What Are You Grouping For?, Grades 3-8

JULIE WRIGHT is a teacher, instructional coach, and educational consultant with over twenty-five years of experience in rural, suburban, and urban education settings.  She holds National Board Certification as well as a B.S. in education, a master’s in language arts and reading, a reading endorsement, and extensive school leadership post-graduate work, including a pre-K through grade 9 principal license from The Ohio State University. She has served as an adjunct faculty member at Ashland University and University of Wisconsin, teaching graduate courses focused on curriculum, instruction, and assessment and instructional coaching respectively.  Julie gets her inspiration from her husband, David, and their three children, Sydney, Noah, and Max. BARRY HOONAN teaches fifth and sixth grade at Odyssey Multiage Program on Bainbridge Island, Washington. He works with teachers both in the U.S. and internationally, including appointments as a three-time Fulbright Teaching Exchange teacher in the United Kingdom, a teaching fellow at Harlem Village Academy in NYC, and next year— a teacher-consultant at the American School of Brasilia. Barry is a co- author of Beyond Reading and Writing: Inquiry, Curriculum, and Multiple Ways of Knowing (NCTE, 2000), and is a recipient of NCTE’s Edward Hoey Award and of the Bonnie Campbell Hill Washington State Literacy Award.

"A few years back, after visiting Barry Hoonan’s classroom and experiencing his teaching and his students’ learning, I looked squarely into his reflective eyes and said, ‘Please write a book about what I just saw.’ Educators, welcome to Barry and Julie’s classrooms. Their most important thinking and learning has been poured into this book for us, the virtual visitors to their rooms. They invite us into their joy-filled classrooms, engaging us as their colleagues. We learn alongside them by listening in to their conversations with their students, and kidwatch by joining in their thinking and discovering students’ next steps. We lean into their questions and inquiry as the authors share their reverence for teaching, respect of all students, and above all, how we are doing this together because ‘exquisite things that happen when we are inquisitive together.’"

• Foreword by Mary HowardAcknowledgmentsPrefaceCHAPTER 1. A New Way of Thinking About Small Group Learning Experiences (because being up close to students is what drives discovery)Small Group Instruction RedefinedThe Five Teacher MovesCombating the Challenges So You Can Do the Five MovesOne Last ThingCHAPTER 2. The Launch (because who doesn’t need beginning-of-the-year strategies)Small Groups DefinedTwo Essential Questions This Chapter Helps You AnswerBeliefsIdeas for the First Days of SchoolListening In and Joining InA Few Weeks Into the School YearOne Last ThingCHAPTER 3. Scheduling (because schedules are key for the launch and beyond)Reading Workshop: Daily Plans for GroupsGetting Started, Quick GroupsGroups for First Days/Weeks of SchoolGroups That Might Meet Across the YearSmall Group Foundational Q&AOne Last ThingCHAPTER 4. Kidwatching 2.0 (because it’s all about orient, notice, take stock, and inquire)Two Essential Questions This Chapter Helps You AnswerBeliefsOur Kidwatching 2.0 ProtocolTips for Getting StartedUsing Your Notes to Form Small GroupsFour-Step Process for Going From Kidwatching to Small GroupExample of Small Group Work Based on Kidwatching DataOne Last ThingCHAPTER 5. Pivoting Into Flexible Groups (because it’s the teacher moves that keep readers moving forward)Two Essential Questions This Chapter Helps You AnswerBeliefsHow This Chapter Is OrganizedThe List of Reasons for PivotingThe Teacher’s RoleTypes of Groups to Pivot Into and Out OfTiming Is Everything: More About the Duration of GroupsLanguage for Joining InTroubleshootingOne Last ThingCHAPTER 6. Assessing Student Work (because looking at our readers’ work lifts their strategies, skills, and thinking)Two Essential Questions This Chapter Helps You AnswerBeliefsAssessing With Learner-Centered BenchmarksWhat to Look AtHow to Sort Student WorkPlanning a Focus for Instruction and Putting It Into ActionMore Examples of How to Use Work to Inform Grouping DecisionsOne Last ThingCHAPTER 7. Curating (because selecting the right texts inspires readers to be connoisseurs)Two Essential Questions This Chapter Helps You AnswerBeliefsTeachers and Students as CuratorsTeachers as CuratorsSteps for CuratingZooming In on Step 2: Curate and SelectZooming In on Step 3: DecideSteps 4–7: Spark, Read and Construct Meaning, and ReflectStudents as CuratorsExemplars of Students as CuratorsOne Last ThingCHAPTER 8. Unit Planning (because small groups are best anchored in a harbor of big ideas)Two Essential Questions Chapters Eight and Nine Help You AnswerBeliefsPlanning: The Reality ShowSix Surefire StepsOne Last ThingCHAPTER 9. Weekly and Daily Planning (because weekly and daily plans chart the course for small group experiences)Creating a Calendar for Weekly and Daily Lesson PlanningZooming In on Step 5: Make Plans for Small Group Learning OpportunitiesSome Popular, Proven Models to Guide YouBarry’s Planning Process for Hosting Two GroupsJulie’s One-Week Plan of Lessons for Launching a UnitStudent-Driven PlanningPutting It Into Practice: Examples From Our ClassroomsOne Last ThingConclusionAppendix: Ready-to-Copy Teacher and Student Reflection/Planning PagesReferences and Further ReadingIndexAbout the Authors