Stations are a mainstay for student-centered learning. Student autonomy, creative thinking, vocabulary development, student engagement– the potential benefits can be almost awe-inspiring. But stations can also be a bit misleading. Students APPEAR to be digging in on the task, but are they really understanding what they are doing? How much are they relying on one another? Crafting truly successful station rotation lessons can be daunting. This podcast spells out the benefits of station teaching, the biggest question to answer, and “Watch Outs!” Plus, some tips on implementation issues that can develop, such as student accountability and classroom management.
Podcast is for all subjects and grades:
https://myedexpert.com/category/podcasts/
If you teach social studies, here’s a free station rotation lesson ready to go on the branches of government. Intended for deep unit, this is one of the lessons Suzy uses to model stations during professional development. Includes: card game, error analysis, sort, and agree/disagree.
https://myedexpert.com/item/branches-of-government-station-rotation/
Literacy expert Dr. Katie McKnight has authored over 16 books AND she is an expert on station teaching, especially for older kids. ELA teachers: she has a couple of stations ready to go, including a Snapchat one and something cool on contractions. PLUS, Katie has an entire book on literacy strategies for science, math and technical subjects. (Adore her improv strategies, too!) Everything mentioned here are FREE downloads – so grab all of that!
https://myedexpert.com/vendor/KatieMcKnight/
Social studies teachers! Take advantage of author Todd Stanley’s trading game…perfect for a station or anytime!
https://myedexpert.com/vendor/twosox21/
Curiosity engineer/author Gerald Aungst has a wonderful “Creating Cool and Curious Characters” item that students might just love as a station. (Try the free intro one first!) ELA/Reading
https://myedexpert.com/vendor/gaungst/
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