Goldilocks and the Three Workstations

Picture this – you collected stellar literacy data for your class, you analyzed that data and used it to form targeted needs-based small groups, and you planned some really great small group lessons to give your students the precise literacy instruction they need. And then somehow your classroom ends up like this...

Eek! If this sounds even a little bit familiar, keep reading. We’ve heard from teachers around the country that small group time is the most challenging part of their literacy block, but you shouldn’t need 911 on speed dial just to make sure your rotations happen.

Set yourself up for success

Implementing smooth, effective small-group instruction won’t happen overnight. But a lot of thoughtful planning, preparation, and practice can make it possible. It all starts with setting up clear routines and expectations for your students. This 21-day planner can help you roll out small groups by explicitly teaching, modeling, and practicing routines and expectations with your students. Establishing expectations with input from your students is a great way of developing student buy-in. This small group rubric template is a helpful place to start. Finally, make sure you establish a protocol for students to use if (and when) they get stuck on something at their workstation. This will keep your small group from being interrupted with non-emergency problems. Here are a few ideas:

• Ask 3 Before Me: Teach students to ask three peers their question before coming to you at the teacher table.
• Problem Parking Lot: Teach students to write down their question on a “parking lot” that will be addressed after small groups have ended.
• Ask the Expert: Assign a “student expert” to each workstation activity and teach students to ask the expert their question instead of coming to you.

Plan Goldilocks workstations

Ensuring workstation tasks are relevant to student needs is absolutely essential to making sure students stay engaged with their activities. One way to accomplish this is to assign students to specific workstations (and even to materials within those workstations) based on data. Designing learning tasks that are appropriate for furthering a student’s specific literacy skills is key to preventing frustration, keeping early finishers engaged, and making sure the task at hand is juuussst right. Here are a few resources we love when it comes to planning the perfect Goldilocks tasks for students:

• FCRR Student Center Activities
• Printable Resources | UF Literacy Institute ?
• Epic for Educators ?

Make sure everything is absolutely ... positively ... crystal clear

In addition to establishing clear expectations and routines, make sure that students are crystal clear on the activities they are being asked to complete. A great way to do this is by creating a student friendly objective for each workstation activity. Then, introduce the workstation to the whole class. Read objectives together, give students opportunities to ask clarifying questions about expectations, and ask a few students to model the learning task before having everyone go off to workstations on their own. And once students get the hang of a workstation activity, keep it in the rotation! Just switch out the materials to match the skills or content you’re trying to target that week.?

Do yourself a favor (and don’t sweat it too much)

Preparing for small groups is obviously important to making sure things go according to plan, but even the best laid plans go awry. With that in mind, decide early on what your priorities are and try to not sweat the rest. Here’s a list of some priorities within your control:

• Teach (and reteach) workstation expectations and routines.
• Plan engaging, relevant workstation activities for students.
• Have your needs-based small group lessons and materials ready to go.
• Set a timer to keep learning rotations on track.
• Keep students safe (no fires here!).
• Give frequent reminders of expectations and routines.
• Invite students to reflect on what went well and what could be improved.

And maybe…just maybe, you let go of some of the rest.

“Trusting children is the underpinning of what makes…any structure for teaching

children to manage themselves independently work.” (Boushey & Mosher, 2006)

We would love to hear your best tips and tricks for running literacy workstations! Reply to this email to share your expertise and to let us know which freebie you’d like to see on our free resources page next. We’re cooking up two different options:

Literacy Workstation Teacher Rubric OR Literacy Workstation Rotation Slides Template

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