(Looking for strategies to keep the rest of your class on task while you pull small groups? Check out this post: Your Small Group is Thriving, What About the Rest of the Class? Small Group Classroom Management!)
In the middle of my first year of teaching, I was given two small groups of students to work with on reading interventions. My first thought: oh, thank goodness, this will be a management breeze! The lessons were planned and there were only 4-6 students in a group. How hard could it be?
What I quickly learned, however, is that classroom management during small group instruction requires just as much intentionality and planning as it does in whole group instruction. It just looks a little different. Thanks to some wonderful mentors who let me observe them at work and provided me with meaningful feedback, as well as plenty of research, I have a few behavior management strategies for small groups that keep the groups positive and productive.
Clear is Kind
"Clear is kind" is one of my favorite quotes for management, made popular by Brene Brown (I reference it here too!). When setting up small groups (or resetting if you've started and are feeling the behaviors getting out of hand), we want to be crystal clear with our expectations. My first year implementing groups, I thought I was clear. I even made a poster and a chart with a whole incentive system! Here were my expectations:
Everyone participates
Be respectful
Stay focused
Work hard
If students met my expectations, they got a star for each one. Earn all four stars and they could pick out a cool eraser. Didn't work... With the help of my mentor, I learned that you really want to break down the expectations into tangible, actionable, concrete statements. How would everyone participating look, sound, and feel? What exact actions am I, the teacher, looking for that shows participation? Those actions become my expectations.
Below is a chart that has a few samples of what clear expectations could look like:
Now, there are too many expectations listed in the above chart to post and teach students about all at once. So I pick four or five to kick off the year, and then as I see those behaviors become habits, I introduce new ones.
My beginning of the year expectations may be:
Bottoms in chair, tummies to the table, hands on the desk
Silent voices unless called on to share or read; raise your hand if you have a question or answer (Even when there are only 4 students in a group, I have us start the year raising hands. It helps establish turn taking, listening, and voice volume. With most groups [though not all!] I eliminate hand raising by mid-year because they have mastered respectful sharing and turn taking by then)
A finger and your eyes track the words in the text the whole time we read
Pick up your pencil and begin writing right away (when it is time to answer written questions)
After a few weeks (maybe months, all depending on your students and how often you meet), I may notice that I'm not redirecting students to sit up correctly anymore, students know to raise their hand, and they all are so engaged in the reading material that I rarely have to remind them to follow along now! I take off the expectation chart and post an updated one. Now that they have very basic behaviors down that let our group function, I'm going to go a little deeper and focus in on just active listening and participation.
Track the person who is speaking or sharing information (this excludes reading aloud since we should all be following along in the text)
Nod your head or use hand signals to show that you are actively listening to the speaker
When you say something after a teammate who just shared, acknowledge what they said before adding your own comment
Ground your answers in the text that we are reading--have evidence from the text that supports your ideas.
Trackers
As a small group teacher or interventionist, we sometimes have to make do with unusual spaces. This means we may not have anywhere to put an expectations chart for the group to see. These expectation charts can be made into student trackers. Each child gets a copy of the chart each week and, voile!, we are still being incredibly clear! Even when I do have the space to post the expectations, I always provide an individual tracker for each child in the group.
I find that by putting the expectations in a tracker, I can actually be a little more flexible with what expectations we are focusing on and I can tailer my expectations to individual groups. For example, my first group of the day struggles with talking over each other, but my second group is already at a place where they do not need to raise their hands to share answers and ideas.
My first group's midyear tracker has the following expectations:
I raise my hand to share ideas
I am silent while other people are speaking or working
I sit up straight and tall with my belly to the table and my book on the table
I string my words together when reading (we are working on improving our fluency and expressive reading right now)
My second group's midyear tracker:
I wait patiently for my teammates to tackle the words themselves (we are working on word attack skills and there was some trouble with giving away words before others had a chance to sound them out)
I fold my hands on the table silently to show I am ready to move on or have my work checked
I find specific evidence in the text to support each idea and answer I have
I use R.A.C.E. to answer my open response questions
By midyear, I have one group whose expectations are mostly focusing on academics (with some basic behaviors in there) and skills, while the other is still on basic behaviors. If you have to focus on basic behaviors in the tracker all year, it's fine--because when students have ready-to-listen-learn-and-participate behaviors, we can teach, support, and be witnesses to incredible growth!
Now a word on trackers and differentiating them. I had a group that was so chatty and impulsive and really reluctant to read or participate that asking them to adhere to these expectations for a full 45 minutes was not working. They never earned all their stars and they never made it to the reward. WE HAD TO HAVE SOME SUCCESS OR THEY WOULD NEVER BUY IN TO WORKING HARD IN THE GROUP. They got a special tracker. I broke it up into 7 minute sections. I set a timer for seven minutes, and when the timer went off, they would get a check for every expectation they met in that small time chunk. It gave them quick wins. They were able to miss 2 checks in our small group time. This was more manageable for them starting out. Two weeks of our 7 minute tracker and they graduated to a regular one! Sometimes we need to scaffold, pivot, get creative and that's okay!
As long as we are clear and consistent.
See "7 minute club" tracker below:
Student Buy-In
Having a good, clear, and consistent system for consequences in place is essential to holding students accountable for meeting the expectations. What happens if students do not meet the expectation? What happens if they do? Finding an incentive to keep them motivated is important--paying attention to their interests is helpful here.
My go-to system is giving stars/stickers/check marks on the tracker for following my expectations. Getting all the marks = a reward. Getting all but one of the marks = a smaller reward. Missing more than one-two marks (if I meet with the group every day in a week, I allow for two missing marks; if I meet with them just 2-3 times, then I allow for just one missing mark), try again next week--you can do it, I believe in you! Though if you have students who are not able to meet your expectations continuously, you may need to pivot, like my 7 minute tracker example.
Rewards can be free for us teachers! I've tried candy (with great success because who doesn't love chocolate), but I've also found success with three minutes of a wiggle break or socializing time at the end of the lesson. And I've seen teachers use 'class coupon' rewards (i.e., 'wear your hat for the lesson').
And of course, we cannot forget praise and positive narration! For my 7 minute club, within every 7 minute chunk of time, I found at least TWO things to praise either the group or individuals for. "Thank you for sitting up so nice and tall" "I love how you raised your hand so calmly" "Thank you for waiting patiently to speak-I saw you listening" "I see everyone's book on the table and finger in the text"...etc. This meant in one session I said at least 10 positive things...excessive? I don't think so, and honestly I probably said a lot more than 10. There was no clapping or jumping up and down. It was just a kind statement of noticing the students meeting my expectations. This is so effective.
Typically the clarity, consistency, and reward system is enough and I don't worry too much about consequences for negative behaviors. But it is always good to have something in place just in case. I am a big fan of keeping it logical. For instance, a student refuses to work when everyone is working. Well, they played while the group worked, so when the group plays, they will complete their work. Or taking time to practice whatever expectation they didn't meet. For example, they are having side conversations rather than working. Well, they talked when everyone else was silent, so they will practice staying silent while the rest of the group is socializing.
Home Connections
Never underestimate the power of home connections! There is a lot of talk about the importance of building relationships with students (for good reason!)--and yes, loving relationships are at the core of successful classrooms, but those relationships need to extend to the family as well. One of the most impactful things for my classroom (and in this case small group) community is to call each parent at the beginning of our time together with a positive introduction.
A quick outline of how the call may go:
I introduce myself
Talk about what an exciting year/semester we have ahead of us
Talk about how I can't wait to get to know ___ better
Share something positive I've noticed about their child so far
And tie it up with how I am looking forward to our partnership this year.
Because without a parent/teacher partnership, how much of an impact can we really have?
After establishing the parent partnership, there is so much we can do to nurture the relationship: like emailing (or texting if comfortable) pictures of work or successful sticker charts, calling about a student sharing an insightful answer or showing leadership in the group, sharing the book you are reading in the group so they can discuss it with their child too, etc. And, if there is a behavioral issue one day that needs to be addressed, we can now address it through lens of partnership and wanting what is best for the child.
Looking for more classroom management support? Check out this Comprehensive Classroom Management Plan, complete with lessons, checklists, templates, signage, and more!
