Learning Centers in the Middle School Classroom

Contents

Definition

Learning centers, also referred to as “learning stations” or just plain “centers” are areas set-up around the room that are designed for a specific activity. Center activities can last anywhere from 10 minutes to 20 or even 30 minutes depending upon how much time can be allotted for the different activities and the overall class schedule. At the different centers, students focus on developing and/or mastering a particular skill and/or concept while working either individually or in cooperative or ability groups. The grouping depends upon the teacher’s objectives for the center activities as well as the dynamics of the students in the class.

Application in Classroom and Similar Settings

Learning centers can be designed to fit virtually any and every middle school curriculum, especially language arts, social studies, science, foreign language, math, and fine arts. They are an excellent way to incorporate many skills and concepts as well as state learning standards. Centers can be used to supplement instruction for reinforcement or to provide review for an upcoming test or end of chapter/unit assessment.

Listed below are examples of different learning center activities. Although these examples come from a language arts curriculum, they can be adapted to fit nearly any subject area. The examples listed are designed with the intention of being used as a supplement to a novel the students would be reading together as a class.

• Vocabulary Center – Students at this center will develop skills in vocabulary by completing a vocabulary chart. The chart will contain four columns labeled: vocabulary word and page number, context clues, my definition, and actual definition. Using actual sentences from the book, written on sentence strips which are placed in a sentence strip chart, students will identify the underlined vocabulary word as well as the page number where it can be found. Students will then use context clues to try and discover the meaning of the word on their own. They will write the context clues in the appropriate place. Next, students will devise their own definition of the word based on the context clues. Finally, students will check their definition using a dictionary to see how closely their definition matched the actual definition. If students were way off in their own definition, they will write the correct definition from the dictionary.

• Compare/Contrast Center – At this center, students will complete a thinking map/graphic organizer to compare and contrast two characters from the story. A thinking map such as a Venn Diagram could be used or a double-bubble map.

• Journaling Center – The journaling center could be used in a variety of ways. First, a picture could be posted that goes along with the theme or something related to the book such as the setting. Students could reflect upon what this picture is depicting and write about it in their journal. The entry could focus on connections between the picture and the story. If there are people in the picture, the students could write about what is happening or what the people are thinking. Another option is to not use a picture at all but instead have the students write a journal from the perspective of one of the characters in the book. Students would have the opportunity to put themselves in the character’s shoes and in the overall story in order to write about their thoughts and/or feelings as to what is occurring. Finally, students could simply journal by writing a “reader’s response” to the chapter that was just read or to a certain part of the story. This would allow students the chance to express their thoughts in a critical, insightful manner as they relate to the events of the story.

• Reciprocal Teaching Center – At the reciprocal teaching center, students will have been given a reciprocal teaching task prior to participating in the center activities. Tasks include: summarizer, clarifier, predictor, and questioner. The students would need to complete their tasks ahead of time so that once it is time to work at this center they would be able to come together and discuss their findings with their group members. The group would then make a poster with four sections (one for each task) and write down the information pertaining to each of their tasks. The poster would then be displayed on the wall in the classroom.

• Memory – This center is the ever-so-popular Memory game. The cards for Memory could be designed in a variety of ways. Examples include: vocabulary cards with the word on one card and the definition on the other; as character and description cards; or as literary elements and examples of literary elements from the story. The cards could either be made by the students or by the teacher.

• Visualization Center – This center allows the opportunity for students to represent their interpretations of the story. Students could either work individually or together as a group to draw a scene from the book or a particular character. It would be required for the students to choose a scene that was memorable for them – one that seemed to really stick out in their minds as they were reading. The students would then need to include the sentence(s) they are visualizing as well as cite the sentence(s) with page numbers.

Listed above are only a few of the many possibilities that centers offer. Not only are they an excellent way to incorporate many skills and concepts, but they are also a great way to target students’ multiple intelligences. Centers are designed for a wide variety of learners which is why some centers are bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and verbal/linguistic in nature, to name a few. By incorporating so many different activities and touching upon these different modalities, the students’ needs are being met and nurtured.

Centers can also be done individually or in groups. Some require whole group work while some offer an option to work alone or together and others are meant to be completed independently. Also, since center activities require groups, the teacher can choose whether she wants cooperative groups chosen by her or the students or ability groups so differentiated instruction can be implemented as well.

To apply this to other curricular areas, one must break down the curricular focus into workable pieces or have multiple foci occuring at once. For example, in a science class (specifically a lab), workstations may be broken down into hypothesis development/refinement/conclusion, experiment development, procedure & data acquisition, and recording and analysis. In a social studies classroom, a teacher might break a history lesson into stations including primary source material, timeline development, cultural implications, geography/mapping, and a study of at-the-time vs. historical perspective (revisionism).

Evidence of Effectiveness

From my own experiences with learning centers in the middle school classroom, centers prove to be effective simply because the students are engaged in the learning and they are on-task. Because students get to move around from activity to activity and get to do a wider variety of things, rather than just sitting still, listening to the teacher lecture, and taking notes, they look forward to participating in the center activities.

Class time is more valuable because there are fewer disruptions and instances of misbehavior mainly because the students are immersed in different activities throughout the duration of the class period.

Not only that, but the students display positive, enthusiastic attitudes when centers are in progress. They look forward to getting to do something that is different and unlike the regular classroom routine. Additionally, when centers have been observed by my principal, he thought this was an excellent implementation and encouraged me to keep using them throughout the year for different purposes.

Critics and Their Rationale

Time Factor: Not all teachers will utilize learning centers at the middle school level. Being that I teach language arts and it’s a block schedule of 80 minutes, I have plenty of time to do centers. However, fitting them into a regular 40 minute time period is more of a challenge. It’s definitely possible as I have seen in my Spanish classes when I did center activities with both my 7th and 8th grade classes, but it was challenging. The organization of the materials takes up time as does the overall explanation of what will be done at each of the centers. Then, the time spent at each center goes by very quickly in a 40 minute period. It’s very important that all students are on-task from the moment they begin their center activity, and unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out this way.

Planning: Planning and carrying-out centers is a very time-consuming process. It can take up to five or more hours to plan the center activities and organize all the necessary materials. However, on the flip side, once the materials are made and collected and once the centers have been planned, they can be used in the future. At that time, a lesser amount of time would be needed for the planning process. Perhaps a few modifications here and there would be needed.

Teacher Philosophy: Depending upon the teacher’s teaching philosophy, centers may not fare well. Some teachers who are more traditional and prefer to do whole class activities rather than small group ones would probably not utilize centers in their classroom. In contrast to this, teachers who enjoy incorporating small group activities and who like an active, noisy – to an extent – classroom, would most likely find centers worthwhile.

Signed Life Experiences, Testimonies, and Stories

I enjoy using centers whenever possible in my classroom, whether I am teaching language arts or Spanish. Though it is incredibly time-consuming, I believe centers are truly worthwhile. The students appear to be more interested in the material and they are actively engaged in the learning. Centers are possible for most any curriculum, as long as the teacher spends an adequate amount of time planning and preparing. This school year I made it my goal to do centers with my Spanish classes and I was so elated when my goal was accomplished! I spent many many hours planning the centers (they were different for my 7th and 8th grade classes), but it was worth it. The students really enjoyed the center activities and from walking around the room checking in with each group as their activities were in progress, it was easy to see that they were engaged in the learning and were having a good time. The students helped one another out to accomplish the tasks at the different centers and they took it upon themselves to ask questions of either their group members or me if they were not sure of something. This was encouraging to see because in a regular, traditional classroom setting, students are usually reluctant to ask questions. All in all, centers are a superb addition to the middle school classroom curriculum. ~K. Kleckauskas, middle school teacher, 3 years

I have always seen this concept done well at the elementary school level, however I am now trying it in my 8/9th grade classroom. I have sections designated to the main focus of the curriculum, students seated at tables facing the front of the room, an area for math exploration through computers, a group station in which students may sit in groups of 4-6 to work through material, a resources area including multiple textbooks as resources, an an area for activity including challenging logic puzzles and math based learning games. This type of set-up truly allows students with different learning styles to engage in the classroom in the most comfortable way possible. --M. Pule

I have used centers only sparingly in my middle school math classroom. The creation of valuable, engaging centers is amazingly time consuming. I wish there were comprehensive lesson plans for centers that teachers could access and adapt to their own classes. There are so many factors to consider, class length, topic, group composition, class level, materials available, technology available, and more. Having some suggestions to get started would increase the likelihood that teachers would use this effective and student-pleasing option. Alison Mahoney

References and Other Links of Interest

Using Centers in Your Classroom: A MiddleWeb Listserv Conversation