Welcome Message. Does the idea of learning centers take away your inner peace and tranquility? Does it knock your Zen out of whack? Let’s just get right down to it… does it steal your joy? - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Welcome Message Does the idea of learning centers take away your inner peace and tranquility? Does it knock your Zen out of whack? Let’s just get right down to it… does it steal your joy? Learning Centers shouldn’t be tasks that make more work for the teacher than the students. They are structured practice for students. Today you will leave our bonus session with several ideas for learning centers/stations that are easy to implement, don’t have to be changed weekly, and they will
Transcript
Welcome MessageDoes the idea of learning centers take
away your inner peace and tranquility? Does it knock your Zen out of whack? Let’s just get right down to it… does it steal your joy?
Learning Centers shouldn’t be tasks that make more work for the teacher than the students. They are structured practice for students.
Today you will leave our bonus session with several ideas for learning centers/stations that are easy to implement, don’t have to be changed weekly, and they will restore your inner peace, Zen, and joy!
Task: Share with the members at your learning club Task: Share with the members at your learning club some of the things you’ve done with centers in your some of the things you’ve done with centers in your classroom.classroom.
First, let’s come to a common understand about learning centers or stations
1. A learning station is not a place to introduce material. It is a place of structured practice of skills already introduced.
2. It should be focused on a skill or standard, not soley on a topic.
3. They do not need to change. The activity can remain the same, the words, context, or topic can change.
4. They can be graded, but not all activities need to be.
5. They provide both movement and choice (both are things we know are good for the brain).
State the ObviousBe strategic when implementing centers. Procedures and problem solving are key to centers or stations that work well.
Introduce any activity that will be done at centers as a whole class activity first. This way everyone has schema with the activity.
Do one center where the teacher circulates. Add another center. Continue to circulate, prompting students who finish early to problem solve good choices.
Continue adding centers until you feel you have an adequate amount. During this time you are still monitoring. Add a reading group that you will supervise once you feel centers are running properly. When you need to do individual assessments, pull yourself out of the “rotation.”
At the Poetry Center, you At the Poetry Center, you can:can: 1.Complete as many Poetry
Center task cards as you can in your time.
2.Draw the sensory images that come to mind when you read the poem.
3.Copy the poem in your Poetry Anthology.
4.Create a Venn Diagram comparing the poem to another piece of writing you know.
5.Research the author on the computer and find out about her, or his life.
6.Look at the line order and line breaks on the poem. Could you change the order or the format to one you think might be more pleasing or memorable?
Poetry Task CardsPoetry Task Cards
Which Words feel important? Highlight them.
Read the poem again and emphasize these.
Poetry Task CardsPoetry Task Cards
What does the poem make you feel?
Why?
Poetry Task CardsPoetry Task Cards
Does the poem remind you of anything in your own life? What?
How does this help you better understand the poem?
Poetry Task CardsPoetry Task Cards
What pictures do you see in your mind as you read the poem?
Tell about what you also might hear, taske, smell, or touch,
Poetry Center Task CardsPoetry Center Task Cards
Poetry Task CardsPoetry Task CardsWhat can you generalize
from this poem?
What can you infer from this poem?
This poem makes me think that…
Poetry Task CardsPoetry Task Cards
Why do you think the poet wrote this poem?
What is the author’s purpose?
Poetry Task CardsPoetry Task Cards
I enjoyed the poem___________ by ___________________I think this is an awesome poem because_________This is a picture the poem creates in my mind: (draw)
Poetry Task CardsPoetry Task Cards
I recommend the poem_____________ by_______________Some words or phrases I liked were:________________This poem made me feel:
Poetry Center Task CardsPoetry Center Task Cards
At the Newspaper Center, At the Newspaper Center, you can:you can:1.Complete as many Newspaper
Center task cards as you can in your time.
2.Make a list of new or interesting words you would like to use in your writing.
3.Cut out a photograph and make up your own caption and news story.
4.Circle as many word wall words as you can find.
5.Write a letter to the editor regarding a story or issue that you feel strongly about.
6.Summarize any article.
Newspaper Question CardsBEFORE READING
What is the title of the article? If there are any new
words, jot them down and try to figure out what they mean. Use a dictionary, if
needed.
Newspaper Question Cards
BEFORE READING
What do the photos and captions tell you about
this article?
Newspaper Question CardsBEFORE READING
Who is the author?Locate the byline.
Newspaper Question CardsBEFORE READING
Infer what you think this article will be
about.
Newspaper Question and Task Newspaper Question and Task CardsCards
Newspaper Question CardsDURING READING
Read a paragraph or two. Then stop and think about what you read. Summarize
it in one sentence.
Newspaper Question Cards
DURING READING
What connections are you making? What’s this
reminding you of?
Newspaper Question CardsDURING READING
What are you visualizing? What questions are in
your mind as you read?
Newspaper Question CardsDURING READING
Highlight or circle new words. Figure out what
they mean.
Newspaper Question and Task Newspaper Question and Task CardsCards
Newspaper Question CardsAFTER READING
What are the big ideas you read about?
Newspaper Question Cards
AFTER READING
Tell what you thought was interesting in this
article.
Newspaper Question CardsAFTER READING
What will you do with the information you just read? Tell someone
about it? Make something? Write a letter? Read more?
Newspaper Question CardsAFTER READING
Summarize the article.
Newspaper Question and Task Newspaper Question and Task CardsCards
Newspaper Task CardsFind and list ten proper
nouns. Put them in columns by people, places, and
things. Use proper nouns when writing news articles.
Use capital letters!Example
People Places ThingsGary Smith Washington D.C. Jeep
Newspaper Task Cards
Cut out five or more strong verbs. Use these
to write a new story. Glue your words onto the
story you’re writing.
Newspaper Task Cards
Find an interesting photo. Read the caption and story to go with it. Cut
out the photo and glue it onto notebook paper. Write a summary to go
with it.
Newspaper Task Cards
Read an article. Highlight the opinions in yellow. Highlight five or more facts in
pink.
Newspaper Question and Task Newspaper Question and Task CardsCards
Newspaper Task Cards
Read an article about someone in the news. List
three or more questions you would ask in an interview of
this person.
Newspaper Task Cards
Find an ad. Highlight the parts that are opinions.
Underline the facts.
Newspaper Task Cards Newspaper Task Cards
Newspaper Question and Task Newspaper Question and Task CardsCards
At the Fiction Center, you At the Fiction Center, you can:can: 1.Complete as many Fiction
Center task cards as you can in your time.
2.Fill out a character chart for any character you wish.
3.Write a review for the book.4.Tape yourself reading the book
for fluency and expression. Listen and rate yourself.
5.Write the important events in the story using time order words.
6.Write about or draw any sensory images you experienced as you read.
7. Listen to the story on tape.
Fiction Task CardsFiction Task Cards
What do the main characters learn in this
story?
Fiction Task CardsFiction Task Cards
What do you think will happen next in the
story? What information in the text helped you make that prediction?
At the Computation At the Computation Center, you can:Center, you can:1.Roll the dice and add,
subtract, multiply, or divide the numbers.
2.Work with a partner to do the Math Dice order of operations game.
3.Shake the water bottle and work on your math facts.
4. Practice on your facts timed test. Time yourself.
5. Listen to the multiplication facts CD.
6. Pull a number out of the bag and write as many ways to make the number as you can think of.
At the Word Study At the Word Study Center, you can:Center, you can:1.Build this week’s words with
magnetic letters.2.Pick up the “letter beans” with
chopsticks and spell your words.
3.Write your words on the magnadoodle.
4. Do sailboat writing with your words.
5. Look, say, cover, write, check.6. Do a looks like, sounds like,
reminds me of page.7. Rainbow write your words.8. Categorize your words by
song and sing them to yourself to practice.
9. Write your words in gel or on sandpaper.
At the Problem Solving At the Problem Solving Center, you can:Center, you can:1.Create and solve your own
word problem. Submit it for others to solve.
2.Solve a classmate’s word problem.
3.Use the sale ad from the newspaper to construct a word problem.
4. Draw an operation out of the bag and create and solve a problem.
5. Visit a problem solving website on the computer.
6. Draw from “The answer is…” box.
7. Measure the room and find the area of the floor, a bulletin board, or the front of the teacher’s desk.
8. Choose a problem solving challenge.
At the Overhead Center, At the Overhead Center, you can:you can:1.Practice your handwriting with
a handwriting transparency.2.Create a comic strip about the
book you are currently reading.
3.Work out a word problem on a transparency and explain your work.
4.Design an acrostic for anything you wish.
5.Write a sample reader’s letter that Mr. McMillan could use as a model.
6.Design a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting two famous places in China.
If there is a star on any part of the learning center, students If there is a star on any part of the learning center, students understand that they are to do that activity FIRST, then understand that they are to do that activity FIRST, then they may choose any activity for the remainder of their they may choose any activity for the remainder of their time.time.
Topical Information /Learning Topical Information /Learning CentersCentersTopical information/learning centers also address
language arts standards just as easily. If connects those standards to a topic, concept, or location so that student interest builds the skill or standard.
C.L.A.S.S. sees information centers as interactive, collaborative, and constructivist. Information centers are never “finished” and are never ultimately a teacher product, but a collaborative effort between students, teachers, and guest speakers. As students gain information, either self-driven or as a result of task cards within the center, they post their thoughts, knowledge, or questions. As the unit of study ends, the information center is taken down, and a new one is started.
Look closely at the Chinese currency and write down everything that
you notice.
Can you make bibliography
cards for each of the books in the
information center?
Can you put all of the books in the
information center in
alphabetical order by the author’s
last name?
What might have been some
drawbacks to living in the
Forbidden City?
How many silkworms does it
take to make a silk robe?
Do any of the Chinese folktales
remind you of stories you’ve heard before?
What is your animal in the
Chinese Zodiac?
Chinese women used to have to
“bind their feet”. What does this
mean?
What can you find out about a flight
to China? How long, how fast, how high, etc.?
Can anyone help me find an Can anyone help me find an answer to my answer to my QUESTIONQUESTION about about
China?China?
The Location of Inner The Location of Inner Peace and TranquilityPeace and Tranquility
You will have three minutes to gain your inner peace and tranquility.
Please set the timer as soon as you get here.
Your choices are:Your choices are:1. Sit quietly and meditate with eyes
closed.2. Take a peppermint, they are calming to
the stomach.3. Smell the vanilla votive, vanilla soothes
the mind.4. Squeeze your stress away with the stress
ball.5. Write a letter to Mr. McMillan explaining
your frustrations. Seal it in an envelope and put it on his desk.
6. Put the headphones over your ears and block out the sound.
7. Put on the sunglasses and picture yourself at the beach, listening to the waves roll in.
Table TalkTable TalkI hope you’ve had a chance in this sessionTo sample some things you likeA nibble here, a nibble thereOr just a “no thank you” bite
Learning centers come and goYou make them work for YOUI hope you’ve gained a few ideasThat are helpful (if not TOTALLY new)
So take an idea, and what you already knowTalk with your table. How will it flow?
What could you take away from this session and make it work in your room?The teachers at your table may have the right comment to keep you out of learning center doom!
