To help you support students during this challenging time, we’ve provided guidance on how to deliver small-group instruction in a remote setting. While this cannot replace the enriched learning experience of a classroom, delivering small-group instruction remotely gives students a chance to interact with their teacher and peers and continue practicing critical literacy skills.
This video shows a small group instructor practicing words with her group that begin with the same sound:
This video shows how the small group instructor navigates the controls on her remote learning platform, while viewing the lesson and the slide deck at the same time to deliver the activity:
- Choose a remote learning platform that lets you see all students in your group (e.g., Zoom*, Google Meet*)
- Decide how you will view your lesson and show students supplemental resources (e.g., picture or word cards) at the same time.
- If you have one device:
- Download your lesson and any supplemental resources on your laptop, or
- Download and print the lesson and have the supplemental resources on your laptop.
- If you have two devices: download the lesson on one device and have the supplemental resources on another device.
- If you have one device:
- Prepare for your lesson and review the materials you need for the activity.
- Here are some ideas of how you can deliver the activities remotely, without printing supplemental resources for each student.
| Materials needed | Alternatives |
| A whiteboard | Use Google slides to write out words or phrases. |
| Manipulatives | Ask students to gather 5-7 of the same household items they can easily access (e.g., beans, macaroni, toy cars, legos). |
| Picture cards, word cards, and number cards | Take screenshots of each picture card and add one per slide to a Google slide deck, type one word or number per slide in the largest font possible, or print the cards and hold them up. |
| Graphic organizer | Students can draw the graphic organizers on paper, or you can recreate graphic organizers using Google slides. Make a copy of each slide for each student and ask students to type their answer onto their slide. |
| Passages | Email the passage to parents or project it onto your screen. |
- For all other lesson materials, use your professional judgment on how to find replacements for the items you typically use in small-group lessons.
- Let parents/guardians know you would like to continue developing students’ reading skills remotely (see example email here).
- Work with parents/guardians to set up a recurring virtual meeting with each small group.
- Deliver your first lesson.
- Spend the first 10 minutes making sure students are comfortable with the remote learning platform.
- Spend the rest of the time teaching.
* These instructions involve the use of third-party video conferencing software. Please follow your own institution’s guidelines on the selection and use of such tools.