Group session, Term 1, 2020

Group sessions of up to four students follow a set program but allow for the needs of individual students to be met. Within a writing program, some students may need assistance with vocabulary development, spelling, sentence work, essay development, grammar and punctuation. So how does this work? Student A may be working on spelling, while student B may be extending word knowledge, Student C may be using the words to enhance sentence development and Student D may be using focusing on the same words to transition between sentences or paragraphs. Small groups and skilled teaching allow for this type of diversified learning within the same content block and session plan.
Student engagement is the key to success and we find that direct instruction with a rapid pace and many activity changes works best. Learning activities usually follow a set pattern beginning with a group revision of previous learning (perhap a game, a quiz, a worksheet), teacher modelling of new concepts (a little chalk and talk), student engagement and interaction (often using whiteboards), individual work (we like to use workbooks so that there is a cumulative record) and final sharing and celebration. This lesson pattern works well across all core domains: literacy, numeracy and study skills.