Lauren Flaspohler's Literacy Center Ideas

Online I found a website called Can Teach: Beginning Reading & Writing. There are a ton of great ideas on this website. It is definitely geared toward students just starting to write stories. However, I think that some of these ideas could be used with any elementary age group. The difference is what you expect from the children at each different level.
I really liked the idea of having a station called “What Will the Ending Be?.” I think it is important for students to try to figure out and use their creativity to complete a story. Also it shows that they are listening to the other part of the story. This is a great way to get students to start predicting what will happen next.
There is another section to put a story back together. You as a teacher have photocopied pages of a story. The idea is to get the students to put the story back in the correct order. This is a great idea to get students to put events in chronological order.
Another idea that I like is “Fill in the missing letters and/or words.” When I was little, I used to love Mad Libs. This is what this idea made me think of. It is a great and fun way to get students to think of nouns and adjectives. It is just a silly fun thing to do and students don’t even realize they are learning!
“Listen to yourself” was another literacy center idea that I liked off of this website. I think it is important for students to see how they are reading stories. It will get them to think about how they are expressing the punctuation at the end of sentences. Also it will show them where to put pauses. They will be able to listen to what they sound like. This idea will be a great way for them to self-monitor and self-evaluate themselves.
Most of these ideas would also be great for individualized lessons. Students will be at very different levels and so you can push students harder when they need it. It should be so everyone improves and not that they are necessarily on the same levels.
http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/beginning10.html