time.

As we support teenage students in refining their executive functioning skills, our classrooms should be safe spaces for them to explore a variety of strategies and figure out what works best for them. Creating these safe spaces to counter executive dysfunction can and should include the use of high-, low-, and no-tech strategies that students can access independently.

Beyond the five strategies listed, teachers can utilize everyday items like sticky notes, note cards, clocks, timers, calendars, labels, and even simple writing utensils to model executive function skills for students throughout the day.

A high school student's ability to self-regulate in the area of executive functioning can make or break their ability to balance life beyond graduation. Executive functions like attention, memory, time management, and organization are all everyday skills that we must independently manage in our lives. Special education teachers especially must not overlook conversations about students' skills in this area at IEP meetings, particularly when developing postsecondary transition goals.

For our growing and evolving students, executive functioning is a nonnegotiable component of learning, independence, and flourishing after high school.

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5 Ways to Help Neurodiverse Students Improve Executive Function Skills

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Neurodiverse students often struggle with organization in middle and high school, but they can be successful with the proper supports.

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Simple classroom strategies can assist students with deficits in executive function skills like time management and active listening.

©Shutterstock/T. L. Furrer

Executive function is an umbrella term in neuroscience to describe the neurological processes involving mental control and self-regulation. Executive functions control and regulate cognitive and social behaviors like controlling impulses, paying attention, remembering information, planning and organizing time and materials, and responding appropriately to social situations and stressful situations.

Experts believe executive function is regulated by the frontal lobe of the brain-the prefrontal cortex. Because humans are born with brains that are not fully developed, children are not born with these skills, but they have the potential to develop them.

Some students do not develop executive functions to the same degree as their peers. For these students with deficits, additional support in the classroom may improve their development of executive function.

Offering Teaching Support

Addressing a deficit requires understanding the type of deficiency the student faces. If a student lacks knowledge, he or she does not know what to do or how to do a task. For example, if students lack the ability to regulate their impulses to speak while others are talking, the behavior of active listening should be explicitly taught by identifying examples of active listening. Educators might also create a chart with what it looks and sounds like when students are engaging in active listening.

A student may know what to do to complete a task, but may have trouble knowing when and how to apply the appropriate skills. For a student with this type of deficit, the teacher may confirm that he or she has all the required materials to complete a task. The teacher could provide a checklist with the necessary materials. For older students, the teacher could ask the students to generate the list and then gather the appropriate materials.

Metacognition: Another strategy for addressing deficits in executive function is using metacognitive language. For example, with a younger student, articulating the challenge could be useful. "I see that you are missing a pencil. You will need a pencil to complete the assignment. Where could you find one in the classroom?"

Displaying the steps or questions that students could ask themselves in the classroom is also helpful to promote independence with a skill. Students can repeat directions to a partner and then have a volunteer repeat the direction for the whole class. This process takes less than a minute but allows additional time for auditory processing and repetition for any students who may need it.

Time management: Posting schedules can be a useful tool in developing time management skills. A classroom schedule outlines the entire day and prepares students for what's coming next. An activity schedule breaks down a block of time into smaller chunks and outlines how each period will be used and in what order activities will be presented. These schedules are commonly placed in spots where every student can refer to them during the day.

Long-term assignments can be particularly challenging for students with deficits in executive function. One way to address this issue is by directly teaching students how to map out larger projects and break them down into smaller, more manageable pieces. Use a calendar to determine when each smaller assignment will need to be finished, and place the smaller benchmark goals on the calendar.

Review before new learning begins: Provide opportunities for students to review previous learning. This review may be a quick oral presentation, or teachers can pair students and have them share what they remember from the previous day.

A review might also take the form of a mind map or concept map created in small groups. Concept maps are useful graphic organizers for note taking, comparing/contrasting, and writing. Graphic organizers can be particularly helpful for students with executive function deficits because organizing thoughts can be as difficult as organizing time and materials.

Teacher interaction: Teacher behavior is also influential in supporting students who may have deficits in executive function. Teachers should check in frequently with students who are known to have deficits and provide discrete support when needed. In addition, having a caring demeanor and using positive reinforcement with students with deficits can positively affect their school experience.

Offering Environmental Support

Post a daily schedule. Clear and consistent routines and procedures offer structure to students.

Provide visual supports such as posters with problem-solving steps or routines, and color-coded schedules and folders. Consider highlighting key words and ideas in texts.

Minimize clutter and create clearly defined areas in the classroom.

Environmental support means creating a space where children can thrive. Some easy ways to help students improve executive function include:

Potential for Growth

Executive function takes time to fully develop, and it develops at different rates in different children. The prefrontal cortex of the human brain is constantly growing and changing in young children as well as adolescents. Because of the human brain's plasticity and enormous capacity for learning, it is possible to improve the executive functions of students with deficits through classroom strategies and support.

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Helping Students Develop Executive Function Skills

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Simple classroom strategies can assist students with deficits in executive function skills like time management and active listening.

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The characteristics of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), one of the most common childhood neurodevelopmental disorders, often get misinterpreted as intentional misbehavior or daydreaming in the classroom. But when teachers engage their student with ADHD in exploring what works for them, it can lead to stronger connections and more academic success. To find more strategies and resources for working with students with ADHD, or to learn more about the studies and articles cited in the video, visit the links below:

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Understanding and Supporting Your Student With ADHD

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ADHD can be frustrating for both teachers and students, but coming together to find strategies that work helps your student-and your relationship-blossom.