Self-contained classrooms thrive on centers! Working with my students in small groups or (or individually) gives me a chance to target exactly what they need to work on. However, there are times when I like working with my class in a whole group setting as well! Read on for examples of what I like to teach in whole groups versus in the small group setting.
Whole Group Activities
Whole group lessons are great for helping expose students to topics. Many of our special education students have a hard time paying attention and participating when they are in whole-class groups. Therefore, the activities I do in whole group settings are things that are more “low stakes” than their core subject areas. That way, I can focus on exposing students to these topics and not have to worry about mastery. (Of course, deficits in skill can be addressed later during small group or individualized instruction!)
Science and Social Studies
I teach my science and social studies lessons to my class as a whole. For my class, these subjects are not graded, but meant to offer my students exposure to grade level standards. Teaching it to the whole group allows me to efficiently run my lessons. Another reason I do these subjects as a whole group is that it allows me to teach them whole one of our classroom paraprofessionals is at lunch. It is difficult to do small groups while we are one person down!
Read Aloud
I have always enjoyed reading novels to my class, and there are many benefits to this practice! Reading grade-level novels exposes students to what other kids in their grade are reading. Also, is a great way to model fluency, close reading, and other literacy skills. Doing this daily practice with my whole group is a great way to spark discussions in the classroom!
Social Skills and Life Skills
When I do social skills and life skills activities with my class, I have found that it is really handy to model these task with the whole group. For example, if we are practicing turn-taking social skills, I will start by reading a social story to the whole class, Then, we will practice taking turn by playing a board game all together. Later, the skill will be reinforced in pairs or small groups.
Small Groups
In self-contained classrooms, our students are usually have a wide variety of abilities. Small groups that are part of the center rotations in the classroom are ideal for targeting skills at students’ levels! These are some of the areas I prefer to target during small groups:
Math and Reading
Math and reading are the core subject areas in my classroom. Therefore, it is important to teach students in small groups based on their needs! Doing this allows me to target each student’s exact needs, which would be difficult to do in a whole group setting.
Writing Groups
I like to complete writing activities in levelled groups. The students in my class tend to have such a wide range of writing ability – from beginning letter formation to paragraph writing- that it just makes sense to level them for instruction.
Progress Monitoring
I always do progress monitoring of IEP goals individually so that I can see exactly what students are able to accomplish. Using each student’s IEP goal bin, I am able to take data on how they are progressing towards their goals!
Learn more about using IEP goal bins for progress monitoring here!
When planning my lessons, I always try to remember that the whole group exposes and the small group targets. This helps me make sure that my students are getting the most out of their lessons throughout the day!
What sorts of whole- and small-group activities do you do with your special education students? I would love to hear examples of how you break things up with your class!
