Providing students many opportunities to develop and use their reading and writing skills cooperatively and independently in classroom centers is an important aspect of literacy instruction. Student needs and interests should be considered as the centers are planned and implemented to ensure high engagement and that the activities are appropriate for moving student learning forward. Here are 10 centers that I believe will be beneficial for my second graders:
- Independent Reading
- Write About Reading
- Books Talks
- Partner Reading
- Genre/Author Exploration
- Poetry
- Fluency
- Creative Writing
- Writing for Everyday Life
- Word Work
The classroom environment should be filled with a wide variety of text and offer student choice to help instill a joy and passion for reading and writing. My students are given a personal book box at the beginning of the year and they choose 5-7 books from the classroom library to keep in their book boxes, rotating them once a week (or more often) as they finish reading and need to choose new titles. Students also read and listen to books online through websites such as Storyline Online and Epic. Students will maintain a reading log of their independent reading texts and conference with me periodically to reflect on their reading habits. The Write About Reading and Book Talk centers will provide students the opportunity to share and respond to the texts they’ve read, helping them process what they’re learning. Students will be introduced to new books through whole group Interactive Read Aloud and Shared Reading lessons, by exploring various genres and authors in the genre/author exploration center, by sharing books with their classmates in the partner reading center and by watching and responding to their classmates Flip Grip videos created in the Book Talk center.
Students should engage in writing activities daily to increase their stamina and promote writing development. In the Write About Reading center, students will respond to books they’ve read and I will provide structure through the use of sentence stems until they’re ready to create original responses of their own. The Creative Writing and Writing for Everyday Life centers will be driven by student interests and student choice. A variety of writing materials will be available such as different sizes, types and colors of papers and writing utensils such as pencils, pens, colored pencils and markers as well as crayons. Students will learn that writing can be enjoyable and is an important life skill to learn so they can communicate effectively with people they encounter in their everyday lives.
My students were recently issued iPads by the district so I plan to incorporate technology into the centers by using the digital portfolio on Seesaw. Students will upload pictures of their activities, specifically in Word Work, then I can review their submissions to assess their learning. This data will help me know what skills need to be retaught to the whole group, small groups or individual students and how to adjust the activities I’m preparing and providing for students in the centers to more effectively meet their needs.
Social interaction increase the effectiveness of reading and writing instruction so providing appropriate and engaging centers for students of all ages is a valuable part of their literacy experience.