Creating Classroom Stations

Classroom Stations: As you know I am a big George Couros fan. I love him partially because of his vision of empowering students and mostly because he encourages giving students a voice and choice. If you aren’t familiar with his eight things to look for in today’s classroom, you should check them out. It is because of George’s ideas that I am trying to give students more independent time to learn, explore, create, and innovate. There are lots of ways to do this but I love using stations. I want students to use class time to talk in the target language, practice the vocabulary, and develop their language skills at their own pace, not watch my lecture. This has been an adventure for me because it is completely opposite of what I have done for almost two decades.  

One of my focuses this year is to allow students to have a choice in their homework and in some activities we conduct in class. I do this through surveys, votes, and options. Of course, I don’t leave it as a free-for-all all. I give a list of choices and we work from there. This way I am guiding them in their learning but getting their buy-in at the same time. One of my goals this year is to create learning stations for every unit I teach. Stations, if done correctly, can be used for deep meaningful learning. It is a great tool to differentiate instruction and get a variety of language experiences. I like to set my stations up in groupings of five that consist of a small group, technology, apply, create, and kinesthetic. Does this always work? I wish!

Other Station Ideas

• • Review vocabulary or language skills

• • Games (dice, board, etc.)

• • Analyze a YouTube video

• • Create a piece of literature

• • Spontaneous dialogues

• • Perform a song

• • Fingerspelling lists

• • Create a Quizlet or Quizz
  • Tell a children’s story

Stations can focus on the unit of study, review, or a combination of both.  What is important is the activities at each station are engaging. What stations will you create?

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