MASTER COLUMNS GOOD FIT
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What a year it has been! My heart is always with teachers, and I am so thankful for all of you working in schools during this most disruptive time. Educators have always needed to be flexible, but this past year we have had to constantly pivot and change.
I have watched from the sidelines most of the past twelve months due to travel restrictions and schools being closed to visitors. But I have had the opportunity to work with several schools around the U.S. virtually. Recently, I was able to work alongside teachers in a few buildings, too.
One big question teachers had during the pandemic was “Can we still have stations?” Everyone was scared, especially thinking about children working together and sharing books! It broke my teacher heart to think that children would be sitting at desks alone all day not being allowed to touch books. Or sitting in front a screen all day—this is not my idea of how learning best takes place, especially for young learners.
I listened to tales of teachers taking home their classroom library rugs and furniture, putting individual activities in plastic zip locks for kids to do at their seats, or assigning tasks to complete online. One school system had their maintenance department make plexiglass dividers for use during small groups and stations for students in classrooms. Seemed like it was different everywhere, but also changed from week to week.
Instead of trying to figure out how to do stations online, I focused on thinking about why we used stations in the first place. I used this time to reflect on my beliefs about teaching and learning. Several schools I had worked with in past years had most of their students in brick and mortar classrooms and wanted help. We used this past year to think about using stations as a way to support student learning, with or without COVID and quarantine. We did book studies and tried simple things. We took it slowly, focusing on one station at a time.
In this article, I will share what I know about literacy stations and what we learned during the pandemic. Then I’ll make recommendations moving forth. It’s impossible to predict the future, so I will use my experience and wisdom garnered over the years to help you think through how we might use literacy stations as children return to school buildings this spring and in the coming school year.
What Is A Literacy Station?
It has been a different year for all of us. But my beliefs about teaching and learning have not changed much during this COVID pause. I still believe that all children can learn to work independently of the teacher. This isn’t just independent seatwork or online assignments that kids do alone. I have found that when students work together at literacy stations they are much more engaged and their learning and language are enhanced more deeply.
Here is the definition of a literacy station from my newest series, Simply Stations, published by Corwin Press, 2020. “A literacy station is a small, defined space (stationary or portable) where students practice with a partner. Students work together on things they can do, using familiar materials and tasks to practice reading, writing, listening, speaking, and/or working with words. The children use previously taught academic vocabulary as they engage in meaningful work that has been modeled previously in whole or small group instruction.”
During literacy stations, children should talk. As they talk with each other, they verbally process what they are learning. They develop oral language. They have opportunities to use academic vocabulary. This develops communication skills which enhance learning.
I believe that successful literacy stations begin
For example, if you plan to teach students about characters and their relationships, explain that this will help children better understand what happens in a story—the plot. Model by thinking aloud about characters and how they interact as you read aloud stories. Use a conversation card, an index card with a speech bubble containing a sentence stem, to help students use related academic vocabulary. It might say, “The main characters in this story are ____________. Their relationship is _________. When they ___________, I knew __________.”
To help students work successfully at stations, teach routines well and let children know what you expect. Teach the whole class how to do independent reading. Make an anchor chart with your students showing what this time looks like, sounds like, and feels like when it’s going well. Have children turn and talk to the person sitting beside them about the book they chose, why they chose it, and what they hope to find out as they read. After independent reading time, have them turn and tell their partner what they found out. When students show that they know how to do this well, you can open an independent reading station.
Be sure that students can do the work you place at a station. Do not put new materials there that students have never seen before or expect them to try something totally unfamiliar. Use materials students have seen in whole or small group; give them familiar materials and tasks to build their confidence and skill. For example, move big books you have taught with in whole group that students can read to a big book station to read with a partner. Place little books from small group for rereading with a friend at the partner reading station. Move a familiar laminated graphic organizer you have already taught with to a listening and speaking station for children to fill out together with dry erase pens.
What I Learned
As I met with teachers online through conferences, book studies, and other training sessions, I learned a great deal. First, there was little consistency. The way people were running schools differed between buildings, sometimes even within the same school system. We were doing our best, but things often changed weekly. Teachers were doing what they were asked to do, but many were uncomfortable with the way they were doing school.
In some schools, teachers met with many children online. In others, most of the students were at school buildings. Many school systems had a camera on the teacher during instructional time so that kids at home could watch the teaching while the teacher simultaneously tried to teach kids in the classroom. It was difficult to design anything that would help everyone.
Originally, I created literacy stations to provide meaningful work for children to do while the teacher met with a small group for differentiated instruction. But with COVID, many teachers were not meeting with small groups at school. And when teachers met with children online in small groups, the rest of the class was not actually in the room.
So I focused my work on what literacy stations would look like when teachers were in physical classrooms with most of their children there. In these rooms, teachers found ways to have students work with partners at literacy stations. Students worked together on familiar tasks using familiar materials just as they had pre-COVID. A few things were different:
· Students might sit on individual rugs spaced several feet apart and each held their own copy of a book for the partner reading stations. They still read and talked about the book.
· Children read on their own at the independent reading station. Some used a classroom library for this while others had students sit at their seats to read by themselves. They could still talk with each other about what they read and share books with their classmates.
· In some classrooms, kids had a clear acrylic divider between them, so they could still see each other and talk about what they were learning. They used this setup for partner reading, independent reading, and listening and speaking stations.
· A clear acrylic divider could be placed between two students sitting at a small table or two small desks at a writing station. They could see what each other wrote and talk about their writing.
· Students returned materials to a storage space and used hand sanitizer between stations.
· Students always wore masks during stations as they interacted with each other.
Children in these classrooms were doing fairly well. Kids were happy to be at school with other students and their teachers in these elementary classrooms. There were no (or limited) COVID cases at these schools, so children were in school most of the year.
I also met with teachers who were doing some online instruction. They really missed doing small groups and stations. They were often so busy trying to keep up with online demands of creating videos and assignments that stations and small groups were not at the top of their lists. I noticed common themes among their struggles:
· Many (or some) children were not regularly attending class meetings or completing assignments.
· Teachers missed having kids work at stations with a partner. They could formulate work for students to do alone, but they could not put K-1 children in breakout rooms to work with another child without an adult online.
· Often children were not having opportunities to talk with a partner about what they were learning. It was difficult to incorporate “turn and talk” into their lessons, unless the children were talking to an adult at home who assisted with their online learning.
· It was challenging for children to develop oral language and academic vocabulary unless they met in small groups.
· Students often did not show up to small group meetings. Or their adults at home told them the answers or problem-solved new words when reading in small groups.
As schools prepare to open again across the country, I am talking with teachers about what their literacy stations might look like. Many are thinking about setting up their classrooms to have a whole group meeting area with a rug, a small group table, and an independent reading station/classroom library. Children will most likely be wearing masks and using hand sanitizer between stations. But I hope that educators will weigh the risks and decide to give children opportunities to work with partners again using some of the above suggestions.
Students need to talk with each other; they need to socialize; they need to use language as they learn. This is especially true where children may not have been able to attend school online or in person. Stations will be needed more than ever! So will small group instruction.
I recommend thinking about what children will be able to do independently starting in those first days of their return to the classroom. What did they know how to do online that can also be done in person? For example, if you established independent reading time online, transfer that to the classroom. Set a timer. Use the same routines children followed online. But let them read print books and talk with partners face-to-face about the books they are reading. You may need to place books read in a bin to be sanitized for a few days, but that’s an easy adaptation.
I recommend that we think about how to plan a joyous return to school for our students! Think about what they already know how to do and what they’ve missed. They know how to maneuver many online learning platforms. Continue to use some of these for stations, but have students work together rather than alone. They have missed their friends, their classrooms, their school buildings, their safe places for learning.
Celebrate what they know, what they can do, and what they want to learn about. Give them opportunities to work beside and with each other. Have them pursue inquiry about topics of interest and share skills they may have developed during their time being at home. Instead of looking at them as “second-graders” or “kids who missed a year of learning,” think of them as learners along a continuum. Build upon what they know, establish routines and be consistent, and help them continue to grow as children. They are resilient and want to learn.
Revisit literacy stations as a valuable part of your day. I’ve written about each station in depth in my new Simply Stations series. Start with one station and get to know it well. Build your stations with your students, one at a time. You might begin with the partner reading station to give children support in reading. It is fun to read with another person, and you can work together to help each other. After students know how to do partner reading, teach them how to do independent reading. Then have half the class do partner reading while the other half does independent reading. After they can do that well, layer on a listening and speaking station. Have students listen to the same text and then respond to it together.
Work with your colleagues. Do a book study together. Plan and begin to build anew. Use literacy stations as part of your day to grow oral language, enhance learning, and motivate students as they learn to work together again.
During literacy stations, children should talk. As they talk with each other, they verbally process what they are learning. They develop oral language. They have opportunities to use academic vocabulary. This develops communication skills which enhance learning.
Conditions for Successful Literacy Stations
I believe that successful literacy stations begin with strong instruction. Stations are for practice of what you have already taught well. It is important to think about what you’re teaching, why this is important, and how students can best learn and then practice this. This is true for online or in-person instruction.
For example, if you plan to teach students about characters and their relationships, explain that this will help children better understand what happens in a story—the plot. Model by thinking aloud about characters and how they interact as you read aloud stories. Use a conversation card, an index card with a speech bubble containing a sentence stem, to help students use related academic vocabulary. It might say, “The main characters in this story are ____________. Their relationship is _________. When they ___________, I knew __________.”
To help students work successfully at stations, teach routines well and let children know what you expect. Teach the whole class how to do independent reading. Make an anchor chart with your students showing what this time looks like, sounds like, and feels like when it’s going well. Have children turn and talk to the person sitting beside them about the book they chose, why they chose it, and what they hope to find out as they read. After independent reading time, have them turn and tell their partner what they found out. When students show that they know how to do this well, you can open an independent reading station.
Be sure that students can do the work you place at a station. Do not put new materials there that students have never seen before or expect them to try something totally unfamiliar. Use materials students have seen in whole or small group; give them familiar materials and tasks to build their confidence and skill. For example, move big books you have taught with in whole group that students can read to a big book station to read with a partner. Place little books from small group for rereading with a friend at the partner reading station. Move a familiar
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By
Debbie Diller
teacher is so challenging. A good teacher must be both a scientist and an artist. In our quest to base reading instruction on science we have, as a community, neglected the artistic aspects of teaching.
When reading instruction is guided primarily by science, the instruction can take some odd forms. Students spend time reading nonsense words in isolation, work to become fast readers just to achieve some scientific fluency norm, and strive to succeed on scientifically developed tests and assessments. None of these activities are authentic reading. As a result, students may disengage.
I am not advocating for moving away from a scientific approach to reading instruction. On the contrary: over the course of my career, I’ve engaged in many of my own scientific studies of reading and reading instruction. But the science must be artfully applied to create truly effective, engaging instruction. Three characteristics help define artful instruction: authentic, aesthetic, and creative.
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When educators can achieve the right balance between science and art in reading instruction, we’ll be closer to achieving the long-held hope of proficient reading for all students.
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The preceding post is from Learning A-Z blog, and is reprinted with their permission. We want to thank Learning A-Z for allowing us to reprint this important post.
Need to add author description and A-Z & Rasinski links
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Dr. Timothy Rasinski is a professor of literacy education at Kent State University and director of its award-winning reading clinic. He also holds the Rebecca Tolle and Burton W. Gorman Endowed Chair in Educational Leadership. Tim has written more than 200 articles and has authored, co-authored, or edited 50 books or curriculum programs on reading education. Tim is past-president of the College Reading Association, which also awarded him the A. B. Herr and Laureate Awards for his scholarly contributions to literacy education. In 2010, Tim was elected to the International Reading Hall of Fame.