Small or Whole Group Instruction

Marquetta Gibson

Grand Canyon University: SEC-540

December 15, 2021

Ms. Dawn is a pre-kindergarten at Children of America. During the last interview, Ms. Dawn picked four students who she believed would best reflect the small group that would be required for the continuation of the practicum experience in the future. In terms of reading ability, one kid has an IEP that is on grade level, while the other three have IEPs that are either above, on, or below grade level. They shall be referred to as C, A, L, and T in this document. Ms. Dawn confers with her pupils one-on-one rather than in larger groups, as is customary. She either sits with the students at their desks or invites them to join her at hers for a discussion. The children listen while Ms. Dawn reads to them out loud. When they have completed reading, they discuss what they have learned. She works with them to improve their reading fluency, as well as their understanding. The four children were very engaged in the read aloud, but their levels of understanding differed greatly. The children with IEPs need prompting to keep attentive, as well as leading questions to build on reading topics, among other things. Perhaps a reading tracker or listening to an electronic rendition of a narrative might be beneficial to them. Other ideas are utilizing visual images such as videos and colorful pictures. The children seem to benefit from technology in that it helps them stay grounded and focused. The other students were quite attentive and enjoyed the lesson, which was encouraging.

“Fall Forward, Spring Back”, is the title of the book I chose. It is a multi-leveled reader that will satisfy the diverse reading demands of the kids. Several of the students will be working at a lower level, which will have fewer words in journals to copy and learn during small group sessions. The higher level has more words in their journals to copy and will be required to draw an image of what they comprehended from the story. Both levels feature the same concentrated vocabulary words, as well as the same primary theme and supporting elements. The book may be read electronically, with the option to listen to it while reading along with the author's narration. All exercises may be performed either online or on paper, depending on the teacher’s preference. Allowing students to simply draw what they learned from the story is also available for students who are having problems with the writing task. As part of this next chapter of this literacy journey, I've already started working on the pre-assessment and studying the learning target for the students. I'm looking forward to continuing my work with Ms. Dawn and the students in our small literacy group in the coming months.