Guiding Groups
How many? How often? How to assess? What's the teacher's role? We share flexible and creating strategies for leading groups, and teaching students how to partner and work well with classmates independently. Resources include everything from planning and assessment forms to scores of video examples of groups in action at many grade levels.
Latest Content
Environment Small Group: Habitat
Katherine Sokolowski leads a small group of fifth graders who have chosen similar topics for their projects in an environmental unit.
Exploring Goals in Fiction
Gigi McAllister meets briefly with a group of fourth graders who are all exploring theme in picture books.
Good Questions for Group Discussions
Gigi McAllister helps a group of fourth graders evaluate questions for fostering good group discussions.
Environmental Group Notes
Katherine Sokolowski meets briefly with a group of fifth-grade girls to go through the notes they are taking for their environmental studies project and talk through next steps.
Fact or Fiction? Discussion
Christy Rush-Levine has her middle school students complete a fun and sophisticated reading activity using Muse magazine to sort through what might be fact or fiction. In this second installment of the video series, students discuss the articles they have read.
Nonfiction Research Group in Fifth Grade
Katherine Sokolowski meets with a group of fifth graders who are all researching the use of nets in fishing and the environmental effects of the process. She works to build connections among classmates as well as research skills.
Making the Most of Small Groups with Jennifer Serravallo (PODCAST)
In this podcast, Jennifer Serravallo shares her “then” and “now” reflections about how guiding groups has evolved in her classroom.
Trying on Books for Reading Groups
Gigi McAllister finds taking time to have students browse texts before forming book clubs makes all the difference in the quality of the discussions.
Purposeful Partners
Tara Barnett and Kate Mills find the young learners in their classroom have mastered the art of turning and talking only with close friends. They provide practical suggestions for expanding the circle of peer response.
Maintaining Momentum As a Writer
Jennifer Richard Jacobson chats with a group of fifth graders about how to generate ideas for writing independently each day.
Owl Research Brainstorming: Partner Work
Andrea Smith’s fourth graders are working on an Owl Research project that integrates reading, writing, talking, listening, and content literacy.
Embracing Meaning Making in Guided Reading Groups
Katie DiCesare finds her guided reading practices are rusty, so she develops some new strategies to improve her work.
Grouping Strategies for Guided Reading
How can you support the “outliers” in classrooms — students with unique needs or profiles who don’t neatly fit into any instructional group? Shari Frost offers some strategies.
Second-Grade Reading Group
Heather Rader demonstrates the importance of a varied reading diet to a second-grade group, sharing her own stack of books.
Book Clubs Then and Now: Change Is the Constant
Mary Lee Hahn considers how book clubs have changed over time in her fifth-grade classroom.
Crafting Characters and Scenes
In this discussion with fifth graders about her book Paper Things, author Jennifer Richard Jacobson and the students share strategies and tools for visualizing scenes and characters when they are writing stories.
Owl Research Notes Group
Andrea Smith helps a group of boys take notes during an owl research project.
Three Questions to Ask When a Guided Reading Group Is Stuck
Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris share three questions teachers should ask themselves when guided reading groups aren’t going well.
Small-Group Writing: Steps for Success
Cathy Mere provides grouping guidelines for primary teachers.
English Language Learners First-Grade Guided Group
Stella Villalba leads a guided reading group of first-grade English language learners, beginning with building vocabulary.
Frog and Toad and Tina and Maya: A Precocious Kindergarten Reading Group
Suzy Kaback ponders the precociousness of two kindergarten readers.
Kindergarten Small Group: Concepts of Print
Clare Landrigan leads a "quick and frequent" small group that integrates phonemic awareness activities with assessment.
“Lift a Line” Boys Reading Group
Franki Sibberson gives a group of boys a “lift a line” assignment to build their close reading skills.
Effective Student Writing Groups
Ruth Ayres has advice for effective peer feedback in writing workshops.
Sticky Notes Small Group
Sean Moore meets with a group of second graders to remind them how to use sticky notes strategically while they are reading.
Conversational Skills in a Boys Book Club
Linda Karamatic observes a second-grade boys book club using tokens as a cue for turn taking, and then discusses her observations with the students.
Strong Girls Book Group
Franki Sibberson shares a range of books that include compelling female characters with a group of fourth-grade girls.
Research Book Clubs for Struggling Readers
Beth Lawson finds that a nonfiction research book club is just the grouping structure needed for a group of struggling readers in her fourth-grade classroom.
Group Conference in First Grade
Katie DiCesare meets with first graders Anna and Brendan to help them learn from each other and prepare to share their rereading strategies with the whole class.
Building Stamina and Book Choice Skills
Franki Sibberson continues a discussion with a small group of students who often abandon books. This is the second installment in a two-part video series.
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