Instructional Minute

Make sure your students hit their weekly Boost Reading targets; just 30 minutes a week can lead to remarkable gains in literacy growth.

Getting started is simple! Log in and you’ll find it’s intuitive and easy to guide your students through our user-friendly platform. If you need help while you are using the program(s), check out our help center.

We continue to focus on how using keywords in mathematics can be troublesome especially when students' advance through math. Many of you are familiar with the RACE strategy in writing, however, it can also be used in math word problems. Here are two examples of teachers (one fifth and one eighth grade) at Sheridan Road and an example of student work using this strategy to answer word problems.

Kindergarten Block Teams-Building Math and SEL Skills Through Purposeful Play

March 20, 2025 I 7:00-7:30PM ET

Are your block centers gathering dust, or have they become places where kids just knock things down? Learn how to transform them into hubs of learning and creativity! Join us for an interactive session where we'll explore how you can use block centers to teach math and social-emotional learning (SEL) through purposeful play. Inspired by NCTM's Building a Tower problem, you'll explore Block Teams- weekly activities where students engage in math practices and collaborate to design and build structures inspired by landmarks around the world. Open to all!

Sign Up Here!

Please note that this professional development opportunity is entirely optional, and additional hours will not be compensated.

Why Use Small Groups?

When facilitated and planned correctly, small groups allow teachers to differentiate instruction. Tailoring instruction to meet the needs of six students is often much easier than tailoring instruction to meet the needs of thirty-two students.

Responding to Assessment

If there is a wide range in performance on a skill, we use diagnostic data to differentiate Tier 1 instruction so that it is aligned with the needs of each student. It is not uncommon to teach most lessons in a whole-group setting; however, research indicates that small-group instruction allows for differentiation and equity, leading to better outcomes for all students. Differentiating Tier 1 instruction of essential skills through flexible, skill-based grouping allows teachers to provide their students with exactly what the data indicate the students need.

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How to implement small group instruction

Okay! Now you know the what, the why, the when… What about the how?

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Step One: Assess students to determine their needs. This is sometimes referred to as a diagnostic assessment, where students’ skill gaps, as well as their strengths, are itemized, making it easy to differentiate based on them. Common assessments, NWEA data, and formative assessments are all opportunities to gather data for grouping.

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Step Two: Group students according to their needs. Depending on the lesson objective, you can also use this as an opportunity to further accelerate students by grouping them according to their strengths.

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Step Three: Plan whole-group lessons, identifying opportunities for small chunks of small group instruction. Or plan for small group instruction during whole-class strategic independent reading time.

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Step Four: Teach small group lessons, focusing on getting to know the students in the small groups as learners. Include some time for specific direct instruction connected to the skill you grouped students based on, followed by lots of practice and time for feedback.

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Step Five: Reassess to gauge progress and regroup accordingly.

See it in action in the video below!

Use this chart attached during planning to help you determine how to best incorporate Small Groups into your lessons.

Important Small Group Questions to Ask:

• How much time do you typically dedicate to small group instruction?

• What types of activities or tasks do you use during small group work?

• How do you ensure all students within the group are actively participating?

• What strategies do you have in place for managing the rest of the class while working with a small group?

• How do you decide which students will work in each small group?

• Do you vary your grouping strategies based on the learning objective?

• How often do you regroup students?

“The Power of Small Group Instruction for Middle and High School Readers.” Storyshares.org, 2024, www.storyshares.org/blog/the-power-of-small-group-instruction-for-middle-and-high-school-readers.

Hampton, Lindsey. “How to Modernize and Reimagine K-12 Small Group Instruction.” Learning-Focused, 15 May 2024, learningfocused.com/how-to-modernize-and-reimagine-k-12-small-group-instruction/

Seydel, Lindsay. “Rethinking How We Teach Literacy in Tier 1: Targeted, Small-Group Instruction.” Iowa Reading Research Center - the University of Iowa, 2024, irrc.education.uiowa.edu/2024/04/rethinking-how-we-teach-literacy-tier-1-targeted-small-group-instruction.

Create custom targeted question sets to improve instruction. This resource has thousands of real test questions, allows the user to filter questions, and then export into a PDF if needed. Follow the link below for access!

SAT, PSAT 8/9, PSAT 10 Educator Question Bank

Often when we encounter the word "literacy", our minds go directly to reading a book. While this is one element of literacy, there are many other elements, including speaking and listening. Academic talk is essential to supporting students' engagement with and mastery of course content. But how often do we intentionally plan scaffolds for academic talk? Check out this short video from Edutopia for practical suggestions that can be used in ANY secondary class!

Click on the above title to view the evaluation documents for staff!

Below you can find the new, updated required instructional minutes by grade level and content area. Each grade level also includes a sample schedule.

Teachers are encouraged to monitor student progress regularly using formative assessments and adjust pacing as needed based on classroom data. However, teachers should aim to stay within two weeks of the pacing outlined in the guides to maintain alignment with district-wide goals. While we do not adjust pacing for snow days, the pacing is a guide and the expectation is to stay within the established two-week time frame.

The documents attached outline K-8 curricular resources, standards and pacing. This can also be found by clicking here on the LSD website.

The document attached outlines 9-12 curricular resources, standards and pacing. This can also be found by clicking here on the LSD website.

A resource to use as you see fit.