STEPS Small Group Lesson Plan Form
Date: ________________
Students: ________________________________________
LEARNING OBJECTIVE:________________________________________________________
Standard Addressed:___________________________________________________________
Lesson Rationale:
Include data to explain
why you chose this group
and this learning
objective.
Set-up
Explain why you chose
these students and this
lesson. Brief overview of
the learning objective and
lesson components.
3-5 minutes
Teach
Model and teach the
literacy strategy. Be
explicit and brief.
3 minutes
Engage
Teacher-guided practice
with scaffolding as
needed.
3 minutes
Practice
Extended practice of
strategy. Teacher
becomes coach as
students work to practice.
Can be independent,
partner, or group work.
15-20 minutes
Show you know
Quick check of strategy
mastery.
3-5 minutes
S – Set up for Learning (The Warm-Up) 3-5 min
Begin your lesson by explaining why you created this group. What did you see in student work or in class that
helped you choose these students and this learning strategy to teach or re-teach? Think about positive framing;
students in secondary are aware of being pulled for remediation means, and they may have some ideas or
hesitations around being called for groups, so explain the purpose for this group in a positive way.
Briefly share your group expectations/norms (no more than 4-5). This will be a short group lesson, but you
should still have expectations for students.
T – Teach (I Do – Teacher Voice is Dominant) 3-5 min
In this step the teacher explicitly teaches the literacy strategy through explanation, modeling, showing and
telling. Students will hear you say, “Today we will learn…” “Watch me. Listen.” “My turn.”
Ideas:
●
●
●
●
●
Use a white board to model filling in a graphic organizer
Point to and teach how to segment a word into parts for a morphology lesson
Demonstrate decoding of words and syllabication
Pre-teach the meanings of vocabulary words for an upcoming whole group text
Demonstrate a comprehension strategy
E – Engage (We Do – Teacher and Student voices together) 3-5 min
With your support, students engage with, and briefly practice the strategy just taught to them. This gives the
teacher an indication of whether the students need more instruction before the next lesson step.
Ideas:
● Students practice the strategy with one word or section of text.
● The teacher provides corrective feedback and scaffolds (breaks down) the process, stepping back
to allow students to work independently, or stepping in to correct misconceptions, as needed.
P – Practice (You Do & We Do – Student voice with Teacher voice when needed for correction, praise,
reteaching) 15-20 min
In this step, students practice the concept just taught multiple times or with multiple sections of a text. The
teacher guides students to apply what they have learned, providing more instruction, corrective feedback, and
specific praise - but in the role of facilitator rather than direct teacher.
S – Show you Know (Assess learning) Quick 3-5 min
During this closing step, students are asked to demonstrate their learning. Teachers want to know, “Did the
students master this skill?” Teachers keep data on student performance to help them plan future lessons.
Taught and guided… your small group lessons will become easier to plan and teach when you use a framework
in which you TEACH and students PRACTICE (a lot!) the skills you teach.
Adapted from: https://achievethecore.org/aligned/planning-small-group-reading-lesson/