What is the Point of Flexible Groups?

Jennifer Partrick
Apr 06, 2009

The point of flexible groups is to teach students how to read by giving them the opportunity to practice their reading skills. Because students in your room are at different stages in reading, students should be homogeneously grouped according to their reading level for this portion of instruction. The teacher may model different aspects of reading, but during this time the students are doing most of the reading.

The lesson should be structured so that success is always the outcome. The lesson has three parts: word work, reading, and writing. Each part is essential and has its purpose. Begin with word work to introduce your students to the types of words they will be reading. If students are reading word family books, introduce them to the word family they will encounter in the book, so that the students understand how that word family works. They write the words, read them to their partner, and play a simple game with the words, so that the students are familiar with them. In addition, review high frequency words, and introduce any new high frequency words students will be reading in the book. In this section the students practice and build the types of words they will be reading.

The next section is reading. Here the students will read books in which the types of words they just learned are used, as opposed to working with random words. Naturally, as students read, they always focus on comprehension and use a graphic organizer that supports the structure of the text they are reading. Focus on a comprehension strategy, and as students read, they stop to summarize and place appropriate information on the graphic organizer. Students are also talking about what they are reading and answering questions that support the comprehension strategy. For example, if the students are using a sequence graphic organizer, they are answering questions about what happened after or before a certain event, predicting what they think would most likely happen next, what happened first, after that, in the beginning, or at the end. Thus, students have the opportunity to practice using sequence signal words in context.

After reading, students use the graphic organizer they completed in reading as a writing tool. As they write about what they read, they use relevant vocabulary in addition to the words they learned to build.

Students have interacted with the words they learned to build in three different ways, they learned how to build them, they read them, and they used them to write. When all three sections are utilized in flexible groups, reading is always the outcome. If students are exposed to this type of lesson in Kindergarten-2nd grade, then students begin 3rd grade as proficient readers. By grouping your students homogeneously, you are able to give direct instruction focused on areas where students have weaknesses. Students receive explicit instruction that supports them and gives them the tools they need in order to move to the next reading stage.

Refer to Learning to Read K-2 for more information on Flexible Groups.