Two Station Rotation, with teacher check-in

Stations are not just for elementary school! Stations are a great way to break up a class period by providing the opportunity for students to interact within our courses in multiple modes.  In my previous post I discussed a variety of options one could do in a two station rotation (read the specifics here), but basically you can have students flip between online and offline activities, reading vs writing, independent work vs. collaborative work, and much more.  Shoutout to Catlin Tucker who has been my inspiration for posts on these topics.

In my previous post I said that the role of the teacher was to either bounce between the two stations, or spend all of their time at one of the stations.  This variation actually makes a separate station where the teacher calls students up for a short conference.

Role of the Teacher
What is the role of the teacher in the classroom? 

Our role is becoming less the keeper and deliver of content, and more the facilitator of learning.  We help student understand the challenging material. We bridge gaps.  This station model creates an opportunity for us to give formative feedback, target instruction, and give the individual attention students need.

How it works:
Split the class in two halves (again, see previous post).  The teacher then sets up at a neutral location, ideally somewhere they can still see the two groups and kind of make sure they are staying on task.  If students are on laptops, it's probably a good idea have them turned in a way such that a quick glance will show whether they are on task or not.

In a hypothetical 90 min block period with 36 kids, this would give the teacher about 2 minutes per student.  If the teacher called two students up together, that would be 4 minutes.  Smaller classes mean you more time.  Two minutes may seem really quick, but if properly targeted, that may be all you need!  If you're not doing this now, ANY one-one time is better than none.

What does the teacher do in the conference?
It's all about individual attention.  It's about formative feedback.  Here are just some ideas, organized by subject, but really these are interdisciplinary ideas.

• ENGLISH: Specific feedback on their writing.  You and the student pull up an essay they are currently working on (perhaps student are writing the essay in one of the stations), and you give specific feedback then and there on a specific element of the essay.  Do it now, and you don't have to do it later when they turn the essay in!

• MATH: Working a problem together.  Have students work a problem or two in front of you allows you to see their process and give them specific advice and feedback.  Perhaps here you go over some recent quiz results, or give them some insightful hints that will help them remember the challenging material.

• SCIENCE: Lab Report. Grade a lab report with the student right there!  The day following a lab do a station rotation and have the student come up read the lab report with them right there. Score on the rubric as you verbally give them their feedback.  Help fill in the gaps, reinforce the essential learning of the lab, and SAVE YOURSELF TIME GRADING later!

• WORLD LANGUAGES: One on one conversation.   This one seems the most obvious. The best way to learn a language is to speak and listen in the language, especially with a fluent speak who can give immediate feedback.  You as a teacher can easily do this in a couple minutes with 1-3 students.

• SOCIAL STUDIES: DBQ: Review a DBQ they recently wrote.  Give them specific feedback on what they wrote and how they could have done it better.  Similar to the science example above, grading it with them will save you time later, and give them much more meaningful feedback.  English and PBL examples also apply to SS.

• For the Project Based Learning Class:  Have a check in on their progress.  Ask them: What have you been working on? What problems have you encountered and what have will you do to resolve them?  What are your next steps?  This check in is a great way to build accountability and help students continue to make progress while also getting the feedback they need from you, the teacher.

This is just the beginning.  It's a protocol. Once you and your students get comfortable with the protocol, you could literally drop in any two activities for the the two halves, and there are many different strategies you could take during that conference time with students.

At the heart of this approach is giving students personalized individual instruction or support.  Feedback is only valuable to students if it can have an IMMEDIATE impact on their next steps.  This station rotation model allows you the teacher to give students feedback they can immediately use to be successful in your class.  

What's more, if you're using this approach to grade or give feedback in class, you can actually save yourself time grading in the future because you either did the grading with them or because you're not having to give them the feedback on the back end (which also is too late anyway).

Check out my next post on the 3 station rotation...