Strategies for Focus Groups

One tech­nique for more eas­ily address­ing the var­ied needs of a large group of stu­dents is to cre­ate smaller focus groups. Groups can be formed based on skill needs, topic inter­ests, or prod­uct. Here are a few tips for mak­ing the most of your small focus groups:

• Form groups based on pre-​​assessment results
• Re-​​form groups fre­quently as needs change
• Meet with each group at least once per week
• Set goals for each group and share them with students
• Don’t be afraid to go dif­fer­ent direc­tions with dif­fer­ent groups
• Plan tiered or dif­fer­en­ti­ated assign­ments and cen­ters for inde­pen­dent work times
• Use repeat­able assign­ment tem­plates to min­i­mize prepa­ra­tion time