Basing learning centers on authentic text: Part 3

streicker reading group Amarillo

Learning centers or stations are a great way for students to work independently with the language in the various modes. Students can gain confidence through working with the station tasks, especially when basing them on authentic text. This post is the third on the topic of embedding authentic resources into learning center tasks.

Many teachers feel as if preparing learning centers is far too much work and in some ways, it is. One way to look at putting together learning centers is to think about activities that would have been teacher-led and how those activities or tasks can be adapted so that students can work independently with the material without teacher intervention.

Take a look at the authentic resources you have curated on a particular topic or theme and match them to the various skills areas: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. To encourage student engagement in the center activities:

allow for choices by offering multiple resources at any one station
allow for varying challenge levels by providing authentic resources at different levels of difficulty.

Centers activities can be “generic” in the sense that the same type of task might be done at that particular skill station. For example, at the speaking or writing center, students often have a photograph, painting, or other authentic visual on which they will base their speaking or writing product.

The previous posts were:

Basing learning centers on authentic text (where examples of learning center tasks on the topic of personal descriptions were shared)
Basing learning centers on authentic text: Part 2 (where examples of learning center tasks on the topic of clothing were shared)

For this post, I am sharing additional ideas for basing learning centers on authentic resources hoping to inspire you to plan learning centers of your own.