The Case Against Small Group Instruction
“When students are stuck at the back table year after year, it’s no longer support. It’s a message that we don’t believe they’ll ever catch up.
Maybe it’s time we teach them like they can.”
Ok. I have your attention! Before you pull out the pitchforks and storm my castle, read on. My intent is not to at all to say, “small groups bad.” This post is designed to share some thoughts and help teachers reflect on their targeted small groups and consider ways to improve equitable access to grade-level content for ALL students in the classroom.
Why do we do small groups?
Small group instruction was never designed to become the main event in the classroom and planning for instruction should not start with planning for small groups. Small group instruction is most effective as a supplement, not a substitute for core classroom instruction. When used effectively, small groups are responsive, temporary, and tied directly to the day’s core learning. Small groups should be flexible, data-driven, and meant to help struggling students gain access to the same high-level thinking and tasks as all other students. See, “small groups good!”
What is the problem?
The problem I see is that many teachers TTBOWTBW* with Tier 1 instruction in the attempt to create equitable learning for all. The truth is, Tier 1, whole class instruction, should sit prominently in the lesson plan book, followed by planning for kidney table intervention at Tier 2.
What I have seen far too often is this: small groups have become permanent tracks, especially for struggling learners. Kids are pulled out of whole-class instruction and given repetitive, below-grade-level tasks that don’t challenge them or connect to the lesson the rest of the class is doing. And once they’re there, they rarely get the chance to leave. The back table becomes an anchor on student learning.
That’s not equity. It’s a ceiling.
Is Small Group Instruction Tier 1 or Tier 2?
This is an important (and often confused) question. The short answer is, “Yes.” Depending on the purpose and makeup of the small groups, they can serve either instructional role. To add clarity, let me share some examples below:
Small Group Instruction as Tier 1:
• Work with students using manipulatives to help them visualize a complicated problem
• Time for extra modeling of concepts taught to the larger group
• Language support for EL students who are working on the whole class activity
Small Group Instruction as Tier 2:
• A group of students receives 30 minutes of phonics instruction outside of core reading time
• Students who need more support with multiplication facts as evidenced by struggles during a multi-digit multiplication lesson
• Select students who need more instruction on paragraph organization after identifying needs on a recent writing performance task
Why should Tier 1 focus increase?
Remember that Tier 1 is the only tier guaranteed for ALL kids. If a student’s best shot at accessing grade-level content is during whole-class instruction, we better make sure that part is strong, engaging, and built to include everyone. Small groups can absolutely support this goal, but they shouldn’t be the main strategy we rely on.
What Does the Research Say About All of This?
1. Equity Actually Begins with Tier 1 Instruction
Most students, especially those from marginalized groups, spend most of their day on content that is below grade level. It’s not usually because they can’t handle grade level expectations but because they are rarely given an opportunity to engage with rigor. Somewhere, along the way, we started confusing small group support with simplification. Real equity means that Tier 1 instruction is built to include everyone. It means designing whole-class lessons that are high-quality and intentionally structured to support access for ALL.
2. Small Group Instruction Often Reinforces Low Expectations
Educators sometimes get caught in the trap of “social conditioning of low expectations” when Tier 2 small group instruction becomes too prominent in the instructional day. Many classroom teachers hold a genuine belief that widespread small group instruction is needed because so many of their students are “low.” Research, however, shows that when groups are created by “general ability,” we cement the opportunity gaps.
A reflection opportunity for classroom teachers is to look back at the prior school years and identify the number of students who were struggling in small groups at the beginning AND still sitting in those same groups at the end. Even worse, how many of those same students were in similar groups the year before? Students sitting in remedial small groups for two years consecutively are so much more likely to never be on grade level.
Small groups should be temporary, flexible, and deeply connected to on-grade-level learning. When small groups are the main instructional experience, we severely limit student growth.
3. Focusing on High-Quality Tier 1 Improves Outcomes
The key is to scaffold and support struggling students with grade level content long before moving them to Tier 2 small groups. Outcomes increase when struggling students are allowed to “stay in the big game” with the entire class. In fact, research shows that students with academic difficulties make greater progress when they receive strong, explicit whole-class instruction paired with scaffolds and supports (which can include small groups).
Instead of rushing out of Tier 1, we should be asking: “What would it take to help this student succeed right here in the core lesson?”
4. Misuse of Small Groups Creates the Illusion of Differentiation, But Not the Results
Most students pulled to the kidney table for reteaching and support are often offered watered-down, below-grade-level instruction. This is especially true when small groups focus more on low-level skills and procedural practice instead of helping students access the core learning.
True differentiation keeps the bar high and changes the path, not the goal. If small groups aren’t strategically designed to build toward grade-level understanding, we are not grouping. We are tracking.
So Now What?
If you’re serious about equity, start with Tier 1. Look at your lesson plans this week. Are you building in enough time, energy, and intentionality for whole-class instruction that challenges and includes every learner? Are your small groups used as a strategic support, or have they quietly taken over the main instructional role?
Challenge yourself to teach like every student deserves to be at the larger table, because they do.
The question shouldn’t be, “Who needs to be pulled out?” The question should be, “How can I keep them in?”
“You can’t intervene your way out of poor instruction.
If Tier 1 is broken, no amount of Tier 2 or Tier 3 will fix it.”
*(Throw The Baby Out with the Bath Water)
Note: I wrote this blog post after seeing an X post about a book by Zach Groshell, Ph.D. called Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching and it got me thinking about direct instruction and small groups. I’m looking forward to reading the book!