Stations, Lit Circles...Oh and Boris!

I have a struggled for a few years now on how to do station groups. There are so many different ways to do them. I have also always struggled with what stations to have in my room. This year I have decided on VOCABULARY, WRITING, STAAR, and POETRY.

The Vocabulary Station will hit things like context clues, antoynms, synonyms, homonyms, and affixes.

The Writing Station will hit grammatical things and story writing.

The STAAR Station will be a different skill every week; such as main idea, summary, text features, etc.

The Poetry Station will be full of poems, but will work on fluency, questioning and visualization of the poems.

I've decided on a new system for moving my kids names around in stations. Mainly because this year I will not group my students only by Rigby's but also by data! We are a data centered campus (or have become that way recently) and I love it! Nothing speaks more truly about my student's achievement than data! (This data can be from activities, tests, or just observations...not only pencil paper.)

I feel this different way of grouping my students will help target individual skills...not just reading level. (Here's to hoping!) :)

On to my new way of moving the kids each day to station...here is a picture!

I could not get the whole thing in one picture, so hopefully you can tell it is all one piece though! I plan on having clothespins with the kids names on them (when I find out my kids names:) and then move them up and down each day to different stations! I just feel this will be easier than what I have done in the past (which is keep kids in groups and call out where each group is going each day) Yuck. Love this new idea and I love the paper I got at Mardel's!

I am also excited about this new book I just got in!

It is all about synonyms!! It is incredibly cute and informative! I do not think I will introduce it until I introduce synoyms but the kids will love it! I highly recommend you get it for your classroom! I bought mine at Amazon! Just click the link and it will take you directly to the Boris book. :)

One last little gem I will share today--

Literature Circles!! I found this website for Lit Circles Resources I have to say it is great! I have not made my way all the way through it yet, but wow! I am impressed with the things I can already use from it! I've never done a great job with Literature Circles, even though I try. I think this year will be better. I am still on the lookout for even more information though, so share if you find some--please! :)