Monday, November 14, 2011
Small Groups
I love that the school that I am working in right now is consistent in working in small groups. I think that working in small groups is beneficial to the students because they receive more one-on-one personal attention. I have been working with a group about 6 students (always rotating) with reading and understanding and also with math. I can see that it helps a lot with the students being able to understand and allowing them to ask questions in a more personal manner. My only concern is that we are not teaching in the same way, so we wouldn't be sure which students work better and learn better with what teacher and teaching style.
Most of the students seem to be understanding and learning well now, so I guess this isn't too much of a concern.
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I see what you are saying. I guess really you could also look at it as the students are being taught in both ways. First they are taught in big group (the whole class). Then in small group—because as you said that is when you work with them. Although it doesn’t sound like direct instruction at that point, it sounds like they are still learning and benefit by you being there to guide them and answer their questions.
ReplyDeleteI have also been working in small groups quite a bit in reading. I really enjoy it for the most part but I am struggling with a couple students in one of my groups. I have one group of four first graders. Two of them are very engaged and really try hard and participate while the other two seem to get distracted easily and lost interest in what we are doing. It seems like with such a small group it wouldn’t be hard to keep them focused but they just don’t want to do what is asked of them. Any ideas?