How to Group Students for Small Group Reading Groups

Do you use small groups to teach reading?  Small groups are my absolute hands-down favorite way to teach reading.  It is hard for me to individually connect with 24-30 students.  The 4-8 students sitting in front of me at my table.  Those are students I can reach individually every day.

How do you make sure each student is receive just what they need during their small reading group?  Here are some tips on how to group students for reading instruction.

Start with Assessment Data

The first piece of information you need when you start to group your students is assessment data.  You need to know where your students are at so that you know how to group like ability students together.

What type of assessment data should I use?

Start with your district assessment since you have to give it anyway.  Each grade level will be slightly different, but most districts have some sort of grade level assessment that is give to students several times a year.

From that grade level assessment, funnel down and zero in on what students need.  Where is it that they’re not doing well.  Figure out what that is and make groups of like-ability.

In grades 2-5, the district assessment may be a silent reading task.  If it, students will fall into two main groups:  those who are at or above grade level and those who are below grade level.  Focus on those students who are below grade level and dig deeper to see what students are missing in their reading skills and strategies.

Dig Deeper – Funnel Down

Think of it like a funnel.  You want to siphon off students at each level of the funnel.  I don’t mean that in a negative way.  You will, hopefully, have a majority of students at or above grade level, then a few at slightly below that, a few slightly below that, etc.  The grade level assessment will take care of students who are at or above grade level. Then dig deeper to find out what the rest of the students need for their instruction..

If the grade level assessment is a silent reading task, than digging deeper might be an oral reading assessment where you look at accuracy and comprehension.  Is the student reading fluently?  Are they understanding what they read?

If students have difficulty with the oral reading assessment, dig deeper with a phonics assessment.  Assess letter sounds and phonics patterns, like cvc words, digraphs, blends, multi-syllabic words.

Basically, your job is to figure out what your students need in order to be successful at your grade level.

If you’re a K/1 teacher you will most likely start with a phonics assessment as it’s an integral part of your content.

Group Students Based on Assessment Data

After assessing, group students based on the assessment data.  Really, I tend to do this step as I am assessing too, but the first time you do this process, consider doing it after you’ve completed your assessments.

What I do is arrange students in order based on the assessment.  This is a loose order and it’s not hard and fast.  It just gives me a good idea of the groups I need to create.  Then, group like scores together.

What does this look like?

Here is an example of a list of students (with names removed) for my second grade classroom.  I started with last year’s data.  The data is guided reading levels from the end of first grade.  It’s a screen shot of my computer screen at the time, so I apologize for the photo quality.

With this set of data, I had information on most of my students, except two that had SSTs and one that was from another school. Our district required us to re-assess students who were below grade level and after assessing these were the results.

So, now what do I do with the data?  With this set of data, I created three reading groups.  Later in the year, I shifted into four groups, but at the beginning of the year, I needed to do only three rotations with the time limit I had available to me.

My lowest group, while technically ranging from B-F, was really concentrated on E-G.  My two lowest students were receiving outside help.

My middle group ranged from H-K and my highest group was all level N or M.  That was all first grade data, so I didn’t reassess them at the time.

Lowest = Smallest / Highest = Largest

When grouping students, make your lowest group the smallest and your highest group the largest.  Why?  Your lowest group needs the most attention from you and with less students you can zero in on each one more frequently.  I’m not saying that your high group doesn’t need you, but they need less of you.  They most likely can work more independently with less questions for you and don’t need constant check in.

My groups above ended up having 5 students (if I don’t count my two lowest), 5 students and 8 students.  That low group was a bit larger than I really wanted it to be at the time, but with the time constraints I had, it was the best I could do.

And, that’s the reality of our classrooms, too.  We have to work within constraints.  The groups won’t be perfect, but they will be good.

What about students who don’t fit in a group?

So, you have some students who just don’t fit nicely into a group.  What do you do with them?  You can see above that I had two students who were significantly below the rest of my students.

Well, it depends.  It’s difficult to give a hard and fast rule for these students because they don’t fit the norm for the grade level.  Each student will needed to be looked at individually.  The best thing to do is be sure you have good reasons why you’ve decided on that group for that student.

Let me give you a few examples from my classroom throughout the years.  There are a couple of different types of outlier students that I’ve had:

Newcomers

Newcomers are students who come from another country.  The students I generally receive as newcomers don’t speak English well. They’re at the stage of acclimating to the US and learning basic vocabulary for survival.  Putting them in a reading group isn’t always what they or the rest of the group needs.  I will often find an alternate activity for them to do during our reading group time.

Students with IEPs

This next group of students generally receives outside help at another time during the day.  If my outlier students are receiving specialized instruction from someone else, I tend not to be as concerned about including them in my core reading groups as I am students who are not receiving additional instruction.  My students who receive resource help are pulled out sometime during the day and are getting the help they need.

Sometimes I have these students meet with the lowest group, to be a part of our reading instruction, but I don’t focus on them as much during the group time.  I focus on the students who aren’t getting additional help somewhere else.  I don’t want to communicate that we as teachers are not responsible for meeting their needs; however, your small reading groups may not be the best place to meet their needs.

High Students

Depending on the make up of your classroom, you may have 1-2 very high students who don’t fit in even with your highest groups.  That wasn’t the case with the data above, but it has been in the past.  For those students, include them in the highest group, but also up the ante for them, just a little bit.  Either push the limits with extra writing or deeper thinking, or assign them a separate, independent project.  Whatever it is, be sure that you are challenging even your highest learners.

Video on Grouping Students for Small Group Reading

I did a Facebook Live Video on how I group students for instruction; however the live video won’t let me embed it.  You can view it on Facebook via this direct link or view it below via a YouTube.

Do you have any additional tips for grouping students for reading instruction? I’d love to hear about them below.