Journey with a third-grade community of writers as they develop their writing identities and abilities in a responsive approach to writers' workshop. Instruction is framed around the writers' workshop approach, where students' choice and voice are centered within extended periods of time for writing, alongside daily mini-lessons addressing the…

Culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) that builds on and sustains students' cultural and linguistic practices is important for students' academic achievement and identities. While CSP is applicable to any content area, a critical time to incorporate it is during differentiated reading groups--small-group contexts that provide explicit code-based…

In this invited Viewpoint, Sharon Walpole tracks her thinking about feasible, effective, small-group differentiated instruction. She acknowledges political pressures and the focus on science of reading. She describes the attractiveness and feasibility of guided reading. She then identifies some salient criticisms of the assessments, texts, and…

In this article, the authors revisit the common practice of small-group reading instruction. They challenge the idea of grouping readers based on text levels and instead review supplemental intervention group research that suggests targeted skill practice as a more optimal use of time in small groups. They then present the ABCs--a focus on…

A book introduction during small-group instruction may seem like a simple task, but it actually involves multiple layers of decision making. The authors examine the why, how, and what of book introductions as a means of supporting students' growth as readers.

In this article, we explore how character perspective-taking can support students' reading comprehension, as well as opportunities to engage social-emotional learning (SEL). We start by defining character perspective-taking and SEL. Then, we present strategies for practicing character perspective-taking in classrooms, how these strategies are…

If you were to walk into this second-grade classroom during reading workshop, you would notice students reading books specific to their reading level and interest. You would also notice students using different tools to support their reading development. One of the teacher's goals is to help students become independent readers who are able to…

This article introduces SAIL, an instructional framework designed to help teachers optimize students' learning during small-group word study instruction. Small-group word study interactions afford opportunities for teachers to engage students in thinking, talking, advancing vocabulary knowledge (including general academic vocabulary), and making…

The adoption of the Common Core in many states across the country means we need to explore instructional approaches that promote student language use in order to meet many of the complex linguistic standards that comprise the Common Core. In this Teaching Tip, we provide a blueprint for a 4-week collaborative discussion mini-unit that a second…

With the nationwide focus on increasing students understanding and use of technology, many teachers are beginning to incorporate a variety of technology into small group rotations. However, the use of technology during these rotations often does not require students to use higher level thinking or problem solving skills. By eliminating the…

The teaching approach described in this article was originally designed for kindergarten students who are at risk for reading disorders. In a 30-minute session, students practiced attending to and identifying the spelling patterns, pronunciations, and meanings of common morphological suffixes through listening activities, interactive book reading,…

The Daily 5 and CAFE were born out of The Sister's research and observations of instructional mentors, their intense desire to be able to deliver highly intentional, focused instruction to small groups and individuals while the rest of the class was engaged in truly authentic reading and writing, and their understanding that a one size fits all…

The Text Feature Walk is a structure created and employed by the authors that guides students in the reading of text features in order to access prior knowledge, make connections, and set a purpose for reading expository text. Results from a pilot study are described in order to illustrate the benefits of using the Text Feature Walk over…

The secondary level of a Response to Intervention system, sometimes referred to as Tier II intervention, targets students who experience inadequate response to good classroom instruction for 10-15 weeks of validated small-group instruction. The twin purposes of secondary prevention are to (a) prevent the development of long-term reading difficulty…

Despite over 25 years of research supporting the instruction of comprehension strategies, it seems that such instruction is not readily found in many classrooms or basal readers, resulting in students that struggle with analyzing and comprehending text. This is particularly true in the primary grades. Originally designed with seventh grade…