Literacy Work Stations: Making Centers Work

I love this book. I was having a difficult time setting up "centers" in my classroom, and this pointed me in the right direction. It is a necessary addition to any teacher's library.

A great book for teachers especially 1st year teachers. I am a 1st year preK teacher and it halped me set up my centers/stations and organize them! That was the hardest thing for me but when another teacher recommended this book it was a breeze!

I have purchased many books on "centers", and still was not successful with small group time. Most literacy center books provide cute reproducibles to produce fun ideas, but all the ideas in the world is not enough to make centers work. THIS book does! First of all, it provides practical, realistic ways to understand your expectations for literacy centers, and great ways to introduce them to the students. The supplies for these centers are not time consuming for the teacher to make, the work stations will be in line with the curriculum. Her strategies for preventing and managing center behaviors are great! She outlines some fantastic mini-lessons to both learn and enhance the literacy centers. Reproducibles are included to go along with some of the centers, as well. One important feature is that each work station has more than task in it to help keep the students interested. The centers are fun for the children, and they are reading and/or writing in them! I highly recommend this book to K-2 teachers, it has helped me very much in my 1st grade classroom!

As a literacy coach I have never seen a more comprehensive book on setting up centers (work stations) in an elementary classroom! This book covers everything: materials, introducing the work station, how to model them, solving problems, differentiation, assessment and accountability, and personal reflection. It even shows how kindergarten teachers can make their "traditional" centers more literacy-focused. A special section is also devoted to Second Language Learners. If you teach Kindergarten through 3rd grade, buy this book! You will love it!