Welcome Message

1. 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 restore your inner peace, Zen, and joy! Task: Share with the members at your learning club some of the things you’ve done with centers in your classroom.

2. First, let’s come to a common understand about learning centers or stations • A learning station is not a place to introduce material. It is a place of structured practice of skills already introduced. • It should be focused on a skill or standard, not soley on a topic. • They do not need to change. The activity can remain the same, the words, context, or topic can change. • They can be graded, but not all activities need to be. • They provide both movement and choice (both are things we know are good for the brain).

3. State the Obvious Be 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.”

4. At the Poetry Center, you can: • Complete as many Poetry Center task cards as you can in your time. • Draw the sensory images that come to mind when you read the poem. • Copy the poem in your Poetry Anthology. • Create a Venn Diagram comparing the poem to another piece of writing you know. • Research the author on the computer and find out about her, or his life. • 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?

5. Poetry Task Cards Poetry Task Cards Which Words feel important? Highlight them. Read the poem again and emphasize these. What does the poem make you feel? Why? Poetry Task Cards Poetry Task Cards Does the poem remind you of anything in your own life? What? How does this help you better understand the poem? 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 Cards

6. Poetry Task Cards Poetry Task Cards What can you generalize from this poem? What can you infer from this poem? This poem makes me think that… Why do you think the poet wrote this poem? What is the author’s purpose? Poetry Task Cards Poetry 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) I recommend the poem_____________ by_______________Some words or phrases I liked were: ________________ This poem made me feel: Poetry Center Task Cards

7. At the Newspaper Center, you can: • Complete as many Newspaper Center task cards as you can in your time. • Make a list of new or interesting words you would like to use in your writing. • Cut out a photograph and make up your own caption and news story. • Circle as many word wall words as you can find. • Write a letter to the editor regarding a story or issue that you feel strongly about. • Summarize any article.

8. Newspaper Question Cards Newspaper Question Cards BEFORE 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. BEFORE READING What do the photos and captions tell you about this article? Newspaper Question Cards Newspaper Question Cards BEFORE READING Who is the author? Locate the byline. BEFORE READING Infer what you think this article will be about. Newspaper Question and Task Cards

9. Newspaper Question Cards Newspaper Question Cards DURING READING Read a paragraph or two. Then stop and think about what you read. Summarize it in one sentence. DURING READING What connections are you making? What’s this reminding you of? Newspaper Question Cards Newspaper Question Cards DURING READING What are you visualizing? What questions are in your mind as you read? DURING READING Highlight or circle new words. Figure out what they mean. Newspaper Question and Task Cards

10. Newspaper Question Cards Newspaper Question Cards AFTER READING What are the big ideas you read about? AFTER READING Tell what you thought was interesting in this article. Newspaper Question Cards Newspaper Question Cards AFTER READING What will you do with the information you just read? Tell someone about it? Make something? Write a letter? Read more? AFTER READING Summarize the article. Newspaper Question and Task Cards

11. Newspaper Task Cards Newspaper Task Cards Find 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 Things Gary Smith Washington D.C. Jeep 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 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. Read an article. Highlight the opinions in yellow. Highlight five or more facts in pink. Newspaper Question and Task Cards

12. Newspaper Task Cards 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. Find an ad. Highlight the parts that are opinions. Underline the facts. Newspaper Task Cards Newspaper Task Cards Newspaper Question and Task Cards

13. At the Fiction Center, you can: • Complete as many Fiction Center task cards as you can in your time. • Fill out a character chart for any character you wish. • Write a review for the book. • Tape yourself reading the book for fluency and expression. Listen and rate yourself. • Write the important events in the story using time order words. • Write about or draw any sensory images you experienced as you read. • 7. Listen to the story on tape.

14. Fiction Task Cards Fiction Task Cards What do you think will happen next in the story? What information in the text helped you make that prediction? What do the main characters learn in this story? Fiction Task Cards Fiction Task Cards What is the story mainly about? What will the main character probably do in the future? Fiction Task Cards

15. Fiction Task Cards Fiction Task Cards You can tell in the story that… What is the main problem in the story? Fiction Task Cards Fiction Task Cards Choose a main character. How did he/she feel throughout the story? Why do the characters act like they do in the story? Fiction Task Cards

16. Fiction Task Cards Fiction Task Cards The setting is important to this story because… The story takes place at… Fiction Task Cards Fiction Task Cards Why did the author probably write this story? This story was mainly written to… Fiction Task Cards

17. At the Computation Center, you can: • Roll the dice and add, subtract, multiply, or divide the numbers. • Work with a partner to do the Math Dice order of operations game. • 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.

18. At the Word Study Center, you can: • Build this week’s words with magnetic letters. • Pick up the “letter beans” with chopsticks and spell your words. • 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.

19. At the Problem Solving Center, you can: • Create and solve your own word problem. Submit it for others to solve. • Solve a classmate’s word problem. • 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.

20. At the Overhead Center, you can: • Practice your handwriting with a handwriting transparency. • Create a comic strip about the book you are currently reading. • Work out a word problem on a transparency and explain your work. • Design an acrostic for anything you wish. • Write a sample reader’s letter that Mr. McMillan could use as a model. • 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 understand that they are to do that activity FIRST, then they may choose any activity for the remainder of their time.

21. Topical Information /Learning Centers Topical 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.

22. Can you put all of the books in the information center in alphabetical order by the author’s last name? 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?

23. Do any of the Chinese folktales remind you of stories you’ve heard before? What might have been some drawbacks to living in the Forbidden City? How many silkworms does it take to make a silk robe?

24. What can you find out about a flight to China? How long, how fast, how high, etc.? What is your animal in the Chinese Zodiac? Chinese women used to have to “bind their feet”. What does this mean?

25. Can anyone help me find an answer to my QUESTION about China?

26. The Location of Inner Peace 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: • Sit quietly and meditate with eyes closed. • Take a peppermint, they are calming to the stomach. • Smell the vanilla votive, vanilla soothes the mind. • Squeeze your stress away with the stress ball. • Write a letter to Mr. McMillan explaining your frustrations. Seal it in an envelope and put it on his desk. • Put the headphones over your ears and block out the sound. • Put on the sunglasses and picture yourself at the beach, listening to the waves roll in.

27. Table Talk I hope you’ve had a chance in this session To sample some things you like A nibble here, a nibble there Or just a “no thank you” bite Learning centers come and go You make them work for YOU I hope you’ve gained a few ideas That are helpful (if not TOTALLY new) So take an idea, and what you already know Talk 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!