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The state of Indiana is requiring elementary classrooms to do a 90-minute, uninterrupted reading block each day. Rush County School Corporation is encouraging teachers to use literacy stations in the elementary classrooms. We’ve been practicing the first several weeks of school and this past week we began literacy work stations.

Here’s what our 90-Minute Reading Block looks like:

Full Group Reading Instruction (from the Treasures reading series) – 30 minutes

Literacy Work Station Rotations – Three 20 minute rotations

We also go to the computer lab two days a week for 40 minutes to do Achieve 3000. This past week we took the first test for Achieve 3000. Every time we go into the computer lab students will have a non-fiction article to read and then they complete activities on the computer that go with the article. This is the first time any of  the teachers have used Achieve 3000 and we are very excited about the possibilities we have with the program. (I went to my first training Sept. 2nd and will have another training later in September.)

Literacy Work Stations

Students each receive a sheet at the beginning of the week that has their weekly literacy work station rotation schedule. Each day they go to three different work stations. Throughout the week they will go to:

• Guided Reading (3 times/week) – I work with small groups during guided reading and teach reading skills and strategies.
• Word Work (3 times/week) – This is when students complete vocabulary activities for the prefixes/suffixes/latin roots and selection vocabulary. When they are finished we have Boggle and Scrabble available.
• Partner Reading (2 times/week) – Students read with partners from their own books and then share with their partners using task cards with comprehension questions.
• Writing in Response to Reading (2 times/week) – Students read silently from their own books. They must use task cards and write their responses in their Literacy Station Notebooks.
• Poetry (1 time/Week) – Each week a new poem is put in the poetry station. Students glue this poem into their Poetry Notebooks and then respond to the poem using task cards and writing their responses in their notebooks.
• Newspaper (1 time/week) – Each week there are several articles to choose from (soon we will also have the Rushville Republican) and the students use question cards and task cards to write responses to the articles in their Literacy Station Notebooks.

I hope you’ve enjoyed a quick look at Literacy Work Stations in our classroom!

Now… for this week’s extra credit:

What is your favorite literacy station and why?

Write your response on a sheet of paper and turn it in to me any time before Friday September 16th for extra credit!