April 2008 Professional Development

Linda Hoffman, UFT Teacher Center/Literacy Coach

Paula Nieto, ELL Coordinator and ELL Teacher

All content-area teachers need to establish small-group NORMS with their students BEFORE they begin flexible grouping.

Students need to understand WHY their teachers group them for DIFFERENT PURPOSES – whole group, homogeneous grouping, mixed-ability grouping, interest-based grouping, learning styles grouping and student-choice grouping.

Flex grouping is NOT behaviorally motivated.

Flex grouping is the SHORT-TERM grouping and regrouping of students for instructional purposes.

Pre-assessment and formative assessment drive flexible grouping.

Wonderful Ones Terrific Twos Thrilling Threes Fantastic Fours Fabulous Fives Sensational Sixes Super Sevens Etc.

Blazing Blues Remarkable Reds Yummy Yellows Glamorous Greens Brilliant Browns Perfect Pinks Organized Oranges Etc.

Looking good! – create an imaginary screen, point with both index fingers inside of it to congratulate the individual

W-O-W! – create Ws with both hands and say “Wow!” FAN – tastic! – fan yourself with both hands and then

motion to the individual Thank you very much! – said while impersonating Elvis Let’s give – A Round of Applause – applaud in a circle Let’s KISS our brains – kiss your hand and touch your brain

Let’s shine our halos – polish the halo at the top of your head

Let’s give everyone a Micro-WAVE – with pinkies only Alligator applause – stretch out your arms like an alligator’s

jaw Rainbow applause – applaud over your head in a arc Firecracker – make exploding firecracker motions with your

fingers That’s the Way I Like It! – A-ha – A-ha – sung to the melody

of the song

Fold paper into 8 rectangles. On your own, write 4 facts, characteristics, details,

etc. in 4 of the boxes. Now, get up and find four other partners. The idea is to increase your learning interactions. Give each of your partners one of your ideas. In turn, get one idea from each of your partners. When, you have completed all of your 8 boxes on the

rectangle, you may sit down. When you return to your small group, turn the

rectangle over and record 8 more ideas that are brought back by others in your group.

Use this strategy for brainstorming, summary.

STEP 1 - Students pair up (one is the interviewer and one is the interviewee). One asks the question and the other gives the answer. Students can record what they learned on an index card or in their notebooks. (1 minute)

STEP 2 – Partners reverse roles. (1 minute)

STEP 3 – Students return to their small groups of 4, 5 or 6 and take turns sharing what they learning from their partner’s response to the question. Students expand their original response list by adding what they’ve heard from other group members. (1 minute share time for each member of the group)

OPTION 1 Partners read the entire page alternating

sentences or paragraphs. Use when you want students to listen to each

other and help each other with the text with a high level of support.

Teacher leads a discussion of the page to check understanding.

Students share a word or words they didn’t understand.

OPTION 2 Partners read the entire page alternating

sentences or paragraphs. Partner A retells what happened or summarizes

facts from the first paragraph. Partner B retells what happened or summarizes

facts in the second paragraph, and so on until they finish the page.

Students share a word or word they didn’t understand.

Clear your desks. Each group has one paper and one pencil per team. Each student responds to a question or prompt by writing

one answer and passing the paper to the right. Everyone must be accountable and write an answer. Continue this process until the teacher calls time out. The teacher reviews the correct answers/responses. The team evaluates their answers/responses and counts

the number of correct answers/responses. The teacher reviews each team’s work and provides

feedback and positive reinforcement.

TEACHER: Place students in groups of four according to mixed abilities. Have students count off 1, 2, 3, and 4 in each group. Have

students listen as you read aloud a question that all groups have to answer. Choose the form of their response: several sentences, a paragraph, filling in a graphic organizer or choosing their own manner of response.

After each group has recorded their answers, ask all of the #1s to stand and in turn have each one standing give their group’s response.

Repeat this procedure with at least four questions so each like number in the group gets a chance to stand and respond for the group.

Students: Number off in your group from 1 to 4. Listen to the question. Put your heads together and find the answer

collaboratively. Record your responses individually. Make sure that everyone in your group knows the answer

and can explain the answer aloud. Rehearse your responses.

Now, students will respond to the whole class. Be prepared to stand and answer the question aloud for your group when your number is called.

The teacher divides a text to be read into 4 to 6 equal parts.

Each member of the team becomes an expert on that part and teaches the others.

By the end of the jigsaw, the team has becomes experts on all parts of the material.

Use the jigsaw when you want the team to read a long piece of text, review a long piece of text, or summarize a long piece of text.

The teacher divides a text to be read into 4 to 6 equal parts. Students partner up in their small groups. Partners read by sentence or by paragraph. Partners use this strategy until they complete the text. Partners discuss, question, clarify and summarize the text. Partners share their understanding with their small group.

The teacher debriefs the jigsaw process. What worked? What didn’t work? How can we improve how we use this process?

Small groups create a re-telling or create a poster representation of the text.

Examples of text representations: Mind Mirror, Semantic Flower, and Collaborative Poster

Students represent their knowledge graphically or symbolically. Students collaborate to decide on the best graphic

representations of the ideas they have arrived at. Students also use relevant academic vocabulary to deepen their

understanding of the ideas. Each student in the team uses a single marker of a different color

to show his or her work on the poster. Team members share out the elements of their collaborative

poster. The class can evaluate each poster according to a rubric that

establishes the criteria for quality work.

Students work in partners or small groups of 4 to 6 participants.

Students create a flower with a circular center and large petals.

In the center of the flower, students write the topic, main idea, or concept.

On each of the petals, students write the supporting ideas, reasons, steps, details, etc. that provide explanations and descriptions of the center.

Students share their semantic flowers to explain their thinking to the whole class.

Students start with the outline of a large head – their mind mirror.

Inside the head, at the top, a student writes the title or topic of the reading.

One student selects a significant quote from the text and writes it in the mind mirror.

Another student creates a symbol to represent the text. Another student uses his own words to summarize the main

point of the text. The teacher could decide on additional ways for students to

represent the text.

The teacher divides the text to be read into equal sections for 4 to 6 students.

Home Group: Put the same number of students into each small group and have them count off 1, 2, 3, 4 or A, B, C, D, E, F.

Home Group: One student in each group is assigned to cover one of the sections of the assigned material.

Students move from their home groups to an expert group with the same number or letter.

Expert Group: Students work collaboratively to become “experts” of their portion of the text. The teacher gives all small-groups a graphic organizer for students to record their learning.

Expert Group: Students can partner read or read individually and then have a small-group discussion. Students reach consensus and record their understandings.

Home Groups: Students move back to their home groups and share the responsibility of teaching their portion of the text to their original small group.

Students are responsible for recording their learning from the other experts.

Teams of students post their work on the classroom walls. Students engage in a walk and review of the work. Students visit all of the products. Students may be assigned to evaluate a specific piece of

student work. Students may provide warm and cool feedback by affixing

the comments on post-it notes. The teacher may also provide a rating scale based upon

specific criteria to use as a more formal peer evaluation. The teacher debriefs the process with students so that they

come to an understanding of “outstanding” as opposed to “just passing” work.

Students clear their desks. Each student has one piece of paper and a pen (or pencil). Each student writes one answer to a question or a prompt

posed by the teacher. Then, the student passes the paper to the right. The student reads the narrative on the paper he/she has

just received and writes a sentence to go with that narrative.

This process continues until the teacher calls time out.

Writearound continued… Read aloud the narrative you are holding to your team. Every team member reads aloud a narrative. As a team, decide which narrative you like the best. Delete as needed, add transitions, elaborate when skimpy. Add a title. Add a powerful ending or conclusion. Prepare one of your team members to read it to the whole

class. Revise narrative – 5 minutes. Rehearse narrative – 2 minutes. Share narrative – 1 minute.

Students count off #1 and #2. All students who are #1s form an inside circle. All students who are #2s form an outside circle. Make sure you have a partner facing you. Shake hands. You have formed a partnership. You have 1 minute to discuss a question with your partner. When the minute is up, say good-bye, move to the right,

find a new partner, shake hands, and discuss the next question.

There is always the need to reflect upon what worked and what didn’t work with students.

DEBRIEFING: Brings everyone back together again from their flexible

groupsDEBRIEFING MAKES US THINK ABOUT OUR LEARNING: What did you learn from this strategy or skill? What part of the strategy/skill worked for you? What part of the strategy/skill did you find confusing? What could be done to make this strategy more effective

for you? What other reflections could you make about your

understanding of your learning goals and your progress?

One interesting flex grouping strategy that I will practice is_____________________________________________________.

Another flex grouping strategy that I still need clarification about is ________________________________________________.

Commitment: I intend to implement the flex grouping strategy of __________________________ with class _____ by _____(date) _____.

I want specific help with _______________________________.