Literacty Center Christie Caron

Through Google, I stumbled upon the site, http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy_stations/main.htm. I found this site to be extremely beneficial for teachers to use as a resource as it guides teachers through different aspects of literacy centers by providing resources and ideas to apply and supervise literacy centers. The site explicitly taught me the two purposes of literacy stations; first, to engage students while the teacher works with small reading groups, and secondly, to reinforce literacy skills. The site suggested that students be grouped heterogeneously and rotate after about 15-20 minutes to three centers. I learned from the management tips that certain organization techniques such as center folders, help keep the centers running smoothly with little confusion among the students. Center folders are folders designed to keep the student and centers neat and organized by keeping this folder dedicated solely to center work. At my work, Harmony Learning Center, the students have these types of folders and I find them to be very beneficial. The literacy centers help guide teachers to create their own centers by having a template for each center they illustrate. Each center, however, is geared most closely to literacy skills; however, teachers can add in different content areas to fit their classroom better. The site also provides teachers with literacy center packets for teachers to print out.

The only drawback I see on this site is that they do not mention any techniques that which teachers can implement different content areas to the centers, rather, they just simply state that it can be done. The site speaks simply only with regards to centers that deal with literacy skills. Conversely, this may be beneficial to teachers in that they are pushed to develop their own centers with a model from a different subject matter.

Through Google, I found a teachers personal site, http://www.mrsnelsonsclass.com/home.aspx , This is a first and second grade teacher, Mrs. Kimberly Nelson, who strives to provide all the resources, ideas, and samples which aid teachers in developing creative ideas in their own classroom. On the resource page, Mrs. Nelson provides different categories which fits more than just literacy center context such as, traveling buddies, class management, brain gym and yoga, teaching materials, classroom setup, centers, units and activities, teaching phonics, teaching math, teaching writing, and teaching reading. What I liked most about this site is that it went a step forward and illustrated many different examples for each tab. For example, under classroom setup, there are six different classroom setups and the audience can easily see why the classroom is set up in that type of way. Then, there is an additional resource link called, Scholastic Classroom Setup Tool . This is described as a virtual layout tool that helps you design customized and effective classrooms to promote learning. “Use this tool to rearrange and set-up mock classrooms, and map out virtual seating charts.” I really liked the Fantastic Facts Center. I thought it was very creative and interesting for the students. Students get to choose a non-fiction book to read then make a fact poster demonstrating four facts from the book. Mrs. Nelson provides a vast amount of centers for different levels. For each center description, she provides pintables’ that which she printed each center direction sheet onto pre-designed school themed paper and glued it onto a colored file folder. “If you don't have any themed paper, you can print the center direction sheets on regular paper and cut them out with craft scissors for a special effect. On the other side of the file folder, I glued an completed example of the recording sheet. I laminated the folder and put all of the materials inside of it when I store it. When it is time to use, I place the folder and materials in a literacy tub for students to use” explained Mrs. Nelson. This here, is extremely valuable for classroom management while using literacy centers, I feel as though it exceeds the first site by a mile.