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Small Group Structures for Guided Instruction
Within a Reading Workshop ModelIllinois Reading Council Conference 2014
Erin Metaxas Literacy Coach/InterventionistJen Lippert Literature/Language Arts Teacher
Lake Zurich School District 95
Small group structures enhances student engagement, learning and achievement.
How can teachers provide student centered structures to maximize engagement and learning?
Enduring Understanding
Essential Question
Mastery Objective:
By the end of this session participants will be able to identify and apply small group structures, such as Literature Circles, Socratic Circles, and Inquiry Circles, that enhance student engagement.
�“The reading workshop provides students with an environment in which reading is a priority. The class becomes a center where material is read and analyzed, and reactions to it are shared. Ideas and learning flourish”
An Overview of Reading Workshop
● In 2007 Pianta and Belsky conducted a study that found American 5th graders were spending 91% of their school day listening to the teacher talk or working alone
● The findings were similar for 1st and 3rd graders
● Even after decades of research on the benefits of interactive teaching and learning our students are still sitting passive in school working in solitary activities
● Let’s look at the trend in school history…
● There has always been a feeling of “sit-down-be-quiet-and-listen” pedagogy but that has been tempered with a more progressive idea of cooperative learning, reciprocal teaching, flexible small-group instruction and reading and writing workshops
Why Reading Workshop & Small Group Instruction
● The most recent movement to cooperative teaching being in the 1990’s.
● However, with the integration of NCLB in 2001 the students were brought back to the Kill-and-drill text prep model of teaching
● If you talk to anyone in the human resource realm you will hear that companies are becoming collaborative workplaces
● People who feel ownership to their work and know how to work collaboratively are more productive
● Comes down to a simple fact --- SMALL GROUPS WORK
● Small groups are lifelike
● Small groups generate energy for challenging work
● In small groups, we are smarter
● In small groups, diversity is an asset
● Small groups make engaged, interactive learning possible
● Small groups allow us to differentiate instruction
● Employers increasingly require small-group skills
● Well-structured small-group work enhances student achievement
Benefits of Small Group Work
Literature Circles
● Small peer-led discussion groups whose members have chosen to read the same story, poem, article, or book.
● While reading the group members take notes to help them contribute to the upcoming discussion
● Everyone comes to the discussion group with something to share
● Each group follows a reading and meeting schedule, holding periodic discussions on the way through the book
● When the book is finished the group members compile some ideas or thoughts that they want to share out to the wider community
● Trade members with other groups that have finished a reading and the process starts again.
Focus: Folklore/Heroes
Goals: ● Thinking/Reading strategies Practice● Mythology and Fairy Tales Attributes● Collaborate in literature discussions● Plot Diagram (Story Elements)
What was our Focus? How did we accomplish it?
The students were put in charge of their own discussions and assignments. This is a sample calendar from one of the students in the class. The students divided up the book and identified how many pages to read each day and what jobs each will be responsible for.
Goals for this strategy:● collaborative discussions● responsibility for assignment● respectful talk in discussions
● Connector● Visualizer● Summarizer● Question Maker● Inference Maker● Predictor
Literature Circle Core Standards and Student jobs
Student Expectations:
With each job the students were expected to…1. make a prediction, connection, inference, ask
a question, or summarizer using 5 events.2. Give their thinking for the prediction,
connection, inference, question, visualization, or event summary.
3. Provide Text evidence that would support their thinking as well as their prediction, connection, inference, question, visualization, and summary
4. Lastly, they students needed to explain how completing this task enhanced their comprehension of the story.
Attribute & Thinking Strategy post-its…
● As part of the Literature circle expectations the students had to identify which attributes of myths and/or fairy tales existed in their books.
● they also needed to note their thinking for discussions days (job sheets not allowed at discussions) so that they could have a natural conversation
● In order to help them accomplish these goals a bookmark was created that would aid them during independent reading time and while they were at home.
● Anchor chart for the Literature Circle conversations for this specific class.
● The Anchor chart for their conversations were student and teacher created.
Inquiry Circles
Inquiry Circles are:● Small, peer-led investigation teams
o Students are engaged, activated and motivated
Dig deep into topics they care about
Design and conduct investigations
Report findings back to the community
Collaborate skillfully (moving from individual pursuits into small inquiry groups then back to whole-class communities)
Inquiry Circles are NOT…● Atemporary “treat” or a “day-off” from the official curriculum● In fact, most of what the students study in these small group teams
come directly from the required curriculum or can be “backmapped” to it.
● Teachers relinquish the “sage on stage” model teaching and take on the role of “guides on the side”
● Instead of telling they areo Showingo Modelingo Coachingo Mentoringo facilitating
Why “Collaborative Learning” through Inquiry Circles?● Collaborative, relevant, deep, and thoughtful learning
does work
o Decades of research prove that this type of instruction leads to…
Higher student achievement
Customary academic measures
Better social attitudes
Stronger work habits
More persistence in school
● Offices and factories employees are being reorganized into teams, work groups, or task forceso Workers “make more money” if they know how to collaborate
o People who had honed their teamwork skills while still in high school had significantly higher earnings than classmates who had failed to do so (Science Daily 2008)
● Choice of topics based on genuine student curiosity,
questions, interests
● Digging deeply into complex, authentic topics that matter to kids
● Flexible grouping, featuring small research teams, groups, task forces
● Heterogeneous, nonleveled groups with careful differentiation
Principles of Inquiry Circles
● Student responsibility and peer leadership
● Use of proficient-reader/thinker/researcher strategies
● Drawing upon multiple, multi-genre, and multimedia sources
● Going beyond fact-finding to synthesizing ideas and building and acquiring knowledge
● Actively using knowledge in our schools and communities: sharing, publication, products, or taking action
● Matching or “backmapping” kids’ learning to state or district standards.
Socratic Seminar
“Questions define tasks, express problems, and delineate issues. Answers on the other hand, often signal a full stop in thought. Only when an answer generates a further question does thought continue it’s life as such.” (Elder and Paul 1998; From Socratic Circles Copeland 20050
● Teachers ask questions hoping to get to a final thought (yes the learning has occurred or no the learning has not occurred.
● We must push students past surface meaning; show them that thinking involves asking questions.
Socratic Questioning: The purpose is to use questioning to bring forward already held ideas in the students’ minds, to make them more aware and cognizant of the learning and understanding that has already occurred.(Copeland 2005)
Understanding Socratic Circles“Exploratory intellectual conversation centered on a text.”● different from the traditional teacher-lead, question-and-answer
discussiono Socratic circle turns the guidance and ownership of the
conversation onto the students● Socratic Circles are built on the following components…
o a short passage of text that students have read criticallyo two concentric circles of students
one circle focusing on exploring the meaning expressed in the text
the second circle observing the conversation Once the first circle has examined and discussed the text , the
second circle provides feedback then the circles switch places and the cycle repeats itself.
Developing Students’ Academic SkillsCritical Thinking● allows students the opportunity to practice and hone their skills
in critical thinking● must be viewed as a process (much like teaching writing)
Creativity● The active nature and the creativity of the analysis and the
support of arguments encourage students to be creative themselves
● “The stimulation of all the various types of thinking and learning allows students to grow and develop…”
Speaking● Due to the collaboration in a
Socratic circle students are brought from the silence into the discussion.
● Students learn that all contributions can help the group develop and help determine meaning.
Writing Skills● After experiencing Socratic
circles students are generally much more comfortable with writing as a process.
● Students are able to create writing that is more insightful, thought-provoking, and relevant
Critical Reading● Incorporates reading
strategies and activities that move students beyond basic reading and into higher-level thinking
● students identify new vocabulary words, underline key phrases, and record questions that help them explore meaning.
Developing a lifelong Love of Reading● Enable students to work
collaboratively to improve their reading skills.
● Through repeated readings and analysis of text students begin to learn to take their time with their reading and through collaboration explore multiple meanings and interpretations.
Listening● In order to become active participants in
the discussion they must first learn to listen to the ideas of others.
● Students are encouraged to contemplate differing opinions, and points of view.
● When students learn to open their minds to the views of others they begin to realize that their own thinking and beliefs can be changed, altered, or expanded.
● Without being able to listen carefully and attentively, they will never gain the social skills necessary to become effective members of a democratic discussion.
Critical Reflection● Allows students to become more
aware of their learning and growing.
● Through the experience of reflecting students develop confidence in their abilities and their learning.
Developing Students Social SkillsTeam Building● Socratic circles are “team-
building” situations.● Students learn to voice their
opinions in a positive, respectful, and cooperative manner
● There are no pre-conceived roles to fill, students start at the same point at the same time. They are able to work collaboratively from a common starting point.
Conflict Resolution● The process of a Socratic circle
helps build respect and understanding between students.
● Teaches the students to respect each others points of view
Community-Building Skills● Encourage students to be accepting
of people, opinions, and ideas that are different
● Due to the open, honest sharing of opinion and experience students begin to view each other as sources of discovery.
Nuts and Bolts of Socratic Circles● Socratic Circles are not a form of classroom
debate.o “Debate” suggests students are competing to
convince another of the validity of their line of thinking.
o Socratic circle has students working collaboratively to construct a common vision
● The concept of “winning an argument” is not evidento There is only the search for deeper and more
thorough understanding.
While the process is consistent in it’s implementation and easily learned by the students, the first circle needs to be introduced and explained. In my school a few teachers have created Do’s and Don'ts handout for the students to keep and reference throughout the year.
Our Process:● teach with the end in mind● build in time for practice (speaking
and writing) and collaboration● Modeling● Time to prepare● opportunity to gather evidence
Questions: Socratic Circle for The Schwa Was Here● Literature teaches a lesson.
While there are many themes in the Schwa, four of the strongest are: trauma can change people in positive and negative ways, the biggest things seem like small things, being felt or seen, blindness and knowing the truth.
● Is the Schwa was here Antsy’s story or Calvin’s?
● One of the themes in the story is friendship. Based on the events of the novel, would you want Antsy for a friend?
● Every good story has conflict. Choose one of the four main conflicts in the story (character vs. self, character vs. character, character vs. society, and character vs. the unknown) and explain why it is the most important in the story.
“I liked how we reflected on what we read...we all got to share our own thoughts.It made me think deeper about the text. It made me WANT to read!”
Gracey
“We used text evidence from the book to support our answers (thoughts).”
Jennifer
“I liked picking out the book I wanted to read...to have independence.”“It made me think deeper. It makes me think about what I read.”
Haley
“I liked the discussion days. I appreciated that Mr. H and Mrs. M. were always helping me. I enjoyed having a specific job. I would have liked a little more time to do my job.
Zach
“I’ve gotten to read a great book. I’ve gotten to talk to others about my book.”It’s opened my mind to new books. It’s opened my mind to new strategies.
Alice
“When I read I think more about all the strategies. I learned how to use post-its to increase my comprehension.”
Zach
“I read a lot more and more everyday. I use my reading strategies a lot more now.”
Kaylee
“...that I’m asking questions. I’m not afraid to share what I think. I feel like I’m paying close attention to what’s going on.”
Krista
• Become more familiar and comfortable with the strategies presented and use them with more fidelity
• Introduce small group strategy-based guided reading groups
Next Steps...
