1. Determine what to teach:
- Identify a the main objectives within a bend (of a unit). This may be the essential question or enduring understanding of the bend.
- If you do not have bends to work with, determine what you want kids to know and be able to do after a week or so.
- How are you going to tell who is getting it... who needs re-teaching... who can be extended...
- Perhaps collect an exit slip during a read aloud, after a mini lesson, after independent reading
- Use other data to inform groups for a strategy lesson (F&P assessment, MAP assessing, PALS...)
- Use your conferring notes (a great tool is the Confer App) Identify next steps after a conference
- Find patterns - or students who have like needs
2. Determine who should participate in the group:
The above template might be used to organize strategies to be taught in small groups. Then after reflecting on conferring notes, exit slips, or other student information, you can place students in the small groups.
3. Plan the lesson / Deliver the lesson
Above is an example of a strategy lesson template (strategy lesson architecture).
- When planning lessons, you may consider if you will use any tools or visuals
- Mentor Texts to help model
- Charts to help keep focus and offer examples / exemplars (see below for examples)
I like leaving these papers for the small group after I leave the kids to work. It offers a visual reminder for what we worked on.
