Strategy: Learning Centers

 

Description: Learning centers are highly adaptable and are intended to provide students with the opportunity to extend their learning while self-regulating. Each center should have a particular focus but be open-ended in how students can approach the task at hand. Centers should be developed around student interest and abilities.

 

Rationale: Centers meet students’ three basic needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, which is part of the self-determination theory that states students will be more intrinsically motivated if those three needs are met. Centers are beneficial for all students, including English language learners. Because centers have a clear learning focus, they promote the development of cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP). But, what’s interesting and effective about learning centers is that the development of CALP is done through basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) because centers have a major social component to them. Centers support psychologist Vygotsky’s social development theory which states that social interaction plays a fundamental role in cognitive development. Learning centers are intended to provide opportunity for students to collaborate and practice a variety of skills through engaging activities.

 

 

Implementation & Adaptability: Centers can be used throughout all grade levels and in all subject areas. Teachers may choose to set up four centers with one common theme (e.g. measurement) or they may choose to set up four centers with various topics (e.g. one measurement center, one writing center, etc.). What both styles have in common is that they both have a learning focus. Regarding implementation, teachers can set up a regular schedule for center time, or have it be more sporadic. The possibilities are endless. In the primary grades, centers will be play-based. In the intermediate grades, centers may have specific steps for the students to carry out.

 

Credibility of Source: I first learned about learning centers for language development in Sylvia Pantaleo’s class and then again this semester in our ELL course. The source I gathered more information from is a scholarly article. It provides useful information about designing a center, scheduling, record keeping, room environment, and informing parents. 

 

Reference: 

 

Bell, L.C. (1983). Learning centers in the classroom. Middle School

Journal, 14(2). Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/stable/41431792?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents