Overview

Session Summary

In this session you are going to look at how students working in small groups enables teachers to support the range of learners in the classroom. You will explore differentiation and its impact on student learning, and see how guided math groups and extending students’ ideas serve to support student math learning.

Session Focus

In this session you will consider:

  • how guided math groups and extending students’ ideas accommodate the needs of the range of learners
  • differentiation and its impact on student learning
  • students working independently and their learning
  • how small group time frees up the teacher to work with individual students or groups of students

Overview

In this activity you will read about and see examples of guided and independent small groups.

Getting Started: Principles That Support the Range of Math Learners

At the core of differentiation in mathematics is the belief that all children can learn, they have the capacity to succeed, and they should be held to high standards. Differentiation is something you do in your classroom on a regular basis because each student is unique and needs something different along the way – a bigger challenge, a holding hand – yet who and when is not a constant.”

TERC author Judy Storeygard
My Kids Can

 

Read

You will experience both small group structures in Activity 2 and 3. You may want to refer back to this document as you work through the sessions.

Write your definition of differentiation in your notebook.

You will look back at your definition and make adjustments in Session 6.

Small Groups

Teachers use small groups for a variety of purposes.

  • Students work cooperatively on one task in their daily lessons
  • Students work in pairs or groups during a Math Workshop
  • Teachers work with small groups based on common learning needs – guided math groups

Read Independent and Guided Small Groups

As you work through this session think about how small groupings will enable you to differentiate tasks so you meet the needs of the range of learners in your classroom.

From the Field

It is important to think about differentiation as a lens through which you can examine your teaching and your students’ learning more closely, a way to become even more aware of the best ways to ensure that your students will be successful learners.” p.6


How to Differentiate Your Math Instruction (authors) Linda Dacey, Jayne Bamford- Lynch, Rebeka Eston Salemi (Scholastic, 2013)

Readings

Additional Resources

Video

Activity 1: Flexible Groupings

In this activity you will read three cases written by teachers. They share ways they use groupings and partnerships to enhance learning and meet the needs of the range of learners in the classroom.

Case 1: Student Grouping: Using the Demands of the Task to Shape the Groups

Case 2: Creating Effective Partnerships: Using Flexible Grouping to Enhance Learning

Case 3: Student Grouping That Enhances Learning

Read each case and respond to the questions in your notebook.

Case 1: Student Grouping: Using the Demands of the Task to Shape the Groups

  • What aspects of both students and the math activity does Ms. Sawyer consider when she is deciding how best to support her students in their work together?
  • In what ways do you think about grouping students as you plan your math instruction?
  • What are ways Ms. Sawyer or you might keep track of groupings and how successful are they?

Case 2: Creating Effective Partnerships: Using Flexible Grouping to Enhance Learning

  • What are the benefits that Ms. King believes she and her students receive by using flexible grouping?
  • How does she maintain and manage the groups she creates throughout the school year?
  • In what ways can you enhance the success of particular students in your classroom through flexible grouping?
  • In what ways do you make your decisions about grouping explicit for students?

Case 3: Student Grouping That Enhances Learning

  • What factors did Ms. Sullivan take into account as she planned how to group the students?
  • Why do you think she chose to make her decisions explicit to her students? Do you agree with this decision?
  • In what ways do you use flexible grouping to meet the needs of the students in your classroom? What factors do you take into account as you plan your groups?

Notebook

In your notebook, describe the norms you want to establish with your students so they work productively and cooperatively in small groups.

Activity 2: Guided Math Groups in Action

In this activity you will watch two teachers facilitate guided math groups. Each teacher has specific goals in mind for the students in the group.

Watch each of the following classroom videos two times.

  • The first time you watch, focus on the students.
  • The second time, focus on the teacher.

Record your observations about the students and teacher for each video clip in your notebook.

  • What did you notice about the students during the discussion?
  • As you watch the video, notice how the teacher makes the math explicit.

Quick Images with Ten Frames – 2nd Grade

Quick Images is a routine students experience throughout the year in a whole class setting. The teacher displays an image on a document reader or Smart Board for a few seconds. The students try to build or record what they saw. After they have viewed the image three times they discuss what they noticed and share how they constructed the image. Students usually experience Quick Images as a whole group.

You are going to view a teacher facilitating Ten-Frame Quick Images with a small group of students. The teacher displays two images. The students analyze images of dots, arranged in a Ten-Frame. They determine the total number of dots based on the mental image they form during a brief viewing. The discussion is focused on how students organize, describe and count the dots in the images.

Quick Images: Ten Frames

Practicing a Strategy: Change and Adjust – 5th Grade

The teacher in this video is working with a small group of students while others are working independently on similar problems. The students will return to the class assignment after the session.

She writes 275 x 8 on a whiteboard and asks the students to solve the problem using the Change and Adjust strategy.

Change and Adjust is the name of a strategy used to solve some multiplication problems. It may be new to you. Record the steps the teacher writes on the individual whiteboard so you can pause the video and focus on the strategy. Reflect on the understandings students need to know about multiplication to successfully use this strategy.

Notice how the teacher facilitates this short, targeted small group session. What do the students gain from this brief guided group session?

Change and Adjust

In your notebook…

  • What did you notice about the students during the discussion?
  • As you watch the video, notice how the teacher makes the math explicit.

Activity 3: Independent Group Work

In this activity you will view students as they work independently in small groups and pairs. Pay attention to the teacher's role as facilitator.

You will view different groups and pairs of students as they work together

Watch each of the following classroom videos two times.

  • The first time you watch, focus on the students.
  • The second time, focus on the teacher.

Notebook

Record your observations about the students and teacher for each video clip in your notebook.

  • What did you notice about the students during the discussion?
  • As you watch the video, notice how the teacher makes the math explicit.

Part 1: Math Workshop

Math Workshop is a structure that allows individuals, pairs, or small groups of students to work on a set of related activities that focus on similar mathematical content. The activities are not sequential: as students move among them they continually revisit the important concepts and ideas they are learning. By repeatedly playing a game, or solving similar problems, students are able to refine strategies, use different contexts, and bring new knowledge to familiar circumstances. Because Math Workshop is often preceded and followed by whole class activities, students have many opportunities to discuss and synthesize the big ideas of the activities they have been working on.

The purpose of Math Workshop is to:

  • provide students with repeated experience with the concepts being learned and time to practice important skills and refine strategies
  • provide time for the teacher to work with individuals and small groups and to assess students’ learning and understanding
  • help students develop independence and learn to take responsibility for their own learning.

Read Making Math Workshop Work

Math Workshop Charts

Many teachers post the options for Math Workshop. Some teachers, particularly in grades 2-5, provide a math menu for students to keep track of their work.

Watch the following videos. The first video includes Math Workshop experiences from two first grade classrooms. The second video is of a fourth grade Math Workshop with a focus on fractions.

Math Workshop Lower Grades


Math Workshop Upper Grades


In your notebook record what you learned or want to remember about Math Workshop.

Part 2: Small Groups: Working cooperatively on one task

In the following videos students are completing an assignment in either pairs or small groups. As you watch the videos, think about how each teacher facilitates the students’ learning.

Estimating Scoops of Cranberries

The In-Between Game


Notebook

Record your reflections on the reading and videos focused on the use of small groups in your notebook.

  • How do small groups help teachers differentiate experiences to meet the needs of the range of learners in their classrooms?
  • How will (do) you incorporate small group experiences in your classroom?

Sam and Charlie

Think about your Sam and your Charlie. Reflect on the ways you support or plan to support each one in their math learning – e.g., who you partner them with, using small guided math groups to support and/or stretch them. Write your reflections in the journal. Be specific.

Discussion

Reflect back to what you’ve experienced in both this session and session 2. What evidence do you see of a growth mindset and Math Practices 3 (Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others) and 7 (look for and make use of structure) when students work in small groups, independently, and/or as a whole group?

Go to the Discussion Forum

Notebook

Complete the Session 3 Notebook page using the indicated prompts.

In the final field of your notebook, reflect on the key take-aways from this session for your own learning and record ideas that you will implement to support math learning.

Key Learnings

  • Addressing the range of learners in a classroom requires knowing where students are at, which changes throughout the year
  • It is essential to expect all students to make sense of mathematics, while providing them with the support, tools, structures, and resources that facilitate their students’ understanding of mathematical concepts
  • Small groups provides students more opportunities to talk
  • Small groups can be a safer environment for students to take risks and practice
  • Guided math groups are used to both provide additional support and to extend students’ thinking
  • Math Workshop provides students a variety of related experiences
  • Independent group work is most effective when the groups are well formed