You're excited to set up your reading centers in your classroom and you intend to use them during your small group instruction time. But how can you ensure that students stay on task and avoid interruption?
With a few simple tips and tricks, running reading centers with fewer interruptions can be done with ease!
How do you manage reading centers without interruption?
There are 4 simple strategies:
- Limit the number of students
- Use a timer
- Assign learning center managers
- Teach students hand signals
Let's take a deeper dive into these four simple strategies to use during literacy center time that will keep students on task, allowing you to work in small groups at your reading table.
Limit The Number Of Students
One of the best ways to manage your stations and avoid interruptions during your small group reading instruction is by limiting the number of students at each reading center. The more primary students you have at each station the more problems can occur. If you have a large group of students working together you may have arguing, tattling, or fooling around.
One of the best practices is to keep your groups small with a maximum of 4 students at each classroom center. In my room, I found that even four students were too many. Oftentimes the noise level increased with 4 children so I eventually limited my reading centers to only 1 or 2 students at a time. This cut down on noise, problems, and interruptions when students were working on literacy activities.
A great way to show children how many students can be at each center is by using a checklist for students to check off their names, or a pocket chart with cards showing the number of students at each reading center. If you need more ideas, take a look at these 14 tips for managing learning centers.
Use A Timer
“Teacher I'm done. What should I do now?” If you've been in the classroom for any length of time, you've heard this question a time or two in your career. There's nothing more annoying than being in the middle of your small group instruction only to be interrupted by a student telling you that he's done or wanting to know how much time is left during reading centers.
It's important that students realize that they must stay at their literacy stations or independent task for a specified amount of time. A good amount of time to shoot for is around 15-20 minutes. This is enough time for you to be able to have a good lesson in your small group and the right amount of time for the rest of the class to work at their independent reading centers.
Make sure that your reading centers have enough literacy activities to keep students engaged for at least 15-20 minutes. Have a variety of materials that they can use and at least 3-4 games and activities.
A fun way to help students know how long they must stay at their reading centers is with a timer on your board. You can find some fun online timers here. Set your timer for 15-20 minutes and tell students that they must stay at their literacy station the entire time without interrupting you.
Students can work at their own pace while keeping an eye on the time as it ticks down. This not only helps them stay focused on their work but also lets them know how much longer they have to work on their activities. When there is just a little bit of time left on the clock, you can make a quick announcement that it will soon be time to switch reading centers.
Learning Center Managers
Another way to avoid interruption during your small group instruction and reading groups is by assigning a learning center manager to each of your first-grade literacy centers. The managers have several different responsibilities including helping other students if needed during small group time. You can hang signs like this at each center with the manager's name or photo so that all students will know who the manager is at each reading center.
How often should you change the managers at each reading center? I would suggest keeping the same managers for at least 9 weeks. This will save you a lot of time and students will not get confused by constantly changing managers at a variety of centers. Here are a few of the jobs for your learning center managers:
- Writing Center – sharpen pencils, replace paper as needed
- Phonics Centers – make sure all game pieces are intact, organize magnetic letters, replace worksheets
- Word Work Station – help students if they don't understand a game, replace worksheets, sharpen pencils
- Technology center – help students log in to different programs, shut down computers at the end of your reading block
When choosing different managers make sure to pick students who are capable of doing the job. Managers will be responsible for making sure their reading center has all the needed supplies. They can check each day to see if they need to replace paper, crayons, or pencils. The learning center managers will also tidy up their literacy stations at the end of reading center time.
Finally, choose students who understand how to do the tasks at each reading center. If a student is having difficulty or needs help, they can ask the manager of their station to help them out rather than interrupt you during your small group instruction. This is a great opportunity to encourage student independence during 1st grade literacy centers and one of the easy ways to limit interruptions to your small group time.
Hand Signals
In a perfect world, students would work silently at reading centers and never have a need to interrupt the teacher. But we all know that's never the case in a kindergarten or first grade classroom. Emergencies arise at times, especially when it comes to bathroom breaks.
I found that the best way to avoid interruptions and still allow students to leave the room for the bathroom is by teaching students hand signals. Hand signals can be used any time a student needs to ask a question when the teacher is busy talking or working with other students.
We had a couple of different hand signals that we used in my classroom. If students needed to use the restroom they quietly walked up to my small group table and held up two fingers crossed (🤞🏼). This was the symbol for the restroom and I could simply nod my head, yes, and they could be on their way. The student didn't have to say a word and I could continue working with my small group without missing a beat.
Another hand signal that we used was for getting a drink of water. They simply put one finger to their lips and I knew they were asking to get a drink (🤫). Hand signals are great to use when you're teaching a whole group lesson on the carpet, during small group instruction, or during testing. Teach students your different hand signals at the beginning of the year and then make an anchor chart that they can refer to if necessary.
Ready to get started with reading centers in your classroom? This bundle has everything you need with activities for the entire year. Your students will love the hands-on games and activities that are perfect for first grade!
Looking for more ideas to help you with reading and literacy centers? Take a look at these posts:
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