How to Use Small Groups as an Effective Teaching Strategy

The holidays are over, and the days are cold.

January seems to stretch out f-o-r-e-v-e-r unless you have a snow day or two.

However, it's also my favorite teaching month of the year!  I feel like there is such a sense of accomplishment this month!

It's a great time to focus on academics before all of the holiday excitement in February.

The only trouble is that the students have trouble coming down from all of the craziness of December.

Don't worry!

Utilizing small-group learning as an effective teaching strategy will bring calmness to it all.

It's the perfect opportunity to focus on centers, classroom games, small groups, and more.

In January, I especially love focusing on small groups.  I want to make sure that I have filled all of the gaps I possibly can.

Do you struggle with how to use small groups as an effective teaching strategy?

For me, much of my day is spent at my small-group table.  Behind me on my bookshelf, everything I need is prepared and at my fingertips so that I can be as efficient as possible.

To begin using small groups effectively, you first need to know the strengths and deficits of your students.  Read this blog post to learn five simple, quick, and creative ways to assess your students.

The rest of my classroom is a well-oiled machine.  The students work in centers during both my math and literacy blocks.  These no prep activities are so simple for me to prepare and change out within my centers.

Along with the no prep units, I have some other activities that are included for the entire month, making it super easy not to constantly be prepping and planning.

These January Early Finishers cards are printed, laminated, cut out, and placed in a small basket on my desk.  Students who finish their work early get one card and complete the activity.

I have January Morning Tubs ready for students as soon as they walk in the door.  They are so excited to delve into these every single morning.  A plus is that while students are working, I have time to complete those morning chores and get the first segment of small groups ready to go.

During science and social studies, students use virtual activities to learn about a topic and then include writing into the topic.

For a fun art activity, students love completing these Follow the Directions activities.

Again, what am I doing during this time?

I am working with small groups with these effective teaching strategies.

• I'm calling individual students over to read out loud to me and confer about the books they are reading.

• I'm working with 2-5 students in a small group over a math concept they didn't get yesterday during the math lesson.  How do I know they didn't get it?  I used one of these fun and easy assessments at the end of math yesterday.

• I usually do a mini lesson to reteach the concept.  Students have dry-erase boards and markers to work through the problems with me first, then with a partner, and finally independently.  This entire process only takes 10-15 minutes because I want to work with as many students as possible while the rest of the class completes math centers for 30 minutes.

• Students can also work together in small groups with or without your guidance using games.  Read this blog post to find out more.

I repeat the small-group process while students are working independently at any point during the day.

In case you are in need of another fun activity, join my email, and get this unit totally FREE!!

What does your January look like?

Filling in the gaps during January with small-group teaching is one of my favorites!  It's just...

My Kind of Teaching!

Five Creative Ways to Assess Students Without a Test

How do you know when your students are understanding the material you've taught?  

More importantly, how do you know when students are NOT understanding a concept?

Sometimes, you have to find creative ways to assess your students without using precious instructional time spent on a test.

These are five of my favorite ways to informally assess students without them realizing that they are being tested!

1) Ticket Out the Door

A quick and stress-free way to ensure that your students understand the subject matter is to take the last two minutes of class for students to answer a question about the day's lesson.  In my classroom, this looked like a sticky note for each student to write his or her answer.  Next to my door, I had these simple laminated pages on the wall.  

The students used the numbers they were assigned at the beginning of the year (if you don't use the number system in your classroom, you are missing out on an efficient system that helps in so many areas).  Read more and grab free numbers here.) Each student writes his or her number in the corner of the sticky note and the answer to the question and then sticks in on the numbered board on his or her number.

Grab your own FREE ticket out the door here.

Quick Tip - Have your students write on the sticky sides of the notes so that other students cannot see their answers when on the board.

2) Four Corners Game

Prepare 3-5 questions you want to ask your students about the material.  Type these out before class on a simple slide show to use with your overhead projector, or simply ask the questions.  Give your students four possible answers.  Designate each corner as "A", "B", "C", or "D".  Students will move to the corner they feel is the correct answer.

(For greater details on this game and using more games in your classroom for learning, click here to read the blog post.)

Quick Tip - Prepare your class by permanently posting "A", "B", "C", or "D" in each corner to use throughout the school year.

3) Google Forms

Type up a quick mini-assessment on Google Forms of 1-5 multiple-choice questions.  As students settle in for class, ask them to complete the "quick five" (or "quick three", etc.)  I like to give it a name so that students know what to expect.  The best part is that the data will be there waiting on you to check later!

Quick Tip - Prepare a template form.  Save this form to use all year.  This will save time since you simply change the questions and answers.

4) Write About It

Add more writing during the day for your students by having them write out the steps or processes to find their answers.  This is a great and creative way to assess your students in math.  If they can tell you the processes and the steps to solve problems, they have mastered the concepts.  If they cannot tell you, it will be very evident.  As a bonus, you will be able to see exactly which step/thought process a student is missing.  This will make it very easy for you to do a mini-lesson with those students to fill the gap.

Quick Tip - If you use Google Classroom, make an assignment for just this purpose.  Students can add slides as needed to complete the answers.  This saves you time by not having a stack of papers.  

5) Show Your Hand

This is a super quick and extremely easy way to assess your students.  Have your students face the front of the room and hold their hands in fists on their chests or stomachs.  Ask them to self-assess by showing the number of fingers to tell you how they feel about their knowledge of the subject matter.  (I kept this poster at the front of my classroom all year for this creative way to assess any subject.)  

1 = I do not understand at all!  Please help me.

2 = I only understand a little.  I am still lost and need help.

3 = I understand it, but I need more practice to improve.

4 = I am confident in the subject.

5 = I am a pro and can teach it to someone else.

Quick Tip - Prepare a list of your students' names.  As you look at your students' fingers, mark down the students who score themselves at a 1 or 2.  Alternately, if you have a student who scores himself or herself high and you know in your heart of hearts that he or she is at a 1 or 2, take note of that also.

There you have it...five quick, easy, and creative ways to assess your students daily to ensure that you are catching and filling in those gaps before they become too wide.

Grab these free math and literacy centers when you sign up for my emails.

Don't forget to save this blog post to your favorite Pinterest board to have it at the tip of your fingers when you need ideas!

Which of these ideas is your favorite?  Comment below and let's chat!

Finding easy solutions to help students be the best they can be is just...

MY KIND OF TEACHING

December Round Up

I've got you covered for the month of December!

The month of December is CRAZY busy!  It goes so quickly that it's hard to keep up.  I've got you covered with some fun and engaging activities that are still full of rigor.  Just click on the pictures to see several units for each topic.

Helping you enjoy the season without worry and extra time spent planning, that's just...

My Kind of Teaching