Guide to the Reading Workshop: Primary - Chapter 9 Small-Group Work

A Guide to the Reading Workshop: Primary Grades by Lucy Calkins
        *This review includes content from the chapter and content from the discussion

Today's session was led by Tammi Sani, our Special Education specialist, who shared things that work in her small groups.  We met in her small group intervention room.  She shared a video from Teachers' College which we debriefed.  Tammi shares a document camera with another teacher, so when it wouldn't work,
we just switched to watching the video on her laptop!

BIG ideas in Chapter 9

Small-Group Work

Chart from
A Guide to the Reading Workshop: Primary Grades

Kinds of Small Groups

• Guided Reading
• Strategy Groups
• Small-group Shared Reading 
• Small-group Interactive Writing  

Word Work Inside the Small Group  

• Look at the phonics skill needs that the small group has in common and warm up with something related in context 
• We basically have moved word work to the Skills Block, but discussed how sometimes a certain need just jumps out during  the small group work and is appropriate to do right then      

Coaching Tips

• Choose what and how to teach. Discussion included how poor our guided reading selections are.  
• Keep your teaching short. Discussion included teachers discussing how to work on keep the small groups shorter - 10 minutes or less.
• Use familiar texts when demonstrating. Discussion included  how it would help to spend a day going through the guiding reading books that we do have and identify the best skills for certain books instead of trying to do it on the fly, which lots of teachers admitted  to doing.
• Effectively demonstrate - name the teaching point, enact it, and name what they've seen.
• Coach kids in their work.
• Make an appointment to check in and follow up. 
• Discussion also included teachers agreeing that in kindergarten, they do more one-on-one than small group but more small group work in 1st and 2nd.

Plan with Reading Development in Mind

• Think about a developmental pathway