Small Group Instruction - Notes

A powerful strategy for addressing students' varied learning needs is the use of small groups for teaching, practice, or discussion. 

Small group instruction provides a simple and direct way to reteach, review, provide focused and supervised practice, clarify misunderstandings, or extend student proficiency. Small groups are also useful in making interest-based connections with essential knowledge, understanding, and skills. 

Some students simply learn better and participate more actively in small teacher-led groups than in the class as a whole. Use of small groups can also be a helpful source of formative assessment for the teacher. Small group sessions don't need to be long, but they need to be focused on the next steps in learning for particular students so that students are able to move ahead in their knowledge, understanding, and skill more efficiently and efficiently as a result of their participation in the small group setting.