Literacy centers in upper elementary have many benefits, however it can be very overwhelming to think about planning them. Setting the stage for successful reading centers in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade can be much less intimidating with certain structures in place. Let me show you how I set up centers in my ELA classroom.
Benefits of Literacy Centers
Let’s take a quick moment to go over a couple of benefits of literacy centers during your ELA block.
1. They keep students engaged.
In a time when society has become accustomed to watching quick videos as well as moving at the speed of light, working through centers helps keep students engaged in the classroom through quick, focused activities. The activities in reading centers are usually just about 15-20 minutes long.
2. They allow the teacher to meet with small groups.
Being able to meet with students in small groups of about 5 to 6 students really lets you hone in on what they need, what their strengths are, and check in on them. Students also enjoy getting the one to one attention from the student frequently.
Setting Up the Groups
I had four centers in my classroom: teacher, technology, reading, & independent. Students were divided as evenly as possible amongst the 4 groups. The groups were fluid meaning that students might not be with the same group week after week.
Group Formations
The group formations varied by what I was trying to cover in the teacher center.
- Sometimes, I would group them by iReady results which was a test given by our district almost quarterly.
- Other times, I would group them by what questions they missed on the weekly reading test.
- If we were focusing on writing, I would group them by what step of the writing process they needed most support with.
Displaying Groups
To let the students know what group they were in and what reading center they would be working on, I set it up their names and the groups on a magnetic board. I taught two classes, so I distinguished them by making one class green and the other blue.
I printed out the students’ names on cardstock, laminated them, and placed magnets behind them. This allowed me to move the names around and build new groups each week. I did the same thing with the group names, so I could quickly move the centers around instead of having to shift all the names around.
Frequency & Time Allotted to Literacy Centers
With so much to cover in the upper grades you may be wondering how often to run centers and how long students work at their centers. Here is how I ran our literacy centers.
Frequency
I would get the four center rotation done at least once a week. It definitely varied by the length of the week and what we were trying to accomplish that week.
We usually did rotations on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We would work on one center on Tuesday, two on Wednesday, and one on Thursday.
The closer to testing season we got, the more frequent we would rotate. We would usually do two on Monday and two on Tuesday. We would repeat the pattern on Wednesday and Thursday.
It was easier to follow this routine as we got closer to the end of the year because most of the standards and skills had been taught. Students were now on review mode which worked best as center activities.
There were some weeks where we did three days of all four rotations in a row. I do not recommend doing this often as I often felt worn out, but I felt like I needed to push through those weeks.
Time Allotted
We would work mostly in 20 minute intervals. I would set an online countdown on the projection board for everyone to see. One designated student would press clear and put two minutes on the timer. Students would clean up and either rotate centers or go back to their seats before the two minutes were up.
The Four Literacy Centers
As previously stated, we had four reading centers in our class. Two were usually the same week after week, so those were two I didn’t have to plan for week after week. The other two would change after each rotation.
Technology Center
I was fortunate enough to have at least three desktop computers and a few laptops available, so each student was able to have their own device.
The technology center usually incorporated one of the following:
- iReady: iReady is an individualized reading system that meets students at their level. This program was purchased by our district and students were expected to meet a “minutes” goal each week. I would try to give them the opportunity to complete it during technology center, so they would not have to complete it as home learning.
- Boom Cards: Boom Cards became one of our favorite activities to complete. I ended up creating Boom Card decks for almost every grammar skill I covered with my students. My students enjoyed how interactive they were. I loved how they were self-checking and gave students immediate feedback. It was the perfect early finishers activity for them to complete after their iReady session was complete.
- IXL.com: IXL is another online site that covers many standards. We loved the sample version so much that requested for our PTA to purchase a subscription for us. They were kind enough to get for our students. It was a great way to review different grammar and reading skills as well as math.
Reading Center
Of the four literacy centers, I truly believe that the reading center was my students’ favorite. I had a classroom library with a rug and throw pillows on the floor. Students were taught how far away from each other they were to sit and given options to take the pillows to specified areas in the classroom. They were given this time to read their individually selected book. I kept track of their reading weekly through our Currently Reading bulletin board.
Teacher Center
At the teacher center, we would usually dig deeper into a test taken or a skill that I felt my students needed more help with.
I always had a personal dry erase board with me and gave students their own response boards with markers. Pencils, highlighters, and post it notes were also made available. I had all supplies available so students wouldn’t waste time having to go back and forth.
Advice for reviewing tests at the teacher center:
- Grade tests BEFORE going over them with your students. Mark the question wrong, but do not circle or highlight the correct answer.
- Group students who got similar questions wrong together.
- Only review questions that were answered incorrectly.
- Use this opportunity to teach students test taking skills such as using question marks and xs to eliminate wrong answers and find the distractor and correct answer.
- Help students determine the correct answer.
Other activities:
- Create and implement a mini lesson. Then, include a quick check with just a couple of questions.
- Print out articles from sites such as Newsela. Teach students how to annotate as they read and include the quiz to review how to think through questions.
- Review their responses to a work completed independently.
- Edit and revise pieces of writing.
Independent Center
This center is the one that changes most, so I would make sure to go over the directions in detail before sending students out to their reading centers.
Some of our most popular Independent Center activities were:
- Print and fold booklets for grammar skills
- Print and fold booklets for reading skills
- Comma work mats
- Task Cards for grammar skills such as: types of sentences and subjects & predicates
- Task Cards for reading skills such as: context clues, text structures, text features, and plot
- “Of the Week” resources: Word of the Week, Idiom of the Week, Root of the Week, and Homophone of the Week
- If we were focused on writing, this center would be broken down to one portion of the writing process. For example, reading & annotating, creating the planner, writing the introductory paragraph, writing the 1st and 2nd paragraph, writing the conclusion, and editing. I would then review it with them in the teacher center.
Hopefully this blog post on literacy centers for your upper elementary classroom helps clarify how you can run reading centers during your ELA block. If you have any questions or need further clarification, feel free to reach out. I will do my best to help you even further.
