Pam Alfaro: Hello and welcome. I’m happy that you have decided to join the first session of our technical assistance webinar series on maximizing targeted literacy instruction.

My name is Pam Alfaro, I’m a literacy project manager at the UF Lastinger Center, and for today’s session on delivering high-impact targeted literacy instruction, we’re focusing on instructional practices that are especially helpful in making a lasting impact on teacher practices and student learning outcomes.

The session is designed for classroom teachers, instructional coaches, literacy specialists, school leaders and any educator seeking practical strategies to strengthen targeted literacy instruction for improving learning outcomes. And in this session, we will explore strategies for delivering high-impact targeted literacy instruction through data analysis, targeted skills identification, explicit instruction and effective implementation practices that will help to overcome some common implementation challenges that are related to small group instruction. And with that, let’s get started.

Again, this session is the first of a five-part webinar series titled Maximizing Targeted Literacy Instruction.

Session one and two guides participants from understanding the research and using data to create instructional groups. We’re going to go from there into session three and four that address developing effective instructional practices and classroom structures that promote engagement for successful targeted small group learning.

And then in the final session, which is session five, participants will learn how to use ongoing assessments and progress monitoring data to refine their instruction and improve their students’ achievement. So, today’s session will lay the foundation for effective targeted literacy instruction by examining some of the key components that we need to plan and deliver responsive data-driven instruction.

And so, before we take a look at our learning objectives for this session, I’ll take a moment to share who we are at the Lastinger Center. And so, at the Lastinger Center, we’re our hub for education innovation, using research and data to improve teaching, learning and childcare from birth through grades 12. And we partner with educators and leaders to provide practical professional learning in early learning, literacy and mathematics that help all students succeed.

Now, if you have access to your guided notes, you’ll see on page one our learning objectives for this session. And so, by the end of this session, you’ll understand the purpose of effective targeted small group instruction.

We’ll identify why and when to use small group instruction for targeted skills-based support.

We’ll also explore effective instructional strategies to support targeted small group instruction.

So some of these strategies we identified may be familiar, and others may be new to you. During today’s session, please be sure to make those connections in your notes. The notes are there to guide you through the session, but you can also make those connections in your notes.

And lastly, we will recognize some common small group challenges, and we’re going to look at some effective approaches to deal with those challenges and avoid some of the pitfalls related to small group instruction.

Again, you have access to your guided notes to follow along throughout the presentation, and also notice after the guided notes, there is a checklist as you consider implementation of targeted small group literacy instruction in the classroom.

Now, as we go throughout the presentation, you can use those guided notes to take notes from the presentation and reflect on your overall experience with small group instruction.

So let’s take a moment now to reflect on your experience with small group instruction as it relates to the challenges and successes that you’ve had with small group instruction. So reflect on these two questions.

What has been your biggest challenge? Planning, scheduling, data collection or grouping students. There are lots of challenges for small group instruction, but also, what has been your greatest success? 

There are many opportunities for success with small group instruction, so seeing student growth, more student independence, better team collaboration and better peer collaboration. So, I’m going to give you about 30 seconds to think about those questions, and then you can go ahead and write your responses. 

Again, you have your guided notes, so please record your responses on those guided notes on page one.

Okay, so we’ll begin with an anticipation guide, so we’re going to do this activity. This is our first activity for the session. So, this activity is intended to activate your prior knowledge and to get you thinking about today’s topic, which is delivering targeted small group instruction.

This is not a test. It’s simply a way to bring your thinking to the surface. So let’s take a few minutes to read each statement and decide whether we agree or disagree. And I’m going to support you. I’m going to read those statements as well.

And so, the first statement: Effective small group instruction requires intentional planning based on student needs.

Do you agree or disagree?

Once students are placed in small groups, they should remain in small groups based on their overall academic achievement.

Small group instruction works best when all students are expected to work at the same pace.

Small group instruction should focus on specific skills students need to develop and provide targeted, explicit instruction.

And number five: The main purpose of small group instruction is to reteach the same lesson to students who need more time.

So go ahead and lock in your answers.

And of course, that’s based on your current understanding and experience.

And know that we’ll revisit these at the end of our session, after we engage with the content.

Now, today’s focus is on delivering targeted small group instruction in the classroom. With that, we will begin by examining John Hattie’s visible learning research, and what it tells us about the potential impact of small group instruction on student academic growth.

And as we explore this research, I want us to think beyond simply asking ourselves, does small group instruction work?

Instead, we’re going to consider when. Why? And under what conditions small group instruction has the greatest impact.

And this is important because our instructional practices should be grounded in research and connected to strategies that have the potential to improve student achievement. And so research can really help us identify practices that are worth prioritizing, while helping us to really set realistic expectations for small group instruction that can be accomplished during the time that we spend with children. 

So here you see that small group instruction has an effect size of 0.49, and that’s a moderate positive impact, which is above the hinge point of 4.0, representing about one year of expected academic growth.

And so, as we move through today’s session, keep this question in mind.

How can we make the time we spend in small groups purposeful and impactful for students?

But before we can talk about how to deliver targeted smart group instruction, we first need to make sure we have a shared understanding of what we mean by small group instruction.

Let’s start by defining what it is and what it looks like in practice that will help us to talk about small group instruction in a consistent way.

And so, as we introduce the terms in these sessions, think about how it connects to your practice. Wherever you are, how does this connect to your practice? And you may already be using some of these strategies or methods without realizing that there is a specific terminology for them.

And I want you to make sure that you jot down key ideas, definitions and connections in your guided notes as we go along. 

This is on page two of your notes, and this definition is coming from the What Works Clearinghouse, which consistently identifies effective small group instruction as instruction that is explicit, systematic and you’re really going to be focusing on specific needs of students.

It’s frequent opportunities for guided and independent practice. That’s why we have students in small groups.

It’s targeted to students’ instructional needs based on your assessment data, and we’re going to talk a lot about that today. 

Using that progress monitoring, which is those checks that you do to adjust instruction and regroup students. And then, it’s going to be typically delivered in a small group of three to five students. So, small group, it’s a small group instruction.

Now that we have a shared understanding of what small group instruction is, let’s take a closer look at why we provide small group instruction, and what makes it effective.

One important distinction is how we determine student groups. So we’re looking at how we decide where students go.

The goal isn’t to simply group students by their overall achievement.

Instead, effective small group instruction is about identifying the specific needs that students have, and using that information to provide targeted instruction specific to those particular needs of the small group of students that you’ve identified.

So let’s look at the difference between needs-based grouping and ability grouping, and why that distinction matters for our students when we’re grouping students.

So, in a needs-based model, students are not placed in high, middle or low groups based on their overall performance. No matter what you call it, it could be the bluebirds and the red jays. Instead, teachers use assessment and other data points that they’ve collected to identify the specific skill or concept a student needs to learn. So say, for example, we have a group of second grade students who need additional practice with VAL teams.

The students are then grouped according to their instructional need, regardless of their achievement level. So they could be across those achievement levels, but they’re going to be grouped according to their instructional need with vowel teams.

And so the focus is always on what students need to learn next. So we’re not focusing on achievement level, we’re focusing on what the students need to learn.

Ensuring that instruction is timely, targeted and responsive to individual learning needs, rather than based on a fixed perception of a student’s ability.

Okay, now that we have established that small group instruction should be driven by student need, and that’s going to come from our data over fixed ability.

Let’s think about what that looks like in practice.

Now, there are several reasons we might bring students together in a small group, and these are listed in your guided notes on page two. If you are still on page two, they’re provided there for you.

So, when you’re using small group instruction to improve student literacy outcomes, you are really looking at providing targeted instruction for a subset of students who need additional support with a specific skill.

So it’s not all the students, it’s a subset of students. But you could have several subsets of students who need different targeted instruction.

We also want to do that to give students increased opportunities to practice skills with the teacher feedback and data that you’ll gather to make sure that your groups stay flexible. 

So, the students are practicing, and they have you right there to really help them with corrective feedback or specific positive praise if the behaviors that they are exhibiting are moving them towards mastery and more independent use of the skill or the concept.

We want to foster deep discussions with the teacher and meaningful collaboration with their peers. And so this is an opportunity when we’re using small group to do that, to really deepen that experience that students are having when they’re learning a skill that they need support in.

And so, we’re also creating time and a space to deliver that targeted instruction to address those learning gaps.

So we’re making time, and we’re making a space for that to happen.

Now that we’ve explored the reasons we’ve used small group instruction, let’s shift our focus to how we can use it, so we’re gonna use it, but how can we use it purposefully to support literacy outcomes?

This is at the top of page three in your guided notes. So let’s go ahead and take a look at this.

Small groups are a purposefully planned, targeted instruction. We’re not just doing it as a routine. We’re purposefully planning the small group instruction for a small group of students based on the needs that are indicated when you do the analysis of your formal and informal student data.

As we go through these grouping strategies (so we have some grouping strategies that we’re going to be looking at here) think about which ones you may be using already.

You’re probably using some of these already. So, when using small group instruction to improve literacy outcomes, we want to use data-driven grouping. And we’re going to talk more about this as we go through the session.

We want to do that to address students’ learning needs, and we’re going to use various data points to help make sure that the instruction is responsive and targeted and aligned based on those needs.

Then we can also group students based on shared interests, and this helps to increase engagement, motivation and comprehension.

Especially when students have an interest in something, they’re much more willing to learn it and do it, and work with other students who also enjoy or have an interest in what they’re interested in.

And then finally, we’re going to look as a way to encourage reading development through dyad groups, by pairing students with a slightly more proficient reader to support that peer learning. We want to really create a community of learning where we’re learning from each other.

So each of these approaches can support improved literacy outcomes. However, for today’s session, we’ll focus primarily on the first one: using data-driven grouping to identify specific learning needs and provide the targeted small group instruction.

And as we go through this, you’ll see I’ll be talking about data a lot, using the data and then how that data informs the instruction that we provide for students and what students we’re going to provide it for.

Now, since our focus today is on using student data to deliver targeted small group instruction, let’s take a closer look at what we mean by data-driven grouping. So, another vocabulary, we want to make sure that we’re all on the same page about what data-driven grouping is. This definition is also provided for you in your guided notes, I think it’s on page three of your guided notes. So, let’s look at what data-driven grouping is.

Data-driven grouping is a process of using student assessment data to create flexible instructional groups based on a specific skill, need and learning goal.

Groupings are adjusted as students demonstrate growth or new needs emerge. So as students are demonstrating that growth, we’re going to make adjustments. Or when we see there’s a new need that’s emerging, we’re also going to make those adjustments. 

So, the data-driven grouping means that we are not placing, we are not placing students in groups based on labels, such as low, middle or high, or keeping students in the same group for extended periods of time or all year long. Instead, we’re going to use our assessment information to understand what students know, and what skills they need to develop.

And when we know that, then we can do our instruction that will help them to move forward.

Now, with our definition of data-driven grouping, let’s take a look at the next step and think about how we use that information to support student achievement.

This is also on page three in your guided notes, and you’ll see at the bottom of the slide here, it’ll have the page number, so you can refer to that, but I will also call your attention to the page number. So this is on page three.

We’re talking about student data, and how it’s related to your instructional routines or your instructional practice.

So, if we’re looking at student data and your instructional routines, they serve a complementary purpose.

Data is going to identify the need. What is needed? 

And then that evidence-based routine and those evidence-based instructional practices will help us determine how we address the need. What do we do when we’re providing instruction that’s going to really address the needs of those students who are sitting right in front of us that have a specific need?

The two-sided arrow represents the ongoing cycle. This is a back and forth of data identifying the need, and instruction addressing the need. The data continues to identify the need, and then you provide the instruction to address the need.

And students’ performance throughout the time that you’re providing that instruction is really going to provide you with new data. If you are taking your anecdotal notes, you’re doing those formative assessments, progress monitoring, if you’re doing your observations, that’s going to provide you new data to refine your instruction, and also to form those flexible groups where you’re moving students according to their need and not keeping them in those same groups. This keeps small group instruction targeted, responsive and really focused on student growth.

So, to support student achievement, we’re looking at how we support student achievement with small groups.

Small group instruction should be driven by, again, student data. You’re going to hear me say that a lot.

The assessment data that we could use our formative assessment data. We can also be using observations and progress monitoring results. We use these data to identify students who need explicit, targeted instruction on a particular skill or concept.

We have to start with data, there’s just really no other way. And so, to support students’ achievement, you’ll need to use your data to group students based on similar learning needs.

And I’ll just give you an example. As a reading interventionist, I worked with teachers who grouped students primarily based on reading levels. So they had their different reading groups, and they rotated, and so on and so forth.

However, when I was the reading of the interventionist, I would pull students to do their biweekly progress monitoring checks. And in those monitoring checks, the data really showed that students within the same achievement level, so if they were in the brown group, often had very different needs for decoding, fluency or comprehension.

You know, really, at that time, when I think back about it, we missed so many opportunities to create more intentional groups for students and provide that more targeted instruction, especially for students who were meeting their benchmark expectations. 

Even though they were meeting the benchmark expectations, they still have needs, and so we did miss some opportunities for that, but you won’t get to do that, because you’ll know that you need to look at all that data to identify the specific needs of all students in your classroom.

And so when we’re talking about that, we’re also providing evidence-based instruction, so when that data tells you what it is that the students need, you’re going to provide that instruction.

A challenge with this is that sometimes when you’re providing instruction, we really want to move fast. We want students to grow. We want to see growth. And so, I think about my situation, where sometimes I would move too fast from modeling to independent practice.

Oftentimes skipping over the guided practice, because I wanted to know if the students could immediately apply the skill on their own. So I had shown them something, and then I wanted to know if they could do it.

And really not realizing that many students need that repeated guided practice to develop mastery. So we need to make sure that we’re giving students plenty of time to practice. When we show them how to do something, we have to watch them practice it, and then we have to give them the opportunity to let them do it on their own.

And so, in that way, we’re actively monitoring the students’ responses, and we’re giving that feedback while they are doing that, and we’re acknowledging and reinforcing the successful skill application, but we’re also addressing any errors so that students don’t move forward with misconceptions or misunderstandings. 

And so then, in that way, we’re also adjusting our instruction and our grouping based on the student progress. And we’re really avoiding the one-size-fits-all grouping for students, because we’re looking at that data, and that data is going to show us that students have various needs. All the students are not going to all have the same needs.

So here, we consider the relationship between assessment data and small group instruction.

As you can see, this is an ongoing process. Data helps us to determine the instructional focus. When we respond to that data with targeted instruction, our students respond to the instruction.

And so when they respond to our instruction, that provides us an opportunity to collect new data that informs the groupings and our teaching decisions. So we start out with data, and then we respond to the students’ needs. And in responding to the students’ needs, how they respond to our instruction is what gives us the ability to make those groups and to be really thoughtful in our decisions about students. 

So when data is continuously generated during instruction. That data collection really becomes a part of your teaching process, rather than a separate event.

You don’t have to wait when you’re collecting that ongoing formative assessment. You don’t have to wait until the next formal assessment cycle. You can collect that data in real time, and you can support students. 

So, we’re looking at data not just as a placement tool, because sometimes we can get caught like that. We can look at data, and we’re like, okay, this student needs to go in this group, and this student needs to go in this group. We’re really looking at it as a part of a continuous cycle of instructional decision making, and so we’re using all the data that we collect to really make those decisions, right on the spot for students, and making sure that we give them what they need with targeted small group instruction.

So now that we’ve connected data to instruction, we have that, let’s look at how explicit instruction fits within an effective instructional practice. This is going to be on page four. I have to remind myself to kind of glance down page four of the guided notes. And so, to clarify, instructional routines provide the structure for learning. It’s how the learning is organized.

Explicit instruction is the method for teaching the content. So, how learning is taught.

And in how we teach the learning, we’re going to have routines.

Now, the method we’re going to use is the “I Do, we do, you do,” and you guys are all very, probably very much familiar with that, from modeling, to your guided practice, to independent practice.

We know that explicit instruction benefits all students, especially those who need additional support.

It makes learning clearer because you’re explicitly teaching, you’re modeling and you’re giving students an opportunity to practice.

You’re doing that instead of expecting students to guess about what they want to do, or what they need to do, and so the progression is right here on the slide, and I do, where teachers model, making their thinking and expectations clear.

We do, there’s that guided practice, which is super, super important. This step is critical and should not be rushed or skipped. This is where students get that feedback and support from you. 

And then in that independent, you do, students apply that skill independently while building their accuracy in the skill, their fluency, and hopefully, all the way to mastery, right? And so, students may need different levels of support and practice at each stage. Some skills may extend across multiple small group sessions.

So that you’re ensuring that students have time to learn, practice, and apply. And I know time is valuable and precious, but we want to make sure that they have that opportunity.

And so I want to make a note about something. Depending on the amount of time that you have scheduled for small group instruction, some of these activities may have to extend across your small group instruction, so it’s not like a one-and-done.

You want that pacing of that instruction to ensure that students have adequate time to learn, to practice and then to apply those skills, which would lead them to mastery of the skill.

Now, we’ve discussed a few things. We’ve talked about a few things. We’ve talked about the instructional routines and how that creates the structure for learning. We’ve talked about explicit instruction, and how that supports skills development and mastery.

Now we’re going to explore how these two practices actually work together to support effective small group instruction.

So, we’re going to do this through an experiential activity, but before we go into the first experiential activity, let’s review what should be included in the planning part of small group instruction. 

So, first, we’ll want to identify a learning objective. We want to make sure that we have the materials that we need to meet those objectives, and that we have enough materials for every student to participate.

Once we have identified the objective, and we know the materials that we need, we are going to want to ensure that we have a plan that uses explicit instruction as the instructional method for delivering that instruction. And so teachers can work with a subset of students who need that instruction in any component of literacy, whether it’s phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, fluency or writing, and an appropriate small group learning objective lets the students know what they are learning.

It lets you know what you’re teaching, but it also lets the students know what they are learning. It lets you know what you’re expecting the students to be able to do as well.

And the materials should be planned and organized to directly support the lesson objective. And I’m going to just give you a quick reminder about this.

Depending on the amount of time, again, you may have to extend your small group sessions.

Pacing is really important, and you’re going to want to also look at opportunities to see what students are able to do when they’re in a whole group.

But when you’re planning for a small group, you may have to plan over a couple of sessions in order to make sure that students are making their way towards mastery.

We have this experiential activity. How would you teach skills? So now we’ll engage in that experiential activity. This is designed for us to think about real-world scenarios and determine what instruction could look like based on the information in the activity.

So here we have a small group of students who have a need for support with vowel teams: AI, OA, and IE. You’re going to plan some targeted small group instruction that reinforces decoding, encoding and word recognition through explicit instruction and hands-on practice.

So let’s see what this could look like for a small group of students. I do want to make a note, though. The activities that we’re going to engage in, they’re designed as an experiential learning activity, so it’s going to really illustrate the process of analyzing data, determining the students’ learning needs and planning the instruction.

The instructional examples have been simplified to engage in this activity.

However, it is very important that I note and I recognize that instruction in the classroom, in an authentic classroom, is often much more complex and nuanced, and so I know it’s probably never straightforward. I just want to acknowledge that we’re just doing this to engage in the instruction and what it should look like, but we know that there are lots of nuances when it actually comes to doing this in your classroom setting.

Here is a decoding example. So we’re going to start with a decoding example. In this example, students learn the sounds and spellings of specific vowel teams through explicit modeling and guided practice.

So, the lesson strengthens that phoneme and grapheme correspondence, where letters represent a particular sound. And then that’s helping students to connect the sounds to the letters, or letter patterns, supporting that accurate and automatic word recognition.

So the guided practice provides the teacher with an opportunity to give students feedback.

Followed by opportunities for students to apply the skill independently to new words, and when they’re reading connected text.

And so, in this case, the vowel team AI, it says long A, /a/, and when the teacher is modeling, they’re using words with that vowel team in it to help support the students.

And knowing how to read those vowel teams. And we’re doing one skill at a time, so even though students needed AI, OA and IE, we’re first focusing on AI, and then we’ll go through the routines also with OA (but we won’t do that here, but that’s how it would happen) and then IE.

This is the instructional routine. We’re, again, supporting that phoneme-graphene correspondence with letters that represent a particular sound for words with the spelling of vowel teams. And so the teacher models and gives guided practice.

For this, we will use a consistent routine. And I’m just giving you an example of a routine, but you can really use any type of evidence-based routine. So, in this case, we have a “see it, sound it, read it.”

We’ll take the word quail, students will see the word, then they’ll sound it out. /qu/ /ai/ /l/.

Now they’ll read it. Quail.

This type of instruction is expected for primary grades one, two and possibly three.

But when we’re talking about three through five moving forward, we definitely want to start working with multisyllabic words. So in this case, we have “maintain.”

And we have to add an extra step where we chunk it out, because it’s a multi-syllabic word. So in this routine, we see the word, then we chunk it, then we sound it out.

So we see the word maintain. We chunk it. Main. Tain. We sound out in chunks. /m/ /a/ /n/ and then /t/ /a/ /n/.

And then they read it. Maintain.

So, for foundational reading skill instruction for students higher than grade five or six through 12, who have these reading deficiencies, this will be targeted through intensive reading intervention, rather than addressed within the ELA core.

But I do want to note that continuing to use the same routine, and this is why we talk about instructional routines, with the different vowel teams, as I had mentioned, or other phonics patterns, really helps support the students in their learning. It allows students to focus their cognitive efforts on what they’re learning, rather than the process. They know that the routine is the same, and you’re doing it with other vowel teams or other phonics patterns, they know exactly what to expect. And then they can just really focus on what you’re teaching them.

So in this case, we’re looking at decoding and encoding, and the teacher is using manipulatives such as letter towels or a dry erase board, to actively engage students.

Throughout explicit modeling, and the guided practice, the students are really strengthening their skills in phoneme graphene mapping. So they’re connecting those sounds to letters that represent the sounds. They’re decoding and encoding words with a specific vowel team. Again, we’re focusing on AI.

Students then apply their learning independently to reinforce that new skill.

So you see here the teacher models, there’s guided practice, and then there’s opportunity for independent practice. So that’s the explicit instruction.

Now, here is the instructional routine.

In this routine, we’re addressing AI as the vowel team that students are working on. There’s an opportunity for students to demonstrate their ability to apply their learning independently when they move on from guided practice to independent practice.

Before we approach this routine, it is important to note that many evidence-based routines exist. And so, no single routine is best.

Whatever works for you, as long as it’s evidence-based, you can use it. And the key is using consistent, evidence-based routines across your whole group, small group and possibly your interventions as well. 

So, for example, we can use this: “hear it, count it, build it, read it, write it, check it.” And so in this routine, you’re gonna work with some words, and so I’ll say, I’m gonna say the word, wait.

Now I’m going to count the sounds out in weight.

Well, it’s not weight, it’s weighted, right? Weighted. And then I’m going to count the sounds out in weighted. /w/ /ai/ /t/ /e/ /d/. There are five sounds, and then you’re going to build that word.

W, A, it’s spelled with two letters, AI, What’s gonna come next?

That’s the letter T, short E, and D.

Finally, you put it all together. Now I’m gonna read my word. Waited.

And so, once they spell it and write it, they’re gonna check it, and they’re gonna read it. And so, that would be a teacher model, but then for the guided practice, you could use additional words like painter, raise, maintain, tainted. There’s lots of words that you can use for guided practice and for independent practice.

So, really, when you’re doing independent practice, it’s giving you an opportunity to observe the students and to take those anecdotal notes so that you know how students are progressing.

And so with this data, you can determine if the students need to continue with this skill, if they’re ready to move on to more advanced concepts or skills, or another skill that they need support with.

This is the last one for our experiential. This is the explicit instruction for reading connected text. Reading connected text is just reading words that are in a sentence, paragraph or on a page. They’re just all together not in isolation–reading words in isolation.

Through the teacher modeling, again, that guided practice, students are applying their current skills, and they can also be applying the previously learned skills when they’re reading connected text, because it’s going to have a lot of different words in it, right?

And so the clear instructional routine will help support that progress for students as they’re decoding, and they’re doing that fluent reading, so that decoding is accurate, right? And then they’re also reading fluently with expression, paucity and at a good rate.

And so this small group instruction may extend from whole group learning, or may continue across multiple sessions. So a consistent routine, again, helps students to build that automaticity. It also helps them to improve their accuracy. And when they receive that targeted feedback from you, they’re really able to apply what you are sharing with them and what you’re supporting them with to their learning. That’s really important for students.

So, in this routine, we’re, again, addressing orthographic mapping. So, it would be, “I read, we read together, you read.” And in this routine, we’re supporting reading fluency by the teacher modeling accurate fluent reading.

While thinking aloud, drawing attention to the targeted phonics patterns that they have been learning or a reading skill.

And then, in the guided practice, teachers are still with the student while the students are reading portions of the text, doing the same thing with that immediate feedback from teachers.

And then, at the end, the teacher provides the opportunity for independent reading of a connected text. So students are applying those targeted skills for decoding, but they’re also building their fluency as they are doing that. And again, that independent reading really gives teachers an opportunity, independent practice, not just the reading, but the independent practice gives teachers an opportunity to really see what students can do, and that’s where your assessment happens. It also helps you to support how you’re going to do your flexible grouping, how you’re going to regroup students or how you’re going to adjust your instruction to support students.

And so with this, we have an example text, and I’m just showing this to you because this is the

reading the connected text, where you have the words that have the targeted skill. 

So we have the AI, and we’re assuming that we’ve already taught the OA and the IE, and so again, when you’re modeling that reading with students, you’re going to do the I do, we do, you do, and students are working at different levels or different paces, right? 

Some students are moving along a little bit faster, and others may still need support. Students who are reading more independently, you can give them whisper phones and have them read, and then you can just listen in on them from time to time while you support the other students. But in this case, if you’re giving feedback, you’re going to give specific feedback. So, if a student is reading a word with the AI vowel team, and they read that with a short A sound, you might just tell them, “AI makes the long A sound. Go back and read that word with the long A sound.” Like “wait.” If they read it, “wat”, then they can go back and read it with a long A sound, and it’s “wait.”

And so during this time, again, you can be collecting that data to determine where students are and what their needs are. 

And then in this passage, if you’ll notice, there are also previously taught phonics skills, and so you have short vowels, lens, digraphs and art control. So this is the way you can observe and see how students are applying both the previously learned skills and the skills they just learned and that they were working towards mastery for.

And so that data is really valuable when you’re doing your ongoing flexible grouping and your instructional planning for the next small group session, or for your whole group, because then you know where the students are and what they can do.

So, as we conclude this section on explicit instruction and those instructional routines, I really want you to remember that the instructional routines are intentional, they support effective teaching and they are part of that explicit instruction through the modeling, guided practice and independent application. 

And so, if you go to page five on your notes, there’s a place to add your thoughts and you can take notes there on page five.

But when you’re implementing those instructional routines consistently, you’re really creating a predictable learning experience that helps students to know what to do, what to expect and how to participate. They don’t have to guess and they don’t have to try to figure it out. They know exactly what to do. This consistency really reduces the cognitive demand for students, then they can put all that effort towards the learning. And it also can help to increase engagement, because they can really be involved without having to worry about what’s next. It’s predictable. And it’s also helpful to teachers for many of the same reasons that it’s helpful to students, because it’s also reducing the cognitive load for you, it also provides a greater focus on engagement. Your planning goes much smoother when your routines are predictable. You can predict them, students can predict them, and then that’s where you can really focus on what you’re providing for students as far as learning the skill and not necessarily learning a new routine every time.

We’ve come to a point where now we’re going to look at some common small group challenges.

And, this, again, is also on page five of your guided notes.

So we’ve talked about data-driven grouping. We started out there. We talked about instructional routines. We did our experiential activities around explicit instruction as the method, and instructional routines as the way that we’re going to deliver the instruction, right? It is really important to remember that these two components serve different but complementary purposes. And when we’re analyzing, we’re going to address them through these challenges.

So, the first challenge we have here is around analyzing student data. Sometimes it is very difficult to analyze student data, especially when you’re trying to identify needs. Sometimes you have a lot of data, sometimes you hardly have any data.

And so, when that happens, we really need to figure out what it is that we need to have. And if you come back for session two, we’ll talk more about that. So, when we have session two, we’re going to really talk about data. But for now, that data part is the what.

So, it helps us identify what the need is. And then, when we’re delivering that targeted instruction, we’re using these instructional routines, which is how we’re going to teach. Sometimes we don’t think about that, but how we teach is really important. It can be just as important as what we’re teaching, right? 

And so, you have a note-taking space on page five. So these two common challenges we have will really address. They can be major challenges for implementing, but there are some strategies that we can use to address them. So, in the next couple of slides, we’ll explore each with some supportive activities for approaching them.

So this first challenge we talk about analyzing data.

For this challenge, we want to make sure that we’re using that data to look at students and their grouping. We can accomplish this, again, on page six, let me back up. Page six is where you’ll go to look at that.

Teachers can accomplish this by using multiple data sources and consistent progress monitoring. Remember, when you’re providing that instruction, that’s an opportunity for you to be monitoring students’ progress. That’s the best time to monitor students’ progress, especially in those guided and independent practice, if you’re using that explicit instruction.

You’re going to make those timely instructional decisions as you’re gathering that data. It’s not easy, I’m not trying to make it seem like it’s easy, but it is doable.

You’re gonna keep groups small and flexible and fluid, so students can move, as their skills develop. It is very important that we make sure that we are not giving students things that are too difficult or things that are too easy. We want to make sure we’re hitting that spot with what they need.

With intervention groups, those may remain the same, or they may remain toge to eight weeks, but when we’re talking about the targeted small group instruction, you’re going to be really able to be flexible with that time.

So, let’s stop and think.

Okay, I noticed that my students have different reading needs. I know this, I see it, I know the students have different reading needs. And so, in that case, instead of assuming what those needs are, I can make the assumption, a lot of times, I know my students, right? I think I know exactly what they need, but what I need to do is back up and begin by reviewing the students’ data.

And multiple pieces of data, not just one piece of data. For that deeper dive into the data, when we do that, it may show that students have various needs. Some students may have a need in decoding, some students may have a need in fluency, some students may have a need in comprehension, such as being able to summarize a connected text.

There may be many different needs as we really start to look closely at students’ data.

So based on these findings, I will create small groups, organized by the specific skills, not the overall reading achievement or reading level.

I then use my formative checks and my progress monitoring data to determine whether students are making their progress towards mastery. And then, as I see that there’s things that need to be changed, I will make the changes. 

They’re making good progress, they’re close to mastery, or they’re mastered, we can make some adjustments. They need more support, they need more practice with something, there’s something else that I can make the adjustment to my instruction, or again, I can make adjustments to the groupings, just based on the students and what their needs are.

Students move between or out of groups as their skills develop. And then this reinforces that the small groups you have are flexible, targeted and designed to support growth.

It’s not stagnant. It’s really designed to support students’ growth.

So, challenge two.

In this challenge, we’re really moving from a one-size-fits-all approach.

And again, on page six in your note-taking guide, effective small group instruction uses data to identify the need.

And then you have targeted instruction that will, you’ll provide targeted instruction to support that need. And the ongoing student’s response to your instruction is what helps you to adjust. And so using assessment data to identify the specific needs and plan for small groups is really important. 

You want to make sure you have clear instructional goals, and you provide explicit teaching. So you’re providing that explicit instruction. You’re using that gradual release model, “I do, we do, you do,” and then you’re adjusting the level of support based on how the students are responding and the progress they’re making towards mastery.

So let’s stop and think.

Assessment data. We can include screeners, observations, formative checks or diagnostics.

We’re just looking at data. 

So those are different types of assessment data, but say we just use our observation and formative checks, and it shows that we have about four students that are struggling to decode multi-syllabic words, which may be limiting their comprehension. 

So rather than reteaching the entire reading lesson, we’re gonna use data to identify the specific meeting. Where is the need in applying the syllable patterns to decoding longer words?

Then I’m going to plan that targeted instruction with clear objectives for reading and writing multisyllabic words, and we’re going to support the students exactly where their need is. Now, it is possible that there may be some other things going on, but this is what you’re noticing.

And this is what you’re going to deliver instruction on. And then this is what you’re going to monitor. So, when you’re providing that practice for students, you’re going to be providing that practice in a specific skill. If you notice that as students are progressing, that they are mastering, you move them along.

If you notice that they need more support, you support them. If you notice that the instruction needs adjustments, then you make the adjustment to the instruction.

The challenge for students in lack of understanding the text or concept, sometimes decoding longer words may be just what is preventing a student from accessing the text. This is where targeted small group instruction can address the specific needs of your students.

Now with that, are you ready to get started?

We’re going to talk about some practical ways to get started. We really need to just begin by focusing on what’s within our sphere of control. When some challenges are out there that may require broader system-level support, we need to focus on the practices, routines and instructional decisions that we can influence directly, and also work to influence what we need in those broader system levels of support.

We can have small, intentional actions that lead to improved teacher instruction and increased student engagement, learning and achievement. And so I’m just going to give a quick cross-professional example for starting small. 

The computers and phone software products that we use every day are improved through small, frequent updates. We don’t necessarily really care for the updates, but they do come. Now, rather than one big overhaul, which would really set us off, there are small, incremental updates. Each improvement is intended to build towards a better user experience.

So developers do this by gathering feedback and data. There we are, we’re gathering feedback and data, identifying a specific need.

They test the change based on the need, and then they use what they learn to make the next improvement.

And so we’re very much like that, too. We identify the need, we use our data and we identify a specific need. We provide that instruction. We’re checking, we’re making sure that students are getting it and then we use what we learn about the students and where they are and what we know about our instruction to make improvements. And so, this is really a way to support, to support your students.

Start small. Small incremental changes, before you know it, are gonna lead to big impact for some students.

And so, these are some tips for successful implementation.

And this is a cycle, really. I mean, I have it here as, like, linear, but it’s a cycle. So you’re gathering and you’re analyzing your data, you’re identifying a need, you’re planning targeted instruction, you teach explicitly, and then you adjust once you are teaching and you’re gathering that data while you’re teaching, you’re going to adjust based on the student’s progress.

This cycle keeps the instruction responsive, purposeful and focused on helping students make meaningful progress. When students make progress, we are super happy as teachers, and I know that because we get really excited when our students are doing well.

And again, this is on page seven. I think it’s already laid out for you there on page seven, but you can take a few notes on that.

Now we’re just going to wrap up. Before we go, we’re going to revisit the statements from the beginning of our presentation. And we’re gonna just check to see how we did, if we’re agreeing or disagreeing. 

And so, statement one around effective small group instruction requires intentional planning based on student needs.

Agreed. Without intentional planning, a small group session can become just a smaller version of whole group Instruction, which may not address the individual learning needs of students.

Number two, once students are placed in a small group, they should remain in that small group based on their overall academic achievement. 

Disagree. Overall achievement does not always identify specific instructional needs. Two students, like I said before, with similar achievement levels may struggle with different skills.

Same reading score, but may need supports in different areas, like decoding or comprehension.

Number three. Small group instruction works best when all students are expected to work at the same pace.

Disagree. Small group instruction works best when grouping is flexible and responsive to students’ needs based on the student’s data. So they’re not going to be moving all at the same pace. Although we wish that could happen, they will not be moving at all the same pace. We’re going to need to make those adjustments for students as they move at the different paces.

Four. Small group instruction should focus on specific skills students need to develop and provide targeted, explicit instruction.

Agreed. Students really benefit most when instruction matches their need. We all benefit when the instruction matches our need. Whether we’re a student, adult, we’re learning anything, we are a student, but when it matches our need, we really benefit from it.

Five. The main purpose of small group instruction is to reteach the same lesson to students who need more time. 

Disagree. Now, effective small group instruction is data-driven. And if it’s data-driven, we’re focusing on the skills that students need to develop next. We’re not reteaching the same lesson, we’re looking at what skill that student needs. And how are we gonna teach that to the students? 

So, which statement did you change, or thinking about, if you did, or if you’re all set, and then why?

And again, this one is on page eight.

Okay, here we are.

So, I would love to see you join us for the next session in our series, Using Data for Flexible Instructional Grouping.

This is where we’ll discuss how to analyze, and we talked a lot about analyzing data today, but we didn’t really go deep into that. We’re going to analyze multiple data sources, identify patterns in students’ learning, look at how we make instructional decisions that ensure grouping is purposeful, responsive and aligned to students’ needs. 

We’re also going to address some common challenges for flexible groups when we’re providing that small group instruction, because as we know, teaching is not an easy job. There are challenges to what we do every day, and so I would really like to have this opportunity for you to give us your feedback.

You can scan this QR code to take the survey. Your feedback is very valuable to us, and it helps us evaluate the effectiveness of our sessions to improve future presentations and develop available resources that can support educators and your needs.

So I’ll give you a few minutes to do that.

Okay, I really want to share with you our work and our professional learning. So, we do offer a comprehensive suite of evidence-based literacy professional learning programs, again, spanning from birth through grade 12. 

So, you can scan this QR code on the screen for more information. Here we have in the Science of Reading, Literacy Coach Endorsement, Literacy Micro-Credential. You can scan that, and you can learn more about the program and the professional learning that we offer.

And then on this next slide, we also have information on our work with state initiatives, like New Worlds Reading and the Florida Tutoring Advantage, and you can scan the QR codes on each of these for more information as well.

And finally, I’d like to say thank you so much for joining us today. If you have any questions, please contact us via email, lastinger@coe.ufl.edu.

It’s really been a pleasure to do this session for you today, and I look forward to seeing you for the next session, session two, on using data to form flexible groupings.

Have a wonderful day. Thank you. Bye.