The Extraordinary Educators Podcast
Best practices, tips, and stories to help you be extraordinary in your classroom and beyond, featuring Curriculum Associates' Manager, Voice of the Customer, Hayley Browning.
The Extraordinary Educators Podcast
Small Group Instruction in the Math Classroom with Natalie Banks
Today we sit down with third-grade teacher Natalie Banks to unpack a simple, powerful framework: courage to try small-group instruction, clarity to guide learning with posted intentions and success criteria, and connection to build a community where every student’s voice matters.
Natalie explains how she restructured her time, used data to form flexible groups, and leaned on ready-made materials to keep planning realistic. She paints a a picture of rotations that work: a teacher table using manipulatives to deepen understanding, an independent station with targeted practice, and partner activities to reinforce strategies. Along the way, we dig into the routines that keep everything smooth, ranging from explicit transitions, to shared norms for math talk, and quick checks that make progress visible.
Curriculum Associates, an education technology company and the makers of iReady, presents the Extraordinary Educators Podcast. Join host Haley Browning to hear tips, best practices, and successes to improve your teaching and leadership and drive student growth and learning. We believe all educators are extraordinary and we are here to support you. Hi everyone, welcome to today's episode of the Extraordinary Educators Podcast. Today I am joined by Natalie Banks, and Natalie joins us to talk all about how important it is to incorporate and encourage students to use their voices in the mathematics classroom. Now, this looks like utilizing small groups, giving students clarity on what is expected from them during each and every lesson, and incorporating community and connection pretty consistently across the board. In this episode, Natalie dives into specifics, including how she felt about making the switch to small group math instruction, and also she shares some tips for those that are listening to get small group math instruction into their own classrooms. And so with that, we hope you enjoyed today's episode with Natalie. Hi Natalie, welcome to today's episode of the Extraordinary Educators Podcast.
SPEAKER_01:Hi, thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we're so happy to have you on today. And Natalie, you wrote just an incredible blog that we'll make sure to put in the show notes for our listeners all about this idea of giving every student a voice, specifically in the mathematics classroom. So we're going to talk about that today. But before we really dive in, Natalie, I wanted to give you a chance to introduce yourself and talk a little bit about how you got to where you are today.
SPEAKER_01:So my name is Natalie Banks. I am starting my 16th year of education. I'm a mama of two. I have a five-year-old and a two-year-old at home. So I also have a work-life balance there of being a teacher and a mom. Um, I've taught first grade for my student teaching, and then I taught fifth grade for 10 years. And now I've moved to third grade for the last six years now of my education.
SPEAKER_00:Wow. So you've been a little bit all over the place. Um how are you feeling about third grade so far?
SPEAKER_01:You know, I love it. They're young enough that they still like to do fun things and they really like me and not too old enough that they're not too cool for their teacher, you know. So that's very fair, yeah. It's a good, it's like right in the middle, perfect age. So perfect balance.
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SPEAKER_00:All right. Well, with that, Natalie, I think it's time for us to dive into some questions for today. So in your blog, you kind of talked about these three main pillars that backed up your work in your mathematics classroom. So this idea of courage and this idea of clarity, and then also connection. So to kind of kick things off, I thought we could dive into the idea of courage first. So when you were thinking about courage and talking about courage, you were going at it from the angle of trying something new, specifically thinking about small group instruction. And this in and of itself can be kind of daunting for teachers that maybe don't use it in their classrooms pretty consistently, and also specifically in a math classroom. Small group instruction happens quite often in ELA classrooms, but math can be a whole different kind of beast for lack of a better term. So, with that, I was wondering if you could talk about how you were feeling at first thinking about incorporating small group instruction.
SPEAKER_01:Well, anytime you try something new, it can be a little challenging in your classroom as far as having to take the time to plan it and get it organized and figure out how do I want to structure my block of time that I'm allotted to teach my students math. So that's always the first hurdle that you have to tackle is organizing and structuring your block. And then you have to go and find resources that you would like to use with your students that target the areas that they are needing to really strengthen and pulling the data and figuring out which kids need to be in which group. So it's a lot of puzzle pieces coming together to make it all work. So those are the my main two challenges. Um, and I'm actually, I was just in a meeting today planning some small group instruction with some other teachers. So it it takes a lot of different minds to, I feel like, to come together to help make it successful as well.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it sounds like puzzle pieces not just in your own classroom, but you're pulling in puzzle pieces and collaborating with other teachers and really just building this, you know, a thousand piece puzzle, trying to support your students as best as you can. Um that's all really, really great. And so I'm curious if if I were to walk into your classroom today, during your small group time, could you describe to me what it would look like? Maybe what one station is doing, what you're doing directly with your students, what would I see?
SPEAKER_01:If you walked into my classroom today, you would see a small group of students working at me with my small group instruction table, and we would be using manipulatives to review concepts. We would be applying our strategies that we've been learning to a task with me. I would also have students who have maybe already um learned that skill and have it down pretty good. They would be either independently working or working with partners, playing some sort of game, um, working on their iReady um personalized pathway on their iPad too. Or sometimes they're doing an independent practice page out of their workbook too. So we have kids independently working, working with partners, or working with me at my small group table.
SPEAKER_00:I'm getting the puzzle pieces.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:There there definitely are a lot of moving parts, it sounds like.
SPEAKER_01:And teaching the kids too, how to transition between whole group instruction to your small group instruction and then back to a different activity or subject. Um, that's also something that we have to work on a lot.
SPEAKER_00:Right. So kind of setting those expectations up front and then reinforcing and reminding of the expectations. Is that what I'm hearing? Yes. Yep. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And it's clear that you're putting a lot of time into this. So, number one, hats off to you for supporting your students in such an incredible way. Um yeah, of course. And then with that, I wanted to dive in also to this idea of clarity. So you talk about making math talk stick, and I think there's a lot of power behind this, specifically thinking about like setting clear expectations or specifically learning intentions and success criteria. So, could you talk a little bit about how you incorporate maybe success criteria and learning intentions into your day-to-day in your mathematics classroom?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so I try to have them posted for the students so that they can refer back to them. But I usually start my lesson with communicating with them what our um success criteria and learning intentions are for each day. So, what are we going to learn? How are we going to learn it? And how will I know that I've learned it for each math lesson that we do? So that students kind of give them a pathway of what they need, where they know they need to start and where they know they need to end with what they're learning.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's really powerful. And it kind of gives them a clear expectation of what they need to walk away with to be able to show how they were successful that day. And I really like how you said that you post it so that the students can refer back to it. Like it's not just a one and done, like you're gonna say it at the beginning and then hope that it sticks. But the fact that you have it posted and have it for the students to be able to refer to on their own kind of reinforces the work that you're doing. Um, so that's a really great practice there for our listeners. And with that, you also had talked about this idea of connection. And as I was reading your blog, I thought it was really, really powerful how you talk about this incredible community of students that you have and how that's really kind of trickled into your mathematics classroom and how you've built this incredible sense of community. And so I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about how you incorporate connection and community in your day-to-day and maybe some of the benefits that you've seen from building out this just great space that you've built.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think what really helps is we I have my math block right at the start of the day. And I always begin my day with a morning meeting with my class that we greet each other. We usually have some sort of share question where they get to either share something that's going on in their life or about how they're feeling or something exciting coming up. And then we usually do some sort of community-building activity. I could be academic, but most of the time I just try to make it fun. And that helps kind of set the tone for the day so that they're working together already. And then we go into our math block and we do a lot of partner turn and share. We they get up and they talk to other people during the lesson. I have lots of opportunities for them to talk and respond to each other so that they are constantly connecting with each other during our lesson and building that community so that they know that they're not alone in their learning. They have me, they have their group that they're sitting with, they have their partners, and they have their other peers in the room that they're constantly working with to build their math skills.
SPEAKER_00:Wow. That sounds like an incredible math block that you have. And I love that you were so purposeful and are so purposeful about setting aside time to start with such an incredible community-building piece. And that way, like you said, like it truly sets the tone for just a more solid, smooth transition into math. Um, and then also the fact that you're reinforcing these kind of community pieces and conversations that you've built in the beginning of the day with, you know, your turn and talks and the opportunities for them to get up and talk to other students across the room. It really is just a great way to continue to build community even beyond your initial kind of community block set aside in the morning. You're kind of trickling it in throughout the day.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:It's really, really powerful. And with that, I wanted to leave our listeners with just potentially one quick tip that you may have for teachers that are kind of starting to think about how maybe they want to incorporate some of these small group pieces into their math classroom or how they can update their math classroom in their day-to-day. Do you have any advice of maybe where to start?
SPEAKER_01:I would start small and then grow from there. So pick one small group of students that you really want to target with and use what's already there. Don't go out and try to create things. I ready has a lot of centers and tools for instruction and previous lessons that you can pull from and fluency pages that I use so that I'm not spending a lot of my time researching and creating centers and activities that my kids can do during these small groups when it's already made there for you. So pick a small group of students to target with, use what's already there, and then grow from that. That'd be my tip. That's perfect.
SPEAKER_00:And with that, Natalie, I'm gonna go ahead and wrap us up for today. Thank you so much for your time, and we are so happy to have you on. Thank you. I appreciate it. Get inspired by following us on social and please tag us in your posts on X at Curriculum Association and on Instagram at MyReady. If you have feedback about the podcast, a topic of interest, or want to be a guest, email extraordinaryeducators at caink.com. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you'd like to help more educators like you join the conversation, please leave us a review. Remember, be you, be true, be extraordinary. The Extraordinary Educators Podcast is produced by Curriculum Associates. Curriculum Associates believes that with the right supports, all children can reach grade level. We provide evidence-based high-quality instructional materials and world-class implementation services to classrooms across the United States. Editing completed by Shane Lowe, social media by At City Hannon, guestbooking and production by Haley Browning. This podcast is copyrighted materials and intellectual property of curriculum associates.