During Personalized Small Group Instruction, I work closely with a small group of students while other students are engaging in activities independently at different stations. Based on my learning objective, I group my students differently for Small Group Instruction every day. Sometimes students are grouped homogeneously, according to specific needs, and sometimes they are grouped heterogeneously. This strategy, which is enabled by my station rotation blended model, allows me to spend individual time with each student on a regular basis.
The grouping algorithm employed by School of One assigns students a new lesson every day based on the student's most current learning needs. The algorithm actually learns the students' needs from the previous day's exit ticket. One of the learning styles or lesson types, Live Investigation, assigns students to me who are ready for whatever the assigned skill is. However, within that group, there are still varying levels of ability. I can see all of this on my data report and then I can group within my group. I call this micro-grouping.
My colleagues and I use a variety of hand signals in our classroom to avoid unnecessary disruptions and maintain focus and time on task. Three common hand signals: a signal to use bathroom; a signal for needing scrap paper; and a signal for asking a presenter to speak louder. We introduce all of the hand signals to students at the beginning of the year in a community-wide Town Hall Meeting.