Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Creating a Learning Station

I have done several previous posts about Learning Stations.  This post is to show you how easy it is to create a learning station in place of just having students fill out a worksheet.  It's nothing fancy and I created this learning station in just a few hours on a Sunday afternoon.

I started with creating an exit slip for a lesson I had taught on Triangle Sum, Exterior Angle, and Exterior Angle Inequality Theorems.  I made this a brief three question exit slip.  I then created a station for each of the learning goals being assessed on the exit slip.  The exit slip was quick and easy to grade and based on what answers students got wrong (and what the mistake was they made) I will assign students to the stations.

Exit Slip
 There are three different stations and each has six questions.  Are you curious to know the secret to this easy station creation?  I just took problems off a skills practice worksheet and put them on index cards numbered 1-6 and then laminated the cards.  Believe it or not, the students are much more engaged in doing this skill practice because they get to move from station to station, the questions are differentiated based on what their needs are, and most importantly, they aren't completing what they consider to be a boring worksheet.  You can decide how many question each students completes per station.  I

Station 1

Station 2

Station 3
 I really wanted to find some clear picture frames to hold the station directions, but the last time I was at the Dollar Store I could not find any so I improvised and just used a plain old sheet protector.  The sheet protectors make it easy to store the stations in a three ring binder.

All three stations fit in a binder for easy storage


Sheet Protector storage
You can store the index cards on in the back side of the sheet protector.

Back side of same sheet protector above holds cards for storage
I hope this post inspires you to try to switch things up and turn a simple skill review or remediation activity into a learning station that students will find more engaging.  I would love for you to leave a comment linking any station activities you have done in your own classroom.  My 7th graders love any activity that allows them to get up and move around the classroom while learning.

8 comments:

  1. Love, Love, Love this idea!
    Pinned it!
    Can't wait to do this with my kids...

    Kim
    Finding JOY in 6th Grade

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  2. Hello,

    First of all, love your blog!! Is this as simple as it sounds? Do your students go from station to station, reviewing the cards/instructions and writing down the answers

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    1. Thanks! It really is that simple. You can either have the students move around and rotate from station to station or sometimes I bring the stations to the students. That's why I make sure I have multiple sets. I have six groups in my class and I try to make sure I have 2-3 of each station so they never wait around for another group to finish. If I have three different stations going and I have three copies of each no groups have to wait.

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  3. I love doing stations in class. Thanks for sharing how you store them. That's a great idea to use the sheet protectors. I'll definitely start doing that this year.

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  4. I call it math scavenger hunt. I use construction paper folded in half. On a note card, I write out a question and post it on the front. On the inside, I post an answer to another question from a different question card. Once the pair solves the question on the front, they have to search out the answer from another question card. Once they find the answer, they use that card to get their next question. Students are circulating around the room and working in pairs. To ensure they won't share with other students where the answers are, I offer a reward/make it a competition.(5pts on the unit test, free homework pass, etc.)They are very engaged just because they are moving. You can also add a letter to each answer card and it forms a word or phrase. This adds a little incentive also. I used about 10 questions for a 50 minute class. It depends on the standard topic, but it can be used for any lesson.

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  5. Thank you! Our kids are having fun and learning new things . This looks like so much fun for them.

    lessons for kids

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  6. These are great ideas. Thanks so much for sharing. I am new at blogs, how do I get to your blog from the internet?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Cindy
      You can follow it on feedly or bloglovin (those are readers you can use to manage blogs you follow). Otherwise you can google middle school math rules and my blog comes up.

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Thank you so much for visiting my blog and leaving a comment. Feel free to email me at luvbcd@yahoo.com with any questions you have.