Unit 2: At your Table
What happens at this station?
The "At your Table" station provides an opportunity for students to either work independently or collaborate with each other with limited teacher input. The activity can vary from completing a worksheet to analyzing an article to students quizzing each other to other activities that teachers choose. Some activities might be able to be completed as independent work or collaborative work; teachers may decide one or the other for the class or they may give students that choice if they are mature enough to handle either option. With students who do not work well together (off-task, copying each other instead of trying it on their own), I would recommend making the activity for the "At your Table" station independent work.
Objectives
- Learners will be able to create or select an example of an activity that could be used for the "At your Table" station.
- Learners will understand how to incorporate independent and/or collaborative work for the "At your Table" station.
Worksheets
I typically create a worksheet for the students to complete independently while they visit the "At your Table" station. Depending on the group(s) of students, a teacher may choose to have the students work independently or collaboratively with each other on a worksheet. The picture to the right shows an example of a worksheet used for the "At your Table" station. Students in this group were able to choose whether they wanted to work independently or together to practice sketching polynomials. When finished, they scanned the QR code on the paper in the center of their desks to check their work with the answer key.
Flashcards
Flashcards are one example of a collaborative activity that could be used for the "At your Table" station. Ideally, students would work in pairs of two to alternate quizzing each other on the material, given a list of questions or practice problems and the corresponding answers. Flashcards can be created using index cards or by cutting a regular piece of paper into smaller pieces. Or it might be easier for the teacher to type up the content for the flashcards to be printed rather than writing them all out. There are also some free websites online (Canva, Quizlet, Adobe Express, Cram) that ease with the process of creating flashcards, although a sign-in or creation of an account may be required (see link in Additional Resources below).
The screenshot to the left shows an example of flashcards made with Cram. On the front of each flashcard is one multiple-choice question. The back shows both the answer and an explanation of how to arrive at that answer. Having an explanation of the solution is a nice choice for the "At your Table" station since the teacher will mainly stay at the "Meet with the Teacher" station. If both students in a partner pair did not understand how to arrive at the solution, an explanation will be helpful and may motivate them to understand how to solve the problem properly rather than just moving on. A picture might also be a nice option to include on the back of the flashcards if applicable to the content.
The number of flashcards that needs to be created depends on how long students will visit each station and the pace at which students will go through the flashcards. If you expect that the blended learning lesson will take up the whole class time (such as a 40-minute period, or an 80-minute block), the maximum amount of time per station will be the class time divided by four. In general, it is always better to have a larger list of questions than needed so that students don't finish before rotating to the next station. You will learn more about timing in Unit 5: Unit 5: Designing your own Blended Learning Lesson.
ELA Skills
For ELA classes, the "At your Table" station may be used as an opportunity for students to practice skills such as analyzing or summarizing an article, annotating while reading a text, or error analysis (searching for and correcting the grammatical, spelling, and/or conventional errors). This is an activity that could be completed independently or with peers. If the teacher knows students will work well together, students could take turns reading out loud and answering guided reading questions. Teachers should create a list of questions for students to consider before, during, and/or after they read.
Activity: Conversation starter
Can you think of another activity that would work well for the "At your Table" station? Click on the link below to start a conversation via Jamboard.
Additional Resources
Return to the course overview page here: Sarah Garber's Mini-Course on Blended Learning
Go back to Unit 1: Meet with the Teacher or move on to Unit 3: Technology
