Are you seeking a way to encourage collaboration, critical thinking, and independent learning in middle school? Station activities might just be the answer. Station rotation activities are powerful because they can be used for any subject in middle school while simultaneously captivating students’ attention and promoting their active learning.
Why use station activities in middle school?
There are so many reasons to use stations in middle school. The top of the list is their flexibility. Nearly any lesson in any subject can be shifted to create a set of activities for a station rotation.
Tied for first on that same list is that stations focus on student-centred learning. While the teacher does the station set-up, the students engage in hands-on, active learning during station rotations. This engagement and active learning encourages knowledge retention and understanding.
A benefit of station activities is that they help students develop learning skills, particularly collaboration and initiative.
In my classroom, I love to use stations during novel study units, such as this one about Alan Gratz’s amazing novel “Refugee.” Novel studies are a great way to get students moving and learning in stations using any number of activities – close reading, analysis, discussion, and more. You can find the Refugee Novel Study on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
Tips For Turning Lessons into Station Activities
As with anything in a middle school classroom, the first time is bound to be a process of trial and error. However, there are tips to help station activities be successful.
Allocate time to initial lesson planning.
Station activities must be aligned with the objectives of a lesson and tied to curriculum standards. Choosing 1 – 2 standards or expectations will help to focus the station activities. This will also guide the instructions to students since the clarity of the guidelines for the tasks will support their success.
One of the best station activity options I have found is with short written texts such as poetry or short stories. The ability to offer choice and variety along with differentiating for students is ideal with these two options.
First, you might use a set of short stories, where students will learn about various literary elements and devices such as plot, characters, setting, theme, conflict, similes, metaphors, symbols, and foreshadowing.
If you need short stories, you can try these units:
- Grade 6 Short Story Unit – Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD
- Grade 7 Short Story Unit – Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD
- Grade 8 Short Story Unit – Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD
You could also incorporate poetry by choosing a specific lesson and providing a variety of poems at different stations for students to explore. Here are poetry units you can use:
- Grade 6 Poetry Unit – Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD
- Grade 7 Poetry Unit – Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD
- Grade 8 Poetry Unit – Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD
For all of these resources, the instructions are built into the lessons, and poem suggestions are included, too, saving you time and effort. You may also want to read the article, Four Easy Approaches to Using Short Stories in Groups in Middle School.
Decide about the type of station.
The next step is deciding how and what to make into a station rotation activity.
Various station rotation types can be used in a middle school classroom. It might be a hands-on experiment for science, creative projects for art or writing, or research tasks or technology-based activities for any number of subjects.
Some pre-made units that incorporate station activities include:
- Middle School Digital Citizenship Unit – Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD
- Middle School Plagiarism Unit – Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD
Some key questions to guide you:
- Will students move, or will the station move?
- Are there enough supplies to set up more than one station, or will various station types be necessary?
- How should the space be set up to facilitate the stations and movement of students or materials?
Make sure you also keep in mind students’ physical needs and potential accommodation requirements.
Determine assessment methods for station activities.
Station activities provide an opportunity to assess through observations and conversations. Get out that clipboard (or whatever you might use if you’re digitally based), add a rubric or checklist, or even a class list with space for notes about each student. While you wander the class, you can also observe and engage students in conversation about the task to record data to help with the evaluation process.
Add some media literacy into the mix with this fake news unit, which features a ready-to-go station activity featuring five different topics. Students will learn about real versus fake news – a must for today’s environment – to recognize the hallmarks of each type. Find this Fake News Unit on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
Station activities are also an excellent time to assess students’ learning skills, such as collaborating and taking initiative. With a class list, you could easily record a level of 1 – 4 for a particular learning skill and observe this over a few occasions while using stations. Then, when it comes time to write report card comments, you have valuable data to reference.
Check out this post for more about ways to save time on your report cards.
Consider how to address potential challenges.
With every opportunity to use station rotation activities, there is likely to be an issue that arises, so brainstorming those challenges along with potential solutions will help you feel prepared in the moment. Here are some common concerns:
Classroom Management
Have you set your students up for success?
Do they know what is required of them at each station?
Before sending students to work at the stations, I like to briefly review what is expected at each station in front of the whole class. Also, at each station are instructions for students to follow.
Ensure all the materials needed for that station are located at the station. Students who need to walk across the classroom for an item are more likely to get off-task and visit another station.
Let the students know how they will know when it is time to rotate to the next station and in which order the stations are set up.
Non-participation
What do you do if someone opts out?
The key here is to ensure all-around accountability.
For some station activities, this might mean colour-coding student’s work. If students are all contributing to an online or offline document, assign them each a colour (marker or font) to track participation.
If the stations are a multi-day event, collect the work after each day and quickly assess what students have been working on. From there, you can have private conversations with students who need more support.
Timing
What should you do if groups operate at different speeds/levels?
Teachers probably encounter this common issue when running a new station activity in their classrooms.
You can address this by incorporating differentiation into tasks. For more information on differentiation, read this blog post – Useful Differentiation Strategies for Middle School ELA Lessons.
Pre-make groups with the station tasks in mind. If it’s a writing task, consider who might need more time and who will get through it quickly. Differentiated options can be within the station’s instructions to address the learning objective and extend beyond it.
Embracing this student-centred approach can take a lot of teacher work, but the benefits are fantastic once you get stations established in your classroom.
Station activities can be a learning opportunity for students as well as teachers.
Remembering some of the resources and tips from this post can help you tackle station activities.
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