A Peek in Our Classroom: Independent Work Station #1

What work?
You got me here.  Now what is it you want me to do?  Students need to know what work you’re expecting them to do.  I do this by presenting tasks in 1:1 teaching first and my students are able to know what is expected when they get to their independent work station.

How much work?
Ok, I’m here, I know what I’m expected to do, now how much do you want me to do?!  Our visual learners really need to have a clear beginning and end to routines and activities in their daily schedule.  To do this, each of my students has a task strip posted at the entry of our independent work stations.  When students come to the station, the grab their task strip and take it to the desk at which they will be working.  On their task strip, I preload the jobs I want my students to work on.  Most students are currently completing 1-2 tasks in a sitting, some are up to 3.  The goal is to have students working for about 12 minutes straight by the end of the year.

What’s next?
Ok, you wanted me to work, you told me how much I needed to do and I’m done.  Now what am I supposed to do?!  I’m sure you’re aware that your students having too much free time is a dangerous situation!  If they don’t know what to do next, we can expect behavior!  I have a system set up where my students choose what they will be doing next when they arrive at their work station.  When each student retrieves their task strip, they immediately turn and face a choice board.  On the choice board are some medium-high level reinforcers for students in my classroom.  The goal is for them to work for about 12 minutes with about a 3 minute reinforcement break before transition.  I have created a place on the task strip so students are able to keep the visual with them as they are completing work.  It helps to remind them of what is coming next.

I think we’ve answered those 3 questions through our first independent work station.  Take a peek:

What work? I’ve stocked our work station with tasks that students have mastered. This work station is packed with 30 boxes of materials my students have mastered. This work station is great for my students who are able to scan the work space to find the jobs to complete.

How much work? This task strip shows how much work the students need to complete in order to gain access to their choice time. As you can see from these 2 examples, the students needed to complete 2 or 3 jobs in order to access their choice time. Speaking of choice time…

What’s next? I set up this shelf of choices just outside of our work stations. Students complete the work in their station, then they’re able to choose a bin to take back to their desk until we transition to the next center in our classroom.

 Thanks for stopping by!  What does your independent work stations look like?