How to Manage Different Ability Levels in a First Grade Classroom

How do you manage what every first grade classroom has which is a huge variety of ability levels. What's a good balance between whole group and small group and how do you tackle that? Don't give up on your phonics program even if you have some students who seem to be struggling just make sure that they are participating, trying to do the routines with the class and then scaffolding as needed I try in a lot of the resources that I make to show how to scaffold.