Blog Topic: Keeping an Engaged Learner “Homeschool Teaching Methods”
Ideas for Creating LEARNING STATIONS
Use a range of low-to high ability tasks
Select tasks that are open ended. In other words, make sure your child’s readiness levels can access the activities you choose for the stations. For instance, if you ask your homeschooler to identify character development, give them a list of ideas to choose from, so they feel ready. Some ideas could be identifying obvious details from the story, and some learners will naturally lean toward making higher-level inferences. All learners can be involved at their readiness level.
Give your homeschooler ownership.
One of the most effective ways to ensure students are engaged in learning stations is to give them voice and choice.
Voice: Tell them about the learning goal of each station, and ask them, based upon what they already know, how they would like to practice and develop those skills more. They might not have a specific answer on the spot, but they might be able to suggest something like, “a game” or using a tech tool.
Choice: Provide a few different learning options for variety: worksheet, whiteboard, magnets, game, online activity.
If teaching a Writing Activity, maybe you give students three options at a station.
Revise your essay for fragments and run-ons.
Incorporate a few dependent clauses as transitions.
Find at least one hole or flaw in your arguments, and brainstorm how to fill or revise it.
To prevent students from flying down the list without digging in to each task, you could tell students which one you want them to focus on that day. If they finish early and their group members don’t have any revision suggestions, they can move on to the next item.
For example, when learning Writing consider these options for different station choices:
Where does the signal phrase go? the quote? the punctuation? Where should the punctuation go?
Add a video or two short ones students can watch and then give them a choice in how they want to take notes during the video.
Use highlighters to have students color code parts of their writing. Color code them!
On big chart paper, ask your homeschooler to choose and write a quote, introduction sentence, or some verb choices they want to use in their writing.