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Content area : All

Age level: Any

Use: This allows students to sit where they choose. The idea is to decrease the amount of time students are sitting completely still (allow for sensory input) & encourage them to choose an environment conducive to learning.

Focus: Community, comfort, choice

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Here is what flexible seating looks like in a classroom.

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Flexible Seating Pros and Cons in Upper Elementary

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Steps for getting started with Flexible Seating if you are trying to transition to this from a traditional classroom set up.

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"If we truly want to prepare our students for the real world, we need to put them in responsive, dynamic environments that reflect life outside of a traditional classroom. And what's that life outside like? Full of choices, where adults are responsible for their own learning. As a college student visiting my classroom once said, "It's like you're treating them like little adults." And as my teaching has changed, my classroom design needed to change right along with it."

- Kayla Delzer, Why Flexible Seating?

There are many reasons you might want to start using flexible seating in your room. They could range from giving your students more choice to letting your students move more throughout the day. You may have read the research and decided it's something you were ready to try. Now that you've made that decision, you are probably starting to feel the stress and overwhelmedness ( yes it's so bad that I created a word for it) that comes with changing your classroom and really your entire teaching style.

How do I get started?

What do I keep and what do I move out?

What about classroom supplies?

What happens if I have a sub?

Sound familiar? All of these questions swirling in your head are perfectly normal. Changing your entire room is a big deal. In this post I want to try and help you start on your flexible seating journey. I will walk you through the steps you need to take to be successful in using alternative seating options in your classroom.

Let's dive in.

1. Get a vision in place for your room.

After you have decided you are ready to try flexible seating, the first thing you need to do it make a plan. Look at your space. Look closely at your teaching style. What areas of your room do you use the most? What areas do you use the least? What areas are hard to walk around or through? Where do you prefer teaching your kids during whole group instruction? Where do you prefer to teach them during small group instruction? Starting to really look at how you use your room will help you start making choices in what to change.

Next you need to decide what to keep, what to move, or what to change. I had a hybrid in my room with each student having a traditional desk as well as having flexible seating options. I did this for two reasons. The first being that alternative seating can be expensive and overwhelming. The second is that I wasn't sure if I was completely ready to get rid of my desks. The hybrid option worked well for me, however I would have loved to add in more of the options I will discuss below.

You need to decide how you want your room to look. Do you want your students standing or sitting during guided reading? Do you want them to stand only when do independent work? Do you prefer them using alternative seating options during only certain times of the day? Do you want to remove your desks completely or just add in a few more options?

Each room is unique. The space you have will vary greatly from teacher to teacher. But I challenge you to look at your room and decide what your vision will look like. Remember, this doesn't have to be a huge change. If you aren't ready to toss out all your desks, start small. Add in a few bean bag chairs or cushions for the students to work on during independent time. Change a few desks to standing desks or lower one of your tables to kids can sit or kneel next to it. If something you try doesn't work, CHANGE IT! You are not locked into anything and you can keep making small tweaks until it works for you.

2. Start collecting flexible seating options.

Now that you have created a vision for what you'd like your room to look like, it's time to start collecting different options for your students to use. There are SO many different things you can use in your room. The best part about flexible seating is that you can be creative! Things that I have tried or that I have seen work in classrooms are (affiliate links):

Don't let this list overwhelm you. Some of the items on this list are very expensive and some are very cheap. Still, creating the flex space you want can really add up. There are several things you can try to solve this problem.

1. Donors Choose: This is a great website where you can post a project you need funded for your classroom and donors from around the world can help fund it.

2. Garage Sales: Take some time on Saturday mornings to hunt for some fun and unique options at garage or estate sales. You can find some really interested options that you won't find anywhere else.

3. Goodwill or the Salvation Army: Check thrift stores for different options. Make sure it's something that can be wiped down or cleaned.

4. Parent Donations: If you live in an area where parents can help with things like this, a simple note home might be a great way to get some of what you need.

5. Grants: Local district grants or larger country-wide grants can be a nice way to fun your room.

6. Company Donations: I went to my local Walmart with a note for the store manager asking for a donation. They gave me $25 in free product. That isn't a ton of money but every little bit helps.

3. Organize Your Classroom Supplies

After getting the flexible seating choices for your room, you need to decide how your students will access their supplies. Since my students still had their own desk, this was never a problem for me. However, if you decide to get rid of all of your desks, you will want to find a place where students can easily access what they need. This also tends to be a big parent concern and they will feel better once they know where their child can get supplies.

You can:

use totes or caddies to hold communal supplies in accessible locations (you can usually find something that will work at the local dollar store)

use cubbies for each student

have a "Student Center" with all the supplies located in one place

4. Introduce the Options to Your Students

It's now time to introduce the options to your students. The kids will be very excited when you first introduce the different options to them. The key element here is to explain everything very explicitly and then MODEL, MODEL, MODEL! The more model and guidance your students have, the smoother things will go. Also know that with certain groups of kids, the first week or so using an entirely flexible system can be rough. That's normal. Stay consistent, stay firm, and keep trying.

I also like the idea of creating an anchor chart with your students to go over the rules and expectations. It's a good idea to say something to them like, "You may sit anywhere you like as long as you're safe, responsible, and respectful." Then you can go over the rules.

The more explicit you can be with your students the better. One rule that you might want to add is "Mr./Mrs. _______ can move anyone at any time." This means that you as the teacher have discretion to move students who can't manage themselves. This is a useful rule if you have students who always sit by their friends and want to talk or students who misbehave in certain areas of the room. Your kids will know upfront: no warning, no reminders.

This is also a good time to encourage your students to try all of the different types of seating options available. One of the benefits of flexible seating is helping our students become meta-cognitive of their learning process and what works best for them. Occasionally ask them why they chose a certain spot to help get them thinking about how they learn best. This will be an important life skill that they will use for years to come.

Another important tip is to have more seating choices available than students. Not only does this cut down on arguing or fighting, it also give those kids who learn best in a certain type of seating choice, more options and chances to get that choice. Spots in my room were first-come-first-serve. You also could not save spots for friends. I really found that once my students got used to the different seating options, there was not a lot of fighting and arguing because they would rotate (really without even noticing) throughout the week without me getting involved.

You can have them sign a contract after going over the rules and procedures so they feel more invested in the entire process. You can download my FREE EDITABLE Student Contract here. You will need to download the font KG Miss Kindergarten to use to the same font I did in the text.

5. Introduce the Seating Choices to Parents

Some parents might have a hard time understanding the switch to non-traditional seating. They might worry about access to supplies, the comfort of their child, or because it's something unfamiliar. Send a note home explaining how your classroom works. Include pictures if you can. If you still have parents that are concerned, invite them in to view your classroom. Once they see how things work, they will definitely feel better and will probably become a proponent of flexible seating in the classroom.

You can download my FREE EDITABLE Note to Parents here.

6. Plan for a Sub

This is by far the biggest concern among teachers that I have seen when planning for flexible seating in classrooms. Because I had a hybrid version I could change the routine depending on the substitute I had. If I knew them and knew they could handle it, I would briefly explain how the choices worked and things ran normally in my room. If I didn't know the sub (or I had a class that I didn't trust to follow the procedures in my absence) I would include in the sub plans to keep everyone in their normal seats. If you have gotten rid of your desks completely, make sure to outline your routines and procedures in as much detail as you can. Write down the expectations for each seating choice, what students are allowed and not allowed to do, and what the substitute can do if the flexible seating choices become chaotic or noisy. If possible, place your rules anchor chart in front of the room so your students know that you have told the sub the rules and they need to remember to follow them. The more you have modeled and practiced with your students before your absence, the smoother things will run. But remember, even if you have to be gone and things get crazy, it's only 1-2 days at a time. You will be able to come back and get them back into a routine.

7. Remember the Shift

Remember that this is a shift in your classroom set-up AND your teaching style. You will essentially be handing over the power of the seating chart to your students. You will have to constantly be aware of your students engagement levels around the room in ways that you might not be used to. You might have to remove furniture that has been considered an important part of a traditional classroom for many years. All of these small shifts can add up to be the big changes you want to see in your room. It might be challenging at times, but I promise that if you keep making small tweaks, you will get the classroom you've always wanted.

You can watch a video I did on Facebook live where I talk about all of these things (and more!). Enjoy!

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How to Get Started With Flexible Seating

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"If we truly want to prepare our students for the real world, we need to put them in responsive, dynamic environments that reflect life outside of a traditional classroom. And what's that life outside like? Full of choices, where adults are responsible for their own learning.

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Many examples of flexible seating look like they are for elementary students. Here is information and examples on how to create a secondary-friendly version of flexible seating.

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Interested in switching to flexible seating? Get funding ideas, helpful tips, and how-to photos from the pros-your fellow high school teachers.

Courtesy of Josh McDaniel

Teacher Stephanie Sleeper was intrigued by a photo of a flexible high school classroom, but she needed to know more. "Can I ask how many students you have in an average class?" she asked Emily Polak, who took the picture. "I so want to do this with my high school social studies classroom, but I'm worried about space."

Sleeper wasn't the only one feeling anxious. The sheer size of high school students is a concern for teachers who are exploring the leap to flexible seating in grades nine through twelve. Without the efficiency of rows of desks, how do you squeeze a lot of big kids into learning spaces that are often no larger than 700 square feet?

And the questions didn't stop there when we asked high school educators for their thoughts on flexible seating. They also wanted to know if flexible seating would make things too casual, producing a climate of distraction-or even outright chaos. A few educators worried that there might be more students sleeping in class, or using the new space to socialize with friends instead of learning. Other teachers, already spending too much of their own money on classroom upgrades, expressed doubt about finding the money to fund purchases of new furniture.

The good news? In our recent email interviews with 20 teachers who have converted to flexible seating-five of whom were high school teachers-we found positive responses to most of the common issues. High school teachers were making flexible seating work in rooms that averaged about 750 square feet. The number of students per class ranged from 27 to 34. Respondents were almost universal in reporting that their students took their seating options seriously and that discipline problems had actually decreased since the shift to flexible seating.

There were some challenges. Furniture breaks more easily with bigger bodies, a few teachers noted. Funding often came up short of ambitions, leaving teachers to source tables, couches, and chairs from friends and family, thrift stores and garage sales, PTA grants, and crowdfunding campaigns on sites like DonorsChoose. Standardized testing forced some of the teachers to bring desks back into the room at intervals.

But none of the teachers expressed regret. Almost all of our interview subjects-across all 20 classrooms, from kindergarten through high school-loved their new setups. Some of them had started small and then evolved their classrooms gradually. A few had come to flexible seating after many years in traditional spaces. "I am in my 13th year of teaching, but this is my first year to incorporate flexible seating into my classroom," said first-grade teacher Ashley Rice Broomfield, before expressing a common sentiment: "I will never go back to traditional seating."

Here's a look into the classrooms of four high school teachers who we reached out to.

Emily Polak

Classes: English 9 and Freshman Composition
School: Bob Jones High School, Madison, Alabama
Students/Room Dimensions: 27-31 students; room is 780 square feet, about 30 feet by 26 feet

Setting It Up: My goal for this project was to make students feel at home in my classroom. I had a very small budget, so I relied heavily on donations and bargain hunting at thrift stores. The PTSA at our school provided me with a grant of $200, which allowed me to purchase a couch, a love seat, a rug, two small tables, and about eight folding chairs. A friend donated a coffee table, while a parent donated a second area rug. I added my own soft lighting, additional bookshelves, and Harry Potter decorations to make the room feel additionally cozy. Some of my students actually prefer to sit in desks, which surprised me, while others tuck themselves away in the Harry Potter reading nook.

Benefits: Discipline issues have significantly decreased. My students seem to feel more relaxed and more motivated in a setting that honors their choices. I have not had to assign seats for the majority of the semester because my students know that if they cannot get their work done on the "fun seats," they will be moved to a desk. I make sure to explain to them that this isn't a punishment; I am here to help them be successful, and sometimes that means making hard choices.

Josh McDaniel

Class: 11th-Grade English
School: Ronald Reagan High School, San Antonio, Texas
Students/Room Dimensions: 30 students; room is 780 square feet, about 30 feet by 26 feet

Setting It Up: I used hanging lights, Christmas lights, and Edison lights to give the room an atmosphere of relaxation. I added a recliner, love seat, and sofa-and even a disco ball to the ceiling and black lights around the Smart Board for special days and assignments. I installed a charging station for phones and brought in a mini-fridge and microwave. Students have a stake in the comfort because they donate coffee and tea for the Keurig. Each grouping of desks has its own supply tub for the week: scissors, glue sticks, note cards, and sticky paper. There's even an official class pet called Bruce the Beta Fish. I let the students see my personality a bit through the inclusion of family pictures and a wall of college and sports memorabilia.

Benefits: The students have responded with better attendance and written work, improved grades, and a more positive culture in the room. If students are worried about their phones, their stomachs, or being tired, they can't pay attention and focus in class. Now I have removed those issues from the equation.

Kendra Caralis

Classes: 9th-Grade World History
School: Grosse Pointe South High School, Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Students/Room Dimensions: 30-32 students; room is 750 square feet, about 30 feet by 25 feet

Setting It Up: A major hurdle was making sure the school could still use my room for state testing, so twice a year the students help me move the desks back into the room. We pile all the furniture up in the front of the room to make space. I funded some furniture purchases through a DonorsChoose campaign, and I did a fair amount of garage sale shopping over the summer. Some was old furniture I owned, and a few pieces were donated from families in the classroom. I don't implement a seating chart. During the first week, I make students choose a new seat each day so they get a chance to try out different spots-and they are aware that I reserve the right to move them at any point.

Benefits: Most of the examples I've seen were for little kids with little bodies, so it wasn't easy to make the adjustments for high schoolers. Students tell me they can focus better in my room because they aren't uncomfortable, and I have not had any issues of kids falling asleep. I think there are probably fewer kids falling asleep this year than in previous years, when I just had desks.

Nichole Murray

Classes: Spanish 3 and 4
School: Marina High School, Huntington Beach, California
Students/Room Dimensions: 25-37 students; room is 784 square feet, about 28 feet by 28 feet

Setting It Up: I changed seating formats during the year. For the first four months of the 2016-17 school year, my 153 Spanish 3 and Spanish 4 students had a traditional seating classroom. They all sat in student desks facing forward or moved the desks into group configurations. After that the same students had a flexible seating classroom with a layout that included a wide variety of furniture types. We have four standing desks, two cocktail tables with stools, two armchairs with ottomans, a sofa, four gaming chairs, and two beanbag chairs. For the first two weeks of the new seating, students had to try a different seat every day to experience each of the 10 "zones." After that students could choose where they wanted to sit on a first-come, first-served basis.

Benefits: I conducted a survey (there were 143 participants) to test the results of the new flexible seating model. Here's the basic summary: Students transitioned to the new seating style easily, strongly favored the change, and made their daily seating selection with a desire for success in mind. Students were less sure that they were "retaining information better" than that they "were not distracted," but the overall results were very encouraging.

This article would not have been possible without the contributions and/or photography of the following educators: Kendra Caralis, Josh McDaniel, Nichole Murray, Emily Polak, and Mylène St-Cyr. Their classrooms are amazing, and we're grateful they shared them with us.

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Interested in switching to flexible seating? Get funding ideas, helpful tips, and how-to photos from the pros-your fellow high school teachers.

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Dividing the classroom into 'Pods' is a way to group similar types of seating and potentially end up with students who have similar learning styles. This teacher also gives feedback on classroom management.

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A veteran elementary teacher shares what he's learned from eight years of building a student-centered environment.

A look inside Tom Deris's classroom

Nine years ago, I starting thinking about changing the layout of my classroom-the traditional classroom structure that had gone largely unchanged since I was a child. I'm now in my eighth year exploring flexible seating with my second and third grade students.

I started by asking students to help me come up with design ideas and to brainstorm ways to transform our classroom with the furniture we had at the time. I knew that if that step went well, I could add more furniture in time.

Each year I add one new type of seating. I started with ball chairs, and then added tables with wheels and wobble stools. In recent years, I've added office chairs and scoop rockers. I've won several grants over the last eight years to collect my nontraditional seating options, which now include: 14 tables with wheels, eight wobble stools, six lap desks, six scoop rockers, four ball chairs, four office chairs, and four standing station spots. I still have 10 regular chairs.

How It Works

In the fall, I typically arrange the room the way I want it. My students and I spend time in the first several weeks of school going over rules and expectations. Once our classroom community has the necessary foundation and expectations, I do a lesson on each of the separate seating options and ask all students to explore all of them.

After students have explored the room and tried all the seating options, I ask them to help me figure out the room's layout for the year. Having student input is extremely important to me, and I often tell my students it's our classroom, not just mine. I want them to want to come to school and learn in a space that reflects them.

I then have the students help me create rules for flexible seating, and we hang up posters for each option that my students can refer to throughout the year when needed. For example, with the ball chairs, students are asked to have their feet on the floor at all times and to avoid excessive bouncing. If students aren't following the rules, we review them so everyone is clear about what's expected.

I'd encourage any teacher interested in experimenting with flexible seating to go slow, pick one thing to add to your classroom, and continue to add items slowly. I strongly suggest buying quality over quantity. I typically only purchase items that are plastic and can be wiped down, and I avoid fabric-with the exception of my office chairs-because it's hard to keep clean.

One thing teachers need to keep in mind in shifting to flexible seating is how they're going to use storage. Each of my students has a work bin-a plastic tray that fits into our standard mailbox slots-where they store their notebooks and folders. Each student also has a Tupperware supply bin with markers, crayons, and colored pencils. The work and supply bins have set locations so students know where their things are, no matter where they choose to sit.

Every type of seating option has pros and cons. Teachers have to think through how they're going to manage, store, and use each and every piece of flexible seating, which is why I encourage teachers to not buy a full set of anything at first-I still don't have a full set of any type of seating. Kids are different, and they like different things. Having different types of seating gives students options.

Each month, students help me select their new work spots. In addition to the work spots, students have a row spot (for whole group instruction), circle spot (for morning meeting), math spot, reading spot, pod spot (for collaborative times like science experiments), and a test spot (where all students have a flat surface for testing). We tend to use the work spots the most.

Classroom Management

Students are unique-and so are groups of students. Some years, my students have needed a lot of structure and little to no freedom. Other years, my students have been able to have total freedom. For flexible seating to work, teachers have to know their students and what they can and can't handle. So at the beginning of the year, I take time to get to know my students, and I have more of a say in where they sit. As they come to understand the different seating options, I give them more freedom. On occasion, students don't work well with one type of seating, and I give them limited access to that type. Strong classroom management is key to this model.

Each year, I also focus on something new to make my classroom more student-centered. Some years I've focused on technology integration or collaborative spaces. This year, I've worked to create more spaces for those students who prefer to work alone when given the opportunity.

I often ask myself if I would want to be a student in my own classroom. After eight years of trial and error, I feel like I can say yes. I truly enjoy my classroom-it's a unique, comfortable, student-friendly place to learn. But I'm still excited about brainstorming with my students on how to make it even better next year.

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Designing Flexible Seating With Students

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A veteran elementary teacher shares what he's learned from eight years of building a student-centered environment.

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Content area: All

Age level: Any

Use: To allow multiple students to work on different tasks at the same time. The teacher can control how the rotation works (all students do all, certain students do certain stations).

Focus: Choice, flexible grouping, variety, cooperation

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This brief video outlines how and why to use learning centers including considerations for assignments.

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Learning Centers | Teaching Strategies #8

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An incredibly thorough, research-based guide to how to design effective learning stations.  Stations can be designed to address specific students (for example, finding their own folder at a station which will have a student's individual assignment inside) or more broad.

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10 Reasons why you should incorporate stations into a secondary ELA classroom, ideas for how to do it, and templates for station labels & student work.

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If I could teach with only one instructional strategy for the rest of my life, I would choose learning stations, and I'm saying this as a high school English teacher! S tations, or learning centers, have always been popular in elementary grades, but our "big kids" in high school can benefit from them just as much, if not more.

Learning stations involve a set of different tasks or activities that small groups of students rotate through. The station rotation model does require some front-loading to effectively design the learning tasks, but when it comes time for class, it's one of those lessons that seems to magically "run itself." This frees up your time, thus allowing you to circulate around the room, interacting with students and providing extra guidance to struggling groups or asking enrichment questions to advanced learners. You also can integrate a teacher conference or check-in station so that you can have meaningful one-on-one interaction with each student!

Learning stations can enhance learning in ways that traditional whole-class instruction often can't. If you want to make your content more engaging and accessible and reach ALL of your learners in one class period, then learning stations are for you. Your students will thank you later!

1. ENGAGING

My philosophy of teaching is anchored in engagement because I know that if my students aren't engaged, they aren't learning. To me, teaching is an art, a design process: How can I create a learning experience that will engage my learners? Full engagement in a room full of sometimes apathetic adolescents is no easy feat, but stations are one of my best solutions to combat low energy or engagement.

I first made the switch to stations after one of my previous PowerPoint lecture lessons-shocking, I know-flopped. It wasn't a lesson that crashed and burned, but rather, it was one of those days when, halfway through your lesson, you feel a pang of guilt and start to panic as you realize that you are bored with your own lesson. This treason to your own teacher self is bad enough, but then it gets worse because you realize that your students are even more bored.

Disclaimer: These days happen. They still happen to me from time to time. I'm not saying I don't ever lecture or fail-because I However, I can confidently claim that redesigning my lame lessons to create learning stations has always resulted in more engaging, authentic learning experiences for my students.

Almost every unit I teach in American Literature begins with a stations activity to provide historical context for literary movements and preview authors, texts, and themes. All of these stations were born from boring PowerPoints from my first year of teaching. I have also found ways to incorporate stations in my journalism course, whether to analyze the purpose of news in society or revise articles the students have written.

Learning stations are now a staple in my secondary ELA classroom, and they have truly transformed my classroom into a student-centered environment that supports all unique learners. I even redesigned my classroom and switched to flexible seating to make my classroom more conducive to learning stations and collaboration.

2. STUDENT-CENTERED

A former professor once told me that the teacher should never be doing more work than the students. She was right!

Stations are one of the most effective ways to switch the focus from the teacher to the students. Instead of being a "sage on the stage," you are a "guide on the side." Stations force students to take ownership of their learning, but they allow you to better spend your time helping the students who need it.

It can be intimidating releasing more responsibility to the students and adjusting your role as the educator, but it is well worth it. With the right structure, scaffolding, and practice, learning stations can create a more authentic, student-centered learning experience.

3. COLLABORATIVE

Vgotsky's theory of learning asserts that social interaction is integral to cognitive development, especially when the collaboration is structured in a way that students can learn from a "more knowledgeable other" (MKO) in their "zone of proximal development" (ZPD). A student's ZPD is his or her "sweet spot" of learning-the zone between what the student can do independently and what the student can do with guidance or peer collaboration.

Learning stations offer the optimal environment for student success and those beloved "light bulb" moments because they rely upon the power of authentic collaboration. Realizing that you are not the only "expert," or MKO, in the room, and that students may sometimes learn best from each other, is simultaneously humbling and empowering. After all, you are the behind-the-scenes expert, carefully designing these learning opportunities and drawing on all of your resources and other experts-your students-to maximize the impact of each lesson.

When you value collaboration and practice it frequently, your students will grow as learners, communicators, and (more importantly) human beings! Oftentimes, I will notice naturally shy students who would NEVER willingly raise a hand during whole class discussions come alive during stations because they feel more comfortable in a small group of their peers. For this reason, I often like to incorporate "discussion" stations when we are reading novels. The small-scale conversations expose students to more perspectives and always enrich any whole-class discussion that follows.

By creating an optimal learning environment that fosters collaboration and values the voices of all students, stations can help cultivate a positive classroom culture that empowers all learners.

4. "CHUNKING" INFORMATION

Studies have shown that students learn content best when it is "chunked" or divided into smaller, more digestible sections. Although research on attention span ranges, one thing is for certain: the typical teen's attention span is incredibly SHORT, so it only makes sense to structure content, especially new information, in the form of stations. Have you ever sat through a full day of PD, listening to lectures chock full of new information? Even if it is information you genuinely want to learn, you probably leave at the end of the day feeling overwhelmed and burnt out because it was simply too much for you to process. I'd venture to say that this is probably comparable to how our students feel after we deliver a long lecture on brand new content.

This is why chunking matters! When you redesign a lesson to fit the station rotation model, you are forced to think critically and creatively about how to make your content more accessible to students. If you're a nerd like me, you might even enjoy this process of synthesizing your content or skills and searching for the most engaging way to structure it via stations.

Next time you're feeling frustrated after your students have already forgotten what you've taught them, take some time to reflect on you structured the content. Could you divide it into digestible sections that intrigue your students and provide more time for processing? If so, stations may be the perfect place to start.

5. KINESTHETIC LEARNING

High schoolers need physical movement too! Stations provide just the right dose of physical movement in the classroom-enough to keep your sleepy teenagers awake and your restless adolescents at ease. To add some energy and fun during rotations, you can even play a few seconds of music as your kiddos transition.

I will admit that sometimes movement elicits groans from some students, but if you value kinesthetic learning and find ways to include it in your instruction, your students will become accustomed to it. Hopefully, they'll learn to appreciate what it can do for their focus and energy levels. If I let them, my students would mindlessly and robotically stare at their Chromebook screens all day, but they know that movement will be a part of learning in my classroom. In fact, the other day, I had a student complain about stations to me: "They force us to get up and MOVE," he said, with pure disgust of physical activity (even though he's an athlete). After listening to him rant, I did hear him concede, "Yeah, they do help me learn better, though..." Mission accomplished! I think many of my students subconsciously appreciate the kinesthetic learning. After all, high schoolers are just big kids. Their bodies are not designed to be stationary for 8 hours a day. Even if they don't explicitly appreciate it, I can clearly see the difference in their energy levels and engagement at each station.

6. EASY TO INTEGRATE TECHNOLOGY

Whether you want students to watch a quick YouTube video, answer a question on Padlet, check out Google Maps, Earth, or Instant Street View to examine the setting of a story, or listen to a thematically relevant song, the possibilities for integrating technology are endless. If you're new to technology, stations can be a great way to try new tech tools in a less intimidating setting. If you have limited technology-such as only a few devices, or perhaps only one-you can also use stations to maximize your tech tools. For example, maybe 4 of your stations are traditional paper-and-pencil tasks, but for your 5th station, you set up a video clip for students to watch and discuss.

My school is 1:1 with Chromebooks, so I often create blended stations. If I design stations that are 100% online, I personally think the lesson becomes more of a web-quest, and the students are less like to engage in the collaboration that should define stations. But you don't have to structure stations just like me, and that's my point-it's up to YOU how you want to structure stations. You can easily change your approach based on your technology, content, goals, and students.

7. DIFFERENTIATED

By differentiating the tasks at each station, you can accommodate the varying needs and preferences of learners in your classroom. You can also structure your stations to appeal to different learning styles (visual, aural, linguistic, and kinesthetic) and Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences. Whereas a whole-class lesson might only appeal to one or two learning styles or intelligences, learning stations can target more learners.

Differentiation can also be as simple as purposeful grouping; when you structure the groups according to students' levels, you know which groups to spend more time helping and which groups can master the content independently. With the right structure, tasks, and grouping, stations can help all students learn in their zone of proximal development.

One relatively easy way I differentiate through stations is by creating "Hint Cards" and "Bonus Questions." (I don't do this every single time, but when it fits and when I can). The Hint Cards contain guiding questions designed to prompt the students' thinking. The Bonus Questions are extension questions for students who master the skill or content quickly. These questions are usually a notch higher in terms of critical thinking-often application, evaluation, or synthesis questions. I emphasize that there is NO downtime during stations. If students finish early, they should consult the Bonus Question OR raise their hand (and I'll usually give them an intriguing question to discuss).

8. RELATIVELY QUICK AND EASY TO ASSESS

Because you are not actively "teaching" during stations, you are able to observe and informally assess students as they work their way through the stations. You can likely gain the data you need to inform your instruction, so you might not even need to formally grade students' station response sheets.

Still, I almost always have students complete a stations response sheet because most of my stations ask questions and I want something tangible to keep students accountable. (This doesn't lock me into "grading" the stations, though.] However, if one of the stations is a discussion station, I will not require students to write anything down; I feel like that just defeats the purpose of students having a natural discussion. Instead, I ask that the students "invite" me over to their discussion at some point during the rotation so that I can check their group off and give them credit.

Another easy but effective option for grading station work involves spot-checking one station response. Yet another alternative is to create an exit ticket that requires students to synthesize what they learned and just grade that! It should give you all of the evidence you need to assess understanding.

But even if you are grading each response, you can use your informal observation to help you grade. For example, if you heard a student making great points during the station, do you really need to pore over his/her response for that station? Probably not!

If your students have devices, you can also streamline your station grading process by having them submit their responses digitally, through a Google form or Google Classroom question. I personally prefer the Google Classroom question, because the students can see their peers' responses when they submit their own response. This way, the small group discussions can build upon one another, and students can learn from the WHOLE class in a SMALL group setting-it's truly the best of both worlds!

9. PERFECT FOR BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

Whole group instruction, while necessary at times, is often not very interactive or intimate. It can be difficult to connect with students and build relationships solely through direct instruction. It's just not possible to have a one-on-one conversation with a student because then you'd be putting the other 29 kids on pause. Because stations free up the teacher, they allow for more meaningful conversations with individuals and small groups.

While I love facilitating stations all year long, I especially find them valuable in the beginning of the year. I feel like I am really able to get to know my students by walking around the room and chatting with them at various stations. I will actually pull up a chair and join the small group as if I am a student. There's something powerful about literally getting on a student's level and actively participating in your own lesson, instead of just leading it.

10. YOU DON'T HAVE TO TOTALLY REINVENT THE WHEEL!

As a teacher, I understand that is always the biggest obstacle. However, sometimes it can be as simple as taking content from your existing PowerPoint slides or worksheets and adding an intriguing question that will help students process the information. Admittedly, my stations are usually more creative than that, but I've definitely resorted to simple reformatting in a time crunch when I knew I didn't want to bore my students (or myself) with a lecture but didn't have time for a complete extreme stations makeover. I even created a learning stations template to simplify the design process. You have to start somewhere, and even though this kind of quick restructuring might not be learning stations in all their glory, it still makes the lesson more accessible and student-centered. Once you've got the structure down, then you can infuse more creativity to make your stations truly engaging.

Ideally, you want to examine your content and skills and think deliberately about HOW you can best restructure it to fit the stations model. This is often the most challenging part of designing stations. But it's incredibly rewarding when you, as the expert, figure it out and piece your content together to design a meaningful learning experience for your students. If you're interested in my process of designing stations, stay tuned for my next blog post in this 3-part stations series.

The second post walks you through my station creation process and provides specific examples and ideas of stations. My final post outlines how I facilitate successful learning stations in my high school classroom. If you have any questions or ideas that I can address in future blog posts, PLEASE comment below! I appreciate your feedback so much! In the meantime, feel free to check out some of the best-selling stations I currently have in my Teachers Pay Teachers store:

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10 Reasons to Implement Learning Stations in the Secondary Classroom - Write on With Miss G

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If I could teach with only one instructional strategy for the rest of my life, I would choose learning stations, and I'm saying this as a high school English teacher! Stations, or learning centers, have always...

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Using stations in the science classroom. This post also addresses student accountability, choosing group size, and how smaller groups can be managed with two 'parallel tracks' instead of a dozen different stations & activities.

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Science Stations are a great way to increase student engagement and responsibility. They encourage them to become active participants in their learning and moving them toward ownership and agency. You can read more about WHY I use stations in this blog post, but for now - let's chat about HOW I prepare for stations.

How To Choose Your Activities:

Complexity:

For your science stations, choose activities that students can work through more or less independently. You can't be at every station all of the time, so it's important that students can understand what to do at the station and complete their work on their own while you circulate to troubleshoot, manage the room, and facilitate deeper learning.

While students may struggle with this type of independence initially, as you use science stations more frequently, they will become accustomed to doing some "figuring out" on their own. You may also want to institute an " Ask Three Before Me" rule. You can learn more about that strategy at the Teaching Channel.

Lastly, each science station should have simple instructions. Provide these instructions briefly before you begin but also include a written set of instructions at the table. Avoid activities that require multiple steps or extensive setup and cleanup.

Examples:

Content:

I use the 5E instructional model in my classroom, and I have found that science station work is perfect for Explore activities. Because students are not expected to master anything at the Explore stage, you can emphasize that it's okay for students to make mistakes, take guesses, and work through the tasks on their own. This reduces the "Is this the right answer?" questions and student frustration that can build when students are working on their own.

I also use it for initial Explain activities, but I always follow up with a whole-group review. When using it for Explain activities, I often provide "Support Stations" and "Cheat Sheets" where students can check their understanding. To find out how you can incorporate Learning Support Stations in your classroom, access my Types of Learning Support Stations resource.

Example:

Timing:

This may go without saying but just for the sake of absolute clarity, it is important that science stations can be completed in any order. All students will have different starting points, and each activity must essentially "stand alone."

Additionally, each of your science stations should require about the same amount of time to complete. That said, because that cannot always be the case (and students work at different paces anyway), it is important to have something for students to work on if they finish early. I provide students with a workbook at the beginning of the unit that they can work through during this downtime. Alternatively, each station (or the short ones at least) could have a quick extension activity for students who finish early.

How To Prepare Your Classroom and Students For Science Stations:

Setting Up science stations:

I typically set up science stations so that students complete a different task at each station. I consider my ideal student grouping (typically 2 to 3) and create enough stations to facilitate that split. If I don't have enough activities for that number of science stations, I may create two parallel tracks. For example, if I need six stations but I only have 3 activities, I have two science stations for each activity and run two parallel circuits.

I have also used science stations to facilitate small group teacher-led instruction. I split my class into two groups - then, I work with one group personally on a more difficult task, while the other group completes stations independently. This has been a great way to lead students through an activity (for example, graphing seismic waves to provide evidence for Earth's interior structure) without engaging in the "whole group instruction" attention battle.

Additionally, since graphing activities can require some troubleshooting (especially for students who struggle in math), splitting the students up into these groups allowed me to provide additional, one-on-one support. While I worked closely with the group in the front, my students worked at their stations in the back of the room. Because they were already familiar with station work, behavior issues were minimal. (I would not recommend doing this until students are accustomed to the procedures and responsibilities of station work

This setup could also work really well with lab activities. I love that you can not only guide students through the activity more easily but also engage with them more personally as they work to guide their thinking and understanding.

Transitioning through science stations:

You must have a system for transitioning. Students should know where they are moving next and when they are expected to move. You could use a bell, flicker the lights, or use a call and response to indicate it is time to move. I usually just used the timer on my iPad. Students could see the time remaining displayed and were also listening for the alarm. So that students know where they are going next, you may want to number your tables or station areas and review the direction of movement before beginning.

Procedures for science stations:

Classroom management is key when using science stations in your classroom. Aside from establishing strong relationships with your students, it is important to set clear procedures for students to follow. Consider things like, how and when should students rotate? What should students do before they transition (reset supplies? turn in their work?) How should students handle sharpening pencils, getting supplies, or using the restroom? When is it okay to access the Support Stations or Cheat Sheets? Should students be talking with other groups? How should students get your attention? If you address these issues ahead of time, your stations will run significantly more smoothly. I recommend posting a code of conduct for stations where students will be working, as well.

Accountability in science stations:

Aside from managing student behavior, it is important to hold students accountable for their learning. Because science station activities are typically not designed to result in immediate mastery of the subject (working independently, students may walk away with some misconceptions that still need addressed), grading for right or wrong answers may not be the way to go. Additionally, if you provide Support Stations or Cheat Sheets, what is to keep students from simply copying the answers? Lastly, how to ensure students remain on task and complete their work in a timely fashion?

I have found one strategy that works well is the stamp, sticker, or "sign off" method. After completing the work at a station but before making any corrections (whether as a class or using a Cheat Sheet), the teacher can stamp the students' work to note that it was attempted. This is not a check for correct or incorrectness but rather just - did they try? In the same way, you can use a stamp to denote where students left off - did they finish the assigned task in the allotted time? Where did they stop? Similarly, if students are working through a project, you could include a "teacher check" to ensure that students are on the right track before continuing to invest their time and energy into the task.

Do you have any tips or tricks for using stations in the classroom? Join the conversation in our Private facebook community today!

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How To Set Up Science Stations In Your Classroom

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Science Stations are a great way to increase student engagement and responsibility. They encourage them to become active participants in their learning and moving them toward ownership and agency. You can read more about WHY I use stations in this blog post, but for now - let's chat about HOW I prepare for stations.

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Content area: All

Age level: Any

Use: To provide students with ownership & accountability

Focus: self-directed, feedback, student accountability & choice

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A learning contract can be constructed around a specific theme, such as spelling, but allow for students to experience the content in a variety of ways.

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Teachers need to determine their own procedures for when to check in & grade learning contracts.

Ex: Students keep their work in a folder and collect a stamp each time they complete an assignment. On Friday, the folders are collected and the teacher grades 1 for accuracy.

The attached file provides some guidance on that subject.

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A learning contract allows for students to perform tasks in the order they choose, but they are different from choice boards in that more than one activity needs to be completed as students work towards completing a unit.

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"Real World Homework" from Creative Language Class is an example of a learning contract where the teacher created one around a particular theme (Activities) and students will work their way through the sheet and have the option to create their own.

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Content area: All

Age level: Any

Use: To provide for ample amounts of student choice, to allow students who need a challenge a more rigorous option, allow for creativity.

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Choice boards or choice menus provide students with a number of options for a given project. They can be more complex for secondary students, or as simple as a tic tac toe board for elementary students.

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Choice boards should be created so that each assignment takes approximately the same amount of time.  Assignments can vary based on learning styles and creativity. A choice board might also be broad enough that it can be used for a variety of projects.

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So you want to create a choice board for your students to learn a concept. In this blog, we will tackle the BIG question, how does one go about creating a choice board.

What is a choice board?

A choice board is a graphic organizer that allows students to choose how they will learn a concept. Usually a choice board carries these aspects.

9-square grid

Each square has an activity

Each activity should relate to one of the multiple intelligences

Level of difficulty can vary or stay consistent

How do students complete a choice board?

1. Tic-Tac-Toe Style: choose three choices in a row

2. Random choice

Why use a choice board?

Choice boards engage learners. A choice board can also facilitate differentiated learning opportunities for your students. For ten reasons why to use choice boards in the classroom, check out Miguel Guhlin's blog. For additional information, Lori Gracey's blog is a great read.

Steps I Took to Create a Choice Board

Step 1: Choose the Concept

As a former fourth grade teacher and a big FAN of Texas history, I chose the following Texas TEK:
113.15. Social Studies, Grade 4 (16) Citizenship. The student understands important customs, symbols, and celebrations of Texas. The student is expected to: (A) explain the meaning of various patriotic symbols and landmarks of Texas, including the six flags that flew over Texas, the San Jacinto Monument, the Alamo, and various missions; (B) sing or recite "Texas, Our Texas"; (C) recite and explain the meaning of the Pledge to the Texas Flag; and (D) describe the origins and significance of state celebrations such as Texas Independence Day and Juneteenth.
Step 2: Get to Know your Multiple Intelligences

I checked out these three resources:

Step 3: Create a List of Multiple Intelligences

From the above three articles/blogs, I combined the multiple intelligences I read about and added a few I thought were missing. See my compiled list of learning modalities below:

Naturalist (nature smart)

Musical (sound smart)

Logical-mathematical (number/reasoning smart)

Existential (life smart)

Interpersonal (people smart)

Bodily-kinesthetic (body smart)

Linguistic (word smart)

Intra-personal (self smart)

Spatial (picture smart)

Computer (*technology smart)

Visual/Spatial (art and space smart)

Culinary (food smart)

Makerspace (**maker smart)

*3D printing, robotics, minecraft, coding, etc.

**Woodworking, perler beads, crocheting, jewelry making, etc.

Step 4: Brainstorm and Map it Out

After selecting my fourth grade social studies TEK, I drew a 9-square grid and a brainstorming box on a piece of paper. I started writing down modalities that I thought would work for this particular TEK. I created space at the bottom of my brainstorming for two items: 1. Activity ideas that popped into my head 2. Tools to integrate technology into the activities. I always write in pencil, because I tend to move things around or change the activity to a different square.

Step 5: Make the Choice Board

Finally, I transferred my choice board to a Google Slide. I listed the activity at the top of each square and suggested tech tools in blue at the bottom. You could also use MS Word or a Google Drawing to design your particular choice board. Check out my choice board

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Creating a Choice Board for Your Classroom * TechNotes Blog

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So you want to create a choice board for your students to learn a concept. In this blog, we will tackle the BIG question, how does one go about creating a choice board. A choice board is a graphic organizer that allows students to choose how they will learn a concept.

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It is important to note that a choice board is not something that a student should necessarily need to complete ALL of. While a learning contract might be broken down into smaller objectives or standards that they continually work on, a choice board can be used to show a culmination of learning and would make a great end-of-unit assessment.

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Here is a choice board with a secondary education approach. The teacher provided a short list of requirements that ALL projects must possess and then included a choice board to inspire students. Notice that the middle space allows students to propose their own idea.

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Content area: All

Age: Could be simplified for any, easily used with secondary.

Use: To allow for representation of a wide range of opinions, allow for movement (visual & kinesthetic learners may benefit).

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An opinion continuum can help facilitate conversation and reasoning because as students move themselves back and forth (or not) along the line to show how much they agree or disagree, the teacher can choose students to ask about why they moved or didn't move. This is a great tool for assessment because Teachers will be able to hear how informed students are and what they remember from the content.

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Teacher makes a broad statement such as "Abraham Lincoln was the best president the USA has ever had." Students move along a lone of strongly agree to strongly disagree.  Teacher calls on individual students to ask them to justify their opinion and those who are in line are allowed to change their minds and move either direction along the continuum. Teachers will want to discuss respectful communication, lay ground rules, and debrief sensitive topics.

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Use When: Students have varying opinions about an issue

Use For: Generating discussion, Kinesthetic Learners, allowing all students to participate

1. The teacher asks the students to write down their opinions about polar opposite questions (strongly agree/strongly disagree or true/false).

2. Once students answer the questions, the teacher will designate corners of the room to be representative of different responses.

3. The teacher will read a statement out loud and the students will walk to the corner of the room that corresponds with their answer. The teacher will then ask the students to discuss the rationale behind their answers.

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Human Barometer - Claire's TCH 306 Website

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Use When: Students have varying opinions about an issue Use For: Generating discussion, Kinesthetic Learners, allowing all students to participate 1. The teacher asks the students to write down their opinions about polar opposite questions (strongly agree/strongly disagree or true/false). 2.

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This could also be used as an icebreaker activity to get to know students better. Make a silly statement like "a hot dog is a sandwich" and let students move around the room.

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Another name for this activity is "Take a Stand" or "Human Barometer" in this example from the Smithsonian we see a variety of statements about social issues. After the opinion continuum, students could write a persuasive essay defending their point of view.

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Content area: Most easily used with ELA.

Age: Could be simplified for any, easily used with secondary.

Use: reflection, analysis, communication, collaboration

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In its simplest form, a literature circle is a student-focused discussion of a particular reading.

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This website offers an in-depth lesson plan template for using literature circles for several sessions.

Students will need to be broken into small groups and everyone in the group needs to read the same text.

Students should each have a specific role within their literature circle.

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Grades

3 - 5

Lesson Plan Type

Recurring Lesson

Estimated Time

Introduction: Ten 50-minute sessions; thereafter: 50 minutes per session

Lesson Author

Publisher

Student Objectives Session One Session Two Session Three Session Four Session Five Session Six Session Seven Session Eight Session Nine Session Ten Following Sessions Extensions Student Assessment/Reflections
STUDENT OBJECTIVES

Students will

discuss, define, and explore unfamiliar words.

predict text events using previous knowledge and details in the text.

use evidence in text to verify predictions.

ask relevant and focused questions to clarify understanding.

respond to questions and discussion with relevant and focused comments.

paraphrase and summarize information from the text.

identify and analyze literary elements in text.

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Session One
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1. Introduce literature circles by explaining they are "groups of people reading the same book and meeting together to discuss what they have read" (Peralta-Nash and Dutch 30).

2. Emphasize the student-centered collaborative nature of the reading strategy by discussing how the strategy places students "in charge of leading their own discussions as well as making decisions for themselves" (Peralta-Nash and Dutch 30). Share some of the ways that students will work independently (e.g., choosing the text the group will read, deciding on the questions that the group will discuss about the text).

3. Introduce the Literature Circle Roles to the class, and answer any questions that students have about these roles:

4. Explain that the class will practice each of the roles before students try the tasks on their own.

5. Choose a short book with at least eight chapters to read as a whole class, beginning during the next class session.

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Session Two
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1. Review basic information about literature circles.

2. Explain that during this session, you will act as the Discussion Director to demonstrate how to do the task.

3. Read Chapter 1 of the text chosen during the previous session together.

4. Allow time to discuss the first chapter freely in order to show how discussion of questions and ideas that are not on the sheet is also appropriate.

5. After discussion is complete, ask students to make observations about how the Discussion Director role works. Answer any questions that they have about the role.

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Session Three
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1. Explain that during this session, everyone will have a chance to practice being a Discussion Director.

2. Read Chapter 2 of the text together.

3. Arrange the class in small groups of 4-6 students each. These groups are simply for practice, so they can be formed informally if desired.

4. Explain that each group member will serve as the Discussion Director for about 5 minutes.

5. To make sure the process runs smoothly, have group members arrange turn-taking by deciding who will go first, second, third, and so forth.

6. Have the first Discussion Director begin discussion. Watch the time so that you can cue students to change roles. Provide support and feedback as appropriate.

7. After 5 minutes have passed, ask the second person take over as Discussion Director.

8. Repeat this process until everyone in the class has had a chance to practice the Discussion Director role.

9. After discussion is complete, ask students to make any additional observations about how the Discussion Director role works. Answer any questions that they have about the role.

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Session Four
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1. Explain that during this session, you will act as the Vocabulary Enricher to demonstrate how to do the task.

2. Point out the classroom dictionaries and other resources students can use as they serve in this role.

3. Read Chapter 3 of the text together.

4. Allow time to discuss the chapter freely in order to show how discussion of questions and ideas that are not on the sheet is also appropriate.

5. After discussion is complete, ask students to make observations about how the Vocabulary Enricher role works. Answer any questions that they have about the role.

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Session Five
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1. Remind students of the classroom dictionaries and other resources they can use as they serve in this role.

2. Explain that during this session, everyone will have a chance to practice being a Vocabulary Enricher.

3. Read Chapter 4 of the text together.

4. Arrange the class in small groups of 4-6 students each. These groups are simply for practice, so they can be formed informally if desired.

5. Explain that each group member will serve as the Vocabulary Enricher for about 5 minutes.

6. To make sure the process runs smoothly, have group members arrange turn-taking by deciding who will go first, second, third, and so forth.

7. Have the first Vocabulary Enricher begin discussion. Watch the time so that you can cue students to change roles. Provide support and feedback as appropriate.

8. After 5 minutes have passed, ask the second person take over as Vocabulary Enricher.

9. Repeat this process until everyone in the class has had a chance to practice the Vocabulary Enricher role.

10. After discussion is complete, ask students to make any additional observations about how the Vocabulary Enricher role works. Answer any questions that they have about the role.

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Session Six
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1. Explain that during this session, you will act as the Literary Luminary to demonstrate how to do the task.

2. Read Chapter 5 of the text together.

3. Allow time to discuss the chapter freely in order to show how discussion of questions and ideas that are not on the sheet is also appropriate.

4. After discussion is complete, ask students to make observations about how the Literary Luminary role works. Answer any questions that they have about the role.

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Session Seven
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1. Remind students of the classroom dictionaries and other resources they can use as they serve in this role.

2. Explain that during this session, everyone will have a chance to practice being a Literary Luminary.

3. Read Chapter 6 of the text together.

4. Arrange the class in small groups of 4-6 students each. These groups are simply for practice, so they can be formed informally if desired.

5. Explain that each group member will serve as the Literary Luminary for about 5 minutes.

6. To make sure the process runs smoothly, have group members arrange turn-taking by deciding who will go first, second, third, and so forth.

7. Have the first Literary Luminary begin discussion. Watch the time so that you can cue students to change roles. Provide support and feedback as appropriate.

8. After 5 minutes have passed, ask the second person take over as Literary Luminary.

9. Repeat this process until everyone in the class has had a chance to practice the Literary Luminary role.

10. After discussion is complete, ask students to make any additional observations about how the Literary Luminary role works. Answer any questions that they have about the role.

Session Eight

1. Explain that during this session, you will act as the Checker to demonstrate how to do the task.

2. Review the requirements of the Checker:

checks for completion of assignments

evaluates participation

helps monitor discussion for equal participation

3. Pass out copies of the other three role sheets: Discussion Director, Vocabulary Enricher, and Literary Luminary. Every student should have one sheet, but they will not all have the same sheet.

4. Read Chapter 7 of the text together.

5. Pause during the reading, as appropriate, to allow students to add details to the different role sheets that they have; or have students complete the different role sheets after the reading is complete.

6. When the chapter is finished, have students re-read the questions on their role sheets and make any revisions.

7. Ask student volunteers to lead the class in discussion, serving in the role that they have prepared for.

8. Take advantage of the opportunity to talk about positive, constructive feedback and to warn against mean or bullying comments.

9. Allow time to discuss the chapter freely in order to show how discussion of questions and ideas that are not on the sheet is also appropriate.

10. After discussion is complete, ask students to make observations about how the Checker role works. Answer any questions that they have about the role.

Session Nine

1. Choose 6 or more students to participate as example literature circle groups. Select students who understand each of the roles that they are to complete well, and who will be able to understand the Checker role without as much practice as the rest of the class will have. You can ask for volunteers to serve these roles, but be sure that you choose volunteers who are confident about their ability to serve in the roles.

2. Arrange the student volunteers in two small groups of model literature circles. Groups will switch after 5 minutes so that everyone in the classroom can practice the Checker role.

3. Give the student volunteers copies of the the relevant role sheets: Discussion Director, Vocabulary Enricher, and Literary Luminary.

4. Review the requirements of the Checker:

checks for completion of assignments

evaluates participation

helps monitor discussion for equal participation

5. Explain that during this session, everyone will have a chance to practice being a Checker.

6. Read Chapter 8 of the text together.

7. Pause during the reading, as appropriate, to allow student volunteers to add details to the different role sheets that they have; or have students complete the different role sheets after the reading is complete.

8. When the chapter is finished, have student volunteers re-read the questions on their role sheets and make any revisions.

9. Ask student volunteers to complete a literature circle discussion of the chapter for other students to observe, serving in the role that they have prepared for. If desired, you might allow students to be creative and perform at levels other than their best work. For instance, one student volunteer might participate as an uncooperative group member or as a member who has not read the text.

10. After 5 minutes have passed, have the example discussion group switch so that the second group takes over.

11. Repeat the discussion process with the remaining students in the class taking on the Checker role.

12. Again, reinforce positive, constructive feedback and comments.

13. After discussion is complete, ask students to make any additional observations about how the Checker role works. Answer any questions that they have about the role.

14. If there are remaining issues on the chapter that students want to discuss, be sure to allow time for this exploration as well.

15. Explain that during following class sessions, students will work in literature circles independently.

16. If the text students have read is complete, explain that students will begin a new book during the next session. If chapters remain, explain that groups will continue reading the text during the next session.

Session Ten

1. If students are beginning new books, share basic details about the available texts and have students choose the books that they want to read.

2. Arrange students in literature circle groups, based on book choice if students are beginning new texts, or based on similar interests or mixed abilities if the class is continuing with the text used for demonstration.

3. Answer any questions, and then have students begin the reading and discussion process.

4. At the end of the session, have groups rotate the literature circle roles.

Following Sessions

1. Have students continue the process of reading the texts and rotating the literature circle roles until the books are complete.

2. Provide some structural scheduling so that students know how much reading and work they should accomplish during each literature circle meeting.

3. When books are finished, set aside a day for groups to share information about their reading, and then form new groups around new reading choices.

4. Before students move on to a new book, have them complete the Self-Reflection Worksheet or use the Online Self-Reflection Checklist. When students begin the next book, ask them to use this self-reflection to think about how they participate with their new literature circle groups.

EXTENSIONS

Ask Vocabulary Enrichers to choose 2-3 words from the reading and create pages for the words using the Alphabet Organizer. Groups can compile all pages created using the tool to compose a focused dictionary for the text. The dictionary might be shelved in the classroom library with the specific book students have read, so that others in the classroom can use the resource.

STUDENT ASSESSMENT/REFLECTIONS

As students work, take notes on their participation and engagement. Remember that discussion topics should grow naturally from students' interests and connections to the text. Their group meetings should be open, natural conversations about books. Personal connections, digressions, and open-ended questions are welcome.

Provide feedback to individual students in conferences and interviews. Base feedback on the feedback indicated on the Checker Role Sheets completed during the literature circle sessions as well as on your own observations. Suggest ways that students can improve their participation in the groups, pointing to the different role sheets that they have completed and relying on your anecdotal notes. Make connections to the Self-Reflection Worksheet or Online Self-Reflection Checklist that students complete when they finish the books. Encourage students to brainstorm strategies they can try in future literature circle meetings to improve their participation.

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Literature Circles: Getting Started - ReadWriteThink

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Grades 3 - 5 Lesson Plan Type Recurring Lesson Estimated Time Introduction: Ten 50-minute sessions; thereafter: 50 minutes per session Lesson Author Publisher Student Objectives Session One Session Two Session Three Session Four Session Five Session Six Session Seven Session Eight Session Nine Session Ten Following Sessions Extensions Student Assessment/Reflections Students will discuss, define, and explore unfamiliar words.

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Task cards that remind students of what their specific role is would be useful across all grade levels. When working with younger students, teachers might need to modify the vocabulary and adjust the roles accordingly.

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This resource on Teachers Pay Teachers offers support for secondary students that is more appropriate to their level.

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Four reading roles have been designed to be used during a literature circle unit. These roles are easily adaptable to fit the scope of any unit. The roles include a discussion director, passagist, connector, and historical context researcher.

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High School Literature Circle Role Sheets

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Four reading roles have been designed to be used during a literature circle unit. These roles are easily adaptable to fit the scope of any unit. The roles include a discussion director, passagist, connector, and historical context researcher.

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This example is of younger students so the structure is a little bit more loose, but you can see that they are still discussing specific topics from a chapter they all read.

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Content area: All

Age: Any

Use: Honors multiple intelligences, variety, student engagement

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Perceptual learning styles refers to preferred method of learning and processing of information. Knowing more about our students and their strengths allows teachers to help their students succeed.

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Learning Styles & Multiple Intelligences: Theory Integration

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There are numerous questionnaires available online, so teachers should seek out a grade-appropriate resource to use. Here is one from the Institute of Learning Styles

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The term "Learning Style" is used in a variety of ways in the teaching and learning process. Generally, it refers to the uniqueness of each learner. Individual difference might include personality, mental processing, confidence, attitude, sensory intake processes or some complex combination of these and other differences.

The threshold of learning is receiving new information; therefore, sensory intake deserves special attention. Measuring the seven elements of the perceptual modality of learning styles can give the learner valuable information about their sensory processes. The seven perceptual learning styles are print, aural, interactive, visual, haptic, kinesthetic, and olfactory. This survey will help you identify and rank your seven perceptual learning styles. The results of this survey can help you plan your future learning experiences. This is not a test; there are not right or wrong answers. You will be responding to forty-two statements concerning how you best learn. When responding, consider past learning successes and your intuition about how you learn. The response choices are : always, usually, seldom, or never. An always response indicates that the statement is a strong representation of your learning style preference. If a statement is a good way for you to learn, but not your most preferred, you should select usually. Seldom is the response for statements that reflect a way you can learn, but you would prefer other learning methods. A never response is appropriate for a statement that you reject as a way for you to learn.

For best results, it is necessary that you respond to all forty-two statements in the order presented. Do not omit or skip responses. Press the Next button to begin the survey. Good luck, and we hope you enjoy the experience!
NOTE: The Institute for Learning Styles Research does not endorse the validity of this survey instrument. Use it only as a general indicator and not as a basis for making major life decisions.
The survey site is best viewed in screen resolutions of 1024 X 768 or higher. Lower resolutions will cause horizontal/vertical scrolling. If Learning Style does not load, you may have to authorize your browser to allow pop-ups. Then click the " Begin Survey" link.

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The term "Learning Style" is used in a variety of ways in the teaching and learning process. Generally, it refers to the uniqueness of each learner. Individual difference might include personality, mental processing, confidence, attitude, sensory intake processes or some complex combination of these and other differences.

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For classes where many students don't know their learning style, it is helpful to spend a little bit of time investigating them, learning about each student's learning style, and asking them to create something that represents their learning style. This will give them some knowledge of themselves, ownership and confidence about how they learn, and will show the teacher and their peers as well.

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Lecture-based teaching won't reach all of our students, but that doesn't mean we should never do it. In a second language classroom, a much more engaging lesson about food might look like this: Some vocabulary presented in a lecture, visual aids such as photos in a powerpoint or a sample menu from a restaurant, physical manipulatives such as real foods to apply the vocabulary to, and a corner of the room set up with tables where students can practice ordering food & serving food in a restaurant. Not only will this be more memorable, but it addresses a wide range of learning styles all in one lesson.

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Content area: All

Age: Any

Use: self-directed, critical thinking & analysis, creativity

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This video from Edutopia shows how project-based learning is a dynamic classroom approach which requires students to solve real-world problems.

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5 Keys to Rigorous Project-Based Learning

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Project-based learning is not intended to be an approach where the teacher dictates every part of the process. The teacher's role is to establish parameters within which the students will solve a problem. The problem should be aligned to standards and the teacher should give feedback throughout the process.

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This article addresses some common problems that arise with project-based learning and offers solutions.

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Project-Based Learning (PBL)

Ideas for how to overcome issues that teachers new to project-based learning frequently encounter.

Michael Morgenstern / The iSpot

In effective project-based learning (PBL) experiences, students are actively engaged in decision-making, confidently manage their team's shared accountability, and develop quality products and performances. Many schools achieve this success, while others struggle. When a PBL unit doesn't achieve the expected outcomes, the teacher, especially if they're embarking on their initial attempt with PBL, may find that their difficulty arises in one or more of those three common areas.

Luckily, addressing such issues and improving PBL experiences to create deeper and more rewarding student experiences is, if not easy, at least very achievable.

Problems in Group Dynamics

PBL is a great structure for students to practice collaboration within teams. Done well, group work guides team members to help each other understand the content and tackle complex tasks that build deep knowledge of core concepts.

Problems occur when some students do most of the work. The team collaborates on not working together. Sometimes this happens because one or more students refuse to do the work. Other times it happens because one or two members do not want others involved, fearing that their grade will be damaged by the efforts of peers they perceive as having lesser skills.

Establish guidelines that include roles and responsibilities.

Provide criteria and logistical checklists for each role.

Coach students on how to collaborate.

Solution: Make all graded assignments individual tasks-don't give any grades for group work. Taking grading out of the equation enables students to focus on the work without concern that peers' efforts might affect their grades, and it encourages all students to participate. Teams work together to collect data and complete tasks for the purpose of building understanding through mutual support. Students take the results from the collaborative work to complete individual assessments. Ultimately, each learner must show what they know and do not know.

Three strategies for supporting students in working together effectively:

Another reason not to have group grades is to eliminate false data. With group grades, students who do little work or who don't participate may get a higher grade than they should based on true performance. Such grade inflation hides gaps in concept learning. The teacher lacks accurate data to help the student grow, creating later struggles with progressively complex skills because of missing foundation knowledge. And learners who do high quality work may get a low grade because of the work done by other team members, leading the teacher to see phantom gaps in learning that do not exist. This assessment fog creates extra and unnecessary work for the teacher.

Lack of Student Engagement

Lack of student buy-in can occur when a project behaves like a traditional unit. A common clue is the types and purpose of the assigned products. Products presented in class or posted on school walls are a good start, yet PBL units can be so much more valuable to students when they are developing answers and products for a person, group, or organization who will value the finished work.

Solution: Put a face to the audience. Make student work truly public. Dayna Laur, author of several books on implementing PBL, says, "Use experts to design challenges and provide feedback to learners."

Invite someone to tell students how much their search for solutions or ideas will be important for that person or organization. Meeting face-to-face or virtually has the powerful effect of giving students' work a larger purpose. You can bring in experts or people affected by a problem that students are exploring, or set up video calls for this purpose. Guide students to see themselves as working in the profession so that their practices are authentically connected.

If possible, invite these sources to listen-in person or via video meetings-to students' progress reports and give feedback, and then have students close the project with a presentation or publication provided to the outside audience.

Students Are Not Used to Active Learning

Many students feel like passive participants in their education-and many education experiences lead them to that-so teachers who want to set up powerful PBL experiences first need to guide students to take the lead in their learning.

Provide assessment criteria and leave the product format open-ended, so students can choose, for example, to make a short film or produce a newsletter or write a traditional essay-any product that meets the criteria is OK.

Use protocols that enable students to lead the learning activity, such as Chalk Talks, a silent discussion on chart paper, or Save the Last Word for Me, a small group reading-comprehension discussion protocol.

Have students establish norms for what professional behaviors look like in the classroom. Then empower them to monitor and support each other.

Solution: Include student voice above choice. People own their learning when they have decision-making on what and how they are learning. Giving choices is a starting point, not the final solution. Choices are designed by the teacher. Once students design their own choices within the PBL structure, they have more buy-in to truly express themselves.

Here are some ways to empower student voice:

Implementing these three fixes should engage your students, resulting in a powerful, authentic learning experience when they undertake a PBL unit.

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Ideas for how to overcome issues that teachers new to project-based learning frequently encounter.

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High Tech High School has dozens of real examples of student projects on their website. What is great about their examples is how the projects are represented. There are clear project descriptions, learning goals, and reflections.

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What have the History Books left out? How have our most influential leaders been misrepresented or not represented at all?
Students were tasked with researching a famous historical figure. Writing a revisionist history for that person and creating an intaglio print of that person or something to do with their life or struggle.
Humanities:
Students work in partnerships (groups of three and/or four) and come together to propose who they believe is the most influential person in American history. After the groups picked their leader, students then researched and crafted a presentation to explain their argument and persuade peers that their leader is the most influential. After all presentations were completed students individually voted on a scale from 1-5 to determine what they deserved based off of groups ability to deliver topic.
Art:
First students learned about positive and negative ground. Next students learned about continuity, figure ground, and closure. Students then showed their knowledge of topics by making scratchboards. Individually students chose a black and white picture printed it out and chalked the back to transfer the image from the printer paper to the scratchboard. Students transferred the image by tracing all the lines they saw in the image and either scratched out the positive or negative. Once students perfected their skills they applied the same knowledge to a copper plate. Students used whitening powder to clean their copper plate and put a hard ground on top of copper plates and did the same process as the scratch board and scratched out either the positive or negative ground of their image. After the etching was done students put their copper plate in an acid bath and cleaned their plates. Finally students put ink on their plate and put cardstock paper on the printing press to make a print.

Students' fully illustrated essays were published into a class book entitled "Influential Imprints". Students created research papers and intaglio prints to furnish the book.

Discuss how drawing and printmaking are more than a visual record

Distinguish between actual and visual texture in art works

Describe how patterns are created by repeating previously learned visual elements-line shape, mass, color

Define and identify the principles of design and demonstrate how artists use them to organize the elements within a composition.

Identify and illustrate the principles of balance (symmetrical, asymmetrical, and radial)

Indicate methods used by artists to express emphasis in a composition

Define and distinguish between scale and proportion

Define and illustrate the use of repetition and rhythm in a work of art

Recognize the connection between unity and variety in works of art

Solve a visual arts problem that involves the effective use of the elements of art and the principles of design.

Prepare a portfolio of original two-and three-dimensional works of art that reflects refined craftsmanship and technical skills.

Develop and refine skill in the manipulation of digital imagery (either still or video). Review and refine observational drawing skills

Students published a revisionist history book that is fully illustrated with their own artwork

Finding an interesting and compelling way to exhibit students' research essays is daunting task. Using the "real world" as a starting point, we found that book illustration is a beautiful way to combine the needs of both artist and authors. Students discussed the need for the pictures to tell a story as well. And how pulling inspiration for their descriptive writings helped influence their images.

What were my strengths in this project?
Doing research is a favorite aspect of writing for me because I can read sources in order to find the 'gems' that can be used later on in writing or in presentations.

What was the biggest struggle/obstacle for during this project?
The biggest challenge for me in this project has been figuring how to write about Clara Barton's flaws. While researching her I only found some shortfalls that Clara had. Among these included overworking herself and having the occasional affair with some man. I tried to research these affairs but very little information came up which would have been useful for writing an essay. Due to this I decided to write about Clara's depression as the thing that is underrepresented about her character.

What did I learn about myself during this project?
It is important to think about the subject matter of an essay before writing it. You have to make sure that you have enough substance to analyze and choose quotes or citations from.

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What have the History Books left out? How have our most influential leaders been misrepresented or not represented at all? Students were tasked with researching a famous historical figure. Writing a revisionist history for that person and creating an intaglio print of that person or something to do with their life or struggle.

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Content area:  All

Age: Any

Use: critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration & cooperation

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Game-based Learning is a type of game play with defined learning outcomes. The idea is to balance subject matter with gameplay and the ability of the student to retain and apply the subject matter.

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Not every game will lend itself perfectly to Game-Based Learning. Prodigy advises that teachers:
1) determine the purpose
2) play the game first
3) engage parents
4) dedicate time to class play and 5) assess progress
The link below offers a much more in-depth explanation of what procedure should look like and also includes an infographic for visual learners.

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5 Steps to Implementing Game-Based Learning in the Classroom [+ Game Examples]

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All Posts Many teachers struggle to smoothly incorporate games into lessons due to time and logistical issues, yet see game-based learning (GBL) as a way to engage students and appeal to diverse learning styles. Research has continuously shown such advantages.

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What sets Game=based Learning apart from Project-Based Learning is an understanding of the word 'game'. If it's a game, the students need to know how to win, because that is one of the goals of playing a game. Other components of games or gamification such as leader boards or medals also can be motivating for students and these are not part of Project-Based Learning.

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Scavenger Hunts are a great example of Game-based Learning. NC State created a scavenger hunt to introduce students to their library. In this example, students are doing something fun and engaging to learn more about the real world.

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A mobile, game-based way to introduce students to the library.

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Content area: All

Age: Any

Use: organization, clarification, simplification

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Graphic organizers are research-based and are a great tool for helping students make connections between their ideas and information. Graphic organizers are concise and help students identify important information and represent it in a slightly more visual way.

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Graphic Organizers | Teaching Strategies # 7

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To effectively use graphic organizers in the classroom, teachers will need to help students by giving them direction on what kind of graphic organizer to use.

The teacher must first determine what the goal is.  If we want students to understand cause and effect, you wouldn't ask them to draw a Venn Diagram. This link provides editable templates that teachers can use as well as a manual with ideas for classroom use.

The teacher can either print the graphic organizer and give to to the students or direct them on how to draw it and model it for the class.

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The Great and Powerful Graphic Organizer | Cult of Pedagogy

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Beneath its simplicity lies an absolute dynamo, a vehicle that can cement learning more firmly than a lot of the other stuff we try, in a lot less time.

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This is an example of how you can use a graphic organizer at the secondary level. In an English class, students might do a project or write a paper about a character in a story. This graphic organizer provides them with support and guides them to look for textual evidence to add to their description.