I am starting a reading group of 26 high students this week. I want to be able to read with groups of 8, but not sure what to have the other students doing. It's only 20-25 minutes, so it can't be something I have to explain to them. Any ideas?
i've never taught in your kind of situation before, so feel free to disregard if this is totally impractical... Or tweak if you think it can work: Are you teaching 5 days a week? If so, can the first day of the week be a whole group lesson, including instruction in whatever projects that the kids will be working on independently. Have the kids get started on Monday on the work related to the concept of the week... and you can supervise during this first day? Then the rest of the week can be independent work while you pull groups to work/read with you? How about a Daily Five set up? I don't know much about it but from what others have said on this site, it really builds independence in the children and frees you up to work with kids individually when necessary....
