Unit 1: What are Engaging Centers?

Learning Objectives for this Unit

Teachers will...

Identify parts of engaging and hands on centers.
Describe how to structure centers to be successful.
Reflect on successful and unsuccessful centers to understand what works best for their students.

Activities for this Unit

Discuss what they've done before for centers.
Take a quiz on engaging and hands on centers.

The Parts of a Center

Centers are a part of instruction that many teachers use during the day. On K-5 Math Teaching Resources (2016), it is expressed, "math centers provide an opportunity for students to practice and apply skills and strategies taught within the classroom." This allows students to be engaging in a variety of activities that are hands-on that allow students to dive into the content they are learning. There are a variety of ways to think about centers and how to break down a center into smaller pieces.

There are several different components to think about with centers. Some of these include:

Having centers be a vital or important part of daily instruction.
Allow for meaningful and independent practice with the Standards and objectives that are being addressed.
How to differentiate activities for students needs and abilities.
Changing up center activities so students do not become bored.
Making students accountable for their learning.
We, as teachers, should be able to assess each students' math skills and understanding.

Structuring Centers

When structuring centers, there are three areas to consider for success. These areas are what centers will look like, the routines, and rotations.

What Can Centers Look Like? Centers involve students to be together for a while, so it is important to think about what students will work together well. This means thinking and reviewing group dynamics of your class (Mather) After reviewing the group dynamics, each group should have between two and six students (Mather) This sizing has been found to be the most successful for students and teachers. Additionally, centers should be allowing students to be practicing the content they are learning about. This practice can be open ended, push problem solving skills, involve both independent and pair work, and allow students to learning in their own zone of proximal development (K-5 Math Teaching Resources, 2016)

The Routines How you set up the routines, or norms, will set the tone for how students approach centers for the whole year. Students need to know what is exactly expected of them at each center so they can stay on target for their behavior and academic learning. There are a variety of different ways to approach this topic of creating norms around centers. In the K-5 Math Teaching Resources Website suggested some tips for establishing routines including:

Telling students clearly and explicitly what the expectations are.
When students are doing the correct thing, reinforce the behavior.
When creating new centers, teachers need to instruct, model, and use guided practice before letting students use the new center.
Use mini lessons with the whole group to go over how to use materials appropriately.
Role play different scenarios so students know what to do in different situations.

This is an example of visual rotation chart.

The Rotations Rotations can be a difficult task for some students, especially in Kindergarten, therefore it is important to thoroughly think through how to set this up for students. There are different ways to do this. Two ways that I have found to be successful are using rotating centers and stationary centers. Rotating centers are when students stay at their same table throughout all the centers. When a rotation is completed, one student from each group move a tub of supplies for a center to the next group. This eliminates every student having to transition each time, which is usually what leads to misbehavior or confusion (Mather) On the other hand, stationary centers are what we normally think of when we hear the word "centers". This is when there are different centers set up around the room for the groups to move around for. By using this students are able to move around to get energy out and also are able to spread out with the necessary materials for each center (Mather)

When thinking of rotations, it is helpful for younger students, like Kindergarteners, to have visuals so they know where to go. One way to do this is a pocket chart. By using a pocket chart, each student is able to move their name card into a new pocket each rotation (Mather) This involves the student in knowing where they are specifically going next. Another visual to use is having each group be assigned a color, shape, or animal. For each time there is a rotation, the teacher can move each groups' "object" to allow students to see where the whole group is moving next.

When getting ready to rotate to a new center, students can benefit from a warning sound before actually rotating. As Mather explained, using a one minute warning bell before rotating allows for students to know they have one minute left so they need to start to clean up their materials. From my personal experience, this is really helpful for Kindergarteners. Another tip is to have the centers rotate all in the same direction (Mather) By doing so, it allows students to clearly know what way they have to move to get to their next center.

Reflection on Previous Centers

Here is a link to the reflection page. It is a Google Drive document. Reflection Page

Reflection on Your Own

Please take some time to jot done a few notes about your learning from Unit 1. For your self reflection, please think about how you could structure successful centers in your own classroom.

Center Quiz

Please answer these questions as either true or false. You may share you results on the reflection page.

_____ When thinking of the different parts of a center, it is not necessary to make students accountable for their learning.

_____ Centers tend to be most successful when there are two to six students at each center.

_____ Teachers should try to allow for modeling and guided practice when introducing a new center to the class to establish expectations.

_____ Rotating centers are when students are able to move from one center to the next after they have been asked to switch by their teacher.

_____ Kindergarten students can benefit from having a visual chart of where they need to move next for their math center rotations.

References

Mather, K. (2001). Using math to differentiate. K-5 Math Teaching Resources. (2016). Math Centers. Retrieved April 08, 2016, from http://www.k-5mathteachingresources.com/math-centers.html

Mather, K. (2001). Using math to differentiate.

Links

Let's move on to Unit 2!