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__**Learning Centers**__....

 * Overview of what centers are...
 * Explanation of how centers can be used with examples.
 * Centers can also be used in a cross-curricular fashion (ex - History, Foreign language, English, Music....)
 * Lesson - Learning Centers with Example Template for Elementary and Secondary
 * Critical Thinking Focus: Drawing conclusions

__**What are they**__**....** learning centers are "an organizational method that can be used to provide students with small-group instruction, practice and review activities, and increased active engagements in learning. • Do they increase student critical thinking....learning centers increase student critical thinking through different types of projects that students have to analyze and engage in... •Learning centers should have different, hands-on activities (such as listening, or discovery...) that appeal to the age level being taught. • Are they better for a certain level or subject? no. • How do you use centers? Centers are set up in different areas of the room. Students drift alone or in groups from center to center. The students then reconvene to "put the pieces of the puzzle together" and discover target ideas/concepts. • Centers can be utilized within a single class session or over several different class sessions

• __**Examples**__ -- __**Math**__

Small group instruction with the teacher Draw pictures to represent word problems Practice with a peer (math facts) Describe in writing how you got the answer to. . . Use the newspaper advertisement to determine. . . Arrange the objects to show the fractional parts on each flash card

-- __**Language Arts**__

Language/ literature study. . . Read aloud Silent reading Journal writing Composing Small group instruction

-- __**Social Studies**__

Small group instruction with the teacher Read or listen to 'chapter 7' Practice with a peer the vocabulary terms and definitions Fill out the timeline about. . . Compare and contrast. . . Watch video about. ..

• Do they work for all types of subjects and levels...yes. Some more creative than others, but we think centers could even be used cross-curricular fashion.
 * __Cross-curricular__**

Now it's your choice! Divided into groups that are either by subject or grade level and complete the Lesson Plan Template
 * __Lesson Plan__**


 * __CONCLUSION__**
 * RECOMMENDATIONS * Q & A:**

- Some students complete fill-in-the-blank responses. - Some students respond to a prompt and write and essay response. - Some students complete an outline as they are listening. - Begin with fewer (ex. 2 or 3), and add more after you and your students are comfortable and proficient with managing a few. - Focus on content you have already taught and content you are currently teaching. Learning center activities provide opportunities for students to practice, explore, build on, and review content. - Establish generic learning centers (ex. writing center, listening center), with the content and level of the center changing from student to student, group to group, and week to week. You can then focus on differentiating what students do at centers across the day(s) or week(s). - Establish procedures fro centers and practice those procedures until you and students are clear about what to do, how to do it, how to check yourself, etc. - Consider using self-check and self-graphing items for centers that the students can review for themselves and the teacher can peruse later in the day or week.
 * Outcome: Students read or listen to information and then write or type responses to questions about the information.
 * Materials: Books, books-on-tape, computer software for typing, worksheets with varied levels of questions about the information
 * Differentiation:
 * How many centers should I use?
 * What content should I focus on?
 * How do I avoid setting up new centers every week?
 * How do I ensure student know what to do at learning centers?
 * How do I monitor student progress?

__**Resources**__ • Designing and Delivering //**Learning**// //**Center**// Instruction. By: King-Sears, Margaret E.. Intervention in School & Clinic, Jan2007, Vol. 42 Issue 3, p137-147, 11p, 1 chart, 1 diagram, 14bw; (AN 23438013)- **//this is a wonderful article that I think will cover most of or questions and give us some direction//**

•Multiple Activity Literacy //**Centers**//: Promoting Choice and //**Learning**// Differentiation. By: Arquette, Cecile. Reading Council Journal, Summer2007, Vol. 35 Issue 3, p3-9, 7p; (AN 25743059)

[|•math article including centers] "Howes will break up the class into groups, sending some kids to the murals with worksheets, while others turn to the Multicultural Stockroom--an interactive, holiday-themed bulletin board showing groups of objects such as Chinese dragons and Posada pinatas. Attached to the board with Velcro strips, these objects can be moved to present different mathematical challenges. At each station, the children puzzle over solutions and interact with each other. "I have a great strategy for this!" one child offers. Later, children head to different centers around the room. Inside the "Kearns Travel Agency"--really a tent decorated with photos from around the world--a group of four plans excursions to Egypt and China, calculating costs for food, hotel prices, and airline fees. They chatter like kids playing house on the playground, but here the conversation is all about mathematics." [|•teaching techniques book including centers] book:

Heard, Georgia (2002) //The Revision Toolbox: Teaching Techniques That Work.// Portsmouth, NH: [|Heinemann].
"Georgia Heard has created a book design that can be easily implemented into classroom mini-lessons, one-on-one conferences and centers that students rotate through. Heard provides reference guides for student and teacher use; she also uses many examples from student writing and her own writing in order to model the instructional ideas. This book can enable teachers to guide their students into the joy of the writing process, while filling their revision toolboxes with precise and realistic tools that will allow students choices when it is time for revision."

- http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/edlearn.html