Setting Up Your ClassroomHere's my blog post which offers some suggestions for setting up (and taking down) your classroom quickly and efficiently.
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No More Wasted Space!Use crates to store interactive notebooks, writing notebooks, books that students are in the middle of reading, or other materials.
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A Possible Daily Agenda for ELA
Days change. Some days you may need to focus more on reading or more on writing, but to the right, is a possible agenda to consider using in your ELA classroom. (This is designed for a HS 90 minute block, but can certainly be adapted to MS by dividing reading & writing and teaching them every other day.
In addition, this page has a sample block, norms, and a glossary of terms that you may hear being used in AISD ELA. |
Setting Up Centers
Center Materials and StorageCenters can be stored right on your wall, in a folder in a crate or filing cabinet, or in bins. For the wall, you can staple manila folders and put materials for centers that you know students will use over and over again inside the folders. I've seen teachers label them by TEK.
I've also used these Smead pockets to stick centers or pieces of centers to my (fabric) bulletin boards. They come in multiple sizes, including full page, half page, and index card size. Each are great depending on the purpose you are using them for. They are also great just to make your walls become interactive bulletin boards! These ticket holders are also great for that purpose because they have an eyelet so they can hang. They are great for centers, too, because students can write on them with dry erase markers. Far more durable then page protectors! I also recommend you have white boards and dry erase markers. So many centers can become review games! If you can't afford mini white boards for each student (who can!), go to Home Depot. They can cut a white panel board (in some stores called a smooth white hardboard), which comes 4x8, into 24 pieces of whiteboard (12x18) for a few extra dollars. See the pics below. That's 24 white boards for about $15. Also, used dryer sheets make great (free) erasers! Last but not least, add a binder clip to them to make them a clipboard when needed. (You don't have to leave it on all the time but it's a quick, easy way to change their purpose!) |
Getting StartedResources:
Here are some sample center rules/expectations, for multiple centers. Here is a possible script to use for Day 1. Here is a one sheet for general behavior expectations while in centers. Here is a mini-lesson you may want to use the first time you introduce your students to centers. Here is a summary/reflection sheet to use after each center rotation. Here is a sample center map. Notice that I have a max of how many students can be in that center. At the beginning of starting centers, I have each group rotate. As they progress, I give students options based on what they need. Each student has a folder that I use to keep track of their data, their needs, their work, and their center summary and reflection sheet. |
Ways to Set Up Centers
Find writing center ideas, click here!
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Make the reading area inviting with anchor charts with reading strategies, rugs, and pillows.
I also recommend you add bins to make a small library seem bigger. It also adds organization. Common bins I used included: Romance, Graphic Novels, Multi-cultural Lit, Sports, or even bins by authors to lump all their books together.
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Samples of Center Activities
Core Center Ideas/Rules - Writing, Technology, Vocabulary, Reading, etc.
Writing Centers - it is a PPT with multiple ideas for writing centers. Make sure you download and view it as a slideshow so the hyperlinks work! It will make it easier and faster for you to find exactly what center you are looking for.
Center Ideas for the "Big 4" (Summary, Controlling Idea, Inference, and Context Clues)
Writing Centers - it is a PPT with multiple ideas for writing centers. Make sure you download and view it as a slideshow so the hyperlinks work! It will make it easier and faster for you to find exactly what center you are looking for.
Center Ideas for the "Big 4" (Summary, Controlling Idea, Inference, and Context Clues)