The search engine that I decided to use for this week’s blog was google.com. It is a search engine that I am most familiar with and have used many times for information. When I searched for literacy centers there were many websites to choose from. Every teacher has a unique way to set up their classroom centers. Exploring these sites will give me a useful tool to use when setting up my centers for my classroom.
The first website that I investigated was: http://www.msrossbec.com/literacy_index.html. This site had many different learning centers for teachers to review and modify to their own. It listed 22 different centers with a PDF file attachment giving activities that are done at that center. One of the examples in the first section was using magnetic letters. The students were to spell out their classmates’ names using the letters. I remember doing this in our class last week. I like this activity because all students could participate.
The second website I investigated was: http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_en.htm. This site is designed for early education grade levels. It demonstrated how to write letters, draw shapes, and learn colors. The site had multiple folders for you chose what activity you want the student to learn. Each folder had one specific goal that it was teaching. The one folder I found that could be a great learning tool was the writing tool. When you click on a letter the pencil becomes active on the screen and demonstrates how to write a certain letter. For example when you click the “c” the pencil will touch the screen and write out the letter and also say the letter. For this type of activity you could have the student trace along with the pencil on the computer screen.
Next was http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_en.htm which allowed a student to trace along on the computer screen. This site would be very useful for a student who is struggling with fine motor skill techniques. The last website that I reviewed was http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/literacy_centers%20Final.htm. This website is similar to the first one. It provided pictures of the activity that the students are doing. It gave great visual examples of what the teacher wanted the student to learn. Just in these three sites I was able to see many examples of how centers can be set up. The internet is a great tool for a teacher to use for ideas.