Empowering Small Group Instruction in Reading

Jennifer Serravallo is coming to Vermont!

Session Date: May 15, 2026
Time: 8:30 AM – 3:00 PM
Location: Stoweflake Mountain Resort and Spa, Stowe, VT
Cost: $295.00
Presenter: Jennifer Serravallo
Target Audience: Elementary and Middle Level
Includes: Full Breakfast and Lunch

****Regardless of your literacy curriculum or approach, you will be empowered to bring truly responsive small group teaching to your classroom — for better outcomes in both reading and writing****

Presentation Overview:

Join Jennifer Serravallo for a hands‑on, research-rich exploration of reading and writing instruction in small groups—drawing directly from her books Teaching Reading Across the Day and Teaching Writing in Small Groups. Learn how targeted, responsive instruction in both reading and writing accelerates student growth and builds transferable skills across disciplines. Research shows that when reading and writing instruction are closely integrated, students deepen skills in both areas. In classrooms where teachers engage with readers and writers in small groups, students benefit from scaffolding—and gain greater independence faster. Explore what it looks like to implement small group instruction through flexible grouping, formative assessment, and explicit strategy work.

Participants will:

  •  Understand how small‑group instruction supports readers and writers, especially with grade-level texts
  • Learn how to form small groups using assessment data together with skill progressions
  • Experience lesson structures and tips to support decoding, comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency
  •  Explore lesson structures and tips for scaffolding student writers with planning, organizing, elaborating, and improving conventions
  •  Practice planning, teaching, and adjusting responsive small groups in both reading and writing

 You will take away:

  • Methods for forming dynamic, flexible small groups for both reading and writing based on ongoing assessment
  • Tools for crafting explicit instruction that transitions students to independence
  • Ways to link reading strategy instruction and writing strategy instruction across the day
  • Structures for goal-driven instruction and progress monitoring in both areas
  • Creative ideas for integrating mentor texts, strategy charts, and skill progressions into small‑group teaching

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Bio

Jennifer Serravallo is the author of The New York Times‘ bestselling The Reading Strategies Book 2.0 and The Writing Strategies Book, which have been translated into Spanish, French, and Chinese. These and her other popular books and resources help teachers make goal-directed responsive strategy instruction, conferring, and small group work doable in every classroom. Her newest titles are The Reading Strategies Book 2.0Teaching Writing in Small Groups; A Teacher’s Guide to Reading Conferences, and the assessment and teaching resource Complete Comprehension for Fiction and Nonfiction.

Jen is a frequently invited speaker at national and regional conferences and travels throughout the US and Canada to provide full-day workshops and to work with teachers and students in classrooms. She is also an experienced online educator who regularly offers live webinar series and full-day online workshops.

Jen began her career in education as an NYC public school teacher. Now as a consultant, she has spent the last fifteen+ years helping teachers across the country create literacy classrooms where students are joyfully engaged, and the instruction is meaningfully individualized to students’ goals. Jen is also a member of Parents Magazine Board of Advisors for education and literacy.

Jen holds a BA from Vassar College and an MA from Teachers College, where she has also taught graduate and undergraduate classes.