Often, I begin a lesson whole group. I usually have my students seated strategically in pairs. I give each student a role when I assign them to turn and talk to their partner.

Later in the lesson, I have practice time on the skill. I will invite some students to come work with me at a table while others can continue to work with their partner.

It is important that there is some data on specifics of the students’ needs. After a lesson, working with the students in small group to focus on those skills that the student might be lacking. I have used peer tutoring and also school purchased tutoring programs to reinforce the knowledge needed to be successful.

One of the easiest strategies is to differentiate number sets. I tell teachers to think about the goal, is the focus content or computation?
You have to teach the standards, for example 2nd grade will add and subtract within 1,000. But you can work on adding and subtracting while students work with numbers within 20, 100, 1,000 or above.
This allows all students to have access to the content while allowing them to work at their independent levels.

When I was a classroom teacher, (I'm a math interventionist now so I teach exclusively in small groups), I would teach the concept whole group and then spend the next couple of days that we are working on that standard in small group instruction, challenging kids who understand and who are beyond, and backing up a few steps for students who need it. Once I started this, I saw so much growth in my students!

I begin with whole group instruction to teach math. I try to review skills that they had in their previous grade level to see how well they know it, then I introduce new skills for 2nd grade. After teaching whole group, I may have students show me some of their work. This allows me to see who needs extra support. I am also able to see how many groups of students I need to pull.