secondary centers

[Penny]

This is my second year of teaching Reading Improvement to middle school students. Last year I decided that direct instruction didn't work with my students and devised a centers-based program which seemed to be a lot more effective. I've made some adjustments to it this year, but would like to bounce ideas around with other secondary teachers who use centers or stations.

Are there any others out there?

 

[Giggles]

I did it last year

I taught 6th grade reading last year in a middle school and did centers with them. Only problem I had was too many students and hard to manage. Other than that, I loved it, they loved it, and it worked great!

 

[Penny]

how did you do it?

I use a loose structure. I have 3 assignments in various spots in the room. The kids pick which one they want to work on and take the materials to their desks. (I also let them choose who to work with or if they want to work alone.) My main problem is keeping the early finishers busy and keeping track of who turned in what. (I use a clipboard and color in the appropriate dot when they turn in an assignment.) Last year it was often controlled chaos--sometimes more chaotic than controlled , but this year I have very small classes and mellow kids.

I like working this way because it frees me up to read with them and give help to individuals and small groups.

What kind of assignments did you give the kids?

Penny

 

[ncteacher]

Secondary centers

Some suggestions for some centers for secondary students are:

Seasonal Centers- If there is a holiday or holdays in a month find a reading passage put it in a ziplock bag with some sticky notes and have them write down the plot elements on the sticky note and then put the post it note where they found they found the element ( introduction, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution)

You can always put a short novel in a bag and offer then mini project ideas to complete once they are finished reading the novel, or you can have them do certain little mini assignments for each chapter.

You can have a vocabulary center where you cut up the words and definitions and put them in an envelope and allow them to practice matching up the correct word to the right definition. ( this can be individual or partner )

Have a Poe-Tree corner, where you have a poetry tree on the wall and students select a type of poem from a container, construct the poem, turn it in, and once you have okay'd it allow them to hand it on the tree.

In my classroom I have a general student center, where I set up an area for early finishers to select novels, word search puzzles or other activity sheets, comic books, and etc. I make it mandatory that they visit this corner. I do make little changes when I change my units in class.