Ignite Your Teaching
Ignite Your Teaching
EP 258 - Mastering Literacy Centers in Junior Grades
Master the art of creating engaging and effective literacy centers for students in grades 3 to 6. Join us as we debunk common myths and provide insights on how to make these centers standardized, easy to implement, and intriguing for students. Discover the power of student self-selection and how it can significantly improve motivation and interest levels in the learning environment. In the second half, we explore practical strategies for incorporating spelling and grammar lessons into writing, creating a richer assessment for students. We also discuss different organizational approaches for literacy centers, including fixed and flexible groupings. Don't miss our special bonus training for the Changing Tides Literacy Group. Get ready to revolutionize your literacy instruction and make a lasting impact on your students' learning journey.
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Literacy centers in a structured literacy classroom for grades 3 to 6. Though I wanted to dispel some myths, many teachers believe that centers need to be super structured and be a rigid rotation schedule where a group of students work in one location of your classroom together All on the same task, or that centers need to be this elaborate set of activities that require a tremendous amount of prep and organization for you to execute. Centers and engineer grades don't need to be tied to a specific location in your classroom. Students within the same group can work anywhere in your room, whether it is underneath the table or at their desk. Centers can also be standardized and straightforward to implement, so you can prep it once and use it multiple times. There is no need to have elaborate centers that require a tremendous amount of prep to execute. You also don't need rigid groups. Well, it may be beneficial to start the year with rigid groupings so the students can get used to this routine. It is an option. It is not necessary to maintain strict groupings throughout the year. It's important to remember that centers activities are more than just busy work or things to keep people entertained while you meet with small groups. The activities inside your center should be engaging to your students, self-selected by students, to keep them motivated to work on it and something meaningful. It is much easier to manage the behaviors of students working in independent centers when they are engaged and interested in what they're doing. The best way to motivate students and have them care about what they're doing is for them to decide what they're working on. For some junior students, this does take time to adjust to because they're not used to letting adults give them the autonomy and choices. Junior students can decide what they want to work on, when they want to work on it and what they want to do, with a little support and coaching from you. So I want to share some effective strategies to help engage your students in practicing their literacy skills. Independent activities centered on student voice and choice keep students motivated and promote meaningful learning. Whole group lessons are there to introduce new concepts, but independent activities allows for practice and consolidation. Tailoring these activities for the week with student choice, giving ownership and decision-making skills. Providing meaningful activities gives relevance to learning, and incorporating independent activities through learning centers is a powerful way to engage students and promote meaningful learning.
Patti Firth:Typically, in a week, my students engage in three different centers activities responding to reading, creative writing and word work. The first centers respond to reading. Now this can be called many things, whether it's reading, comprehension, readers workshop, work on reading or respond to reading. The center's name is not as important as the activities that are happening inside of it. This center will cover all of your reading comprehension, expectation and skills, regardless of what you call it. First you'll need a text. Now you can use the guided reading text that you have for the week for both your guided reading and your independent text. There's no rule that says that the first time a student's read a text for your guided reading, that it has to be a brand new text. So you can use two texts, one text for two purposes, or you can have a separate text that you want students to read for your reading center. I personally like reusing the guided reading text because it's one less thing I need to prep and prepare for the week. During the center, students are going to read the text and respond to it using a reading response question and respond and answer that question about the text that they read. I like using a reading response choice board that allows students to choose the questions they will respond to. The options on the choice board reflect the various comprehension strategies students must use when reading that match curriculum expectations, such as predictions, making connections, making inferences, evaluating and synthesizing. You can also have students engage in literal comprehension activities, such as summarizing the text that they read, identifying the main idea or retelling the story. I'll say it before and I'll say it again, but this is definitely a hill that I'm going to die on. Students should be engaged in creative writing every single day, and it needs to be on something that is personally relevant to them, selected by them and written by them.
Patti Firth:Now the student in this center is going to select a purpose for writing and they're going to select a topic that they want to write about. Now, they're doing this on their own and some students may require assistance, but generally, it's going to be the student's choice and interest that directs what they're going to write about. They will choose from four different categories. They will decide to write a narrative, such as a story in any form, a persuasive text, such as an ad or an editorial or an opinion paragraph. They will write an expository piece of writing, such as a research report or paragraph. Now, for older students, I do expect them to write more than one paragraph or, additionally, they can also write a descriptive form, such as a recount, a biography or a journal entry. These are just some of the ideas that I provide students through a writing choice board that will allow them to choose the kind of writing that they want to write about.
Patti Firth:Now I often get the question how would they possibly write in a certain form if they're not really aware of that form? This is where you really are going to have to trust the process, remembering that students come into us with previous experiences. They know how to have an opinion and they know how to give reasons for that opinion so they can write a persuasive text. They also have witnessed many persuasive types of advertisements and could probably write their own. Now can we work with them to refine that Absolutely? Can we help to support them in understanding what features and things they need to include in that? 100%? But do they have to have all the puzzle pieces prior to writing? They don't Focus on their goal. Focus on what it is they need to do, and remember that we are working in general to specific here.
Patti Firth:Now, once they have a topic and purpose for writing, their next step is to brainstorm and organize their information, including research if required. Once they have their plan in place, it's time for them to draft their writing, using detailed descriptions and good word choice in proper sentences. Once the draft is complete, students are asked to edit and revise their papers to improve spelling and grammar. It's never my expectation that spelling and grammar needs to be perfect on the first draft. I firmly believe that our first draft in writing needs to be about our thoughts and ideas, getting them down on paper. For some students, worrying about whether or not every word is spelled correctly or the period in the correct places is a huge hindrance for them to even start writing. So focus on the first draft as being about ideas and then allow them time to revise and edit before they hand it in to you.
Patti Firth:Looking at this is a two-part step for some students, who will allow their creativity to thrive. Once their first draft is done and it's been edited and revised, it's time for them to schedule a meeting with me and ask for a student teacher conference. During these conferences, we will discuss their goals, strengths and needs as a writer and make a plan for what they will work on next. This process can take upwards of a month for some students. They generally meet with students about once a month. However, this is also highly differentiated, as many students have different learning plans and goals for what they will produce every week. Some students I might meet with weekly, other students I might meet with monthly. Some other students I might only meet once every two months. It really depends on what they're writing, what their experiences are as a writer and what they will work on.
Patti Firth:There are two things that are happening in the Wordwork Centre. First is spelling, the second is grammar. You do have the option of splitting these up. However, students will complete these often at different rates, so I like to combine them in one holistic Wordwork Centre and just ensure that they know they have two different tasks to complete during the Wordwork Centre. One will be their spelling, the other will be their grammar. The spelling centre stands from your whole group lesson and your shared reading activity, where you have already reviewed the spelling rules, taught them what they need to know, and they have worked together with you collaboratively to extract example words from the text that apply to the rules, from your shared reading text that apply to the spelling rule that you taught for the week. That means that during the spelling centre, students are going to apply what they've learned from that whole group lesson and they're going to complete the spelling activities. For this, give them a mini choice board, two possible games that they can work on or two activities they can work on with, either independently or collaboratively with others. Let them have a little bit of fun at applying their knowledge and spelling rules Now, because I don't want these to be hugely prep-intensive.
Patti Firth:I like to create general spelling centre activities that can be reused over and over again without having to reprep new things every time. So if you have a total of nine spelling activities that you can work through and each week you only select two that students can engage with, it's going to cut down on the prep because you prep it once and have it for the rest of the year. Students may also have a quick spelling practice that they can do independently that you can mark or use as an exit activity for students to complete. As for grammar activities, students have already participated in a whole group explicit lesson on the grammar concept for the week. They've already looked at a mentor text paragraph and extracted from the familiar text such as the shared or guided reading text of the week, and corrected grammatical problems as a class. They may have also played a game that applied their learning of the grammar concept as a group or through a partner activity. So that means that during the independent work centres, students are going to apply their understanding of the grammar concept from the week to a separate task, such as correcting errors in a new mentor paragraph or correcting grammatical errors in a list of sentences on a worksheet.
Patti Firth:Depending on the type of centres you're using and how much time you might have in a week or how well your students can get through the centres activities, you may consider adding a few more options to your centres rotations. In the first centre you can use a catch-up. I like to include this catch-up in part of my centres rotation schedule because it allows students to decide what they need to catch up on. So if it takes longer than required to complete one task, they do have some wiggle room there. It gives them that bonus time to make sure that all of their work is complete.
Patti Firth:Suppose students need a specific time to edit and revise their work. In that case I will add this as a centre and replace one of the days of writing within the rotation. So they will write for three or four days and have a fifth day to edit and revise. This helps if I want students to work collaboratively together to begin editing and helping each other, and doing this as a peer and collaborative activity so they can apply their knowledge of both spelling and grammar concepts to correct other people's work as well as their own. If you have some extra time for centres, it may be beneficial for your students if they need practice in their fluency and decoding by introducing a partner reading centre. This is great for students to be reading out loud to other students in your classroom and also be considered time for reading buddies as well. Now, if you need to, you can also split your word work into a separate spelling and a separate grammar activities. This is helpful if you have students that really need to be focused on one activity or the other.
Patti Firth:When you think of centers, there's really two different categories that we can think of when trying to figure out how we're going to organize our centers. The first is how we're going to group students and the second is how we're going to rotate students through these activities. Within these questions, we really have two options to decide how we're going to group students. We generally can group them either through fixed groupings or flexible groupings. Similarly, when considering how we're going to have students rotate through centers, the choices we have are set rotations and flexible rotations. Therefore, there are many ways that you consider operating your centers. The first is going to feel very traditional and very familiar and that's where you have fixed groups on a set rotation schedule. This is a great way to start the beginning of the year and you will set members of each group and will predetermine the rotation schedule that each group will go through in a week. In a schedule, you will also determine when you meet with students for guided reading and writing conferences. This is often a great start for the beginning of the year, as your established routines and students are getting used to how you will rotate and use centers in your classroom. An example rotation is shown in the picture here, as students are grouped into one of five groups and you rotate the group cards down each day and cycle through the various center pairs.
Patti Firth:Another way to organize your centers is in fixed groupings with an open rotation schedule. In this method, your students will have more control over the activities and their schedules that they choose and which centers to complete throughout the day. They determine their own schedule with some guidance from the teacher. The teacher has set groups for guided reading and meets with these groups outside of the center rotation, and the schedule allows for flexibility to meet with some groups more frequently than others. You will notice in the example that students meeting with the teacher are identified in the first row by the teacher putting the student's number cards next to meet with the teacher. All of the remaining students who are not meeting with the teacher will select which activity they plan on working on in the day.
Patti Firth:Another common strategy for organizing your centers is with flexible groups but on a set rotation schedule. Now, in this method, students may be in a group for the rotation, however, the guided reading group is separate from their center group, so you have two different groupings going on here. One is the group that they rotate through the center's activities and the second is the group in which they meet with you, and when they meet with you in guided reading, it is outside. This rotation schedule, which allows you to create some flexible groupings within your reading groups so that you can meet with students more based on need than based on equal time. The last is an interesting option and it is highly student-centered and requires students to have a lot more accountability. This isn't the most appropriate until later in the year, when students have shown that they are responsible for completing their work every week. The reality is that some of your students may never get here, but some may. You may have a group of students that are able to move into the system unofficially when they show a significant amount of independent work, skills, accountability and responsibility for completing their tasks. So you move them on to this more flexible schedule where they essentially run their own program independently of what the rest of the class is doing.
Patti Firth:In this model, students will determine when they meet with you for guided reading. Now, I know this may sound strange to suggest that students will decide when they meet with you instead of you deciding when they will meet with you. However, when you set a purpose for why a student would want to come and work with you to get extra help, it makes a little bit more sense In the scenario. You just finished a lesson on making connections to help with understanding the text when you read, so you tell students today in guided reading. I'm going to be doing a mini lesson on making connections, if you feel that, having more time to discuss this concept that we discussed in our whole group lesson would help you to better understand what we are learning and that you find that it would be helpful for you. Please join me at the guided reading table today. Now there may be students that you strongly suggest join you for this. However, there may also be students who identify that they need to feel more confident with this particular skill that maybe you didn't realize they weren't feeling ready for. By being welcomed to the table for extra support, it demystifies and destigmatizes what's happening at the guided reading table and makes it more of a welcoming place for everybody to come back and get help. This also helps to create a much broader community of learners, but it is a little bit more complex to track to make sure that you are seeing all of the students that you need to see when you need to see them.
Patti Firth:By using this strategy, students will also determine when they meet with you for conferencing and decide on a schedule for the week and what tasks they will complete. As a teacher, you decide what activities your students will do, but students will choose what will be completed. To do this, sometimes I'll post a conferencing schedule and ask students to sign up for it. I will monitor to ensure that all students in my class are somewhere on my conferencing schedule at least once a month. I may have negotiated with some students that I need to meet with them more frequently. However, when students have control when they will meet with me, it allows them to set targets and goals to achieve when they will be finished a certain task they are in control of, when they're ready to meet with you.
Patti Firth:Concerning centers doesn't have to be difficult. For your response to reading assessment, you can collect their reading responses weekly or bi-weekly. Marking a whole class set of reading responses doesn't take me longer than about 30 minutes, which is really manageable and easy to complete within a prep period. When marking students' reading responses, I'm looking for the following questions to be answered. Is it clear from the response that they understand the story? Did they clearly state their opinion? Did they support their opinion with evidence? The answers to these questions are based on the quality of their response. It's either yes, they did it most of the time, they did it some of the time or not.
Patti Firth:When assessing a student's piece of writing, I'm generally collecting two to three pieces of student work per day and spending time during my prep to mark and read through their work prior to conferencing with students. While marking their work, I'm generally making comments about what they need to work on, what they're doing well. Well, there's lots of things I could comment on. I do try to reduce what I am looking at to a few goals and things that are most critical for them to be working on during this time. It helps to know where the students are and where they need to go. I use a goal board to help me track where students are and what they need to work on, which prioritizes which skills are more critical than others. While I want all of my students to use figurative language, if they're still struggling with organizing a logical story, then I'm not yet ready to focus on their ability to use figurative language. One skill needs to come before another. After I've read through and made notes on student writing, I will conference with them and discuss their strengths, needs and next steps and goals for their piece of writing. I will record my observations and conversations of this conversation with students and provide a progress report on each piece of writing. I'm simply marking whether or not a student is progressing well, progressing very well, progressing with some success or progressing with difficulty, depending on where they are on that writing continuum In marking spelling and grammar.
Patti Firth:These are typically practice pages that students are completing each week Practice pages. I will often use them. We will mark them together. We'll mark them as a class. I'll have students self-check their work by looking at an answer page and providing them the answer key, or they will. I will collect it and review their work, or I may just not mark it themselves. I may not decide to mark it because I already have enough evidence through observations and conversations that I had made this week during whole group and small group learning. Now it's not the only way I'm going to be marking their spelling and grammar. I will also mark this through the application of their spelling and grammar skills within the writing that they're submitting with me each week or each month.
Patti Firth:I want to make sure that students are applying the lessons that we are learning through spelling and grammar to generally improve the quality of their spelling and grammar in their own writing. The expectation is that students can use the lessons that we've been working on to improve their own writing, the ability to edit and revise their work, as well as the work of their peers. This application of spelling rules into appropriate contexts such as personal writing, is a far more valuable assessment of whether or not a student has learned spelling and grammar skills than the practice pages, which are simply a knowledge and understanding check. Thank you so much for joining us for learning about how to run literacy centers using structured literacy in grades 3 to 6. For our Changing Tides Literacy Group, this is bonus training too. Don't forget to comment on the post for bonus training too, and respond to the comments of others to enter yourself in to win this bonus training prize.
