1. Meeting the Needs of All of Students
May 5, 2014

2. Participants will:
Enhance understanding of word study principles and practices
Understand basic principles of small group instruction - forming, planning and conducting to provide individualized attention/differentiation.
Determine skills and/or strategies to teach in small group based on student data.
Plan at least one guided reading/small group lesson.
Plan one or more authentic independent practice activities.
Read through list to set the tone for the day.
Include information about grade level sharing at the end of the day.

3. Word Study What are some of your successes?
Take a few minutes to think about your word study program.
What are some of your successes?
What are some of your challenges?
Write down a few of each and share with your table.
Be ready to share whole class.
After about 3-5 minutes, have participants share whole group.

4. Read through lists and comment
Open for discussion

5. Word Study in a Nutshell
Integral part of balanced literacy
Based on the 3 levels of English orthography -Alphabet, Pattern, Meaning
Differentiated
Words Their Way is one of several word study programs (Word Journeys-Ganske, Making Words-Cunningham, Word Ladders-Rasinski) All are based on developmentally appropriate instruction and word patterns.
Two articles in your packet to help you make sense of the value of word study. Put them on your summer reading pile.
-word study at appropriate developmental levels helps students to become more proficient readers
-more on that in a minute
-addresses student learning where they are, not what’s next in “the series”
-WTW one of the more popular methods of WS

6. Layers of English Orthography
Prefixes, suffixes, Greek and Latin roots
Meaning
Pattern
42-44 sounds-only 26 letters
Alphabet
Letter/sound relationships
Early readers/spellers rely on letter names for the sounds they make. Short vowels are particularly problematic. Often use e for short a and e for short i.
Single sounds are sometimes spelled with more than one letter or are affected by other letters (blends, digraphs, vowel teams, silent e). There is some consistency among the patterns.
Helps students make sense of newly encountered words if they understand that groups of letters can have specific meaning
Revisit challenges to see if we can help teachers work them out...

7. Flexible Grouping
Flexible grouping is the cornerstone of successful differentiated
instruction – Carol Ann Tomlinson
Flexible grouping is an opportunity for students to work with a variety of students, through whole group or in many different forms of small groups. The key to flexible grouping is in the name…FLEXIBLE. Students have an opportunity to be in different groups depending on the activity.
Initially use whole group for instruction
Divide group for practice or enrichment
Not used as a permanent arrangement
Use groups for one activity, a day, a week, etc.
Benefits
Gives students and teachers a voice in work arrangements.
Allows students to work with a variety of peers.
Keeps students from being “pegged” as advanced or struggling.
Terri - Using flexible groups increases student learning such as: academic growth, social skills, efficient learning, gives them attention, motivation, achievement, acceptance, etc.,
and is the key to differentiate instruction.

8. What are your challenges?
At your tables, talk about the challenges you have with differentiation and/or flexible grouping.
provide time for whole group share

9. Forming groups Today we will look at running records data
any additional student data
to form and refine guided reading groups.
Miscue Analysis (Accuracy)
The Continuum of Literacy Learning (Comprehension)
Kedra-miscue analysis
help teachers mine data to create leveled groups and choose 3 areas of focus

10. Organization for Successful Small Groups
Establish classroom management
Assess and establish groups
Know what you need to teach
Plan lessons to mastery
Create effective and meaningful activities
Communicate expectations
Build in accountability
How do we manage our groups?
First step is to really take time to establish effective classroom management-especially your expectations for students during independent practice. Attempting small group instruction without having expectations and routines in place is a recipe for disaster.
Next, assess your students in order to establish your groups.
You have to know what you are going to teach. Meeting in a small group gives you an opportunity to provide targeted instruction based on student need.
Your goal for students is mastery. Be sure to plan lessons that will lead to student mastery. A time for explicit, directed instruction.
Be sure to plan meaningful activities. Your time together in small group is like gold! Don’t squander it.
Clearly communicate your expectations to students-both in the small group and with the students engaged in independent practice activities.
Build accountability into your activities-post its, graphic organizers, logs, notebooks.

11. Organization (cont’d.)
Teacher chooses the groups
Non-teacher group needs self directed work that is challenging and engaging
Un-interrupted teacher group
Known routines & procedures
Consistent expectations in transitions
Timed
Organized
Limited movement
Groups should be based on student needs, not choice.
The key to successful independent work is to make it challenging enough to keep students engaged for extended periods of time, but not so challenging that students need your assistance with it. Worksheets and PB pages don’t generally work for this purpose. Think authentic activity-reading and writing for a purpose, engaging in word work-not packets.
Students must be trained to recognize that when teacher is with a small group, she cannot be interrupted. Teach them how to self-help.
Spend time to teach students routines, expectations and procedures.
Be consistent when you transition from group to group. Make it a timed change, have everybody move to the right or left. Make sure your expectations are well articulated. Keep movements limited to avoid chaos.
Before moving on to our next segment, take a moment to talk at your tables about your experiences with small group instruction, whether they were positive or negative. We’ll then take a few minutes to share out.

12. Independent/Group Work Ideas
Activity
Read to Self …………….…..
Writing Station………….….
Word Study………………...
Research…………………….
Textbook work……………..
Leveled Readers……………
Written dialog……………...
Accountability
Response Journal
Writing Journal
Word Study notebook
Notes
Written work
Turn in dialog
Here is a little chart that we put together to kind of help you as to what to do to make them accountable with their work.
- Read some of the activities, etc.
- Discuss Written Dialog: the students work in pair to work on a prompt or problem to work out; instead of discussing it out loud, they write each other notes (now its okay to pass notes, lol).

13. Work Stations in Action
Jot down any of your noticings, thoughts, or revelations as you view this video clip.

14. Guided Reading in Action
Jot down any of your noticings, thoughts, or revelations as you view this video clip.

15. How Do I Start ?: The Initial Framework for Every Classroom
Students are divided into small groups (ideally, 4-6 students per group)
Lessons will run minutes
Determine appropriate level of groups
Provide a text for each child
Use a benchmark assessment like the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Kit or the Developmental Reading Assessment to determine the appropriate levels for your groups. We have also provided forms for estimating the levels of your students.

16. What Does Guided Reading Look Like ?
The teacher introduces the text to the small group
As the text is read aloud or silently, the teacher briefly works with students; each child reads the whole text.
The teacher may select one or two teaching points to address after reading
The students resume reading and apply the teaching points presented by the teacher
We have provided a handout in your packet that points our behaviors to notice and teaching points to consider for guided reading groups matched to students Fountas and Pinnell levels.

17. Pre-Reading Activities: The Teacher From Fountas and Pinnell
Selects an appropriate text, one that will be supportive but with a few problems to solve
Prepares an introduction to the story
Briefly introduces the story, keeping in mind the meaning, language, and visual information in the text, and the knowledge, experience, and skills of the reader
Leaves some questions to be answered through reading
You may want to discuss genre, elicit background knowledge , pre-teach difficult vocabulary, and set a purpose for reading.

18. During Reading Activities: The Teacher From Fountas and Pinnell
“Listens In”
Observes the reader’s behaviors for evidence of strategy use
Confirms children’s problem-solving attempts and successes
Interacts with individuals to assist with problem-solving at difficulty (when appropriate)
Makes notes about the strategy use of individual readers
This is where it would be helpful to have a checklist of behaviors to notice. As you “listen in” you can note how the students are interacting with the text and note successes or assist students who are having difficulty with the text.

19. Post Reading Activities: The Teacher From Fountas and Pinnell
Talks about the story with the children
Invites personal response
Returns to the text for one or two teaching opportunities such as finding evidence or discussing problem-solving
Assesses children’s understanding of what they read
Sometimes, engages the children in extending the story through such activities as drama, writing, art, or more reading
Sometimes, engages the children for a minute or two of word work
This is where you will revisit the text and invite students to share their thinking about what they have read. Here you will also probe more deeply into students understanding of the text by focusing on one or two teaching points that will further students comprehension of the text.

20. Assessment
Ongoing observations will probably be the most beneficial for tracking students.
A notebook with Post-It notes can serve as your documentation.
Running records provide a quick assessment of fluency.
The key to effective, scaffolded instruction is knowing where students are, where they need
to be, and then building a bridge between those two points. This requires being able to
use efficient, effective, ongoing assessment tools and adjust plans accordingly (Fountas
and Pinnell 1996).
Small groups instruction is work in progress:
a teacher may find that the lesson needs to be broken down into smaller parts
vocabulary needs more review before you can continue
a lack of students using strategy and weakening their ability to read for meaning
the written assignment is too difficult at this time and needs to be broken down into visual tasks or graphic aids first

21. Now it’s your turn! We are now going into our “planning mode.”
First, you need to decide if you are going to conduct a guided reading group or a small group for instruction.
Next, think about what your focus of instruction will be for those lessons:
reading comprehension strategies
verbal skills and discussion
vocabulary
decoding/fluency
text features
summarization
sequence
character analysis
Guided reading should be planned in three segments:
1. Before the Reading OPTIONS: Picture Walk, Predictions, Difficult Vocabulary, Personal Connection
2. During Reading OPTIONS: Asking Comprehension Questions, Discussing Text Features, Pointing Out Vocabulary
3. After Reading OPTIONS: Building Fluency through Repeated Reading, Summarization
What Are My Other Students Doing?
Other students MUST be kept busy with engaging and challenging work. There needs to be accountability for the work they are doing. The teacher should be able to see at a glance that all students are working.
Centers are appropriate even for older students.

22. And Lastly… Take a few minutes to… Fill out your exit card
Jot down some reflections/goals