Organizing Classrooms for Small-Group Instruction: Learning for Mastery

Here is an antidote to the stifling academic grind brought on by accountability testing. It demonstrates how mastery of skills can be a joy rather than a chore and describes in detail a highly successful program of structured skill-mastery centers that engage students independently while the teacher works closely with a small group. This system of managing the classroom helps the teacher provide materials that match the many achievement levels of children in the classroom. Typically in use for 60-90 minutes in a school day, up to four days a week, the system works well with the whole language or the guided practice approaches to reading. The program, developed by Carolyn Lawrence, is being used successfully throughout 63 elementary schools in one Florida school district. Many of the schools are nationally recognized for their achievement in test scores. The ideas in this book are simple, clear, and ready to use to bring back excitement, freedom, and smiles to children in their classroom life. Students are eager to get to the skill practice work in the mastery centers, largely because they get to use a variety of manipulative materials matched to their levels. These materials are inexpensive, readily available and described in the book. This book will be of interest to professors of education, superintendents, curriculum and instruction educators, principals, teachers, and parents.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 A Centers Approach to Small-Group Instruction Chapter 2 Why Mastery Centers? Chapter 3 The Research Basis for Mastery Centers Chapter 4 Basic Organization for Mastery Centers Chapter 5 Eight Centers: Objectives, Content, and Processes Chapter 6 Starting Mastery Centers Chapter 7 Resources for Mastery Centers Chapter 8 Mastery Centers and Professional Intelligence: Research in One School Chapter 9 Manipulative Materials in the Tutoring Process Part 10 Epilogue: Observations of Centers 20 Years Later

About the Author :
Carolyn M. Lawrence, formerly a reading supervisor and principal, is a teacher and consultant. Gordon Lawrence, a consultant, began working in public education as a social studies teacher. Linda S. Samek, formerly a nurse, has been a public school teacher for 26 years.

Review :
This concise book is packed with ideas and resources that engage students on their own learning levels. And it gives clear and detailed plans for setting up and managing their diverse work. A refreshing antidote to the usual tedium of practicing basic skills. As a principal, I implemented this program and it was an outstanding success. I give the first edition of this book to the beginning teachers at all 47 of our elementary schools each year as resource guide for organizing classrooms for instruction. How does one organize his or her class to meet different difficulty levels and enable students to work to mastery? How does one keep youngsters on task to mastery and do it at different learning levels?....[Organizing Classrooms for Small-Group Instruction] tells how in specific detail!....If you are a teacher or a principal looking for some ideas and techniques for helping your own students, I believe you will find this book a definite asset. Three American educators and consultants present a classroom model that teachers can use to organize their classes to meet the varied skill levels of all their students. Open the door to a classroom using the ideas in this book and you will see it buzzing with energy for learning - children working with enthusiasm to master skills that match their instructional level. This system is a breakthrough.