Learning Stations/Classroom Management

When working with large classes of students, many teachers develop "Learning Stations" with different learning activities in each area. This way a teacher can break the large class into smaller groups who will work independently at one station, then after a certain amount of time, groups move on to another station.

EXAMPLE:
A middle school teacher is going to have his/her class start studying BRIDGES and STRUCTURES
and has decided to split his/her class into 4 groups of 7 students in a group.

GROUP A - (if enough computers) .... logs onto the Internet and opens up the programs "Building Big." The Building Big program has a few different sections in it that the teacher can make note for the students to read or perform the various activities. When completed with that they can move on to the "West Point Bridge Design" program which is relatively self-explanatory. The students should be able to move along in program at their own pace, or with some help from others in their group.

GROUP B - is assigned the chapter in the textbook or a xeroxed copy or reading material that is on the topic of "Bridges and Structures." They are to read this chapter and answer questions that are at the end of it to help them understand the information  better. They can also write down important vocabulary that is highlighted in the chapter, so they will become more familiar with it.

GROUP C - is presented with some pictures or models of various bridge types. This group is also given either graph or blank paper and diagrams with a short paragraph of information each of the bridge types. Their assignment is to draw a good diagram of each bridge type and list three to four important characteristics about each bridge. They can also show the representative vocabulary and/or forces that are at work in the different areas of a bridge - tension and compression; span; torsion; shear; etc.

GROUP D - stays with the teacher as she/he gives a lesson on the different bridge types; the forces that are at work in building structures; and with a give-and-take discussion with the small group of students is able to spend more time with some of their stories or questions.

The teacher can determine how long the groups are to stay at their stations. Students could stay in each area easily the whole class period or half (20-30 minutes). Students can rotate to a new station for the second half of the class, or the next class day. Eventually all students will be exposed to each learning station and the teacher can then move on to a bigger hands-on project or computer based project that is based on their learnings.