Station Rotation: Facilitating Differentiation

Station rotation can be used to support our MTSS model. Let's look at some of the ways this instructional strategy can be leveraged to support differentiation.

Individual or Small Group Interventions
The station rotation model gives teachers an opportunity to meet with individual students or small groups of students for interventions. This typically happens in two main ways:

1. The teacher leads a group of students, usually grouped together by academic need, while other students work in groups.
2. The teacher does not lead a group, but rather monitors student work in all the groups. When the teacher sees a student needing help or enrichment, he or she can pull the student aside or enter the group to provide the needed intervention in real time.

Typically, a teacher will group students intentionally during rotations. There are several meaningful ways to group students to support differentiation.

1. By ability--This allows students to collaborate in stations with appropriately leveled work.
2. By learning style--This allows students to collaborate in stations with tasks that align to their preferred learning style, thus increasing the chance for success.
3. By interests--This allows teachers to differentiate the topics to better appeal to learners' interests, thus potentially increasing motivation within the group.

Individually assigned work at independent work stations

When students are asked to work independently at a station, the tasks can be individually assigned to meet a student's individual needs.

1. Seesaw--When teachers use a 1:1 QR login in their classroom, they can individually assign leveled assignments to students. When students log in, they only see the activities specifically assigned to them. These activities can be created by the teacher or pulled from the Seesaw Activities library. 
2. Schoology--Teachers can individually assign work to leveled groups of students, so students only see the work assigned to them. The teacher could also create leveled folders with activities inside each designed for a group of learners, or leveled versions of the same activity.

Seesaw

Schoology

Create leveled tasks at each station

Another option is for a teacher to provide leveled activities aligned to a learning scale at each station. Based on a pre-assessment or teacher assignment, students would know which level of activity to complete in each station. A benefit of this option is that if the activity becomes too easy for the student, he or she can make the choice to move up to the next level.

In this example, students have access to three similar tasks in a station, and they choose the activity matched to their level on the learning scale. If they master a lower level, they are able to try the more difficult next level.

In this example from our fall professional development, teachers were asked to review resources based on their placement on our blended learning scale.

Station Rotation: Building in the 4 Cs

Building in the 4 Cs

While we must teach to the standards and provide our students with strong content knowledge, this is not enough. We must empower them with transferable skills that will allow them to navigate the unseen changes that lie ahead. A simple and powerful model for this is represented by the 4 Cs:

• Communication
• Critical Thinking
• Collaboration
• Creation

ISD728 has created a visual representation of this that is integrated with the ISTE standards. Feel free to use this in your planning and with your students.

Integrate the 4 Cs into Station Rotation

Station Rotation provides an excellent opportunity to integrate the 4 Cs into student work. A great strategy is to make sure at least one of the 4 Cs is being practiced by students in each station. Here are some ideas for building in the 4 Cs:

• Station idea: Work with a partner to practice a skill (collaboration, communication).
• Station idea: Work with a partner or small group to solve a problem (collaboration, communication, critical thinking)
• Station idea: Create something to demonstrate learning (critical thinking, creativity).
• Station idea: Students create something with someone else to demonstrate, apply or extend learning (all 4 Cs!).
• Station idea: Work with teacher on challenging thought processes (critical thinking, communication)

Creating with Partners or Groups

When students work with others to create something, they must practice all 4 Cs. This can be powerful, real-world skill building at its best. Common group tasks include the following:

• apply recent learning
• solve problems
• completing projects (project based learning)
• communicate recent learning
• practice skills by applying them through tech-rich creation

Another idea is to ask yourself, "What will students do with this in the real world?" and "What is the most authentic use of this information?" With these questions in mind, empower students to use the technology at their hands to tackle these questions.

Available Technology and Creation Tools

Here are some helpful links to resources available to our students at ISD728. Browse them to get new ideas that can help you meet your teaching objectives and empower students to engage in their learning through use of the 4 Cs.

• Chromebook Creation Tools
• iPad Apps Compatible with Seesaw
• iPad Apps for Kindergarten and Early Childhood
• iPad Apps for Grade 1
• iPad Apps for Grade 2

Station Rotation: Classroom Management Tips

Station Rotation Classroom Management Tips

A station rotation lesson requires some different classroom management strategies than a
traditional lesson. To help you make the implementation of station rotation more effective,
here are a few tips.

Set up your expectations for movement and callbacks.

• Transition Signals: Create a signal to warn students a rotation is about to end or post a visible timer for students to see. Some popular timers include the classroom screen website and YouTube timers embedded into slideshows. To find YouTube video timers, just use a search query like “10 minute timer.”

• Callbacks: Create a callback protocol to bring your class back to attention from individual and/or group work. Be sure to clearly communicate this and practice it before using it during a real lesson. Some of the best callbacks include multiple senses (voice response plus an action). Here is a list of 75 verbal callbacks. Consider adding actions to these.

• Rotation Slideshows: Create a slideshow to help students know their group assignments and where to go next. Here are some slideshow templates you can use or customize.

• Group Creation Tools: When you don’t need to group students by ability or skill level, use Flippity Random Name Picker or add student names to this Google Sheets template and randomize the order of names to create new groups.

• Organize Resources: Create a clear, accessible system for getting group materials to your students. Some common practices are organizing materials into Schoology folders and Seesaw Activities or QR codes. Videos can be posted in these locations to give students directions for how to complete the station.

Build and practice behavior norms for your classroom.

• Involve students in this process. Have them help define what expected behavior looks like/sounds like and does not look like/does not sound like using T-Charts. This give students ownership in the norms and increases likelihood that they will adhere to them.
• Practice a Gradual Release of Responsibility (ASCD).
• Build basic elements for cooperative learning into group activities.
• Practice station skills in small chunks if needed. Consider practicing group rotations with skill building or team building tasks before completing academic tasks.
• For younger students, walk through the rotation process before completing academic tasks.
• Reward good behavior. For instance, randomly select 2 students per day to evaluate their behavior and reward them if they do a good job. Incentives can be extra credit points or positive referral tickets/points. If students don’t earn points, tell the class why they weren’t earned, but don’t reveal the name picked.
• Go slow to go fast. Set strong expectations early on, even if that means moving at a slower pace at first. This will allow you to move faster with fewer problems later.
• Assign roles in the groups for individual accountability (recorder, timekeeper, facilitator).

Station Rotation: What, Why and How

Station Rotation: What, Why, How

The upcoming tech tips will be a series focused on the various blended learning models. The first series of tips will focus on station rotation. The next several weeks will include the following station rotation topics:

• Week 1: Overview: What, why and how to implement station rotations
• Week 2: How to Manage Stations
• Week 3: How to use stations to foster 4 Cs
• Week 4: How to use stations to support MTSS (differentiation)
• Week 5: How your LMS (Schoology/Seesaw) can be used to facilitate stations

What is station rotation?

The station rotation model (Christensen Institute)

"This video provides a dive into the Station Rotation model used in Catlin’s blended classroom where she details her horizontal lesson planning approach to establish smaller learning communities with similar needs in her classroom, allowing her to provide more individualized attention to her students."

How and why should I use station rotations?

How and why to integrate station rotations (Catlin Tucker)

"This video provides a dive into the Station Rotation model used in Catlin’s blended classroom where she details her horizontal lesson planning approach to establish smaller learning communities with similar needs in her classroom, allowing her to provide more individualized attention to her students."

Blended Learning: The best of the best

Blending the best of Face to Face with the best of Online Learning

This year, our district and building tech goals revolve around the successful implementation of Blended Learning. To support this goal, upcoming tech tips will focus on various components of blended learning and how you can leverage blended learning models and tools to improve teaching and learning. This week's tip includes a few resources to refresh your memory about the definition of Blended Learning. The image below contains the definition of Blended Learning from the Christensen Institute, the leading organization researching Blended Learning. Check out their website for a wide variety of resources.

Key takeaways:

• Must have some element of face to face.
• Must have some element of digital/online.
• Students can controls some element of time, place, path and/or pace.
• Face to face and digital components must work together (be integrated).

To review the introductory videos from our District Professional Development day in August, click the links below.

• WHY Blended Learning (2:30)
• Definition (1:15)