Learning Stations
As class sizes grow it becomes difficult to give students individualized attention, and opportunities to participate in a whole class activity. If a student only gets to answer a couple of questions throughout a lesson how much can a teacher really tell about how well he/she is learning? Learning stations are a smart way to increase individual participation in a lesson, and to add variety to the ways you ask students to engage with the curriculum.
The general idea is that you want to create small groups where each student will have lots of opportunities to participate, because they are not waiting around for the teacher to get through the entire class roster before calling on them again. Students work at each station for a short finite amount of time, and then move to their next activity when a timer signals them to rotate. Teachers, aides, and volunteers can work at some stations to provide targeted small group instruction, while other stations are designed to have students work without adult guidance. Students can work on group projects or individual assignments, play a review game, spend time working on a computer task, or engage in a small teacher lead reading or math group where they get lots of attention from their teacher before moving on to the next station.
The general idea is that you want to create small groups where each student will have lots of opportunities to participate, because they are not waiting around for the teacher to get through the entire class roster before calling on them again. Students work at each station for a short finite amount of time, and then move to their next activity when a timer signals them to rotate. Teachers, aides, and volunteers can work at some stations to provide targeted small group instruction, while other stations are designed to have students work without adult guidance. Students can work on group projects or individual assignments, play a review game, spend time working on a computer task, or engage in a small teacher lead reading or math group where they get lots of attention from their teacher before moving on to the next station.