Teacher Resources, Teaching Resources
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Group Work - Work Stations

by Louise
(FNQ)

I have lovely big hexagon desks in my year 1 classroom allowing for up to 6 children to sit comfortably around, each with plenty of individual space. I have a spare one in a different colour for me to teach a group.
Each desk is multi-ability grouped with a child in a leadership position and another as a back up leader.

During work time they support each other. The conversations are lovely to listen to!

I then draw from these groups to do my guided reading sessions, therefore never leaving a group of struggling children to work on their own.
Last week I began drawing children for needs based writing workshops.

After 18 years of teaching I no longer do rotations, preferring to "rotate" a few more involved tasks over the week which allows the children to settle into an activity, give me plenty of time for an uninterrupted session with a small group, followed by some time for all to conclude, pack-up and share.

All the children stay on-task because the activities are well known and there is always someone who can "help". The children all know that they will have their turn with me for both reading and now writing. My timetable is available for them to check.

I constantly change the focus groups according to what needs to be taught but the hexagon desks stay the same.

I saw this idea working only last year and decided to give it a go and I find it is a fabulous way to work a class.

Comments for
Group Work - Work Stations

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Sep 03, 2009
 great idea
by: Kellie

I read this suggestion with interest and have "implemented" it in my classroom over the last few weeks. I love the concept of mixed ability - but being able to pull 'same ability' for Guided Sessions. My class are incredibly restless and rather immature - so I have adapted it a bit more... I purchased coloured plastic boxes for Neds and have a collection of activities in each box. This means that they have "choices" and move in and out - but stay rather settled. With a very small room and no support staff I have found this to be a "pretty good fix"
Aug 06, 2009
 Works well
by: Michelle

My Aspergers son is coping very well in his year one class this year. He is calm (most of the time) so I'm told and I would put this down to Louise and how she is operating her class room.

With the absence of "rotations" he is familiar with the routine and his stress levels are low. He sits with his group during the set activities and is able to concentrate better on the work as he is not stressing about timers going off and having to move to the next table to change activities. The table set up also assists him with his social skills as he can observe his class mates getting along and working together.

Louise has also implemented a great idea for when he does need to be shielded from distractions so that he can stay on task without being removed from the group table. She has constructed a folding partition from a cardboard box, painted it black and velcroed visual aids on the inside. It is placed on top of the desk in front of my son so that he is better able to concentrate on his work.

Thanks Louise
Aug 05, 2009
 Great timesaver
by: Tracy (FNQ)

I have always had Literacy based activities as rotating groups but found that time was lost getting children to pack up and move to the next activity.

Louise and I both work at the same school. One day I was discussing the movement of groups re: time lost, noise, students wandering around lost... and she shared how she operated her groups. I decided to change to the stationary group rotations that Louise uses, that is, activities changed at the table and students not moving from table to table.

I have found this to be absolutely wonderful. Students are now more on task and getting through a lot more. Previously my groups were ability leveled for Literacy but now with mixed ability the students are not left to try and figure out what it is they need to do. There is always someone at the group who can help them.

The activities are based around
Letter work - Phonics/ABC;
Word Work - Spelling, Rhyming words;
Text Construction - Silly Sentence activity, Sequencing activity;
Comprehension - Reading a book from their book box (at their own level) answering Yes/No game questions;
Guided Reading -students are 'pulled' from their table groups to come to me for a lesson.

It has been wonderful. Thanks Louise:)

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