How To Do a Structured Literacy Small Group Reset

December 29, 2024

Small group literacy instruction is a powerful tool in teaching kids to read! A structured literacy small group allows you to provide differentiated instruction and guided practice, both of which are key components of research-based explicit instruction. And you can give kids immediate feedback, because they’re right in front of you.

But here’s the thing: small groups can also be difficult to manage and teach, especially in the primary grades!

First, there’s making groups. Which kids should be placed together? What if your students are on such different levels that you end up with 10 groups in your classroom?! Is it okay to combine students in a single group, even if they’re not exactly at the same level?

Then, there’s figuring out what to teach during your small groups. You have limited time, so what’s most important to focus on during your small group lessons?

And speaking of limited time – there’s the general time crunch when it comes to teaching small groups. I know from experience how easy it is to end up constantly running out of time …feeling rushed…and the whole small group block just ends up feeling hectic. You wonder how to fit everything in, and you end up stressed out that you’re not doing enough with your kids during that small group time.

Not to mention the issue of what the other kids are doing. Can the rest of the class stay on task in literacy centers or their independent work? If they’re goofing off, then you have to pause your work with your small group to go attend to the other students. And of course, that takes away precious time from your small group lesson.

Eeeeeek! There are so many challenges when it comes to teaching small groups. 😩

But take a deep breath. Because in this post, I’m going to help you break down what might be going wrong in your small groups, so that you can fix these issues! A smooth-running small group block is in your future. 😍

I also have a free resource to make it EASY for you to do a “small group reset.” It’s my small group self-assessment quiz, which you can get for FREE here!

This resource will help you rate your current “state of affairs” when it comes to your small group instruction, AND it includes links to free resources to help you take your small groups to the next level.

It will help you make sure you’re not missing anything important in planning your small groups!

Now, let’s get ready to deep dive into a small group reset!

A structured literacy small group lesson can be powerful! But small groups are hard to manage, especially in Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. Learn how to reset and improve your small groups in this post!

Step 1: Take Stock of How Your Small Groups Have Been Going

Before we can make plans for the future, we need to take stock of where you’re at right now (my free small group self-assessment quiz will help with the specifics of this).

What’s going well? What don’t you want to change about your small group instruction?

For example, maybe you’re doing a great job following a structured literacy approach and best practices for reading instruction. Maybe you’ve seen certain reading groups make a lot of growth, and you know that your small group instruction has made a difference.

And what’s not going so well? What patterns do you notice – like certain students frequently getting off-task, or maybe you’re always running out of time with some (or all) of your groups?

As you do this exercise, it’s helpful to separate out “small groups” and “literacy centers” into two different categories. Even though they might be taking place at the same time, there are different challenges that arise when it comes to what you’re doing during your small groups and what the other students are doing independently.

And I encourage you to be very thoughtful about how you’ve been using that small group time.

Just “doing small groups” doesn’t mean that you’re making an impact on your students’ reading skills. What you’re doing in small group matters a lot.

Step 2: Identify the Most Important Problem to Solve First

Sometimes (especially at the beginning of a new school year, or when I’m doing a “reset”) I notice multiple problems that have been happening, and I make a plan that includes tons of changes.

Making changes is a good thing, because it means that your small group literacy lessons are going to improve, which will then improve student achievement! 🎉

However, making too many changes at once can be unsustainable and overwhelming. Then, you don’t end up implementing any of the changes effectively.

This is why it’s helpful to ask yourself, “What’s the most important problem to solve first?”

When you listed out the things that aren’t going well…which one of them do you think has the biggest impact on the quality of your small group instruction? Which problem seems most important to solve first?

Here are some example problems and solutions:

Problem: You’re always running out of time with a few different groups. Solution: You decide to use shorter decodable readers, or only plan to get through half of a decodable text during each lesson. You shift a little more of your phonics instruction to whole group time.
Problem: One of your groups doesn’t feel very productive, and it’s your lowest group. They’re having trouble focusing, and you feel like you’re constantly putting out fires. Solution: You decide to break that group up into 2 smaller groups. (To make space for this, consider combining 2 higher groups or seeing a more advanced group less often.)
Problem: The other kids, who are supposed to be working on independent practice activities, keep interrupting your small group. Solution: You revisit expectations with the whole class, and hold a firmer boundary. When a child comes up to interrupt and you know it’s not a true emergency, you shake your head “no” and continue working with your small group.
Problem: You’re not sure if you’re doing the right activities in small group, and you’re wondering if certain literacy skills should be taught to the whole class at the same time (rather than in small group). Solution: You download my free Small Group Self-Assessment quiz that includes guidance in this area.
Problem: You’re not sure if your small group reading instruction is challenging enough for your more proficient readers. Solution: You look up a phonics scope and sequence beyond your grade level, and make plans for more syllable instruction within multisyllabic words. You find a list of higher-level comprehension questions, too. (Or download one from my Literacy Clubs!)

If there are other minor adjustments you can make (in addition to solving your one main problem), feel free to make those small changes.

I just recommend not biting off more than you can chew, because it’s more sustainable and effective to focus on one issue at a time!

Step 3: Reteach & Reset

Some problems can be solved entirely by the way you’re planning. For example, if you feel like your groups no longer fit together well, you might do a phonics assessment and regroup the kids.

Some problems, however, are going to require changes on the part of your students. This means that you’ll want to reteach expectations.

You can reteach expectations at any point during the school year! I know it can feel stressful sometimes, because you know you need to get back to instruction.

But the thing is, if you don’t spend the time reteaching expectations, then you’re going to end up wasting a lot of time in the future – e.g., if your students are interrupting your small group instruction.

Here’s what I usually do if we need to do a “reset:”

1. Re-introduce procedures for small group time, as if I’m starting over from the beginning of the school year. (This happens during whole group instruction, before you move into groups.)

2. Have a couple of students model these procedures for the entire class. (If you think your class can handle it without getting too silly, you can also have a student model the “wrong” way of doing something – but make sure to end with re-modeling the correct way.)

3. Start your small group and centers block so all students can practice. However, for the first day, I just give my small group an independent task. I sit there at the table with them to provide support, but I also want to be “freed up” to watch the other students who are working independently.

This allows me to provide corrections and re-model expectations as needed (which is not as easy to do if I’m absorbed in a typical small group lesson).

4. You might need to repeat this on more than one day, depending upon how your students do. Once you see that they have improved, you can go back to your typical small group lessons.

Next Steps

I hope this post was helpful to you in planning a small group reset! It can feel so good to get back on the right track, so it’s well worth the time you’re taking to slow down and reset.

There’s a lot to think about when you’re planning your structured literacy small group instruction. My free s mall group self-assessment quiz can help you make sure that you’re not missing anything important!

You can grab it for free here: