Small groups are a crucial element of every teacher's reading program, and their importance only grows as teachers work with more diverse learners. Spotlight on small groups gives viewers an in-depth look at two reading groups led by master teacher and author Debbie Diller. Debbie leads the groups through a structured routine (introduction, guided practice, conferring, check-in, and more practice), demonstrating how to balance whole-group and differentiated...

In Academic literacy viewers get a glimpse into Robin Turner's classroom, where many students are the first in their families to attend high school, let alone college. Robin employs careful, systematic and rigorous methods to help students acquire the literacy skills they need to succeed in even the most elite college programs. These methods include the use of short, sophisticated texts; practice in academic writing genres; ongoing guided discussion;...

With the advent of RTI (Response to Intervention), teachers everywhere are spending part of their day teaching in small groups. In Think small!, master teacher and author Debbie Diller plans and teaches various small-group lessons with students at different reading levels while the rest of the class works independently at literacy work stations. Teachers learn how to form groups, organize for small-group instruction, choose books, write lesson plans,...