Literacy Centers
Developing Skills in Reading and Writing (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 1: Beginning LiteracyStage 2: Consolidation / Fluency
Ages:
5-8
Grade Range:
K 1st 2ndFood Groups:
Primary: Reading Comprehension Strategies, Writing Processes & Strategies
Transcript
Literacy centers is a really big part of what I do. The one reason that I love it is because it allows me time to work one on one or with small groups of children, which is important, and also because it gives the kids an opportunity to practice the skills that they've already learned. So, I often find that its challenging to organize the students at the beginning of the year. So one way that I've found that it really helps is to explain to them what it looks like to be working collaboratively with their friends. So, we go step by step through what it's going to look like when they're at their literacy centers. For example, what it looks like to be responsible, what it looks like to organize your materials, what it looks like to be working independently, how you solve problems if you have a problem, and that really helps for the students to be able to be working on their own and not needing to ask me for any problems that they have. So that really helps with the organization. A really big part of centers is the organization. To make sure that they're organized and know where they're going I have little labels of each center and there's two students at each center. They rotate so they go to a new center each day. There's a matching symbol or sticker on this board that corresponds with the literacy center that they will be going to. That makes it a lot easier, because they know exactly what they're looking for and they know who their partner is before they even get there. At the beginning of the year with first graders its so important to be explicit about the expectations at each center. Although we've already discussed how we're going to work with our friends and solve problems, I really take the time to go through the academic expectations. With each center there's a matching page that says at this center I can... they have different options of what they can do there and it also really helps for them to be independent. They don't need to come to me to ask what they need to do at that center or what to do when they're finished. Before the centers even start at the beginning of the year I model what it will look like at each center as well as what would happen if a little problem or anything happened at that center. Another component of our literacy centers are these booklets that the students are able to record their learning in. We really find that this helps because the students feel very accountable at their center. They need to record what they did to become a better reader or writer at that center. It's also really helpful because I can track exactly what they did each day and give them feedback if need be. If the student goes to the "Tumble Book" website, they're able to record the book that they read as well as their favorite part of the book in this booklet. Also, they're able to write a written response, which helps with their literacy skills. Another example, if the student goes to the fluency center, they can record which poem they worked on, as well as which fluency strategy they were practicing that day. At the non-fiction text feature center, the student once again records the book that they were looking at as well as the non-fiction text features that they found and the page that they found them on. Each centers in its own bin and the bin of course is moveable so the students can find a quite spot together. And one of my favorite bins is the writing center. I find a whole bunch of different tools and writing materials for the students. For example, I buy some fun blank cards that the students can write letters on, different types of books with different colors, which they love, and all different types of lined paper. The children are encouraged to bring their personal wordbook to their writing center because they can check their spelling when they're at the center.
Related References
Tumblebooks: http://www.tumblebooks.com/
Activity Objective
The goal of Literacy Centers: Developing Skills in Reading and Writing (Virtual Tour) is to provide students with meaningful independent tasks in order to create time for small group instruction or one-on-one reading conferences.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- Hold conferences and small group instruction during literacy centers.
- Literacy centers provide students with an opportunity to practice skills in reading and writing.
- Provide students with explicit instructions in and modeling of how to work in cooperative groups.
- Carefully planning and organizing literacy centers will help establish a regular classroom routine.
- Literacy centers might include the fluency center, the non-fiction text feature center and the writing center.
- Bins at each center might include tools and materials for the students to use.
- Track students progress by having them record what they accomplished at each center.
Other Recipes by this Teacher
Re-Enacting Procedures: Building the Foundation for Procedural Writing
PreK - 2nd
Sentence Starters for Text-to-Self Connections: Building Reading Comprehension Strategies
1st - 4th
Starring Details: Helping Writers Revise by Adding Details
1st - 4th
Five Senses Graphic Organizer: A Planning Strategy for Descriptive Writing
1st - 3rd
Writing How-To Books: Developing Procedural Writing Skills
2nd
