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Small Group Structures and Planning Templates

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Small Group Structures and Planning Templates

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Reading Small Group Structures in Grades 3-5

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Strategy Group Plan - Strongest Readers Focus

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Jeju Conference RW Day 2 (Foundations) (4)

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Podcast Episode on Language Comprehension

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Podcast Episode on Language Comprehension

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Today we are live with Natalie Wexler, the author of The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System-And How to Fix It (LISTENERS - IT'S AVAILABLE TODAY!). The book focuses on the lack of content in the elementary curriculum and its connection to what is commonly known as the achievement gap.

Natalie provides a snapshot of research on building knowledge, then tangibly deconstructs the why and how behind the research making explicit connections to education classrooms today. She provides clear steps to take to 'fix' the knowledge gap: adopting a content-focused curriculum to build knowledge, and providing teachers and leaders with ongoing professional development and coaching grounded in the curriculum.

Pick up her book, The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System-And How to Fix It. In the meantime, find articles and say hi to Natalie at https://nataliewexler.com/ or on Twitter @natwexler.

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Helping teachers learn about science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality curriculum.

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Melissa and Lori Love Literacy ™ - Episode 10: Noticing The #KnowledgeGap with Natalie Wexler

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Today we are live with Natalie Wexler, the author of The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System-And How to Fix It (LISTENERS - IT'S AVAILABLE TODAY!). The book focuses on the lack of content in the elementary curriculum and its connection to what is commonly known as the achievement gap.

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Identifying Character Traits
Finding Main Ideas & Details

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Student Friendly Cards to support readers

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TCRWP

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Narrative Learning Progressions, Grades 2-6

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EKC Nonfiction Text Complexity Cards (1)

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Grades 3-5 Common Formative Assessment Session

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Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong

There's an idea about how children learn to read that's held sway in schools for more than a generation - even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read. In this podcast, host Emily Hanford investigates the influential authors who promote this idea and the company that sells their work. It's an exposé of how educators came to believe in something that isn't true and are now reckoning with the consequences - children harmed, money wasted, an education system upended.

Sixty years ago, Marie Clay developed a way to teach reading she said would help kids who were falling behind. They'd catch up and never need help again. Today, her program remains popular and her theory about how people read is at the root of a lot of reading instruction in schools. But Marie Clay was wrong.
Sold a Story is an independent investigative journalism project from American Public Media. We rely on your donations to support this kind of rigorous reporting.
The controversial educational publishing company has sold instructional materials and professional resources in almost every state, earning at least $1.6 billion over a decade. Explore a map of school districts.

More states are now requiring districts to adopt curriculum that adheres to the science of reading. Look up the policy in your state.

At least 15 states have passed laws about how schools teach reading since the Sold a Story podcast was released in 2022, but there is pushback.

Here's a reading list put together by Emily Hanford.

This discussion guide, created by a teacher, invites educators, parents, community members and kids to have a conversation about the podcast.

Emails and voice messages poured in from people who listened to Sold a Story.

We'll let you know when we release new episodes of the podcast. Enter your address below.

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Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong

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There's an idea about how children learn to read that's held sway in schools for more than a generation - even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read.

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Language Comprehension Checklist and Sample 

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Language Comprehension Checklist and Sample 

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Blank Checklist
Basic Sample
Reading Rope Sample

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Science of Reading: The Podcast, hosted by Susan Lambert, delivers the latest insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Listen today!

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Copy of Self-Assessment Small Groups.pdf

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Small Group Structures and Planning Templates

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Small Group Structures and Planning Templates

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Reading Small Group Structures in Grades 3-5

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Small Group Structures and Planning Templates

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Small Group Structures and Planning Templates

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Reading Small Group Structures in Grades 3-5

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Strategy Group Plan for Monday - Feedback Focus

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Inferring about Character Strand of Learning Progression

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Using a Learning Progression to Support Self-Assessment and Writing about Themes in Literature: Small Group Work (3-5)

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Lucy Calkins and Colleagues at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project present Using a Learning Progression to Support Self-Assessment and Writing about Themes in Literature: Small Group (3-5)

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Use this resource to keep track of potential conferences and conferences you've had.

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Differentiated Instruction

By considering what students need to know, their interests, and how learning will be assessed, teachers can differentiate assignments.

Planning: Content, processes, and products

Learner access: Readiness, interests, and learning preferences

Environment

Differentiating for the needs of all learners is an important focus that many teachers across the world share. We want our students to have a year-plus growth in courses, whether they're struggling with core basics, are just at the appropriate skill level, or have understanding that exceeds the learning outcomes of the curriculum. These are the key elements to consider in differentiating instruction:

Much has been written to help teachers think about and provide differentiated experiences for learners that align and explain these elements. However, the question and challenge that I hear and observe from teachers most often is: how do we effectively plan intentional differentiation that we can implement and evaluate with the same confidence and understanding as traditional lessons? The answer that follows is based on a change in how to use the planning elements-content, processes, and products-for differentiation, which is finding traction in classrooms that are using this approach.

A Three-Pronged Approach to Planning for Differentiation

Part 1: Content. Content is what students need to know, understand, and do something with. When identifying these outcomes, we also shape the assessment(s) by how learners can demonstrate what they understand. Success comes from teachers accomplishing two steps for this task.

First, identify the specific skills and concepts that students must achieve. This is what gets measured and analyzed through a variety of assessments. Unpacking the skills and concepts enables teachers to track student learning progress for areas of additional support for learners with significant gaps and learners who are ready for complexity beyond the content expectations of the lesson. This understanding enables teachers, instructional coaches, and supervisors to be on the same page as to what students need to learn through intentional differentiation.

Second, collect data on what the students bring to the focused content. Sometimes, this step is viewed as finding strategies for planning differentiation. That is a mistake. Meeting learner needs means knowing what opportunities they bring to the lesson based on what they already know and what challenges exist, based on gaps in core areas of need. Examples of student data to collect prior to planning include life experiences and interests outside of school and academic skills. Using strategies like K-W-L charts or need to knows is one way to find out what learners already know about the topic. Their level of understanding of the content should be factored into the planning. No student feels engaged with a lesson or session that delivers content they have long since mastered. This stage of planning also helps to confirm gaps in knowledge.

Educators should collect information about students' interests and passions that may relate to, or give them background for, applications of the content. This data can lead to rich learning experiences, such as providing informational text to read and analyze from articles about sports or Minecraft if many students identify those as areas of interest.

Accomplishing these two steps helps to ensure that the educators feel well prepared about the specific curriculum expectations at a targeted level. It also ensures that teachers are fully aware of what students bring to the content in terms of opportunities and areas of challenge.

Part 2: Processes. Process is about the different ways that students make sense of the content. Students need frequent experiences of sense-making through a variety of different ways and opportunities. Teachers make this happen through lessons that are made up of a series of activities.

Differentiation through processes is applied in one or more of these activities that make up the lesson. Teachers might start with differentiating one activity. As confidence and experience grows, most lesson activities can be differentiated. The focus of intentional differentiation for process is based on students' content opportunities and challenges. It also incorporates at least one of the learner access elements: readiness, interests, and learning preferences.

Here are two examples.

English: Using details in writing through learning centers. Each center focuses on a different type of detail strategy: example, facts, and sensory detail. Each center includes two options and students choose one to complete.

Math: Understanding the parts and functions of fractions through think dots. Students are put into groups based on their readiness skill level to complete a tiered activity where they all must complete the focus skills. Each group collaborates to solve the six tasks in a random order of choice.

Part 3: Products. Products are the artifacts that students create to show what they know and do not know. These products vary in format both small and large, such as quizzes, reflections, discussions, multimedia, social media tools, and performance tasks.

Intentional differentiation is based on how to leverage what's known about students' content opportunities and challenges. Also, use at least one of the learner access elements: readiness, interests, and learning preferences. These experiences range from practice to learn to assessment checks on progress. There is much flexibility to provide learners with a range of opportunities and experiences to help them make connections and extend their learning while maintaining the content focus.

Driving Forward With Differentiation

Explore this approach for reflecting and planning for students' needs through differentiation. Using content, processes, and products as planning steps provides a clear and concise approach toward choosing strategies and activities based on learner needs that align with the lesson outcomes. This resource curation portal offers ideas to build into your plan, and this differentiation guide offers more insights and a differentiation planning criteria checklist to start your planning journey.

This structure not only empowers student learning but also gives educators common language for collaborative professional opportunities to discuss, implement, and build stronger experiences that meet the needs of all their learners.

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A Practical Guide to Planning for Intentional Differentiation

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By considering what students need to know, their interests, and how learning will be assessed, teachers can differentiate assignments.

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ASDoha Grade 3-5 Challenging Our Strongest Readers

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ASDoha Grade 3-5 Vocabulary Focused Strategy Groups

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Raising the Level of Our Thinking about Characters

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Generative Vocabulary Instruction - Hiebert

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Generative Vocabulary Instruction - Hiebert

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ASDoha Grade 3-5 Challenging Our Strongest Readers (1)

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ASDoha Grades 3-5 Science of Reading Presentation (1)