Learning Stations in Secondary Schools

Okay, I thought learning stations was such a 'primary' idea that it could never work with older learners.

Turns out I was way wrong...

A learning station is one strategy to scaffold the learning so that it is more accessible. A number of spaces with a specific task can be set up in the classroom. Learners spend a pre-determined amount of time at each station and then move to the next one. One of these stations might be a teacher conferencing station. 

Managing learning stations or centres does take some planning and this blog post gives some tips to do this.

Learning Stations in Classes

Some great ideas are shown here for using learning stations in an English class, from character development through to revision and peer review of essays.

Another teacher has further ideas for learning stations. The conferencing station could be used in any subject. An opportunity for the teacher to teach a gap in learners knowledge or a specific skill they need. This could be used when other learners are engaged in other learning stations or are focussed on other independent learning.

Here are 8 tips for learning centres from a Social Studies teacher.  These ideas could be adapted for use in many subjects.

A video of learning stations for maths classes in action. Students build on the learning of other learners, as a group.  A teacher reflects on using maths learning stations with good examples to differentiate the learning based on the work of Carol Ann Tomlinson.

Good examples of science stations for year 7 & 8 show what each station could look like. I can see the ideas shown here being easily adapted to higher year levels. I think taking care to design the stations so learners can engage with them no matter what their level of understanding would be very important. 

In a 1:1 digital immersion class 

Using a google class site to add information for learners to use in learning stations