In the elementary classroom, there’s little differentiation in terms of placing students in different classes. English Learners who are new to the country are placed with similar aged peers even though if they were to arrive one year later, they would have a completely differentiated schedule in middle school (or high school if they arrived even later). While I teach in a school that separates out advanced academics students, this placement is largely based on test scores. Some students just don’t test that well. In fact, I was one of those students. In other cases, those students were strong readers but weaker in mathematics so they weren’t ready for a whole advanced curriculum.
So what does this mix of levels lead to?
A classroom with students who are still reading on a Kindergarten or First Grade level and students who are reading above grade level. Currently, my 2019-20 classroom of 27 spans K-9th grade reading levels. That’s more than 7, but I usually span at least 2nd grade – 8th grade in my 6th grade class.
So what do I do?
I embrace the workshop model. If you’re not familiar, a reading or writing workshop has the following components.
Reading and Writing Workshop
- Whole class minilesson (10 minutes that includes a hook, teaching point, active engagement, send off)
- Conferences and/or small groups during the independent work block
- *Optional – Mid Workshop Teaching Point
Most of my current students are just below or on grade level, so I at least have the benefit of knowing that my whole group lessons do tend to hit the majority of my class’ needs. There are many ways that I can adjust those whole class minilessons to meet the needs of struggling learners, especially, but often, I focus on meeting their needs during the other part of workshop and keeping my minilesson short. Often, if I were to add in a different text or alternative, it would cut off my small group time and work time.
Here is a brief description of how I meet the needs of each group:
The extremely strong readers require some differentiation, but their independence once set up with a task is great. These students also require shorter conferences as they can take a teaching point and run with it faster. I rarely hold small groups for those independently strong readers as they just need a push to get going.
Readers Focusing on Primary Skills
First of all, my choices with these students depend on the level of independence they can exhibit during work time (reading appropriately leveled books) and how much pull out they receive from other staff, but here is what I do next:
- Leverage Technology – My school has some programs such as Imagine Learning which is useful for teaching primary skills and language since it teaches in both Spanish and English to support vocabulary growth. MyOn and other programs will read aloud to students. Some students will do Starfall or other primary apps and games, but by sixth grade, these are less and less appealing.
- Matching Games – I love getting students set up with a quick game that works on phonics or phonological awareness. I have access to matching sets that have a letter and a picture where the picture’s word starts with that letter. These puzzles are all self-checking because they only fit when they match. Even though these are primary skills based, students tend to do these without much concern. This might be because games are a part of my classroom environment in general.
- Read Aloud with the student – I wish I could do this more than I do, but nothing beats just reading with the student and talking through vocabulary. I also like doing sound or word hunts such as “Look for a word that ends in -ing, Which words start with ‘ssss’; Which words rhyme; Which words have the same sound at the end; What is the base word of started?” Just playing with words, recognizing patterns, and talking about words is great.
- Buddy Reading – I will borrow from primary and teach students to buddy read. They can take turns, alternate pages. Granted, this works better when you have students who are at least within similar levels