The site I found was really interesting. It has 22 literacy centers or stations. Each one includes about five or six activities that relate to spelling, reading, writing words and sentences, and then also a few activities that relate to art, math and other subjects. Examples that were included in the stations were listening to books on tape, writing a sentence about a classmate, using sing-language letters or magnets to spell someone’s name. The site also includes strategies that help students read and write more proficiently. I liked this website because the literacy strategies seemed very useful, however, I did think the author could go more in depth about each one and how it would be useful for students in which grade level.
http://www.msrossbec.com/literacy_index.html
Another site I found had many resources to use for centers. The author of the site said she taught them in 2nd grade but may also be useful for 1st or 3rd grades. One particular idea I found rather interesting was for changing the onset or rime of the word. The teacher had the rime on a big picture of a pencil and then the first letter (or first few letters) on a picture of an eraser. The students would rearrange the erasers with different pencils to show that when they change or erase the first letter(s) they are still able to make new words. This activity was called CVC Eraser Words.
Another activity I liked on the site was called Glue Words. Glue words are compound words that “glue” the sentences together. The students should make sentences and use their glue words to combine them. I thought this was a creative way to help students understand what the word compound actually means by using a picture and a word (glue) they are already familiar with. I also really liked this website because it enables you to download the actual pictures or copies the teacher used to teach her class and shows pictures of how the students were working with them. This site had many more ideas that used pictures to help the students understand what they were actually doing! I thought it was very resourceful for future teaching.
http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/literacy_centers%20Final.htm
Showing posts with label ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ideas. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Kristen W's resources on Literacy Centers
The first resource I found that includes helpful ideas for Literacy Centers referred to them as “ABC Centers” instead. This website makes explicit that all of these activities are looked forward to by the students because they view them as games rather than school work. These centers provide opportunities to strengthen the students’ skills such as their phonemic awareness, listening skills, oral language expression, rhyming, and reading skills. This website lists various types of centers that can be included like Fun Fonts which gives various fonts and letters to sort through similar characteristics, Letter Search which involves activities within it such as finding the letters for their name, Book Baskets which are baskets containing various types of books for various levels of readers, and Stamp a Story which includes alphabet stamps and making words that match pictures or more advanced and stamping a sentence or story. For each of these activities the website provides steps on how to organize these various centers into your classroom, pictures of each activity’s materials, and exact directions to help utilize them. Many of these activities seem to be for young grades, but could provide an outline of an activity that could be enhanced to a higher level. This resource suggests a group of students visiting a different center each day of the week and has a board that they check at the beginning of the day to see which center they will be at that day. This site is also great because it gives book resources for helpful center ideas and provides you with additional websites for Literacy Center ideas which led me to my next resource! :)
The next great resource for ideas on Literacy Centers was Teachers.net. My previous resource led me to this website on the page specifically for literacy centers for Kindergarten. This page had great activity ideas and directions on how to implement them into your classroom. A few activities given are Letter Sort using alphabet tiles, Name Game which involves the class’ own names and sorting them into different groups, and Felt Board which uses words and pictures for the students to explore and form a story or sentences. This website is also great, however, because it not only helps with Kindergarten, but all grade levels with great reading and writing ideas other than literacy centers. This website is a great source for teachers for forming any lesson plan or activity.
These websites really helped me to understand Literacy Centers and exciting activities that I can use myself. It was amazing to see how much information and help that I received from two websites. I realize the importance of search engines as well as fellow experienced teachers willing to help around the world.
The next great resource for ideas on Literacy Centers was Teachers.net. My previous resource led me to this website on the page specifically for literacy centers for Kindergarten. This page had great activity ideas and directions on how to implement them into your classroom. A few activities given are Letter Sort using alphabet tiles, Name Game which involves the class’ own names and sorting them into different groups, and Felt Board which uses words and pictures for the students to explore and form a story or sentences. This website is also great, however, because it not only helps with Kindergarten, but all grade levels with great reading and writing ideas other than literacy centers. This website is a great source for teachers for forming any lesson plan or activity.
These websites really helped me to understand Literacy Centers and exciting activities that I can use myself. It was amazing to see how much information and help that I received from two websites. I realize the importance of search engines as well as fellow experienced teachers willing to help around the world.
Jamie Oberg Literacy Centers
The first website I went to had many different literature games. This website could be geared appropriately depending on the age but because it does use technically, it may be best to use this for the upper elementary grades. It seems to think that children learn best through interactive activities and also while having fun playing a game. There are games for adverbs, adjectives, sentence making, proof reading, and different types of grammar along with punctuation. It would be beneficial teaching a whole class to have the students work individually on their own computers or if this is not available, to take turns playing the game with is displayed onto a projection screen. It could also help engage the students if they worked on teams or pairs.
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/literacy2.htm#grammar
The second website I went to would be helpful for younger students because it includes many different coloring pages. They require cutting different sentences up and rearranging, completing sentences that coordinate with the picture, creating an alphabet book, or point to each word in the sentence on the coloring picture. Every activity on the website is based around hands-on learning activities to keep the students focused.
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/coloring-pages/reading-games-ideas.html
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/literacy2.htm#grammar
The second website I went to would be helpful for younger students because it includes many different coloring pages. They require cutting different sentences up and rearranging, completing sentences that coordinate with the picture, creating an alphabet book, or point to each word in the sentence on the coloring picture. Every activity on the website is based around hands-on learning activities to keep the students focused.
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/coloring-pages/reading-games-ideas.html
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Literacy Center Ideas
Free Book for New Teachers
At the bottom of this page, the teacher has a link that says free eBook. It is to help out new teachers that need ideas to help setup the classroom. You type in your email and name and she will send you something to download. She sends out free newsletters for teachers as well. She also has a place where you can type in your own ideas for literacy centers. This is a good website because teachers can work off of each others ideas and make them better. She also has some good guidelines to follow when thinking about literacy centers. First she says to make them so the children do not have to have constant supervision. Second, make sure it does not require maintenance, like revamping every week or month. Third, make sure it meets the needs of many students. It has many other guidelines you can check out on this website. She has lots of centers on her website, not just ones about literacy but all kinds. All the centers have some kind of literacy in them though. She has lots of good tips on how to set the centers up and how to keep the children’s behavior under control while they are in centers.
Other Good Resource for New Teachers
The other website that I looked at was a good one too. She showed how she set up her classroom for literacy centers and gives you resources you can print off or website links that have good information as well. She shows picture of the children working in their centers. She has a lot of really good ideas for literacy centers and I love that she shows everything she uses in the classroom. This way I know that what she uses works for her class and most likely will work in my future classroom. This website also has feedback from other teachers about what did work or what they changed to make it better in their classroom. The teachers work together to build a stronger classroom. This teacher has direct links to websites that tell you what materials you need for the centers and the directions for the centers. She has many kinds of centers as well. Not all of them are literacy but everything has literacy incorporated into it. I love this website because it has so many good resources and she is very organized with her information. I added both of these websites to my favorites.
At the bottom of this page, the teacher has a link that says free eBook. It is to help out new teachers that need ideas to help setup the classroom. You type in your email and name and she will send you something to download. She sends out free newsletters for teachers as well. She also has a place where you can type in your own ideas for literacy centers. This is a good website because teachers can work off of each others ideas and make them better. She also has some good guidelines to follow when thinking about literacy centers. First she says to make them so the children do not have to have constant supervision. Second, make sure it does not require maintenance, like revamping every week or month. Third, make sure it meets the needs of many students. It has many other guidelines you can check out on this website. She has lots of centers on her website, not just ones about literacy but all kinds. All the centers have some kind of literacy in them though. She has lots of good tips on how to set the centers up and how to keep the children’s behavior under control while they are in centers.
Other Good Resource for New Teachers
The other website that I looked at was a good one too. She showed how she set up her classroom for literacy centers and gives you resources you can print off or website links that have good information as well. She shows picture of the children working in their centers. She has a lot of really good ideas for literacy centers and I love that she shows everything she uses in the classroom. This way I know that what she uses works for her class and most likely will work in my future classroom. This website also has feedback from other teachers about what did work or what they changed to make it better in their classroom. The teachers work together to build a stronger classroom. This teacher has direct links to websites that tell you what materials you need for the centers and the directions for the centers. She has many kinds of centers as well. Not all of them are literacy but everything has literacy incorporated into it. I love this website because it has so many good resources and she is very organized with her information. I added both of these websites to my favorites.
Stacy's Literacy Center Ideas
This website had a bunch of ideas for literacy centers. It gave the title, or what you would call the center and then below it would be a description of what the students would be doing in that specific center. It even had rainbow spelling which we did in class on Monday. It has the name of the literacy center in red, the primary skill being performed in bold black, and the description below in black so its easy to follow when browsing through the website. The next website I looked at gave more visuals of how you can set up your literacy centers. There was a picture of what the literacy board looked like which was kind of like the red, blue, green and yellow pocket thing that you brought into class. I really liked this website because each idea for a literacy center that they gave, they had a picture of what it looked like as well as one with the students interacting with it. It also had the title and an explanation of what should be done during the center. When comparing the two websites, I liked the second one better because it gave me more visuals of what the literacy center should look like. Although the first one gave a lot of ideas, it was less detailed and just boring. I would reccomend the second website. There are a lot of resources that are given to you on the website so you don't have to go to other places to search for something to use. What you need to produce the literacy center is all given.
First Website: http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/beginning10.html
Second website : http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/literacy_centers%20Final.htm
Courtney Dressler's Literacy Center Ideas
This teacher's website introduces teachers to a variety of literacy centers that she implements into her classroom on a daily basis.
Literacy Circles: Small groups both read and work together while studying a piece of literature from the series the class is focusing on
Browsing Box: Acting as a connection to reader's workshop, guided reading groups chose familiar texts read during group reading time and share them with the class.
Independent Reading Centers: Student choses a book from class library and completes a book review that is kept in a binder near the library for other students to look at in order to help them determine what they would like to read
Buddy Reading: Two copies of each book, from all level, are organized so that two students can read the book together and then either work as a pair or separately to draw or write about their favorite parts
Writing Folder: Students make their own books and write stories that they want to share with the class. It is encouraged that children be given a "book-like" format so that they feel more like an author. Books may also be "published" using word processor.
Journal Writing: Teacher uses prompt in order to engage teacher in writing activities.
Pocket Chart: Usually done using a pre-planned activity, the class can use sentence strips in order to show their comprehension of a previously read book.
Phonics Center: Phonics techniques are reinforced using literature, games, index cards, etc.
Handwriting Center: Using various materials, students are encouraged to practice making letters
Overhead: Using graphic organizers, graphs, venn diagrams, etc. students are encouraged to present their work and thought processes to their peers.
Sight Word Center: Using rubber stamps, magnetic letters, etc. word manipulation is reinforced in order to help students learn their sight words
Poetry Box: Using individual poetry binders as organizers, both professional and authentic poems are created, edited, illustrated in order to emphasize the importance of poetry.
Listening: Students may either listen to the teacher or a pre-recorded book, followed by some sort of activity to prove comprehension and understanding.
Big Books: Using pointers or other visual aides, kids read the groups either as a whole class or in small groups. Other manipulative can also be used in order to practice certain skills, e.g. pipe cleaners circling sight words.
Computers: "living books" or CD roms can reinforce certain phonics or literacy skills. Students can reflect their new knowledge or feelings of activities in their individual logs.
Stamp a Story: Students use large rubber stamps to create an illustration and provide a logical story to explain their thoughts.
Build a Sentence: After choosing sentence parts out of a bag, students create silly and humorous sentences that are recorded on sentence strips and shared with the class.
Deal a Story: Using many different colored cards, students chose a card that has a subject which to write about.
This website had many different ideas, a lot of which I would have never thought of on my own! Although I have summarized all of the teacher's activities in this blog, I highly encourage you to visit her website and read further about ideas and suggestions that she has for each activity!
Literacy Centers (Emilea Bade)
One of the great resources for literacy centers that I found was a website called "Literacy Centers: Literacy Center Ideas and Management Tips." (http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy_stations/main.html) This website has every resource that I could imagine a teacher would possibly need to set up their own literacy centers in their classroom. The website has a section that goes through the setup and management of your literacy centers. This section of the site gives ideas on how to use things such as rotation charts to keep your centers organized and running smoothly. You can also view pictures of the different charts and signs that can be created for the management of the centers. Another thing that this website offers is ideas of what to do for your different centers. The website puts these into categories such as writing centers, listening centers, vocabulary centers, and computer centers, so that they are easy to browse through and select a station that works well for your particular classroom. You can also purchase different packets from the website that include different activities such as games that can be useful for your literacy centers.
Another resource that I found was elementary-teacher-resources.com (http://www.elementary-teacher-resources.com/literacy-centers.html). This website has more information and examples of literacy centers that teachers may want to implement in their own classrooms. The website includes a YouTube video that you can view of the different elements of a perfect center as well as information about different kinds of centers. Each center mentioned in the short video has pictures that supplement it giving the viewer a great visual of how the center looks when it is being used in the classroom. You can also view individual pages for each literacy center that the video mentions so that you can get a more in depth description of the materials needed and how to set up each literacy center. On this website you can also sent in your own ideas for literacy centers that have worked for you.
The last interesting site that I found is "Literacy Centers in Kindergarten" (http://www.learningtoread.ecsd.net/KLiteracyCenters.htm). It is easy to think of activities for upper elementary students who are better readers to do in literacy centers, but kindergartners can seem more challenging to some since they are only starting to develop basic reading and writing skills. This website includes ideas of literacy centers to use with kindergartners and includes pictures of the centers being used in a classroom. These centers focus a lot more on phonemic awareness and alphabet and letter activities. There are also some centers that help the students to being reading books and writing. This website could also be beneficial to elementary teachers with first to third grade classes because the activities could be geared up and altered a bit to become great centers for other lower elementary grade levels.
Another resource that I found was elementary-teacher-resources.com (http://www.elementary-teacher-resources.com/literacy-centers.html). This website has more information and examples of literacy centers that teachers may want to implement in their own classrooms. The website includes a YouTube video that you can view of the different elements of a perfect center as well as information about different kinds of centers. Each center mentioned in the short video has pictures that supplement it giving the viewer a great visual of how the center looks when it is being used in the classroom. You can also view individual pages for each literacy center that the video mentions so that you can get a more in depth description of the materials needed and how to set up each literacy center. On this website you can also sent in your own ideas for literacy centers that have worked for you.
The last interesting site that I found is "Literacy Centers in Kindergarten" (http://www.learningtoread.ecsd.net/KLiteracyCenters.htm). It is easy to think of activities for upper elementary students who are better readers to do in literacy centers, but kindergartners can seem more challenging to some since they are only starting to develop basic reading and writing skills. This website includes ideas of literacy centers to use with kindergartners and includes pictures of the centers being used in a classroom. These centers focus a lot more on phonemic awareness and alphabet and letter activities. There are also some centers that help the students to being reading books and writing. This website could also be beneficial to elementary teachers with first to third grade classes because the activities could be geared up and altered a bit to become great centers for other lower elementary grade levels.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Christine Balcarcel- Literacy Center
Using yahoo, I searched "literacy center ideas". I came across many different sites with a variety of resources for literacy centers in the classroom. One particular site I found was http://www.mrsmcdowell.com/Literacy%20Boxes/boxes.htm . This site was made by a teacher who was able to transform her entire classroom into different literacy centers. One particular thing that this teacher did was set up a mini gazebo in the corner of her classroom, equipped with pillows and stuffed animals. This gazebo makes silent reading especially comfortable and special for her students. Another station in her classroom is the sticker story station. In this station, students pick 3 or 4 stickers from a bucket and stick them to a sheet of paper. On that same sheet, students write a 4 or 5 sentence story about the stickers that they chose. This allows students to use their imagination, and makes for some creative illustrations. A third station in this classroom is the letter center. In this center, the teacher provides fun stationary, pens, and stamps. Students then can write letters to their friends and family. The website provides several other ideas and resources for literacy centers in the classroom.
Another website I found helpful was http://www.teachingheart.net/LC.htm . This website also has many ideas for different centers in the classroom. For instance, this teacher has 8 different activities that students could use that involve using the classroom word wall. One of these activities is the ABC word wall, which requires students to put the word wall words in alphabetical order. Another center this teacher implements in her classroom is the poem center. At this center, students read a poem and then draw what they picture when they read the words. They also can write their own poems and illustrations.
After researching different literacy center ideas I think that it would be extremely beneficial to incorporate literacy centers in my own classroom. They motivate students to read and help them learn important subjects such as spelling, writing, and rhyming.
Another website I found helpful was http://www.teachingheart.net/LC.htm . This website also has many ideas for different centers in the classroom. For instance, this teacher has 8 different activities that students could use that involve using the classroom word wall. One of these activities is the ABC word wall, which requires students to put the word wall words in alphabetical order. Another center this teacher implements in her classroom is the poem center. At this center, students read a poem and then draw what they picture when they read the words. They also can write their own poems and illustrations.
After researching different literacy center ideas I think that it would be extremely beneficial to incorporate literacy centers in my own classroom. They motivate students to read and help them learn important subjects such as spelling, writing, and rhyming.
Kate Neal's Literacy Center Ideas
The first website I looked at was one that listed several ideas for literacy centers. For example, personal journals (where the child can write about what ever he or she wants to), the books I have read journal (consists of a list of books the child has read as well as his or her thoughts/pictures of the reading), fill in the missing letters and/or words of a passage, what will the ending be (where the child guesses what the end of the word will be with the information provided), computer publishing (writing a story on the computer), drawing a scene and writing a passage to go along with the picture, and make a silly sentence (randomly grab words out of a bag and form a sentence). The silly sentence does not have to make sense. All of the stations deal with literacy and have their own way of incorporating literacy. This website was called CanTeach: Literacy Centre Ideas and here is the link:
http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/beginning10.html
The second website I was interested in was posted by a Mrs. Mcdowell (teacher). She shares the importance of literacy and literacy centers and how they play a big role in students be able to gain independence in grammar, spelling, reading, writing, etc. Mrs. Mcdowell has literacy boxes set up in her classroom which are tubs of goodies that the children use during literacy time. Some of the literacy centers she has are sticker story (the student grabs 4 stickers from the tub and write a 3 to 5 sentence story that coordinates with their sticker story), clap a word (the students pick a word from a tub and clap the syllables aloud), treasure chest (the tub has up to 5 different items in it and the child is suppose to write the word of the item and then write a sentence containing all of the words of the 5 items), lace a word (letter beads are places on pipe cleaners to create words and sentences), letter center (the area has neat pens and paper for the child to write a letter to family or friends or even their thoughts and feelings), spelling box (this activity has the weekly spelling words the children are suppose to learn and gives the children time in class to study and grasp the words they will be tested on), etc.
Both of these sites will be a great resource for when I get my own classroom.
http://www.mrsmcdowell.com/Literacy%20Boxes/boxes.htm
http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/beginning10.html
The second website I was interested in was posted by a Mrs. Mcdowell (teacher). She shares the importance of literacy and literacy centers and how they play a big role in students be able to gain independence in grammar, spelling, reading, writing, etc. Mrs. Mcdowell has literacy boxes set up in her classroom which are tubs of goodies that the children use during literacy time. Some of the literacy centers she has are sticker story (the student grabs 4 stickers from the tub and write a 3 to 5 sentence story that coordinates with their sticker story), clap a word (the students pick a word from a tub and clap the syllables aloud), treasure chest (the tub has up to 5 different items in it and the child is suppose to write the word of the item and then write a sentence containing all of the words of the 5 items), lace a word (letter beads are places on pipe cleaners to create words and sentences), letter center (the area has neat pens and paper for the child to write a letter to family or friends or even their thoughts and feelings), spelling box (this activity has the weekly spelling words the children are suppose to learn and gives the children time in class to study and grasp the words they will be tested on), etc.
Both of these sites will be a great resource for when I get my own classroom.
http://www.mrsmcdowell.com/Literacy%20Boxes/boxes.htm
Amy Stone's Literacy Center Ideas
I searched Google to find any information I could on literacy center ideas. The results mostly came from teachers that had implemented the ideas in their classrooms and included several pictures and descriptions of how those centers could be developed and used on an everyday basis. I also found a site that simply listed numerous different ideas for literacy centers and included what grades the ideas could be used in and what skill would be addressed in that idea.
The first website I searched was called Teaching Heart’s Learning Centers Page. This website was set up as a blog type atmosphere with descriptions and pictures of the learning centers that were used throughout her classroom. She has six different centers in her classroom which were the listening center, word wall center, reading center, making words center, making sentences center, and poem center. The students have colored dots next to their names on their desks and those dots correspond to the center they are to work on for that day. Once they begin working on the center, there is a worksheet or activity that they have to complete at the different centers. I think this is a good idea because it provides a sort of “exit sheet” that can be used to make sure that the students are paying attention within the center and learning as much as possible. The teacher also provides pictures in the blog, which helps to show how the centers can be placed throughout a small classroom and what to use for dividing the centers up.
The second website I found was called ABC Literacy Centers. This website was also created by a teacher that used the different centers throughout her classroom. It seems that the ideas that are suggested on this website could be used more at the lower elementary levels. Some of the ideas shown on this website include clay letters, alphabet song workmats, syllable clapping game, listening center, and writing center. The teacher provides an explanation of each idea to be used in the literacy center and also includes a picture to show how the ideas can be implemented.
The third and final website that I visited was provided by CanTeach called Literacy Centers Ideas. This site lists numerous different center ideas that can be used in grades kindergarten through second. Most of the ideas involve listening skills, writing or drawing skills, and/or reading skills. On this site, each idea is provided with a small description to show what skills are included and how it would look in the classroom. Every website was very helpful in showing me how the centers could be used and how they could be included in the classroom. They also included many pictures that helped me to understand how it would look in a classroom setting.
Literacy Centers-Courtney S
After searching for different websites about literacy centers I discovered two websites that I found helpful. I really like the idea of using literacy centers but I wasn’t sure how they actually worked and what activities would be useful for them until I found these websites! The first website: http://www.ourschoolfamily.com/Literacy%20Centers.htm was useful because it provided examples of the different centers. The website was organized and had pictures of each idea that it provided. Underneath the pictures was an explanation of what the center was like and what the students do. Also, a cool feature of the website was that they included links underneath certain pictures of center ideas that would relate. The one thing about the website is that it isn’t very detailed about how to implement the ideas. It does provide good examples of activities to use in the centers.
The next website: http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy_stations/management.htm i found even more helpful. It tells you how long each group should stay at the different centers and how many times they should rotate (3). I liked how the website didn’t just show one teacher’s way of managing and implementing the centers. There were several pictures of different teacher’s ideas of how to manage the centers. I liked a combination of a bunch of them. One showed a little “mailbox” next to the groups to put Popsicle sticks with the students name in it to show which group each student is in. I like this because I would want to mix up my groups often. Popsicle sticks might not be the best solution in case students mix them up, but it gives me the idea of how to organize my groups. Also there are links of different resources like examples of literacy center assignments, station signs and a page that gives an over view of the literacy center ideas. Also, there are links to other sites. There are some links for student center activities for different grades, mini lessons, rotation schedules and many other very useful things! One thing I really like is that she also posts books about literacy centers. There is even a link to Amazon.com to buy them along with the price of the books! This website is very organized and provides a lot of good examples I can use to create my literacy centers in my future classroom!
The next website: http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy_stations/management.htm i found even more helpful. It tells you how long each group should stay at the different centers and how many times they should rotate (3). I liked how the website didn’t just show one teacher’s way of managing and implementing the centers. There were several pictures of different teacher’s ideas of how to manage the centers. I liked a combination of a bunch of them. One showed a little “mailbox” next to the groups to put Popsicle sticks with the students name in it to show which group each student is in. I like this because I would want to mix up my groups often. Popsicle sticks might not be the best solution in case students mix them up, but it gives me the idea of how to organize my groups. Also there are links of different resources like examples of literacy center assignments, station signs and a page that gives an over view of the literacy center ideas. Also, there are links to other sites. There are some links for student center activities for different grades, mini lessons, rotation schedules and many other very useful things! One thing I really like is that she also posts books about literacy centers. There is even a link to Amazon.com to buy them along with the price of the books! This website is very organized and provides a lot of good examples I can use to create my literacy centers in my future classroom!
Literacy Center Ideas (Leanne)
While searching for literacy center ideas, I noticed that many teachers have been attempting to incorporate such station areas. Many had great advice and/or stories for their successes. A particular site I found to be interesting was:
http://www.ourschoolfamily.com/Literacy%20Centers.htm
This site gave many examples of games and activities to be included in a literacy center. These ranged from book selections and wall decorations to specific worksheets and materials. Overall, this site showed the need to interaction with listening, reading, and writing for literacy. Students have exposure to learning skills like syllable recognition and handwriting. They also have the chance to enjoy learning these skills by using interactive games and manipulatives. This site shows a great variety of activities and interactions so that teachers can pick and choose what would be appropriate for individual classes.
Another website I found was very similar in its suggestions:
http://www.mspowell.com/otherwebpages/centerideas.htm
This site gave very specific ideas about incorporating literacy in the classroom. I liked how many of these ideas focused on using the room. Two activities I liked were "write the room" and "read the room". Both of these use the literacy around the room (posters, books...) and the students either read or write what they find. This shows the importance and relevance of literacy. When students can recognize the functions of reading and writing, they will hopefully become more excited about learning it.
Both of these sites gave many great ideas about how to use a literacy center. Ideas included both reading and writing, which shows just how much these two are linked. Students can see the functions of literacy by engaging in many of the activities. Also, since many of the suggestions are so interactive, I can see how students would be very motivated and excited to be involved.
http://www.ourschoolfamily.com/Literacy%20Centers.htm
This site gave many examples of games and activities to be included in a literacy center. These ranged from book selections and wall decorations to specific worksheets and materials. Overall, this site showed the need to interaction with listening, reading, and writing for literacy. Students have exposure to learning skills like syllable recognition and handwriting. They also have the chance to enjoy learning these skills by using interactive games and manipulatives. This site shows a great variety of activities and interactions so that teachers can pick and choose what would be appropriate for individual classes.
Another website I found was very similar in its suggestions:
http://www.mspowell.com/otherwebpages/centerideas.htm
This site gave very specific ideas about incorporating literacy in the classroom. I liked how many of these ideas focused on using the room. Two activities I liked were "write the room" and "read the room". Both of these use the literacy around the room (posters, books...) and the students either read or write what they find. This shows the importance and relevance of literacy. When students can recognize the functions of reading and writing, they will hopefully become more excited about learning it.
Both of these sites gave many great ideas about how to use a literacy center. Ideas included both reading and writing, which shows just how much these two are linked. Students can see the functions of literacy by engaging in many of the activities. Also, since many of the suggestions are so interactive, I can see how students would be very motivated and excited to be involved.
Literacy Centers (Jayne Royal)
First Literacy Center URL: http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy_stations/main.htm
Although this page was really corny I really liked the organizational layout. This website gave a number of different “centers” to have throughout the class to promote literacy. These centers included everything from a independent reading center to a poetry center. What I liked most about this website was that it seemed to cater to a lot of different students with different interests. If a student was really into a book they started reading at home we allowed time throughout the day to work on that. If a student was interested in poetry then they had the ability to foster that interest.
Second Literacy Center URL: http://www.ourschoolfamily.com/Literacy%20Centers.htm
This website was made a teacher in a young classroom. One thing that really struck me about this website was that the literacy centers that were chosen for the class really emphasized independence. Although the students were very young once the center was modeled for them they could most likely do it on their own. For example there is one center called the syllable clapping game. At this station the students put on their “clapping gloves” and clap out the number of syllables on the card in front of them. The students then turn the card over to see if they were correct or not. This allows the students to work independently or with partners to figure out how many syllables.
Third Literacy Center URL: http://www.elementary-teacher-resources.com/literacy-centers.html
What I liked most about this website was that it emphasized that literacy could be taught across subject lines. For example one of the stations is called “Heidi Songs Center.” In this center the students sing in order to indentify sight words. In another station called the Science Center the students use their literacy to build upon their science skills. I think that these days subjects like Music and Science do not get the time the deserve for whatever reason and by incorporating them into Language Arts you are building upon the students knowledge of literacy as well as a range of other topics.
Joe's Literacy Center Ideas
http://www.mspowell.com/otherwebpages/centerideas.htm
The first website I explored is titled Literacy Center Ideas: Motivating and fun materials to create your centers. This website gives a bunch of ideas for setting up centers in your classroom. The examples include book making, spelling centers, and different fun reading ideas to make literature more fun. I like this website because it has a few other links to other teacher’s literacy centers. I think it is good to see how other teachers set up their classroom and use their centers because we can use their ideas to improve our classrooms. This website has a ton of information and you could literally spend hours looking at of the activities. I definitely recommend this site.
http://www.elementary-teacher-resources.com/literacy-centers.html
The next website I visited is from elementary-teacher-resources.com. This website has some ideas on what to do in different types of centers. For example, in the reading center the teacher has an activity called books and baskets. This is where the students sit in laundry baskets and great from a selection of books. The teacher likes this idea because it gives the students personal space to read in. The teacher also brings pillows and blankets so the students can be comfortable when reading. Apparently it has been a big hit for this teacher during the past five years. I like this center because it is so different. It’s pretty cost efficient and it sounds like the students are having fun.
The first website I explored is titled Literacy Center Ideas: Motivating and fun materials to create your centers. This website gives a bunch of ideas for setting up centers in your classroom. The examples include book making, spelling centers, and different fun reading ideas to make literature more fun. I like this website because it has a few other links to other teacher’s literacy centers. I think it is good to see how other teachers set up their classroom and use their centers because we can use their ideas to improve our classrooms. This website has a ton of information and you could literally spend hours looking at of the activities. I definitely recommend this site.
http://www.elementary-teacher-resources.com/literacy-centers.html
The next website I visited is from elementary-teacher-resources.com. This website has some ideas on what to do in different types of centers. For example, in the reading center the teacher has an activity called books and baskets. This is where the students sit in laundry baskets and great from a selection of books. The teacher likes this idea because it gives the students personal space to read in. The teacher also brings pillows and blankets so the students can be comfortable when reading. Apparently it has been a big hit for this teacher during the past five years. I like this center because it is so different. It’s pretty cost efficient and it sounds like the students are having fun.
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
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
Alex Lew
The website http://www.k-3learningpages.net/web%20literacy%20centers.htm contains several links to other sites that have ideas about literacy centers. Some of these links however did not seem very substantial. One of the links on this site that did seem to be informative was A to Z teacher stuff, http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/Lesson_Plans/Learning_Centers/Literacy_Centers/index.shtml. This link then has numerous ideas on different lesson plans for implementing centers. For example, alphabet learning centers.
Another great link I found was, http://www.elementaryteacherresources.com/primary_literacy_centers.html. This site listed several literacy center ideas, however it did not explain how to implement the centers. There was a short video explaining briefly literacy centers as well as giving a few examples. There was a place on this website that teachers could post ideas and comments. This is helpful because it allows for constant updates on new ideas and gives the reader even more useful ideas for their classroom. The main site that this page is linked to is http://www.elementary-teacher-resources.com/. Although the entire site does not deal specifically with literacy centers or even just centers there are many resources located here that seem to be very helpful, such as ideas on lesson plans and the teacher’s favorite materials they use in the classroom.
Most of the websites I have come across while doing a search have been written by teachers. This is helpful because they give “real-life” advice on what works and what does not work when implementing their center ideas. It was neat to see how many different ideas there are for literacy centers and how they can be used within the classroom. Another thing I noticed about the sites is that most of the centers were recommended for younger grades. There are a lot of resources available online about literacy centers; it just takes some time to find the ones that are really helpful.
Another great link I found was, http://www.elementaryteacherresources.com/primary_literacy_centers.html. This site listed several literacy center ideas, however it did not explain how to implement the centers. There was a short video explaining briefly literacy centers as well as giving a few examples. There was a place on this website that teachers could post ideas and comments. This is helpful because it allows for constant updates on new ideas and gives the reader even more useful ideas for their classroom. The main site that this page is linked to is http://www.elementary-teacher-resources.com/. Although the entire site does not deal specifically with literacy centers or even just centers there are many resources located here that seem to be very helpful, such as ideas on lesson plans and the teacher’s favorite materials they use in the classroom.
Most of the websites I have come across while doing a search have been written by teachers. This is helpful because they give “real-life” advice on what works and what does not work when implementing their center ideas. It was neat to see how many different ideas there are for literacy centers and how they can be used within the classroom. Another thing I noticed about the sites is that most of the centers were recommended for younger grades. There are a lot of resources available online about literacy centers; it just takes some time to find the ones that are really helpful.
Literacy Centers- Kelly Reeder
After looking at different literacy center sites, the resource that I found to be most beneficial is called “Literacy Centers: Literacy Center Ideas and Management Tips.” There are many different tools and ideas within this site for a teacher to use while building his/her literacy centers. Some of these tools include management of literacy centers, independent reading center, word work center, writing center, listening center, language arts center, vocabulary center, computer center, and poetry center.
Within the literacy center management there are many tips and tools on how to move the centers along smoothly. There are various examples from teachers on different charts they used while working with centers. For the children to better understand the center that they are assigned to next, the teacher created a chart with the labeled center and each child’s name. While the students are working in their centers, the teacher then moves their name to the next center that they are assigned to. This eliminates a lot of the confusion and allows the teacher to help the students at centers, instead of figuring out who goes where!
The section I found to be most beneficial was writing centers. At this center the students are able to reflect on books that they have previously read, use picture prompts, writing packets, poetry prompts, paragraph order, genre writing, journals, and story starters. I like this section because it had the students use their reading and writing skills at the same time. These activities provided were fun and enjoyable for the students.
Here is the link to this site: http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy_stations/main.htm
Another site that I found was called “A B C Literacy Centers.” This site provides various activities to use while constructing a literacy center. Along with these activities, pictures and descriptions are provided to give a better view of how the center should look and be run.
The center within this site that I found to be most beneficial was name bingo. In this section the children are given a sheet with a chart on it. In the chart there are different names of their classmates. It did not say how they children will go about playing this game, but I’m sure that having the children take turns on drawing names out of a hat would work! There is a picture of the game cards, as well as a description on how to make it. This allows the children to play a game, while learning how to recognize and spell their classmates names.
The link to this site is: http://www.ourschoolfamily.com/Literacy%20Centers.htm
Within the literacy center management there are many tips and tools on how to move the centers along smoothly. There are various examples from teachers on different charts they used while working with centers. For the children to better understand the center that they are assigned to next, the teacher created a chart with the labeled center and each child’s name. While the students are working in their centers, the teacher then moves their name to the next center that they are assigned to. This eliminates a lot of the confusion and allows the teacher to help the students at centers, instead of figuring out who goes where!
The section I found to be most beneficial was writing centers. At this center the students are able to reflect on books that they have previously read, use picture prompts, writing packets, poetry prompts, paragraph order, genre writing, journals, and story starters. I like this section because it had the students use their reading and writing skills at the same time. These activities provided were fun and enjoyable for the students.
Here is the link to this site: http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy_stations/main.htm
Another site that I found was called “A B C Literacy Centers.” This site provides various activities to use while constructing a literacy center. Along with these activities, pictures and descriptions are provided to give a better view of how the center should look and be run.
The center within this site that I found to be most beneficial was name bingo. In this section the children are given a sheet with a chart on it. In the chart there are different names of their classmates. It did not say how they children will go about playing this game, but I’m sure that having the children take turns on drawing names out of a hat would work! There is a picture of the game cards, as well as a description on how to make it. This allows the children to play a game, while learning how to recognize and spell their classmates names.
The link to this site is: http://www.ourschoolfamily.com/Literacy%20Centers.htm
Literacy Centers-Alex N.
http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy_stations/main.htm
After learning about literacy centers during class I was a little confused about how they worked. This blog really helped me understand the purpose of literacy centers and also what literacy centers consist of. This site in particular was really helpful and I recommend it to new teachers because it gave a lot of information on how to set up the centers, how to manage them, and also, ideas for what to put in to the centers. The thing I liked most about this site was how it explained how to manage the centers, or choosing who goes to which center and when they go to them. The site gave examples from teachers and even included pictures of teachers charts that they use in their classroom to manage their own centers. I also liked that this site gave links to other sites in case you did not get all the information you wanted.
Another thing that I liked about this site was it gave examples of activities that you could do at each center. This website broke down different categories that you might want as centers such as, Independent Reading Center, Word Work Center, Writing Center, Listening Center, etc. Within each of these centers there were ideas of what to include to help support the learning that is going on. Under the Word Work center some of the ideas were a word sort, a bingo game, alphabet tiles, or a word web. Also in addition to giving ideas on what to include in your centers, this website also provided worksheets that students can fill out while at their centers.
http://www.ourschoolfamily.com/Literacy%20Centers.htm
This website was also helpful, but it did not go into as much detail as the previous one. This site included pictures of what a specific teacher does in her literacy centers. I liked this site because it did give examples of what to do, but unlike the previous site it did not really give a wide variety of different centers. Like the last site this one did include at least one link to another site to get more ideas which I find is a good idea. It allows the person reading with more flexibility to pick ideas that they like. Overall I think literacy centers are necessary in a classroom to guarantee the teacher to perform guided reading activities with small groups. Both of these sites were beneficial to gaining an understanding of how to introduce and use literacy centers in your classroom.
After learning about literacy centers during class I was a little confused about how they worked. This blog really helped me understand the purpose of literacy centers and also what literacy centers consist of. This site in particular was really helpful and I recommend it to new teachers because it gave a lot of information on how to set up the centers, how to manage them, and also, ideas for what to put in to the centers. The thing I liked most about this site was how it explained how to manage the centers, or choosing who goes to which center and when they go to them. The site gave examples from teachers and even included pictures of teachers charts that they use in their classroom to manage their own centers. I also liked that this site gave links to other sites in case you did not get all the information you wanted.
Another thing that I liked about this site was it gave examples of activities that you could do at each center. This website broke down different categories that you might want as centers such as, Independent Reading Center, Word Work Center, Writing Center, Listening Center, etc. Within each of these centers there were ideas of what to include to help support the learning that is going on. Under the Word Work center some of the ideas were a word sort, a bingo game, alphabet tiles, or a word web. Also in addition to giving ideas on what to include in your centers, this website also provided worksheets that students can fill out while at their centers.
http://www.ourschoolfamily.com/Literacy%20Centers.htm
This website was also helpful, but it did not go into as much detail as the previous one. This site included pictures of what a specific teacher does in her literacy centers. I liked this site because it did give examples of what to do, but unlike the previous site it did not really give a wide variety of different centers. Like the last site this one did include at least one link to another site to get more ideas which I find is a good idea. It allows the person reading with more flexibility to pick ideas that they like. Overall I think literacy centers are necessary in a classroom to guarantee the teacher to perform guided reading activities with small groups. Both of these sites were beneficial to gaining an understanding of how to introduce and use literacy centers in your classroom.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Rachel's Literacy Center Search
The first website I went to (http://www.mrsmcdowell.com/Literacy%20Boxes/boxes.htm), I got some creative ideas on what kind of activities I could do in a literacy center and how the center could be set up. This teacher had a big “beehive” set up in the corner of her room. Students could take turns reading in beehive. She also had comfy chairs set up too where the kids could sit as well. I thought the beehive was a creative way for kids to have a comfortable place to read in the classroom. Also included on the website were creative literacy activities she would have in labeled boxes on shelves in the center as well. This website was more informative on activities you might include in the center rather than how you might set one up.
Another website I visited was (http://www.welcometothepond.com/literacy_centers.htm). I thought this website also had a lot of creative ideas for literacy activities in a literacy center. She even included worksheets that she used so other people could print them out if they wanted to. Most of her activities were geared towards older elementary (3rd or 4th). It was interesting to see examples of activities you could include in an older elementary literacy center.
Meredith Monserez's Literacy Centers Review
The first useful site I discovered while searching for Literacy Center Ideas is called "Literacy Centers/Literacy Stations: Learning center ideas, resources, and printables!" I found this website to be extremely thorough in regards to outlining how a literacy center should be managed and organized. It also provided many detailed ideas and examples of assignments that could be used in each literacy station. It also provided many printable handouts and center signs that can be used for each literacy station as well as links to books that the author of the site found more useful for literacy centers.
The different center ideas that were offered on this site included an Independent Reading Center, a Word Work Center, a Writing Center, a Listening Center, a Poetry Center, a Vocabulary Center, a Computer Center, a Language Center, and a Literature Circles Center. Not only does this site provide all of these center examples, but it also provides many different assignment and activity ideas to do within each center. Some of these assignments have corresponding handouts that can be printed directly from the website.
This site also provided suggestions for how to manage Literacy Centers. This is to not only keep everything organized, but also help the children know which centers to go to. One example of a management system was based on using index cards and cut outs. When the students would rotate to each center, all the teacher has to do it move the white index card with the child's name on it to the next center they are to go to. It was also recommended that each child have a folder that is designated for each Literacy Center. This will help keep them organized.
The link to this website is, http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy_stations/main.htm
Another useful page that I found while searching for Literacy Center ideas came from the site titled "Ms. Powell's Management Ideas for Teachers." Within this site, there is a page titled, "Literacy Center Ideas: Motivating and fun materials to create for your centers." This page provides an extremely large amount of examples of different literacy centers that can be used. One example of a center that is suggested it a "Rainbow Spelling Center", in which the teacher posts the weeks spelling words and the children write them all three times each with colored pencils or colored markers. Others included were a "Listening Center", a "Stamp a Word or Story Center", a "Bookmaking Center" and a "Journal Writing Center." This page also provided many printable handouts to use during these centers. The link to this webpage is, http://www.mspowell.com/otherwebpages/centerideas.htm .
The different center ideas that were offered on this site included an Independent Reading Center, a Word Work Center, a Writing Center, a Listening Center, a Poetry Center, a Vocabulary Center, a Computer Center, a Language Center, and a Literature Circles Center. Not only does this site provide all of these center examples, but it also provides many different assignment and activity ideas to do within each center. Some of these assignments have corresponding handouts that can be printed directly from the website.
This site also provided suggestions for how to manage Literacy Centers. This is to not only keep everything organized, but also help the children know which centers to go to. One example of a management system was based on using index cards and cut outs. When the students would rotate to each center, all the teacher has to do it move the white index card with the child's name on it to the next center they are to go to. It was also recommended that each child have a folder that is designated for each Literacy Center. This will help keep them organized.
The link to this website is, http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy_stations/main.htm
Another useful page that I found while searching for Literacy Center ideas came from the site titled "Ms. Powell's Management Ideas for Teachers." Within this site, there is a page titled, "Literacy Center Ideas: Motivating and fun materials to create for your centers." This page provides an extremely large amount of examples of different literacy centers that can be used. One example of a center that is suggested it a "Rainbow Spelling Center", in which the teacher posts the weeks spelling words and the children write them all three times each with colored pencils or colored markers. Others included were a "Listening Center", a "Stamp a Word or Story Center", a "Bookmaking Center" and a "Journal Writing Center." This page also provided many printable handouts to use during these centers. The link to this webpage is, http://www.mspowell.com/otherwebpages/centerideas.htm .
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