Recently, I gave a professional development to the teachers who are new to my school as a requirement for the last semester practicum of my Master’s (yippee!). The PD was focused on how to teach in and through literacy centers. But, not just any literacy centers. Real, data driven, standards based literacy centers. RIGOR is an important word these days with our new Florida Standards (as with Common Core). The goal of this presentation was to give teachers a deeper look into providing center activities that required students to do more than move task cards, match cards together, or order magnetic letters. I am not against the former. Yes, there is a time and place for both. However, the teachers that were in this PD were interested in how to create activities that would promote the thinking and writing that we are pushing for with our new standards. After many requests, I’ve decided to share some of the slides with you below. Enjoy! Disclaimer: Before we start, I know many people cannot call daily academic activities “centers” anymore, because administration and some researchers associate centers with play. “Stations” is becoming the popular term because it seems more work-based. However, my school still Continue Reading
This week I finally printed some of the things I have created this year. I started organizing my centers like this last year. We did literacy and math centers every day so I had A TON of activities and no where to keep them. Now I store my centers in plastic Ziploc bags. All the Ziploc bags go in a filing cabinet or the closet (depending on subject and topic). This is convenient for me & for early finishers who need to be kept busy! I print and laminate everything. I cut any extra white or lamination off of the big direction sheets. This way, they fit perfectly inside the zipper of the Gallon bags. Each activity has an individual bag that includes: 1) Anchor Charts 2) “I Can” Statement/Direction Sheet 3) Task Cards or Activities 4) One copy of the recording sheet for easy access. Just grab it and make copies. On Fridays before I leave, I grab the centers for the next week, take them out of the large bags, and put them in our center bins, like the one below. I leave the task cards in the small sandwich bags. I keep the empty Gallon bags in Continue Reading