Strategic grouping facilitates teamwork and success. Students can brainstorm, collaborate, and communicate to achieve a common goal. Once new academic skills are taught, the best way to ensure that they are embedded, and students are comfortable and confident using them is through differentiated stations. This creates an environment that builds stamina and endurance, stepping away from the frontal piece and putting the spotlight on the mini-scholar.
As students rotate through different stations, they experience each, and they practice the skills they’ve learned. Each station has a different goal to help students hone their skills. The stations are student-centered, allowing the focus to be on the individual learner. Retaining information is important, and these stations are designed to ensure that the mini-scholars not only retain the information but also use it in their daily activities.
For instance, after learning reading and writing skills geared toward a particular text or novel, station tasks may include making text-to-self connections, focusing on a summary, character traits, and more. Depending on the skill the station focuses on, creative manipulatives like dominoes, dice, LEGOs, Base Ten Blocks, board games, Play-Doh, etc., are provided to intrigue and push the students. Whether math, science, ELA, Fundations, or writing workshops, these stations are designed to make learning fun, engaging, and interactive!
