How Should I Group My Students for Instruction?

Instructional Groupings
Instructional groupings are often one of the hardest planning tasks teachers face in their classroom. It takes a lot of time to desegregate students' instructional needs into learning groups. Then there is the planning for each one. Below is one formula you might consider using when evaluating your instructional groups.

Options for Instructional Grouping & Activities

Learning group 6: Students are intensive.

Learning group 6 (two groups).

• 6A - students are in the CORE reading program and are working on basic skills they have not passed on the phonics diagnostic screener. If a student at this level has not moved in three learning group reviews you need to start some deeper evaluations. (Most often these are students who move into your classroom who are below grade level.)
• 6B - students are working in a Title I program or have an IEP. Their instructional focus should still be what is listed in 6A.

Learning group 5: Students are strategic and have not passed phonic diagnostic screeners.

The phonics diagnostic screener will direct instruction the students need. Once they are able to pass all the tasks, then the student will move to learning group 4.

Grade 2-5 learning group 5 is in two parts.

• 5A have not passed the first part of the phonics diagnostic screener. Their instruction needs to be driven by the skills identified during leveled skill group time.

• 5B have passed everything but multisyllabic words. Students in learning group 5B need the majority of their instruction during leveled skill group time in multisyllabic word decoding.

Learning group 5 is a hard area for leveled skill group instruction. The focus comes from the missing skills but uses the materials for the theme that is being taught. Working with these groups requires that you understand the spectrum of the reading skills to be able to adapt the materials to meet the students’ missing skills.

Learning Group 4: Students are strategic and have passed all parts of a phonics diagnostic screener and are reading passages with 95% accuracy.

These students are on their way to be readers. They are currently using their cognitive energy to decode words. They need to work to train their brains so that reading is automatic and they don’t have to think about decoding the words. Comprehension will come when the reader is no longer using their cognitive energy to decode. Comprehension will be stressed in Learning Groups 3,2, and 1.

Activities/Lessons:

• Practice reading orally materials that are at their independent reading level.
• Read Naturally
• Up-Up-Up
• Read word lists
• SuperSpeed 1000

Note: These students should be taking the core reading program skills tests and/or unit check-outs. If they are able to pass the skills tests at the exceeds level (90%) you may need to evaluate to see if they have any physical problems holding them back from making the fluency benchmark. They may just be slow moving or have a speech problem. If this is the case they need to be placed in learning group 1. Caution, they must read the test with none of the material being read to them. It is true that they may be able to process the material at a higher level auditory, which is great, but the goal is that they are reading and processing. If you focus on their processing ability alone, you are missing the goal of the student becoming a reader.

Learning group 3: Students have met their fluency benchmark but are unable to pass the themes or end of unit tests.

Students in this learning group are using less cognitive energy when decoding text. This will now free up some cognitive power to build on comprehension. They are still at the knowledge level and very concrete. An example might be if the student read: “The dog ran very fast. When he got to the dish it was empty.” If you asked the question, “What did the dog run to?” they could not make the connection between the two sentences. They can tell you that the dog ran fast and the dish was empty, but wouldn’t connect that the dog was running to the dish.

Activities/Lessons:

• Students still need practice reading to keep their fluency up.
• Lessons needed to be guided, with comprehension worksheets and workbook pages done together.
• Vocabulary, and word use orally. Point out vocabulary in text during guided reading. (Make them look at the word in the text so they just don’t read over it.)
• Story Maps
• Retell what they have read in their own words. (Orally)
• Crazy Professor parts 1,2,&3 (YouTube)

Learning group 2: Students have met their fluency benchmark and are able to pass the themes tests or end of unit tests between 70% and 89%. Truly these students are on their way to be good readers and have fair comprehension.

For the most part these students have a good understanding of the knowledge level of questioning and are fairly strong on comprehension. They need to work towards the application and analysis of what they read. This group should have no problem passing the state test. The goal is to move them to fully applying what they read.

Activities/Lessons:

• Practice in fluency is still important so they don’t lose it.
• Lessons can be taught and they can work independently on workbook pages or worksheets that match lessons.
• Story Maps
• Retell the story in written form.
• Vocabulary
• Applied vocabulary (replace words with synonyms)
• Crazy Professor all parts
• Guided comparisons / Venn Diagrams
• Rewriting or telling the story explaining if the characters made a different choice

Learning group 1: Our goal for all students. Students are able to apply and analyze what they have read. They are scoring 90% or higher on their unit tests or theme tests.

Students in learning group 1 still need strong instruction in the same areas that the learning group 2 students need. They also need the opportunity to expand. In most cases fluency is not an issue. Therefore that time may be used to move the students to the synthesis level of comprehension.

Activities/Lessons:

• Many of the same activities from learning group 2
• Vocabulary applied and expanded
• Writing
• Given information the students create their own story.
• Use information from different stories and write a new story, example would be taking the setting from one story, characters from another story, problem for another and create their own story. Then have peers share and discuss the stories.

Intensive Fluency Students		Strategic Fluency Students			Benchmark Fluency Students
Instructional Groups 6     A                B		Instructional   Group 5      A              B		Instructional Group 4	Instructional Group 3	Instructional Group 2	Instructional Group 1
Students are in the CORE reading program and are working on basic skills they have not passed on the phonics diagnostic screener. If a student at this level has not moved in three learning group reviews you need to start some deeper evaluations. (Most often these are students who move into your classroom who are below grade	Students are working in a Title I program or have an IEP. Their instructional focus should still be what is listed in 6A.	5A have not passed the first part of the phonics diagnostic screener. Their instruction needs to be driven by the skills identified during leveled skill group time.	5B have passed everything but multisyllabic words. Students in learning group 5B need the majority of their instruction during leveled skill group time in multisyllabic word decoding.	These students are on their way to be readers. They are currently using their cognitive energy to decode words. They need to work to train their brains so that reading is automatic and they don’t have to think about decoding the words. Comprehension will come when the reader is no longer using their cognitive energy to decode. Comprehension will be stressed in Learning Groups 3,2, and 1	Students in this learning group are using less cognitive energy when decoding text. This will now free up some cognitive power to build on comprehension. They are still at the knowledge level and very concrete.	For the most part these students have a good understanding of the knowledge level of questioning and are fairly strong on comprehension. They need to work towards the application and analysis of what they read. This group should have no problem passing the state test. The goal is to move them to fully applying what they read.	Students in learning group 1 still need strong instruction in the same areas that the learning group 2 students need. They also need the opportunity to expand. In most cases fluency is not an issue. Therefore that time may be used to move the students to the synthesis level of comprehension.
Place student names below to create your instructional groups.

Instructional Grouping Worksheet

What Curriculum Should I Use?

What Curriculum Should I Use?

Working with teachers and leading training I get this question all the time. Teachers tell me they have a group of students who just are not reading and want to know if curriculum “X” is the best or what do I think about “VW.” There are many great curriculums around for all subjects, but the publishers have sold us the line that if we use their materials, students will read.

I have to say this is like asking someone if they know of a great diet because they need to lose weight. There are many that have helped people lose weight. How do you know if it is the right one for you? The same is true with choosing a curriculum. There are other factors which need to be considered when making the choice, just like when choosing a nutrition plan.

The person who has the largest impact on the learner/student is the teacher, not the curriculum. Truly it should not matter what curriculum you are using. The teacher should adjust instruction to meet the student’s learning needs. We have to remember centuries ago the Bible was the curriculum of choice for teaching reading in America. Curriculum doesn’t teach. Trained people teach.

The first step is to know just what area of instruction each student is struggling with in your class. Once you know, for example, you have some who are struggling with sounds and sound spellings, you are then able to take the curriculum you are using and pull out short lessons to help those few students. Use of curriculum does not mean just do the worksheet because it’s in the book. If students don’t need that specific skill, they may deem it irrelevant and choose not to complete it. This may lead to behavior problems in the classroom.

When working with a curriculum the first step might be to evaluate what parts can be done with the whole class because they all need that part.. Vocabulary instruction is something that all students can participate in when it is done orally. Vocabulary is an oral skill not a written skill. Students need to hear and use the word orally and put it in their lexicon before they are able to start using it and comprehending it in their writing and reading. We also can present many of the comprehension strategies with the whole class. A student must have the ability to retell a story orally long before they are able to write about it. I have been in many classrooms where the teacher asked the students to write about the story and they can’t even tell me about what they read. Again this will lead to behavior problems.

Providing the teacher has completed some form of diagnostic screening, the teacher should be able to design mini-lessons for small groups to target skills those students need support with. One example might be that if some students are having problems with vowel teams, then take the text and have them locate and read words with vowel teams. If they are having struggles hearing syllables, use the words from the reading and have them segment the syllables and spell the syllables.

Teachers or people are the ones who impact learning. Making a personal connection is the first step in helping students. During my first teaching job interview I was asked, “Can you teach with newspapers, scissors, paper, and glue?” Thinking it was one of those “interview questions” they asked, I said, “Sure I would…..”. When I got the job, that was what my room had. They had not passed a budget in three years and there was no curriculum. Those students learned and we had a great year.

Curriculum doesn’t teach students. Trained educators teach students.