So, you have that high-energy class with constant talkers. You have struggled in the past to pair students into groups that can stay on task, complete the assigned work, and manage their time effectively. This was my struggle the first time I tried to randomly group students for math centers. Several years later, I have practiced many methods and strategies for grouping students, looking at academic results / data, behaviors, and work habits. Ultimately, I briefly study my students to learn about them in each of these capacities before I finalize groups. The biggest thing to remember though is that my groups are flexible. Sometimes they remain the same for a month, other times only a few days. While I learn about my students to create the groups, I continue to study changes in their academic ability and behavior that can have an effect on how effectively my small groups run.
This year particularly, I have a tough group behaviorally, that poses the same challenges when I group them academically. It just happens that my group of 3 boys that love to talk all day also fit together in the same reading level and tested with about the same score on benchmark testing for both reading and math. The same goes for a small group of girls that are best friends. They are inseparable on the playground, but need to learn to work with different students in class. But how do I group them with students who have a higher or lower reading level when they also all have similar testing results?
In the best interest of students, I chose to group most of my students based on their bench-marking results and reading ability for our guided reading groups. I then worked out a schedule where the groups that I felt would tend to be off task more often were rotating to different activities every 15 minutes. Whereas the groups that could more easily focus would read together for 30 minutes at a time. See the shared schedule ideas in the image. The schedule also allows me to check in with each group at least 2 times per week and provides opportunities for students to do some vocabulary work with their book for an additional 15 minutes per week.
The next step to keep students on task, engaged in reading, and working well together was to choose high interest novels. For my first round, I picked 2-3 books that would be at an appropriate reading level for each group and gave them a choice. For some groups, a few students had already read one of the books. We met and quickly decided on a book that the students would enjoy. I provided a short summary of the book and showed them the title and cover. The students had some choice, while still fitting within a few guidelines I had for a "good fit book." Having choice is significant in keeping students engaged in learning. I keep all my book titles and novel study packets organized in a large binder (as shown below) so that I can easily show students different book choices.
The last major piece of forming effective groups are the actual activities and work that the students do while reading or learning the content. While a number of my students enjoy reading, and I do a lot of read-alouds to make reading exciting for my students, there is still importance in choosing activities that the students will enjoy. You don't want them to become bored or disengaged after a few days or weeks of reading...especially if you want these groups to continue for the entire year. I have my students run reading groups similar to literature circles. Each student has a role in the group: director, summary writer, quote tracker, artist, and/or vocabulary collector. The students stay in their role for a week, and then switch roles for another week. (These roles can continue longer than a week depending on the length of the book or time reading through a novel.) The students are responsible to share their work for their personal role with the teacher each time they meet. This helps me to not only make sure all students are working during their group reading time, but also helps me to understand what the students find important in the book and what they are reading. In addition to their roles, I always provide guiding questions for them to discuss or refer to as they read. Here is a General Novel Study Guide that I sometimes provide groups to assist them in having discussions around their book.
In the end, groups will not always run smoothly. Students will have difficult days, times when they are off task, and moments when they forget their role and the task to complete at hand. Make sure your expectations are clear at the beginning of the year for book clubs. I created an anchor chart of book club expectations and spent at least 30 minutes creatively going over roles and modeling how book club groups talk together and have discussion around a book. We also practice these discussions as we read books aloud together throughout the year to continue reinforcing appropriate book conversations and practicing reading strategies.
I have linked several of the resources I use when conducting guided reading groups. I have a number of resources in my shop. I use a group tracker to keep my groups organized, and each group has a defined drawer in my organizer to keep books and extra reading materials. This helps our class to stay organized and keep groups effective throughout the year. Click on either of the images below for access to these resources.
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