Flip the Feedback — Improving Stations/Center Time

Hear, hear… for less chaos and more learning.

There are so many strategies for running centers and stations during an ELA or math block. As great educators know (and research shows) whole group instruction and Tier 1 instruction will only reach 60–70% of your students. There comes a time each day when students need to be engaged in meaningful independent work and also when a teacher needs the opportunity to pull students into smaller groups.

For many years, I taught with a co-teacher and didn’t have to worry about the majority of students functioning independently, because my co-teacher and I were able to pull needs-based groups and guided reading groups during that time.

In fact, I got so comfortable with this modality that I (and my co-teacher) often fashioned the schedule so that students would need to rotate based on when my co-teacher and I finished our groups. Additionally, I witnessed this occurring in many classrooms when I worked as a co-principal and coach. I would experience for myself and see other teachers trying to negotiate through signals and eye contact when to decide when to switch groups… Or worse, a timer would go off and chaos would ensue because the teachers weren’t prepared to end and the new group(s) didn’t have space at the table yet.

Shall I say, stressful?

Nowadays I teach the bulk of my two ELA blocks alone or with a special education teacher or ELL teacher, schedule permitting. With that said…