Whole-group and small-group instruction are essential parts of a literacy block in an elementary classroom. Time with the whole class allows the teacher to deliver core instruction to all students. Time in small groups allows the teacher to differentiate instruction to better support each student. Small-group time is also an effective way to provide targeted intervention for students who need extra support in foundational literacy skills.
Hannah Irion-Frake is a literacy coach and interventionist and former public-school teacher with more than 16 years of teaching experience in second and third grades. She is a graduate of Bucknell University, Bloomsburg University, and the University of Massachusetts Lowell with master’s degrees in both reading and curriculum and instruction. She is a Local LETRS Facilitator and committed to spreading awareness about the science of reading. She shares actively about how she brought Structured Literacy practices into her own third grade classroom and with her individual students as an interventionist on her Instagram account @readingwithmrsif and on Twitter @readingwithmsif.