Socially Distant Small Groups for Instruction

I’ve written about small groups before because I believe they answer so many of education’s questions:

How can I make a more equitable experience?

How can I differentiate instruction?

How can I personalize learning?

How can I build community?

And more…

I even call the use of small group instruction belonging groups. How can we build belonging groups in a socially distant classroom, without changing the seating chart or moving germs around?

A couple ideas I’ve been promoting:

1. Utilize the virtual coaching platforms available inside the classroom. (think Zoom in the Room). Use Zoom and Meet to cut down on feedback. Use breakout rooms in Zoom (or in Meet if you have the enterprise level account).
2. Use asynchronous groups. The example I like to share: if you have students record Flipgrids, assign them to a small group to watch a few others and refine their own thinking about a topic.
3. Use strengths-based grouping as often or more than deficit-based grouping. Self-reflections and/or learning profiles can help you determine strengths that we don’t often seek.
4. Use small groups to obtain data. This means two things: 1) anticipate the data you want to collect (think strengths and also misconceptions) 2) offer ample opportunities and ways for learners’ voices and contributions. (i.e I saw a great teacher ask a learner to share their screen and use their cursor to hover over the information they used to determine slope (math).)
5. Consider, 5–10 minutes with a small group may be better than 50 minutes looking at learners (or screens with cameras off) who may not feel safe to be vulnerable in a whole group (and their student voice/data is lost).

Small groups are about safety signals to the brain. This means small groups are about vulnerability and student voice. The bonus? The teacher(s) can collect data from these voices that can be used to design (differentiation)or co-design (personalized) instruction for all learners.