Meet instructional challenges effectively and efficiently by uncovering hidden time for meeting individual students' needs. With small groups, you'll work closely with more children each day with her how-tos on using formative assessment to create groups from common needs; differentiating for individuals, even in a group; and enhancing Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction.
Author Debbie Diller turns her attention to small reading groups and the teacher's role in small-group instruction. Making the Most of Small Groups: Differentiation for All grapples with difficult questions regarding small-group instruction in elementary classrooms such as: How do I find the time? How can I be more organized? How do I form groups? How can I differentiate to meet the needs of all of my students? Structured around the five essential reading elements - comprehension, fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, and vocabulary - the book provides practical tips, sample lessons, lesson plans and templates, suggestions for related literacy work stations, and connections to whole-group instruction. In addition to ideas to use immediately in the classroom, Diller provides an overview of relevant research and reflection questions for professional conversations.
This edition reflects the authors' insight gained from working with students and teachers across the United States. Chapters provide the knowledge base and practical application models necessary to implement small-group differentiated reading instruction for a wide range of readers in the intermediate grades. To help you provide struggling and proficient students with the specific instruction that will increase their overall reading ability as they face higher standards.--[book cover]
30 Big Idea Lessons for Small Groups provides an amazing framework, with a bank of engagement tools, that gets students interacting with texts. Follow this unique 4-part process to develop students’ literal, inferential, evaluative, and analytical skills: Engage: Before Reading Students use a tactile tool like a topic card or a pyramid Discuss: During Reading Students read and mark up a short text Deep-See Think: After Reading Students re-read and revise their interpretations together Connect: After Reading Students begin to transfer their understandings to other texts
As students gain confidence and skills in guided reading, what is the next step to helping them become strong, independent readers? Small-group reading sessions. By working in small groups, students will be able to explore longer text and build their literacy skills with confidence. Literacy expert Gail Saunders-Smith demonstrates through the methods in this book how educators can advance students from small-group reading to silent reading, all while building reading comprehension. Ideal for teachers of emergent readers, The Ultimate Small-Group Reading How-To Book demonstrates how to develop successful readers through step-by-step, small-group reading instruction that focuses on vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency. Inside are tools for teachers to help them: Set up small-group mini-lessons and discussion of texts Provide tools for students to help investigate narrative texts Engage students to evaluate expository texts Develop students’ skills in defining literary elements such as characters, setting, and plot And much more Help students become independent readers with these strategies for use before, during, and after guided reading!
This unique book tells the story of a select group of schools and teachers who have managed to beat the odds in terms of improving elementary students reading achievement. Originating with the CIERA School Change Project directed by Barbara Taylor and David Pearson, it was subsequently expanded to include the work of other research teams doing similar work. It combines large scale studies of effective schools and teachers (Part I) with case studies of individual schools and teachers who have successfully transformed research findings into situation-specific strategies appropriate to their schools and classrooms (Parts II and III). The book's distinct contribution is showing that no matter how consistent the research findings on effective school and classroom practice, groups of teachers must improvise their own situation-specific programs and practices. In short, they must be able to create variations on a common theme. Key features of this outstanding new volume include: *Integration of research and cases--One cannot fully understand research-based general principles without knowing how they play themselves out in specific settings. Similarly, one cannot fully understand cases without seeing the commonalities across different schools and classrooms sharing similar goals. This book provides both perspectives. *Diverse cases--The schools and classrooms depicted in this book are urban, rural, and suburban; poor and middle class; and English-only and bilingual. Rather than telling readers how to beat the odds, it provides them with a wide variety of cases from which they can extrapolate to build their own customized teaching programs and practices. *Summarizing section--The final section contains a summary of research on effective schools and teachers and a concluding chapter by Gerry Duffy and Jim Hoffman in which they reflect on the book's content and possible directions for future research. The book is targeted to both in-service elementary teachers and literacy students in advanced college courses.
Make the most of small group time—in-person or online To help students progress as readers, they need personal attention from a teacher and a connection with their peers. Small groups offer both! When you work with just a few kids at a time—whether face-to-face or in a virtual setting, you provide a safe, trusting environment that encourages them to challenge themselves. In this timely handbook, author and reading expert Debbie Diller provides concrete guidance for tailoring the small-group experience to literacy instruction. You’ll learn how to assess student skills and needs, how to flexibly organize groups, and how to differentiate instruction to give every reader a pathway to success. Features include: Strategies and tools grouped by developmental reading stages At-a-glance charts for assessing current skill level and identifying next instructional steps Downloadable printables for planning and instructional use Easy adaptations for use in online learning Reflection prompts and guiding questions Whatever your instructional setting, you and your students need the relationships that are best forged in small groups. With this book, you’ll build those relationships and help young readers achieve success.
Kindergarten is a time for playful and enriching learning activities that support children's literacy emergence while enhancing their social and cognitive development. The routines of a busy, engaged, productive kindergarten classroom are vividly brought to life in this information-packed book. Demonstrated are whole-class and small-group strategies for helping children acquire concepts about print and the alphabet, build phonological and phonemic awareness, learn to read sight words, develop their listening comprehension and writing abilities, and much more.
This popular text, now in its Fourth Edition, introduces pre-service and in-service teachers to the most current theories and methods for teaching literacy to children in elementary schools. The methods presented are based on scientific findings that have been tested in many classrooms. A wealth of examples, hands-on activities, and classroom vignettes--including lesson plans, assessments, lists of children's literature books to fiction and nonfiction texts, and more--illustrate the methods and bring them to life.The text highlights the importance of teaching EVERY child to become competent in all of the nuances and complexities of reading, writing, and speaking. The value of reflection and peer discussion in learning to expand their students' literacies is emphasized. Readers are encouraged to reflect on their own experiences with reading and teaching throughout their lifetimes--experiences that will serve well in learning to teach reading. "Your Turn" boxes invite readers to think about their views of the material presented, and to talk with colleagues and teachers about their "best ways" of learning this new information. "Did You Notice?" boxes engage readers in observation and analysis of methods and classroom situations discussed in the text. Teachers' stories serve as models of successful teaching and to draw readers into professional dialogue about the ideas and questions raised. End-of-chapter questions and activities provide additional opportunities for reflection and discussion. All of these pedagogical features help readers expand and refine their knowledge in the most positive ways. Topics covered in Teaching Reading to Every Child, Fourth Edition: *Getting to Know Your Students as Literacy Learners; *Looking Inside Classrooms: Organizing Instruction; *Assessing Reading Achievement; *The Importance of Oral Language in Developing Literacy; *Word Identification Strategies: Pathways to Comprehension; *Vocabulary Development; *Comprehension Instruction: Strategies At Work; *Content Area Learning; *What the Teacher Needs to Know to Enable Students' Text Comprehension; *Writing: Teaching Students to Encode and Compose; *Discovering the World Through Literature; *Technology and Media in Reading; *Teaching Reading to Students Who Are Learning English; *All Students are Special: Some Need Supplemental Supports and Services to Be Successful; and *Historical Perspectives on Reading and Reading Instruction. New in the Fourth Edition: *A new chapter on technology with state-of-the-art applications; *A new chapter with the most up-to-date information on how vocabulary is learned and on how it is best taught, responding to the national renewed interest in vocabulary instruction; *A new section on Readers/Writer's workshop with a focus on supporting student inquiry and exploration of multiple genres; *A more comprehensive chapter on literature instruction and the role of literature in the reading program with examples that support students' multigenre responses; *A discussion of literary theories with examples for classroom implementation; *Broader coverage of the phases of reading development from the pre-alphabetic stage to the full alphabetic stage; *A more inclusive chapter on writing instruction; and *A thoroughly revised chapter on teaching reading to students who are learning English, including extensive information on assessment and evaluation.
