What Are You Grouping For?, Grades 3-8
How to Guide Small Groups Based on Readers - Not the Book
- Julie Wright - Consultant
- Barry Hoonan - Bainbridge Island School District
Foreword by Mary Howard
Corwin Literacy
Bring out daring readers with dynamic small groups!
Like many educators in intermediate classrooms across the country, you may be using guided reading principles to teach reading. Whether you’re following targeted reading levels or sticking with your school’s established routines, chances are that guided reading has become synonymous with small group reading for you and your students. But . . . are your students getting the most out of small groups? Are readers of all ability levels experiencing the dynamic learning that can occur in small groups? Do you feel confident that the way you’re grouping kids is based on their wants and needs?
Intermediate grade readers don’t need to be guided as much as they need to be engaged—and authors Julie Wright and Barry Hoonan have solutions for doing just that using small groups. What Are You Grouping For? offers the practical tools, classroom examples, and actionable steps essential for starting, sustaining, and mastering the management of small groups. This book explains the five teacher moves that work together to support students’ reading independence through small group learning—kidwatching, pivoting, assessing, curating, and planning—and provides examples to guide you and your students toward success.
From must-have beginning-of-the-year strategies to step-by-step advice for implementation, this guide breaks down the processes that support small groups and help create effective instructional reading programs. Based on more than 45 years of combined experience in the classroom, this resource will empower you with tools to ensure that your readers are doing the reading, thinking, and doing—not you.
“ Julie Wright and Barry Hoonan have hit the ‘sweet spot’ of helping each student become exquisite readers. Through authentic classroom examples, they demonstrate how small groups are the fulcrum between one-to-one instruction and whole group instruction. This book is a gift to educators desiring to create voluminous readers!”
“ Julie Wright and Barry Hoonan take us on an adventure, redefining small group instruction and broadening our vision of what it can look like when we carefully plan and then step aside and take note of student interactions. With ‘five teacher moves,’ Julie and Barry talk us through meaningful strategies for employing a variety of fluid and flexible small group instruction and work where students ‘think about and appreciate texts.’ Julie and Barry share ideas for getting started, as well as specific examples of small groups that will inspire students all year. This book is for every teacher who strives to create meaningful small group instruction and work in their classrooms.”
“ What Are You Grouping For? is a must-have resource. Julie Wright and Barry Hoonan give practical strategies followed with examples from the classroom for supporting students’ reading independence through small groups. This book incorporates the importance of building relationships and knowing your students to gain maximum impact in the classroom. The book leaves the reader motivated and inspired to get started tomorrow!”