Literacy Work Stations

Last year, I wanted to have Centers in my classroom, but somehow they never quite came together.  This summer I was determined to figure out how to implement centers in my first grade class.  Although our school doesn't use the Daily Five, I found a lot of great resources on centers from teachers who do.  My Literacy Work Stations resemble Daily Five centers in that each Station focuses on a different literacy skill: Comprehension, Writing, Word Work (sight words), and Phonics.  For each center, I have 1 weekly activity that students must do.  Then I have additional activities (such as the activity from previous weeks) that student can do if they finish.  While students are in centers I am able to meet with Guided Reading groups which is fabulous, because last year I had to meet with groups during Readers' Workshop which meant that I didn't get to do individual conferencing every day.

I'll have to post more about each station at some point, but I'm particularly excited about my Comprehension Station.  Each week during Read-Aloud, I focus on a comprehension skill (mainly from the Common Core Standards), such as main character, setting, perspective, predictions, etc.. Then the following week, students read their own Just-Right books and complete a Comprehension Worksheet related to the skill. I've never had students respond to their reading  in this way before so I wasn't sure how well it would go, but so far I've been really excited about the work they've produced!